Carol Vorderman calls TV industry ‘a mess’ at Edinburgh TV Festival

Former Countdown presenter Carol Vorderman has called for urgent changes to the television industry in a speech at the Edinburgh TV Festival.

Speaking on Friday, the 63-year-old said the industry is full of “snobbery” and is run by the upper-middle classes.

And she said viewers would continue to turn away from traditional broadcast media, which is “a mess”.

Vorderman said: “Our industry is [full] of snobbery – regional snobbery, class snobbery and educational snobbery – and don’t even get me started on the political issues.”

In the Alternative MacTaggart lecture, she also spoke about her unusual route into television – after her mother applied for her to work on Channel 4’s Countdown when it started production in Leeds.

But she said that in the years that followed, it has not become easier for working class people to break into the industry.

“Working class people feel they are not represented, their situation is not represented, the lack of opportunities and lack of money and jobs is not represented,” she told the audience.

Vorderman, who also spoke about the challenges of being one of the poorest students at the University of Cambridge, grew up in a single-parent home in Wales.

Despite working in the television industry for more than 40 years, she said she had found her voice on social media.

It is “no longer the new kid, more like the badly behaved uncle”, and platforms like TikTok and X have “changed our society and its rules”, she said.

That could lead to the TV industry becoming obsolete, Vorderman warned.

“What it gives everyone, in towns and cities outside the wealthy south-east, the opportunity to do, is to see and hear views they recognise, in language they recognise.

“No longer is there the need to go through the filter of a producer, or a commissioning editor, or someone who has never been to my town or my city or my region, who has no idea how people like me live and the worries we have,” she said.

Vorderman cited recent figures from media watchdog Ofcom, saying 16 to 24-year-olds watch an average of 20 minutes of live television per day.

The research also said less than half of this age group are watching TV at all during the week.

She said this showed how “people feel lost” and that it was evidence of how those on television aren’t representative enough of the general population.

Vorderman also referenced research from the Creative Industries Policy and Evidence Centre, which showed that in 2024 less than 10% of the people working in TV, video, radio and photography were working class.

“We bear a responsibility for not giving the working class a voice within the industry and that has its knock-on effects, whether you like it or not,” she warned the audience.

Her comments echoed those made by screenwriter James Graham, who used the MacTaggart lecture – the festival’s keynote speech – to call for more opportunities for working class people in the TV industry.

Vorderman also said “trust in the BBC is declining” because of the way “people feel after so many controversial decisions by BBC management”.

She cited the BBC’s over its handling of former news presenter Huw Edwards; and the “ludicrous and catastrophic suspension” of Match of the Day host Gary Lineker following his tweets about the former Conservative government’s immigration policy.

The BBC declined to comment on Vorderman’s speech.

However the Reuters Institute Digital News Report suggests that trust in BBC News rose from 55% in 2022, up to 61% in 2023 and 62% in 2024.

This year’s BBC annual report also stated that it remains the “most trusted source of news in this country and around the world”.

It said 75% of UK adults “use BBC News on average per week – well ahead of the next nearest provider”.

Recent figures from the BBC show just under 21% of staff identify as coming from a working-class or low socio-economic background.

The corporation has said it aims to increase representation to 25% by March 2026.

Vorderman herself left her weekly show on BBC Radio Wales last year after breaking BBC guidelines with vocal attacks against the government on social media. She now hosts a show on LBC.

“I hope the whole of this year’s TV Festival will really make you consider your own perceptions and that you ask yourself questions about class and opportunity, and the responsibility you hold in the future of this country,” she added.

The BBC has also contacted ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 for comment.