The Great British Bake Off seems to be getting a lot of flack lately, and it’s showing no signs of slowing down as it now faces an Ofcom probe.
An episode that aired this week received more complaints than Sarah Harding’s sex act with Chad Johnson on Celebrity Big Brother.
Tuesday’s episode of GBBO caused outrage amongst viewers as presenter Noel Fielding hid himself in a fridge.
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During the episode, Noel was hiding in a fridge and fellow presenter Sandi Toksvig opened the door to find him crouched inside.
Noel shouted to the bakers how much time they had left to complete their task, before Sandi closed the door on him again.
Although it was obviously supposed to be a funny moment, viewers were furious and were worried about children copying it.
Ofcom revealed to The Sun that it received 24 complaints and a spokesperson said: “We will assess these complaints before deciding whether or not to investigate.”
In comparison a very small number of people were offended by Sarah Harding’s sexual antics on Celebrity Big Brother, when she felt up Chad’s crotch while kissing him.
The scene received just six complaints!
People came out in their droves to tweet about Noel Fielding hiding in the fridge, and branded the show “irresponsible”.
One angry viewer tweeted: “How stupid can you be? You should never shut people in a fridge even for comic effect! Children are watching this!”
Another said: “@noelfielding hiding in a fridge on #GBBO. Big mistake. People have died doing this.”
A third viewer said: “Outraged they’d show climbing into a fridge being fun on @GBBOUK. Super fun when kids do it and suffocate – nice one @Channel4.”
A fourth tweeted: “Seriously? A presenter sat in a fridge? How stupid. Families watch this with children. Have you never heard of imitative behaviour?”
“Very irresponsible to show a grown up hiding in a fridge,” added a fifth.
Last month Ofcom received complaints about an episode of Emmerdale where a child was seen being bullied by an adult.
Ten people complained after the show’s baddie Emma Barton confronted little Arthur about what he’d seen in a video which showed her manipulating Ashley.
Emma went all out to cover herself as she desperately tried to stop him spilling the beans to anyone else.
She lied to him that his mum Laurel was seriously ill, as well as destroying his treasured videos of his late dad.
After everything else she’d done, the bullying of a nine-year-old boy was a step too far as far as viewers were concerned and some of them even felt it necessary to complain to regulating body Ofcom.
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Because it was such a small number of complaints they decided not to launch an official investigation.
A spokesperson told Digital Spy: “We assessed a small number of complaints about a bullying story in Emmerdale. We found the content was limited, and the perpetrator was not presenting in a positive light.
“We also recognise that audiences expect soaps to present difficult or challenging social situations.”