ITV has called for a review of the procedure for selecting contestants after it emerged that a male escort with a criminal conviction appeared on its Saturday night dating show Take Me Out.
ITV, which just months ago pledged to make more contestant checks after a man who served a prison sentence for assault won a £1m jackpot on Simon Cowell's gameshow Red or Black?, blamed production company Talkback Thames.
"We are disappointed that this contestant's record was not picked up as part of the background checks carried out by Talkback Thames, the producers of Take Me Out," said a spokesman for ITV.
"We have asked Talkback Thames to carry out an immediate review of its procedures on this show."
Contestant Aaron Withers, 32, appeared on the most recent edition of the popular ITV1 dating show in which men try to impress a lineup of 30 women to secure a date.
Withers told the producers of the show, which is hosted by Paddy McGuinness, that he was a semi-professional surfer and an asphalt layer.
However, he failed to inform them of a conviction for assaulting a woman and her boyfriend in a pub last June and that he had advertised his services as a male escort on a website called Platinum Select.
A spokeswoman for Talkback Thames, which also co-produces ITV hits including The X Factor and Britain's Got Talent, said it would be starting an investigation into its procedures for reviewing prospective contestants after failing to pick up on Withers' conviction.
"During the application process we ask contestants to declare any convictions and background checks are carried out on each individual, in line with industry practice," said a spokeswoman for the production company. "Aaron's criminal record did not come to light. We will be reviewing procedures."
Take Me Out, ITV's latest attempt to breathe life into the dating format after the demise of the long-running Blind Date nearly 10 years ago, attracts audiences of about 5 million viewers.
The incident is an embarrassment to ITV coming just four months after a tabloid storm engulfed Red or Black? Contestant Nathan Hageman took home a £1m jackpot despite having served a prison sentence for assaulting a woman. That prompted an investigation into the background of the remaining contestants in the week-long gameshow, which ran last September, resulting in several being removed from the final stages of the series.
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