The Winter version of Love Island may only be a day old, but already the show attracted over 250 Ofcom complaints.
The dating show, which saw Laura Whitmore make her debut as host, ran into trouble over the inclusion of 23-year-old Ollie Williams as a contestant, and a controversial comment one of the other contestants made about her new partner.
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Metro reports that 272 complaints were made to TV’s governing body, with 231 complaints specifically referencing Ollie’s inclusion in the line-up.
The furore started when images emerged online of Ollie posing next to dead animals on hunting trips to South Africa.
According to The Sun, the Instagram pictures from Ollie’s company’s page were captioned with comments such as: “Another happy client with his awesome eland bull! Enquire on the website today!”
Ollie has since denied the accusation of trophy hunting and insists that he was culling sick animals during conservation work.
The show also attracted a further 26 complaints when contestant Siannise Fudge referred to her new partner Nas Majeed as ‘Aladdin’.
As the contestants coupled up for the first time, she said of her new partner: “I love Princess Jasmine and he kind of looks like Aladdin.”
Turned on #Loveisland to see the one Asian already be referred to as Aladdin pic.twitter.com/ReZhCOaaBO
— Marva (@MarvaMSK) January 12, 2020
"He kind of looks like Aladdin" #LoveIsland pic.twitter.com/DSu6L8Vt1R
— Mattyh_08 🇵🇸 (@mattyh_08) January 12, 2020
Aladdin? It’s time to contact OFCOM #loveisland
— Lateef (@LateefSaka) January 12, 2020
https://twitter.com/Timeline2019/status/1216473390221012994
https://twitter.com/RasclartRico/status/1216473961640448000
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It wasn’t long before viewers rushed onto Twitter to express their anger at Siannise’s ‘racial profiling’.
“How she calling him Aladdin on national television?
“Nah, I’m calling Ofcom.”