TV

Celebrity Big Brother tops 2018’s most-complained about programme list

Loose Women and Coronation Street also feature

Celebrity Big Brother was the most-complained about TV programme of 2018, Ofcom has said.

The media watchdog received 27,602 complaints from viewers about the Channel 5 reality TV series, which came to an end on the channel this year.

Ryan Thomas in OK!
Ryan won CBB after a tough time (Credit: Channel 5)

Ofcom said the majority of complaints around Celebrity Big Brother related to the allegations made by Roxanne Pallett against Ryan Thomas.

Former Emmerdale star Pallett accused Thomas, who went on to win the show, of “punching” her but she later apologised, saying she had got the situation “massively wrong”.

ITV’s Loose Women is second on Ofcom’s annual list of complained about television, with 8,002 complaints.

Kim Woodburn storming off Loose Women also made the list (Credit: ITV)

According to Ofcom, the majority of those were related to an interview conducted with Kim Woodburn as a guest on the talk show panel.

During her appearance on Loose Women, Woodburn became embroiled in a war of words with Coleen Nolan and other panellists before storming off.

Ofcom said it is “investigating both programmes to determine whether potentially offensive content was editorially justified and placed into appropriate context”.

Other TV shows featured in a list of the Top 10 most-complained about shows include Love Island (fourth position with 1,492 complaints), I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! (ninth position with 335 complaints) and The X Factor in 10th position with 286 complaints.

Brexit
The editing of an interview conducted with Tommy Robinson features on the list (Credit: PA)

Sky News is third on the list with 4,251 complaints, of which more than 3,000 are around alleged bias in the editing of an interview with controversial figure Tommy Robinson.

Soaps Coronation Street and Emmerdale are fifth and sixth respectively.

Coronation Street received 1,098 complaints, with 214 of them relating to the David Platt male rape storyline and its subsequent aftermath.

Inside Soap Awards 2018 – London
Corrie’s rape plot also features (Credit: PA)

Emmerdale received a total of 759 complaints, of which 366 relate to this year’s acid attack storyline.

Ofcom’s Tony Close, director of content standards, licensing & enforcement, said: “Viewers are as passionate about what they watch as ever, discussing programmes with their friends and family, and with other people on social media.

“They complain to us when they think programmes have fallen below the standards they expect, and we carefully assess each and every complaint we receive.

“This year, we’ve taken action on many occasions where programmes have fallen short of the standards required by our rules.”

Last year the equivalent figure was 16,068 complaints about radio and TV programmes, while this year’s figure stands at almost 56,000. The nearly 40,000 increase in volume of complaints has been driven by Celebrity Big Brother and Loose Women.

Here is the list of Top 10 most-complained about TV programmes: 

1. Celebrity Big Brother – 27,602 complaints
2. Loose Women – 8,002
3. Sky News – 4, 251
4. Love Island – 4, 192
5. Coronation Street – 1,098
6. Emmerdale – 759
7. Good Morning Britain – 548
8. This Morning – 402
9. I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! – 335
10. The X Factor – 286


Kaggie Hyland
Editor-in-Chief

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