Have I Got News For You’s Ian Hislop revealed two ‘concerning’ threats that could see the BBC show axed. 

Admitting how ‘it has become a real problem,’ the journalist, 64, discussed how the Donald Trump era and his war on ‘fake news’ as well as the public’s ‘disengagement’ has effected satirist. 

Speaking in an interview with Chortle this week, Ian explained how it’s ‘concerning’ and poses a threat. 

He said: ‘When people disengage, they stop believing in anything. It’s all very well saying that you can’t believe anything in the mainstream news. But reading the things outside of it is even less patrolled. 

‘Online, it’s difficult for people to accept that they’re being fed stuff by bad actors. I can see that you’re annoyed and suspicious. But why do you just believe something that just appears on your phone?

‘I still hope our Have I Got News For You has a broader audience, the viewing figures we’re getting on BBC One suggest that we are. But if I believed the onlinesphere, I’d understand that we were libtard woke sell-outs who should be sH๏τ.’

Have I Got News For You’s Ian Hislop revealed two ‘concerning’ threats that could see the BBC show axed

Admitting how ‘it has become a real problem,’ the journalist, 64, discussed how the Donald Trump era and ‘fake news’ as well as the public’s ‘disengagement’ has effected satirist

Ian has been a team captain on the television panel programme, which sees the celebrity guests show off their knowledge of the weekly news topics, since it premiered in 1990.

Elsewhere, he revealed the ‘best and worst guest’ to ever grace hit the BBC show as over the past 35 years there have been numerous famous faces on the panel. 

And the journalist didn’t hold back when he opened up about who his favourite and least favourite person to appear on the programme was.

Speaking to the Independent at the Royal Television Society Programme Awards earlier this week, Ian said: ‘My favourite guest was William Shatner, Captain Kirk from Star Trek.

‘He had no idea who we were. He didn’t know any of the news stories and was incredibly funny, and he actually sang.’

Ian added: ‘He’d just released an album, so I think he was probably both the best and the worst guest ever.’

William famously guest-hosted the iconic show back in 2012, and while he left many viewers in hysterics with his quips, one comment accidentally irked residents of an English town.

The veteran actor made a controversial claim about the seaside town of Ilfracombe in Devon. 

Speaking in an interview with Chortle this week, Ian said: ‘When people disengage, they stop believing in anything’ (pictured with Paul Merton)

Elsewhere, he revealed the ‘best and worst guest’ to ever grace hit the BBC show was – William Shatner (pictured) 

After initially mispronouncing the name of the town, fellow panelist Charlie Brooker joked that William made it sound ‘deeply Sєxual’. 

William hit back: ‘The place is laced with prosтιтution,’ leading then town’s then-Mayor Paul Crabb to pen a letter to the actor’s representatives.

In it he invited William to visit Ilfracombe and see for himself that his remarks were completely unfounded.

He wrote: ‘As Captain James T Kirk, Mr Shatner has been to places where no man has gone before. However, the episode of Have I Got News for You clearly shows he has never been to Ilfracombe. 

‘If he came, we could show him that there is no prosтιтution in Ilfracombe and that it is a lovely coastal town with spectacular scenery and a close community.’ 

William played Captain Kirk in the sci-fi favourite between 1966 and 1969, and since then has appeared in various other TV shows and films. 

Some include the rest of the Star Trek franchise, Miss Congeniality, Jugement at Nuremberg, Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story, A Christmas Horror Story and The Wild. 

Have I Got News For You has aired 610 episodes over 68 series. 

It was presented by Angus Deayton between 1990 and 2002 and a number of guest presenters have filled the role ever since.