ITV has finally addressed Jeremy Clarkson's future on the long-running quiz Who Wants to Be a Millionaire following months of speculation.
The quiz show is currently on the air each Sunday - although this series was filmed well over a year ago.
Since the episodes were filmed Clarkson came under heavy criticism for his now-famous Meghan Markle column in which he said he "hated" her and dreamt of the day she was paraded through the streets naked and pelted with excrement.
He apologised for the comments and faced calls to be axed from his roles at ITV as well as Amazon, with which he films The Grand Tour and Clarkson's Farm.
Over a year on, Clarkson remains part of the furniture at Amazon with a third and fourth season of his farming show in the pipeline.
And now, a source at the WWTBAM production company has claimed Clarkson's future at ITV also looks positive despite there being no concrete announcement.
Jeremy Clarkson faced cancel calls for his Meghan Markle comments
GETTYThe Mirror claims a senior source at Stellify told them: "Clarkson made a big mistake with his column, but unusually for him, he did apologise wholeheartedly afterward.
"This helped him compared to someone like Piers Morgan who refused to make a U-turn on his comments about Meghan on GMB.
"ITV have been playing a waiting game to see how things look and how people have been reacting to new episodes going out this year of Millionaire with Clarkson. There has been no huge reaction and so a decision has been made to continue with him in the chair.
"It is a second chance for Clarkson but if he were to overstep the mark again it’s unlikely there will be a third chance."
However, despite the reports that Clarkson has been handed a "lifeline" by the channel, ITV is still refusing to confirm his future in the host's chair.
An ITV spokesperson told GB News in response to the source's claims: "There are more brand new episodes of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire that will be played on ITV later this year.
"As is typical with such shows, we make commissioning decisions on a series-by-series basis and as such we are yet to confirm further commissioning commitments beyond that."
ITV also provided quotes boss Kevin Lygo said to business journalists during a press event this week.
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS:
Jeremy Clarkson is rumoured to be ITV's preference for future WWTBAM episodes
ITV/GETTY
When quizzed on the relationship between ITV and Clarkson, Lygo replied: "What I would say, there’s still quite a number of episodes to yet play out.
"It’s doing well at the moment, we’ll continue to monitor how it does. As you know, I never like to say we will or we won’t be recommissioning until a series has finished its transmission and we can properly assess how it’s done.
"We’re very pleased with how it's doing now, but there are something like another 8/9 episodes to go out. Some continuing now, some later in the year, then we’ll take a view at that point. We’re delighted with the performance so far."
"So you’ll make a decision at the conclusion of those eight or nine episodes it's fair to say?" Lygo was quizzed to which he simply replied: "Yes."
