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| Edited By: |Source: ANI |Updated: Apr 22, 2011, 09:11 PM IST
Mastermind, Britain’s 40-year-old successful quiz show, suffered a setback to broaden its ethnic reach, as it failed to gather Asian would-be participants to take part in the auditions.
The show has already been successful at attracting women and younger contestants but boasts just one black winner, barrister Shaun Wallace, who won in 2004 with a specialist subject of FA Cup finals since 1970, The Independent reports.
After the show failed to attract Asians for auditions in Bradford, West Yorkshire, a man belonging to this ethnic class said: "I don't think the people of Bradford knew about it. I certainly didn't... I have never seen anyone Asian on Mastermind."
Jon Kelly, the series producer, said that in order to overcome the perceived image of the show, the BBC had been advertising in publications read by ethnic minorities, marketing online and holding auditions in under-represented areas.
"What we've found quite markedly is we aren't getting the applications from the black and mixed ethnic populations," Kelly said.
"The reason it's more noticeable is in the last two years we have had a lot more applications from everyone. The number of young people applying is increasing substantially with more online marketing. So we can identify areas where we are not getting applications, and this has flagged up that black and ethnic minority applications are not going up at all," he added.
He also said that the aim of renewing the show is to get rid of the common perceptions that it is meant "mainly for older intellectuals."
