But, frankly, that would be as likely as media minister and Digital Britain architect Stephen Carter getting the gig, even if he were allowed to take it under ministerial guidelines.
Former BSkyB chief executive Tony Ball was installed favourite early on, when ITV shareholder Legal & General identified him as "their man". But Ball wasn't interested in a competitive interviewing process and would only take the job if he was crowned coronation-style.
Ball has divided shareholders, with some championing him and others put off by his bullish approach. A story appeared in a national newspaper recently about Ball brokering a package that included installing himself as chief exec and an investment bank pumping £500m into the company. It prompted Britain's premier commercial broadcaster to issue a note to the City a few days later. The subtext of this missive appeared to be: "Our finances are in perfectly good shape, thank you, and we aren't going to be forced into a deal."
Other names among many mentioned include former chief executive of Virgin Media's content division, Malcolm Wall, Google's Nikesh Arora, BBC Worldwide chief exec John Smith and former Channel 4 chief exec Michael Jackson.
A similar melange of speculation was played out before the appointment of Rupert Howell as managing director of brand and commercial at ITV a couple of years ago. Chief operations officer John Cresswell and Howell are the internal candidates for the chief exec role and the longer the process goes on the more their stars will rise. ITV veteran Cresswell may be tarred with failures under previous regimes, but Howell - a man not lacking in self-confidence - will feel he still has a shot.
Media Week gathered a panel of experts together for this week's feature to ask them what they would do if they were in charge of ITV (see page 20). It's a big job and my gut feeling is that the name of the new chief exec hasn't appeared above the parapet yet. It may even be someone who is experienced at restructuring and turning around public companies, but not necessarily an expert in media.
Steve Barrett is editor of Media Week, steve.barrett@haymarket.com
www.mediaweek.co.uk/stevebarrettblog