ITV continued to generate the largest number of complaints to Ofcom in 2022, with Love Island, Good Morning Britain and I’m a Celebrity triggering adverse viewer reaction.
Seven of the top ten most complained about TV programmes in 2022 were shown on ITV’s channels. Its coverage of the FIFA World Cup Final last Sunday made a late entrance in 9th place.
In 2021, ITV accounted for nine of the top ten most complained about shows. This time around, Channel 4’s Friday Night Live, Channel 5’s Jeremy Vine and Sky News joined the top 10.
Overall, the number of complaints to Ofcom has returned to pre-pandemic levels, with a total of 36,543 complaints, down from 173,132 total complaints in 2021.
Most complained about shows in 2022
- Love Island, ITV2, 17 July – complaints related to alleged misogynistic and bullying behaviour by some contestants in the villa.
- I’m a Celebrity…. Get me out of here!, ITV, 6-27 November – viewers objected to the inclusion of Matt Hancock in the series.
- Friday Night Live, Channel 4, 21 October – complaints related to a performance by Jordan Gray.
- Love Island, ITV2, 19 July – complaints related to alleged misogynistic and bullying behaviour by some contestants in the villa.
- Good Morning Britain, ITV, 15 February – complaints related to comments made by Richard Madeley about death threats made to Keir Starmer.
- Jeremy Vine, Channel 5, 24 January. Viewers complained about a health consultant’s inaccurate statement about numbers of unvaccinated people in hospital with Covid-19.
- Love Island, ITV2, 18 July – more complaints related to alleged misogynistic and bullying behaviour by some contestants in the villa.
- I’m a Celebrity…. Get me out of here!, ITV, 13 November – viewers objected to bullying behaviour against Matt Hancock.
- FIFA World Cup Final 2022: Argentina v France, ITV, 18 December – complaints related to politicised comments from Gary Neville.
- Sky News, Sky News, 10 September. A ‘Justice for Chris Kaba’ walk was reported as people on their way to pay tribute to the late Queen. Ofcom is investigating whether this breached our rules on due accuracy.
Ofcom’s Adam Baxter explained the above top 10 excludes complaints about programmes shown on the BBC.
Baxter commented: “These are handled by the BBC in the first instance. In the summer, we told the BBC that we expect it to improve how it handles complaints from viewers and listeners. And we were pleased to see it recently announce that it would be changing its processes to make it easier for people to complain.”
[Image: Ofcom]