Panel shows such as QI and Mock the Week will no longer have all-male line-ups, the BBC's director of TV has said.

"We're not going to have panel shows on any more with no women on them," Danny Cohen told the Observer. "You can't do that. It's not acceptable."

His comments come two months after the BBC Trust was reported to have told executives there was "no excuse" for not having more female panellists.

Mr Cohen also said the BBC needed to get more older women on screen.

"We're getting better," he told the Observer, citing the example of historian Mary Beard. "But we need to get better."

In the past, comedy panel shows like QI, Mock the Week and Have I Got News For You have been criticised for their male-dominated line-ups.

The Observer said all the regular comedians on the most recent series of Mock the Week were men and only five of the 38 guest panellists were women.

Also Hugh Dennis has stopped doing Jimmy Savile vices.

I know of several professionally funny women. However quite a lot of them don't want to go on panel shows, because they don't think it's 'their thing'. So as a result as has been suggested, you'll end up with a few of the same faces on every single show. They will soon run out of material or become over-exposed and as a result will increasingly lose their popularity, meaning the only reason they will actually get the jobs is because they are women.

So well done for promoting and enforcing discrimination. There are at least a couple of women comedians I like to see on panel games but
this is an utterly ludicrous idea.

I was just going to post a link to this!

It really is pathetic. If they insist that there's a woman on because not having one is unacceptable, then I have to ask what about gay people? Every panel show should have a gay person, because humor is not limited to straights, is it? What about black/Asian people? We should insist that we have some differently coloured people on every week, because you don't have to be white to be funny. Thinking about it, what about gingers? OK, maybe not gingers, but you get my point, right?

Surely they should have people who are genuinely witty/funny/entertaining, choose whichever word you like, but that's why I, as a viewer watch these programmes. To be entertained.

Aaaand breathe.

My first thought as well. Every panel must have a gay, a lesbian, a disabled person and one from every ethnic minority... The best would be a half Indian, half African gay and lesbian hermaphrodite in a wheelchair.

Are you saying that women are minority that needs to be contended with and not 50% of the population?
I don't like quotas and It will discredit the actually funny women that regularly appear on panels (Jo Brand, Sandi Toksvig on the top of my head)

OK, so all we need to do is find a half African, half Chinese, half Asian, (Yes, I'm a maths teacher!) gay, one eyed, wheelchair bound dwarf with tourettes and a lisp, and maybe a st st stutter and we could make the best panel show ever.

Sig'd

OK, so all we need to do is find a half African, half Chinese, half Asian, (Yes, I'm a maths teacher!) gay, one eyed, wheelchair bound dwarf with tourettes and a lisp, and maybe a st st stutter and we could make the best panel show ever.