Ofcom's most complained about TV moments of 2022 have been revealed.
The broadcasting regulator received a total of 36,543 complaints over 9,500 issues in the past 12 months, with the alleged bullying behaviour on Love Island topping this year's list alongside Matt Hancock's appearance on I'm A Celebrity. Other moments to feature include Gary Neville's political comments he made during ITV's broadcast of the FIFA World Cup final.
Love Island found itself at the top of the list with over 2000 complaints related to the alleged misogynistic and bullying behaviour, as viewers at home fumed over the treatment of some of the islanders by their fellow villa mates.
1. Love Island movie night - 2,630 complaints
Love Island star Tasha Ghouri was subjected to being called out by Luca Bish, over her exposed antics during Movie Night. During the challenge a clip revealed all on Tasha's kiss with Billy Brown, but it also confirmed how Tasha got cosy with Billy in bed too.
Luca hit out at this as it appeared to be back in the main villa, while Andrew was sleeping outside on the day bed. Andrew was shocked by the footage, but confessed it wasn't as "juicy" as he thought it would be, appearing to put it to bed - reminding the boys he did much worse with Coco Lodge. As Andrew and Tasha downplayed the moments that aired, Luca was very quick to slam Tasha to Andrew, calling her out in front of everyone.
But barely minutes later, a clip showing Dami Hope sharing a three-way kiss behind Indiyah Polack's back was praised by him.
2. Matt Hancock on I'm A Celeb - 1,890 complaints
Elsewhere, Matt Hancock's shocking appearance on I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here also received a high number of complaints. In total, Hancock's appearance saw over 1800 people complain to Ofcom.
At the time, the broadcasting regulator insisted they couldn't rule over who might appear on the show.
The statement read: "It’s worth being aware that under our rules, in principle - and taking into account freedom of expression - there's no ban on any particular person taking part in programmes. However, if the mere presence of a person is likely to cause offence, we would expect broadcasters to take steps to mitigate or justify that offence. How they do that editorially, is up to them.
"As usual, we'll be assessing all these complaints against our broadcasting rules, before deciding whether or not to investigate."
3. Friday Night Live naked stunt - 1,548 complaints
Friday Night Live also received complaints when Jordan Gray stripped naked during a performance on the Channel 4 show. In total, there was 1548 complaints about this moment. Jordan - who is transgender - took to the stage to perform her song Better Than You, from acclaimed Edinburgh Fringe hit Is It A Bird but left fans stunned moments later.
At the climax of the song, Jordan - who also starred on The Voice in 2016 - took to the microphone for a word o f warning. "The best thing about live TV is that I can do stupid stuff like this," she teased before stripping off her pink suit.
4. Love Island's snog marry pie game - 1,523 complaints
Fourth on the list was Love Island bullying once more, with over 1500 complaints.
Love Island star Tasha Ghouri was reduced to tears after a ‘Song, Marry, Pie’ challenge where boys Dami Hope, Luca Bish and Davide Sanclimenti appeared to target Tasha. Dami and Luca also branded Tasha fake and “a game player”. Davide later explained that he pied Tasha because she had previously called him and partner Ekin-Su Cülcüloğlu the "fakest couple".
At the time, ITV leapt to the show's defence, as they confirmed they offered all their Islanders support before, during and after filming. Ahead of the series, they said the Islanders were also offered video training as well as guidance on inclusive language around disability, sexuality, race and ethnicity, behaviours and microaggressions.
5. Richard Madeley's GMB rant - 860 complaints
Richard Madeley's comment about death threats made to Keir Starmer placed fifth on the list, as ITV viewers slammed the Good Morning Britain presenter for playing down the death threats the leader of the Labour Party received. Journalist Andrew said "politicians get that all the time", to which Richard replied: "Well I was going to say, actually, is that that big a deal?".
The moment received 860 complaints in total and the day after he apologised on air, saying: "It was a really busy show yesterday, we had so much to do. I want to say one thing very quickly at the top here. I tried to pose a question on one of our early discussions on the programme about how prolific online death threats are. I didn’t actually quite press it properly, I didn’t go into it enough.
"I just want to reiterate the obvious statement that death threats clearly are never acceptable."
6. Jeremy Vine guest's inaccuracies - 773 complaints
Other moments to feature on the list included complaints about a health consultant’s inaccurate statements about numbers of unvaccinated people in hospital with Covid-19 on he Jeremy Vine show on Channel 5 on January 24 this year.
7. Love Island row continues - 729 complaints
Elsewhere, there were more complaints about bullying and misogynistic behaviour on Love Island, with a further 729 complaints.
After Tasha decided to couple-up with Casa Amor heartthrob Billy Brown, the boys seemingly turned on the model, 23, after she chose Billy over Andrew. Although Tasha and Andrew were able to mend their fragile relationship, as the pair are now boyfriend and girlfriend, it appears that Luca and Dami cannot move past her previous actions - and viewers found themselves feeling 'uncomfortable' watching them 'continuously taunt' Tasha.
8. I'm A Celeb bullying row - 627 complaints
Viewers of I'm A Celebrity also complained about the rest of the camp bullying Matt Hancock during his time on the show.
During that episode, hosts Ant McPartlin and Dec Donnelly fumed after the Tory MP was elected for his fifth bushtucker trial in a row, and some viewers felt he was being unfairly targeted by the others in camp.
A majority of comments were from fans urging others to stop voting for Mr Hancock.
Responding to this, show host Ant said: "If you want other people to do the trial, you've got to vote for them. If you want to see other people in the show you've got to vote for those other people.
"Because as we know the trials take up, what a third of the show? It's the first part of the show and it's normally a big part of the show. So if you're missing people and you want to see them, vote for them."
9. Gary Neville's politicised comments - 605 complaints
Ninth on the list was the most recent to happen, when Gary Neville became the subject of a string of Ofcom complaints for his politicised comments during ITV's broadcast of the FIFA World Cup final live from Qatar, which saw Argentina beat France in a very tense game. However, Gary made comments criticising the UK government for their treatment of nurses and other striking workers.
He said: "We can never accept that in this region or any other region and it is just worth mentioning we've got a current government in our country that are demonising rail workers, ambulance workers and terrifying nurses.
"In our country we've got to look at workers rights but when football goes, we have to pick up on workers rights wherever it goes because people have got to be equal and treated equal. We can't have people being paid an absolute pittance to work, we can't have people in accommodation that is unsavoury and disgusting. It shouldn't happen here."
10. Sky News' inaccuracy
The 10th most complained moment was a Sky News broadcast on 10 September when a Justice for Chris Kaba walk was reported as people on their way to pay tribute to the late Queen. Ofcom are currently investigating whether this breached their rules on due accuracy.
Ofcom complaints do not include BBC shows, as the broadcaster handle their own complaints.
