When I first read the news about a quota ensuring a minimum of one woman on every BBC comedy panel show, I thought it was a very bad idea. We are now 5 episodes into the current series of Have I Got News For You and my opinion hasn’t changed. The episodes haven’t been bad, but the flaws in the system have been apparent.
One of the flaws in the system is that by stipulating that at least one woman must be on each show, you are in fact reducing the chances of more than one woman appearing on the show. On a show like Have I Got News For You, this is a problem as they do not like to have the same guests appear multiple times in the same series. Put two women on the same episode and that is one more woman to find to put on another episode. This might not be something people want to hear, but the reality is this poses a problem to casting agents. As a result, they are less likely to book multiple female guests for the same episode.
Why is this a problem? Because a good comedy panel show is not about the individual talent but how that talent interacts with each other. QI occasionally had three female guests, other times they would have an all-male panel. The producers worked on getting the mix right as often as possible, and it was a show where all the guests got a fair chance to contribute.
As soon as you start imposing quotas, finding the right blend of guests is no longer the sole objective, and therefore becomes harder to achieve. Having just one woman on a panel can be a difficult situation. At times it will be difficult for them to have their say on a topic (something Mock the Week has fairly been criticised for). On other occasions, such as last week with Bridget Christie, the female guest will go too far the other way and speak lots without really adding to the quality of the show. If you are going to have quotas, make it an even split or don’t bother. Either of these solutions would produce a better product than the tokenism of the single female guest.
Another flaw is why have they drawn the line at gender? After 5 episodes, so 15 guests, there has been 1 non-white guest, Mr Sadiq Khan MP. According to Wikipedia, the panel for the next two shows will be all-white too. How is this representative? Why are there no quotas to ensure other groups are not under-represented too?
The under-representation of women in comedy is a problem and it is not caused by a lack of talent. I am all for the BBC setting targets to increase the number of female guests, presenters and regular panelists on their comedy shows and I think that no show should be barred from that. But I don’t think imposing a strict quota system for every episode of every show is the right way to go about it. It prevents casting agents from having the full freedom to do their job properly and ultimately will hurt the product.
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