O'Grady: I'd quit over phone scandal

Talk show host Paul O'Grady has spoken out against television presenters caught up in the recent run of phone quiz scandals, saying he would "probably leave" if he was implicated in any such deception.

O'Grady, who hosts a Channel 4 daytime chatshow, told the Sun today the presenters involved should take the blame and the honourable thing would be to quit.

"I think it's good this stuff has been exposed. If it wasn't for the viewers then we wouldn't be here and if they're being ripped off then it needs to stop," O'Grady added.

"If it was my show, I'd probably leave. If you were running a pub and your name was over the door and someone was selling drugs in there, then you'd be liable."

O'Grady said his show, The Paul O'Grady Show, was bringing back the Organ Game phone-in competition in response to viewer feedback - but the profits would go to charity.

His Channel 4 stablemates Richard Madeley and Judy Finnegan and ITV rivals Anthony McPartlin and Declan Donnelly are among presenters hit by a string of revelations about the management of phone quizzes.

The scandal that has also hit the long-running BBC children's programme Blue Peter.

In some cases, staff posed as members of the public to "win" the prize, while in other the premium phone lines were kept open for new contestants after the winners had already been chosen.

Richard and Judy and Ant and Dec have said they had no knowledge of or involvement in the phone-in deceptions.

O'Grady is up against Ant and Dec for the most popular entertainment presenter award at next week's National Television Awards.

