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Martin Scorsese and Ron Howard received their first ever acting Emmy nominations on Tuesday for their appearances in Apple TV+’s The Studio.

The two were nominated in the best guest actor in a comedy series category alongside The Studio costars Dave Franco Bryan Cranston and Anthony Mackie, as well as The Bear‘s Jon Bernthal.

The Studio was also nominated in the best comedy series category, and received acting nominations for Seth Rogen, Ike Barinholtz, Kathryn Hahn and Catherine O’Hara.

The series stars Rogen (who also co-created it) as Matt Remick, a movie executive who is elevated to president of the fictional Continental Studios and quickly realizes he might be in over his head.

O’Hara, Hahn, Barinholtz and Chase Sui Wonders also star in The Studio. Cranston has a key recurring role, and the show has a long list of cameos so far, among them Scorsese, Olivia Wilde, Zac Efron, Howard, Ice Cube, Charlize Theron and Nick Stoller.

Rogen and Goldberg co-created the series with Peter Huyck, Alex Gregory and Frida Perez. They executive produce with James Weaver of Point Grey, Alex McAtee and Josh Fagen.

See the full list of nominations here.

Tim Davie has insisted he is still the right person to lead the BBC, after a succession of controversies that have led the culture secretary to accuse him of overseeing a “series of catastrophic failures”.

Davie has been under the most intense pressure of his five-year tenure as director general after incidents including the livestreaming of Bob Vylan’s performance at the Glastonbury festival, as well as the broadcast of a Gaza documentary that breached the corporation’s editorial guidelines.

This week, the BBC also admitted opportunities were missed to deal with the behaviour of Gregg Wallace, after an independent report substantiated 45 allegations made against the former MasterChef presenter, including claims of inappropriate sexual language and one incident of unwelcome physical contact.

It has led to criticism from the culture secretary, Lisa Nandy, who suggested the corporation was suffering from a failure in leadership.

However, Davie insisted there had been consequences for staff responsible for the Glastonbury broadcast and a Gaza documentary that failed to disclose that its child narrator was the son of a Hamas official.

Speaking at the launch of the BBC’s annual report, Davie said he had already taken action to improve the culture at the BBC after previous high-profile scandals such as the departure of the disgraced presenter Huw Edwards – including the dismissal of staff.

In a defence of his performance, Davie said the controversy around Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone had been the most challenging he had dealt with during his tenure. However, he said he was the right person to lead the BBC as it faced an onslaught of competition from streamers and a continued decline in the number of households paying the licence fee.

“I simply think I’m in a place where I can work to improve dramatically the BBC and lead it in the right way,” he said. “We will make mistakes, but I think as a leadership, and myself, I’ve been very clear – and I think we have been decisive.

“When you go through tough times, one of the things that I focus on as a leader is there has never been a more important time for public service broadcasting. Gaza has been the most challenging editorial issue I’ve had to deal with. But the importance of fair, balanced reporting, the need for high-quality homegrown programming in the face of massive pressure, has never, ever been greater.

“I believe my leadership and the team I’ve assembled can really help the BBC thrive in that environment.”

Davie said the BBC had “already seen dismissals” as a result of an action plan drawn up after a series of scandals around conduct, including the Edwards scandal. The former presenter ultimately pleaded guilty to three counts of making indecent images of children. Neither Davie nor Samir Shah, the chair of the BBC, would name any individuals who had lost their jobs.

Davie said action was also being taken against senior figures involved in the Gaza failing and the livetreaming of Bob Vylan at Glastonbury. Pascal Robinson-Foster, who goes by the name Bobby Vylan as part of the duo, was shown leading chants of “death, death to the IDF”, referring to the Israel Defense Forces.

Davie faces another difficult decision over the future of the latest series of MasterChef, which has already been delivered to the BBC and in which Wallace features almost throughout. The decision has become even more difficult after the show’s other presenter, John Torode, announced he was the subject of an allegation of using racist language. He denies the incident happened.

Davie said MasterChef’s producer, Banijay, had to “follow up” on the allegation and report back to the BBC. He said he had made no decision over the series but was concerned about the effort put in by the amateur chefs involved.

“One of my overwhelming concerns is that we’ve got all the amateur chefs that gave their heart and soul to this programme,” he said. “We have to reflect on that, talk to them – and I’m sure Banijay are doing that – consult them, think about the audience, and then make a call. That’s what we’re going through now.”

He said there was a future for the show. “A great programme that’s well loved by audiences is much bigger than individuals,” he said.

The BBC’s annual report highlighted the strengths and serious challenges the BBC faces as streaming and YouTube continue to split audiences. The BBC is still managing to reach 94% of UK adults every month, while its digital platform iPlayer was the UK’s fastest-growing long-form on-demand service last year.

However, the number of households paying the BBC licence fee fell for a seventh consecutive year, down 300,000, the report stated.

John Torode has been sacked as MasterChef presenter after an allegation against him using “an extremely offensive racist term” was upheld.

On Monday, the TV chef said he had “no recollection” of the incident, adding: “I do not believe that it happened.”

But in a statement on Tuesday, the show’s production company Banijay UK said it and the BBC “are agreed” that his contract on the show will not be renewed.

It plunges the BBC cooking show into a deeper crisis, after more than 40 separate allegations against Torode’s co-host Gregg Wallace were also upheld as part of an inquiry into his conduct.

The controversy over MasterChef started last year, when BBC News first revealed claims of inappropriate sexual language against Wallace.

Wallace was sacked last week as dozens more people came forward to BBC News with allegations against him. He has always denied the claims.

A BBC spokesperson said: “John Torode has identified himself as having an upheld allegation of using racist language against him.

“This allegation – which involves an extremely offensive racist term being used in the workplace – was investigated and substantiated by the independent investigation led by the law firm, Lewis Silkin.

“John Torode denies the allegation. He has stated he has no recollection of the alleged incident and does not believe that it happened. He also says that any racial language is wholly unacceptable in any environment.

“The BBC takes this upheld finding extremely seriously. We will not tolerate racist language of any kind and, as we have already said, we told Banijay UK, the makers of MasterChef, that action must be taken. John Torode’s contract on MasterChef will not be renewed.”

Speaking to BBC News, BBC director general Tim Davie described the allegation against Torode as “a serious racist term which does not get to be acceptable in any way shape or form”.

“It’s really important we are taking this seriously,” he said. “We’ve drawn a line in the sand”.

Davie wouldn’t be drawn on how much recent BBC controversies, from MasterChef to the failures over its Gaza documentary, to Bob Vylan’s set at Glastonbury, have cost licence fee payers.

“I’m not minimising the damage,” he said, “of when you make mistakes of this nature.”

But he added: “How we manage them and how we lead our way through it is how you build trust.”

Earlier on Tuesday, Mr Davie told a press conference that the Masterchef “absolutely” has a future, adding that it was “much bigger than individuals”.

But he refused to say what would happen to the unseen series – which was filmed last year, with both Wallace and Torode in it.

In an Instagram post on Monday, Torode revealed he was the subject of an allegation of using racist language, upheld as part of an inquiry into separate allegations against Wallace.

He said the allegation was that he made the remarks in a social setting in 2018 or 2019.

He added that the allegation included that the “person I was speaking with did not believe that it was intended in a malicious way and that I apologised immediately afterwards”.

Torode added: “I want to be clear that I’ve always had the view that any racial language is wholly unacceptable in any environment. I’m shocked and saddened by the allegation as I would never wish to cause anyone any offence.”