Beaten Cambridge brainbox Wang has argued that University Challenge should be more inclusive of women as shocked viewers slammed the show over it’s all-male final last night.
Ian Wang, 21, starred in the final for the quiz show alongside his all-male team from Corpus Christi of Cambridge and rivals Imperial College London.
After his team lost the prize, scoring just 105 points while their opponents earned a whopping 275, Wang tweeted: ‘All-male finals are just straight up Bad and team selectors have a big say in making sure the show is less male-dominated.’
It comes after viewers flooded to social media to criticise the programme, with one commenting: ‘University Challenge seems to have gradually regressed into the 19th century with fewer and fewer women participants year on year. Nine men and not one woman on screen tonight.’
Beaten Cambridge brainbox Ian Wang has spoken out to argue University Challenge should do more to stop all-male finals after appearing in the show last night
After the programme aired last night, fan-favourite Wang took to social media to share his message about equality.
He retweeted an earlier post shared in February urging those selecting the teams to be inclusive to women.
In it, he wrote: ‘If you’re in charge of picking your uni/college’s #UniversityChallenge team, try to find ways of being more inclusive to women.
‘When you advertise your tryouts on Facebook, say that you want more women to take part (I think some unis have run all-female tryouts too.’
The teams from both Cambridge and Imperial in the final of last night’s University Challenge featured only male participants
Fan favourite Wang took to social media to say those selecting teams for the programme had a ‘big say’ in ensuring the show was ‘less male-dominated’
Last night’s final was hotly anticipated, with both teams coming to the show with no defeats.
Fans were eager to see two of the contestants – Brandon Blackwell, of Imperial College, and Wang battle it out after both being hailed by fans as the ‘best ever’ contestants go head-to-head.
Brandon Blackwell, 26, known as the ‘The Scowler’ was joined by team members Richard Brooks, Conor McMeel, and team captain Caleb Rich in Imperial’s all-male team.
Meanwhile team captain Wang, known as the ‘bouncy’ ‘Grandmaster Wang’ was joined by Alexander Russell, Will Stewart and Alex Gunasekera.
Many viewers were stunned by the lack of diversity on the University Challenge panels, with one jokingly asking when the women’s final would be
Brandon led his team’s win, taking control of the answers despite not being the captain and giving an oustanding performance, with many of his correct answers guesses.
Meanwhile Wang, an English student from Sale, Greater Manchester, had been responsible for 319 of Corpus Christi’s 1,190. On last night’s episode he fell notably silent, with his team falling shockingly behind.
Despite the impressive performances, viewers said they were stunned by the all-male line-up.
One commented: ‘Just watched four men compete against four men in a quiz presented by a man with a prize presented by a man…#WhereAreTheWomen?’
Wang captained an all-male team in the programme last night as they battled against Imperial for the title
Another wrote: ‘Why is that most participation are men? Quote from tonight #UniversityChallenge is a young man’s game. FFS.’
One added: ‘Final, Corpus Christi V Imperial. 8 men, no women…’
In last year’s final, two women competed for Oxford’s St Edmund Hall with Marceline Bresson and Lizzie Fry competing against the all-male team from Edinburgh.
In previous years there have been multiple female competitors, with last Marceline Bresson and Lizzie Fry competing on the team from St Edmund Hall Oxford
Meanwhile in 2018, there were female competitors on both teams going head-to-head in the final
Meanwhile in 2018, there were female contestants on both teams to make the final, with Leonie Woodland captaining Oxford’s Merton team and Rosie McKeown joining St John’s Cambridge team.
There was also a female competitor in the 2017 final, with Hannah Woods competing alongside three men for Penthouse – Cambridge.
But former team captain Bobby Seagull told Radio 4’s Today listeners that women were put off appearing on the programme because of the ‘torrent of abuse’ female contestants receive.
He insisted that teams weren’t always all male, saying: ‘It does vary sometimes, we have seen some amazing women.’
He said: ‘As a selector of teams on university challenge, mainly at Emmanuel, we had at stages maybe 100 applicants and less than 20 per cent is women.’
He explained: ‘Last night I spoke to a lady called Lucy Clarke who was a top class quizzer this year and reached semi-finals.
Meanwhile a calm and collected Imperial College hardly broke a sweat as they gave a cool nod to celebrate their win
Presenter Jeremy Paxman was joined by Sir Andrew John Wiles, right, an English mathematician and a Royal Society Research Professor at the University of Oxford, best known for proving Fermat’s Last Theorem, who presented the prize
‘She said women face a torrent of abuse by a minority of people and trolls on social media.
‘Actually this experience of abuse and objectification makes women think, “If I go on university challenge, there’s a solid chance I may be trolled just for my appearance or just because I’m a woman”.’
He also insisted that the producers of University Challenge had diversified questions to include a more varied range of topics, adding: ‘I think the trolling issue does need to be challenged.’
But former contestant and team selector Bobby Seagull insisted that female contestants rarely applied to the show for fear of a ‘torrent of abuse’ from social media