Page 75 - Katherine Ryan press pack

Why are women so lousy at presenting? They must be, or at least one of them would

have nudged their way into the top 12 most highly paid presenters at the BBC. As it
is, only two women - Claudia Winkleman and Vanessa Feltz - make it into the top 20.

Winkleman, ranked 13th on the list, earns £370,000 - 380,000 (not including
her Strictly salary as that comes under the BBC Studios arm), which is a fifth of what

Gary Lineker - at No 1 on the salary list with £1.75million - earns. Who knew he was

five times better at his weekend job?

The BBC claims progress - the number of women paid £150,000 or more increased

from 14 to 22 in the year up to 31 March - 34% of the overall list. The aim is for the

list to be 50/50 men and women by 2020. Jane Garvey of Woman’s Hour has
declared the pace of change to be “glacial.”

Meanwhile, Channel 4 did its bit for the gender opportunity gap tonight with the first
ever all-female edition of 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown. Regular presenter

Jimmy Carr was replaced by Katherine Ryan for the night, Roisin Conaty, Jessica
Hynes, Sara Pascoe and Lolly Adefope were the captains and players and Morgana

Robinson was in Dictionary Corner, hilarious in character as Eastenders actress

Natalie Cassidy. Rachel Riley and Susie Dent continued in their regular expert roles,
making the female tally eight.

There haven’t been that many women on a comedy panel show since The Cheeky
Girls appeared in the line-up round on Never Mind the Buzzcocks.

There have certainly never been that many on Cats Does Countdown - which up

until December last year had featured 73% male guests. The one-woman-per-show
rule rules. When you look at it that way, one show out of 97 so far “celebrating 100

years of women’s suffrage” looks a bit daft.

The important thing is that the line-up didn’t make a blind bit of difference. It was still

the same old Cats does Countdown - funny, silly, full of quick wit, slow arithmetic and

time-bending feats during the challenges - with the added bonus of watching Britain’s
finest female comedians sparring off each other, rather than off four men, for a