This Morning viewers appeared distracted from the latest edition of the show as they focused on claims made by an MP during a grilling of ITV bosses. Dame Carolyn McCall faced questions from MPs on Wednesday (June 14) about Phillip Schofield's shock exit from the network.
The chief executive of ITV faced questioning about the broadcaster’s approach to safeguarding and complaint handling alongside ITV managing director Kevin Lygo and general counsel and company secretary Kyla Mullins during the Culture, Media and Sport Committee session in Parliament.
The meeting saw Dame Carolyn start by telling MPs the "imbalance of power, the imbalance of dynamics" made the relationship between Schofield and 'person X' "deeply inappropriate", and ITV would have taken action, but no evidence of the relationship appeared during ongoing reviews.
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But also during the session, ITV bosses were asked to address claims that This Morning staff referred to their audience as ‘Tower Block Traceys’. The trio were presented with allegations that some of their employees had placed the offensive nickname on their viewers.
MP John Nicolson asked: "Can you confirm that daytime production staff on This Morning referred to their audience in production meetings as 'Tower Block Traceys?'" which the bosses denied, with Dame Carolyn leaning back in her chair with a gobsmacked expression, while Lygo asked Nicholson to repeat himself.
"I’ve never heard that phrase," Lygo replied. When the Scottish National Party politician came back and said "a number of people’" had told him that nickname was used by ITV staff, the bosses again said they were not aware of the term. "It’s truly dismissive,’ he said.
"If an idea is too high-brow I’m told that people say "would that really appeal to the Tower Block Traceys?" But all three of those being quizzed hook their head, while Nicolson said it was a "horrible thing to say".
"It’s not what ITV would be looking at for a target audience," Dame Carolyn then said. "We wouldn’t describe our audience in that way and I know one thing, it is that the daytime team on every show really cares about the audience, so that surprises me," she added.
But the claim didn't get past This Morning viewers and on Thursday (June 15) made repeated comments on social media through the show. @Stepharrnee said: "Being a Tower Block Tracy today. I hope they don't have too many highbrow segments on #ThisMorning because I won't like it. #ITVThisMorning."
@SenorApple2014 wrote: "Tower Block Tracys, unite! #ThisMorning #ITVThisMorning." @johnlennonsboot laughed: "I for one am neither called Tracey, nor live in a tower block. But I'm 100% up for being one #itvthismorning."
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