Real reason BBC Breakfast has women sit on the right | UK News

It could also be one thing you’ve never observed before, but a scroll across our breakfast tv exhibits will reveal a unusual phenomenon in the place of its two main hosts. Most morning TV exhibits have a tendency to choose for one male host sitting next to a feminine presenter. But in a weird but recurring transfer on BBC Breakfast, the male host almost always sat on the left while his co-presenter sat on the right.

Whether it’s a news show, a chat show, or any kind of presenting duo, this unusual gender position always appears to be current. Industry consultants declare this is because the left positions, as we see it, are reserved for the more senior positions, but BBC Breakfast’s line-up ignores that pattern and has opted for the positions anyway.

When Dan Walker was first introduced into the lineup in 2016, he took the senior left-hand place over the more skilled Louise Minchin, and no matter what the lineup is in the current presenting crew of Jon Kay, Sally Nugent, Charlie Stayt and Naga Munchetty, the girl always takes the right seat in what looks as if an historical protocol.

The transfer has prompted a sexism row to linger, with one disgruntled viewer writing into the Radio Times to voice her dismay. She said: “I was annoyed to see ‘new boy’ Dan Walker seated on the left, in Bill Turnbull’s [old] place, while far more experienced presenter Louise Minchin remained in the ‘number two’ position.

“How long will it take the BBC (and most other news stations) to catch up with the rest of us in the 21st century? Be brave – try sitting a woman on the left and see how the world will keep turning.”

While ITV’s Good Morning Britain sticks to the basic left-right tropes, when This Morning comes around, the show will sometimes change the sides up, with presenter Alison Hammond often taking the coveted left seat.

Baroness Oona King, the former Labour MP and earlier range govt at Channel 4, said the transfer was “low-level sexism”.

She added: “It seems strange that you have women with more experience being slotted into secondary or deputy positions, so they are always playing second fiddle to the men. It influences girls and women in their behaviour and expectations of what they can do.”

However, the Beeb has made some progress on The One Show with host Alex Jones having made the move from left to right to take the more senior spot.

According to the Mail Online, television sources told them it has to do with the way we read. A senior ITV executive told them: “The eye goes from left to right. Certainly, ‘camera left’ is the position of authority. It has always been the case.”

This concept does make sense internationally, too, as this phenomenon also exists in the Arab world, but inverted, with many women taking the left spot as Arabic is read left to right.