Piers Morgan and the late Jerry Springer have taken their places in UK regulator Ofcom‘s first ever all-encompassing list of the most complained about TV shows of all time.
Morgan’s Good Morning Britain rant, during which he questioned Meghan Markle’s claims that her time with the royal family had left her feeling suicidal, sits top of the pile with 54,595 complaints, coming as the regulator publishes the all-time list to celebrate its 500th monthly bulletin. The incident led to Morgan exiting Good Morning Britain.
Ofcom cited complaints about Jerry Springer the Opera in 2005, which numbered nearly 9,000 and feature in ninth place on the list, as “the first time we had seen high volumes of standards complaints to Ofcom” and “the first large scale internet campaign to Ofcom on any broadcasting issue.”
The BBC show attracted ire from viewers who were offended by its content including depictions of religious figures.
Neither Morgan nor Springer’s show were found to be in breach of Ofcom’s code. In fact, there were only two breaches in the top 10, one of them being an episode of Celebrity Big Brother from 2007 that attracted 45,000 complaints over racism directed at Indian star Shilpa Shetty, which dominated the tabloids’ front pages for weeks, and the other being last year’s highly misogynistic rant by Laurence Fox on GB News’ Dan Wootton Tonight. The latter incident sparked the firing of Fox from GB News, and Wootton left several weeks later.
Other shows to feature in the top 10 include Love Island, Britain’s Got Talent and King Charles III: The Coronation, the latter of which attracted complaints after Bridgerton star Adjoa Andoh said the royal family was “terribly white” as they took to the Buckingham Palace balcony.
Ofcom also revealed that it has collected more than £15M ($19M) in fines from broadcasters that have fallen foul of its code since the bulletin was launched in 2004.
It said it has assessed 770,000 complaints and 156,000 cases. Of the 3,286 standards investigations it has launched, around two-thirds (2,166) were found to be in breach.
Perhaps one of Ofcom’s biggest decisions is still to come. The body recently began the procedure to sanction prolific rule breaker GB News following a People’s Forum show in which Prime Minister Rishi Sunak took questions from a live audience. GB News has been given the opportunity to make representations against the sanction, which could result in a direction not to repeat content, a direction to broadcast a correction or a statement of Ofcom’s findings, financial penalties or, in extreme cases, the revocation of a license.
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