Yahoo News Big Brother hit with more than 1,000 complaints over behaviour and bullying allegations
The show has had plenty of complaints over the years
Big Brother has been hit with more than 1000 complaints in a week over bullying allegations.
The resurrected series has been rocked by plenty of drama, and three separate episodes had viewers contacting Ofcom in droves.
The instalment that aired on 31 October drew a whopping 768 complaints to the broadcasting watchdog, with a spokesperson confirming to Yahoo that they related to Dylan’s behaviour towards Trish.
During the show, some of the housemates were confronted about their nominations and Dylan referred to Trish as “two-faced”.
A total of 97 complaints were received about the 1 November show, with 95 of them relating to housemates’ behaviour to each other.
There were 161 complaints for the 3 November episode, relating to various issues including Olivia, Tom, Jenkin and Chanelle’s behaviour towards Trish and Noky (62 complaints) and “alleged bullying behaviour by Paul towards Noky and Trish”, which sparked 50 complaints.
Big Brother is no stranger to controversy, with many moments in the main show and the celebrity edition triggering a flurry of complaints over the years.
We have a look at a few of them.
Nasty Nick
The fly on the wall series was full of drama from the start, with the very first series in 2000 sparking complaints.
Housemate Nick Bateman found himself in hot water and facing a huge backlash after writing secret notes and apparently trying to communicate about nominations – a massive Big Brother no no.
On This Morning earlier this year he was asked if he saw it as manipulating nominations, and insisted: "No.
"You look at shows now and people do far worse."
Shilpa Shetty race row
The celebrity version of the TV show hit the headlines in 2007 when some of the housemates – including the late Jade Goody – were accused of bullying and making racist comments towards Bollywood actor Shetty.
There were more than 40,000 complaints in total and the story made international news.
It was even raised in the Commons.
Helen Wood row
In 2015, Ofcom received more than 2000 complaints over Helen Wood’s alleged behaviour towards Brian Belo.
The pair both did stints in the show before and returned to the house for a twist.
Wood made a comment about Belo’s appearance and ended getting a warning from BB.
David Gest death error
In 2016, there were over 200 complaints after Celebrity Big Brother housemate Tiffany Pollard mistakenly thought fellow contestant David Gest had passed away.
There had been a discussion about the singer David Bowie having died, and somehow Pollard thought it was Gest.
Scenes where she reacted to the news aired, leading to the complaints.
Punch-gate
The 2018 celebrity series was the most complained about show of that year, with more than 27,000 people getting in touch with Ofcom over “Punch-gate”.
The saga saw former Emmerdale star Roxanne Pallett vilified after accusing fellow housemate Ryan Thomas of hitting her, a claim she later admitted was “massively wrong” and apologised for.
Yahoo has contacted ITV for comment.
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