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Panel shows such as QI and Mock the Week will no longer have all-male line-ups, the BBC's director of TV has said.
"We're not going to have panel shows on any more with no women on them," Danny Cohen told the Observer. "You can't do that. It's not acceptable."
His comments come two months after the BBC Trust was reported to have told executives there was "no excuse" for not having more female panellists.
Mr Cohen also said the BBC needed to get more older women on screen.
"We're getting better," he told the Observer, citing the example of historian Mary Beard. "But we need to get better."
In the past, comedy panel shows like QI, Mock the Week and Have I Got News For You have been criticised for their male-dominated line-ups.
The Observer said all the regular comedians on the most recent series of Mock the Week were men and only five of the 38 guest panellists were women.
'Boys' game'
A BBC spokesman said some panel shows that had been recorded but not yet been broadcast may feature all-male teams, but that all those filmed in the future would include at least one female participant.
"There may be very rare occasions where shows that were already recorded - or whose panels were already booked ahead of the order - still have all-male line-ups, but hopefully the change should really become apparent," the spokesman said.
The move follows criticism from Victoria Wood, who has criticised such "testosterone-fuelled" shows, and Jo Brand, who said she no longer considered appearing on Mock The Week.
In 2012, writer Caitlin Moran said she had been asked to appear on "all the big panel shows" but turned them down because "I refuse to be the token woman".
"I think that's a boys' game that works for boys," she said. "It's not like they built it to screw women over, it's just that boys built it so they made it to work for boys. If I go on there as a token woman, it's not going to work for me," she said.
I can see two sides to this. On one hand, I agree there should be more women, especially older women representing shows and such. On the other, where does one draw the line? Should all the female-dominated TV shows require at least a man as well? And honestly, when it comes to comedic type shows such as this....there really aren't many funny female comedians, and I say that as a woman. I have yet to watch a female comedian I thought was funny. I'd love to be proven wrong, but most female comedians stick to period jokes and such which get REAL old. Is it fair to potentially lower the quality of a show just for the sake of equality? To me, there is a big difference between equality and forced equality.
It's the BBC a political correct left wing organisation, which requires everyone to pay a licence fee if they have a television regardless if they watch BBC Channels or not.
My main problem is the licence fee itself, if the BBC was a private organisation it would be very different and would not waste vast amounts of money like it does at the moment.
It recently built a massive new broadcasting centre in Salford near Manchester and also spent a vast amount of money redeveloping and refurbishing Broadcasting House in London.
The BBC is typically very extravagant, it has Four National TV Channels , as well as ten National Radio Stations, Radio Stations for Scotland, Wales , Ulster (Northern Ireland) as well as radio stations for Welsh and Celtic speakers, an Asian Network, the BBC World Service, regional and local TV & Radio throughout the entire country, as well as a Mass of Internet websites, whilst employing four symphony orchestras as well as a Concert Orchestra and the BBC Singers (Choir), and it's bosses, trustees and hangers on are all paid a fortune for doing very little. Whilst we have no choice but to cough up and fund this massive waste of money or face prosecution in the courts or even prison.
Surely it's time the BBC stopped living off licence fee payers and tax payers and was made to stand on it's own two feet.
The BBC is a British organization and therefore is none of my business as an American. Their station, their policies. They have their reasons, and who are we as Americans to say what they should or shouldn't do?
We should be worried about our own crappy news channels before telling someone else what they should be doing. After all, the British are far better informed about world events than Americans are by a country mile, and they love the BBC. So they must be doing something right at that network.
Come on you telling me News Babes in short skirts don't keep viewship "up".
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