BBC panel shows, no longer a boys club

Many TV watchers might be familiar with panel shows like QI and Have I Got News For You hailing from the BBC. They are monstrously popular shows that appeal to the casual viewer with smart improvised comedy. Hailing from the Great White North, us Canadians get a variety of influences in our media. Hollywood has a powerful influence in representing North America, but we are still under the Queens thumb.

BBC show QI

During one episode of QI the panel was asked "Why aren't there more women on QI?" The answers ranged from the assumption that men are inherently funnier, or the perception that there simply aren't as many female comedians. The answer provided was based on a study that said women laugh more than men, but laugh less at other women.

As Sandy Toksvig noted in that segment, it's rare for a women on a panel show to be sat next to another women. In fact, statically women rarely if ever turn up. One Buzzfeed article that attempted to suss out how many women were in fact represent on panel shows, and the results were quite shocking. Ranging from the least diverse Mock the Week coming in with 87% male panelists, and ranging all the way up to the best show for female representation, 8 Out Of Ten Cats where 66% of the guest panelists were male. At best you could hope to see two men for every woman.

Comedian Jo Brand

But does that mean that setting a requirement for these television programs is the best course of action? For Danny Cohen, the Director of Television at the BBC, he thinks it is. An interview with The Guardian quoted him as saying "We're not going to have panel shows on any more with no women on them. You can't do that. It's not acceptable." a sentiment that stirred a surprising amount of controversy. Television media shapes a great deal of the public's perception on many social issues, and accepting the responsibility of acknowledging gender inequality and taking steps to rectify that is a surprising and encouraging move for the public broadcaster.

The question now is, was that in the best interest for women. Sandy Toksvig suggested that this sort of public outing is not going to help with the marginalization of women's representation on television. She herself is a frequent panelist on many shows including QI as shown earlier. Toksvig argued that there are still issues with the representation of women even if they appear, citing the example that older women are almost never shown on television unlike their male counterparts. Others argue that ensuring women are on panels shows would have been better received more naturally had this new rule from the BBC not been publicly announced.

2013's Whose Line is it Anyway?

Although this news came down back in February, the issue has been discussed for many years. Back in 2009 comedian and frequent panel show guest Jo Brand wrote a scathing column about panel shows and how harsh of a culture it is for women to work in. One common element of all panel shows on BBC is that they feature a comedian host, and in many cases a permanent panel guest. In every case, they are men. Perhaps the place to start featuring more females on panel shows isn't bringing in guests for individual episodes but including women in the cast. Perhaps a female cast member would be an encouraging sign to other women who would otherwise be intimidated by the current male dominated editing.

@Midnight Panelists

This is all British television, so how does this stack up to American television. In the Season 9 revival of Whose Line is it Anyways on The CW, 3 out of the 4 permanent panelists were men, and 2 women appeared as guests 2 times each. Along with the new host Aisha Tyler that brings the representation of women to a round 25%. Comedy Central panel show @Midnight hosted by Chris Hardwick features low occurrences of women. In the 7 seasons of Last Comic Standing there has been 1 female winner, and it happened to be the year the show adopted co-host Fearne Cotton who was the show's only female host in 8 seasons, and the only time the series featured a co-host. Season 8 is currently in it's semi-finals round, and men outnumber women 2-1. That may not be a panel show, but it is a national representation of comedians.

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