Eamonn Holmes says ‘wokeism’ is ruining TV

Eamonn Holmes has claimed ‘wokeism’ is ruining TV because telly bosses are ‘scared’ of employing controversial presenters.

The GB News presenter, 66, made the comment as he appeared on his son Declan’s new podcast Founder&Family Collective on Friday. 

During the episode, Eamonn moaned that television nowadays is ‘pathetic’ and TV execs don’t want to hire people who are likely to offend.

Eamonn claimed examples of people the industry doesn’t want to platform anymore include Jeremy Clarkson, Piers Morgan and Jeremy Kyle.

This is despite the fact that Clarkson has not one but two shows, Clarkson’s Farm on Amazon Prime and Who Wants To Be A Millionaire on ITV, while Morgan makes regular guest appearances on ITV’s morning talk shows and highlights from his show Piers Morgan Uncensored are shown weekly on Channel 5. Elsewhere Kyle hosts Jeremy Kyle Live on TalkTV.

‘Where television is today, this wokeism through television it’s just pathetic,’ he said. 

‘It’s just got a whole raft of presenters who go “Hello good evening, lovely to see you and lovely to see you too. Yes I’m glad to be here and you’re glad to be here, yes yes yes. We’re lovely, we love eachother”. Which of course they don’t in real life of course.’ 

He continued: ‘However that’s the way it goes and everyone is all smiley and lovely and no one says… you see TV doesn’t want Piers Morgan, they don’t want Jeremy Kyle, they don’t want Jeremy Clarkson. 

‘These are the people who bring the ratings. These are the people who are relevant but they’re also the people who can get the channels into trouble because they’ll say something sure as heck which will offend somebody. 

‘But that’s what the viewers want. The viewers want that but a lot of executives don’t want to take the risk on that.’  

Eamonn captioned the clip: ‘Normally, I ask the questions but here eldest son Declan switches from running businesses to running the ruler over me in his podcast @founderfamilycollective in which he tries to find out how to balance your job and your family…… and did I manage to do it ? 

‘I think I did – but did he think the same? Available now on @spotifyuk @apple @youtube or wherever u get your podcasts from.’

Eamonn himself was once the golden couple of daytime TV, brightening up This Morning’s Fridays alongside his ex-wife Ruth Langsford from 2006 onward.

But the shine began to fade. In 2020, after 15 years on the sofa, the presenter, 65, was abruptly shown the door by ITV.

What followed was a bruising chapter in Eamonn’s life – a marriage that fell apart, mounting health battles, tensions with HMRC, and bumping heads with figures once firmly in his TV orbit.

Once hailed as daytime royalty, Eamonn suddenly found his private struggles spilling into the spotlight.

Eamonn and Ruth were replaced by Alison Hammond and Dermot O’Leary on This Morning in 2021.

The presenter, who now presents the breakfast show at GB News, accused ITV bosses of making it look as if he had walked away when in fact he had ‘no idea’ why he was being relieved of the slot.

‘No one explained anything to me,’ he told Weekend magazine.

‘I’m all for TV companies being able to choose who works for them, but it would be nice if you were told why you were going.

‘They’re sly. They didn’t want to announce that I’d been dropped because it would adversely affect audience figures, so they made it look as if I’d walked away from them rather than the other way round.

‘They had a chat with my agent and announced that I was going to GB News when they’d done no more than ask if I’d be interested in joining them.’

Eamonn, who had previously co-presented ITV breakfast show GMTV for 12 years, added: ‘I’m not going to have myself derided as some sort of has-been. I may be male and pale but I’m still at the top of my game.’

In September 2020 it was reported that the star was ‘not in line with the youth drive’ ITV was after as he was too ‘pale, stale and male’.

In 2022, he accused channel bosses of hypocrisy, claiming that those who run the show are ‘middle-aged white managers’.

He said: ‘When are they going to start being diverse with their management? The diversity is only on screen. It’s hypocritical.’