Complaints both berating and defending Matt Hancock and his participation in I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! dominate UK regulator Ofcom’s top-10 list of most complained about TV incidents of the year.
Just shy of 2,000 complainants “objected to the inclusion” of the former Health Secretary in the series, drawing the second highest number of complaints, while 627 people objected to “bullying behavior” against him, which came eighth on the list.
Hancock’s double appearance in the annual complaints rundown demonstrates the way in which the politician, who is blamed by many for multiple Covid-19 mishaps and was outed for having an affair while breaking his own Covid guidance, divided the nation.
As the ITV entertainment series wore on, his popularity grew amid vitriol from fellow contestants such as Boy George, and Hancock ended up reaching the final and coming third.
The most complained about show according to Ofcom was an episode of Love Island, with 2,630 people flagging “alleged misogynistic and bullying behavior by some contestants in the villa.”
Others to feature in the top 10 included trans comedian Jordan Gray’s appearance on Channel 4’s Friday Night Live when she played the piano with her penis, comments made about death threats to Labour leader Keir Starmer on ITV’s Good Morning Britain and the recent remarks by pundit Gary Neville comparing Qatari working conditions to the UK during ITV’s World Cup Final coverage.
Complaints were slashed compared from the prior year, however, with just 36,543 compared to more than 150,000 in 2021.
That year saw the most complained about UK TV moment of all time when Piers Morgan rejected Meghan Markle’s suicide claims on Good Morning Britain, a tirade that led to his resignation from the show. The incident has come back up this week due to ITV’s Who Wants to be a Millionaire host Jeremy Clarkson’s “violent, misogynistic” column directed at Markle. 2021 also saw 24,921 complaints for an episode of Love Island following contestant Faye’s behavior towards on-screen partner Teddy.
Of the 36,543 complaints in 2022, 66 were found to have breached the rules, with high profile examples including a Game of Thrones episode on Sky, which aired in the daytime featuring multiple swearwords and wasn’t password protected for under-18s.
Complaints do not include those made about BBC shows unless they are escalated to Ofcom, as the BBC has its own process.
