Big Brother is the most controversial TV series – racking up nearly 74,000 complaints to Ofcom.
New figures released show the reality show topped the annual “most complained about” list in seven of the 12 years since the media regulator was formed in 2003.
One particular series of Celebrity Big Brother in 2007 — which featured the racism row involving Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty and the late Jade Goody — got more than 45,000 complaints alone.
The series, which launched on Channel 4 in 2000, continued to offend after moving to Channel 5 in 2011, topping Ofcom’s controversy list for the following three years running.
In 2014, partly fuelled by the behaviour of former escort Helen Wood — who won — the show sparked nearly 3,800 complaints, reports The Sun.
Coming in as the second most moaned-about show is The X Factor, which has received in the region of 20,000 complaints during its run.
The most upsetting series of X Factor was 2010’s. It received 6,450 complaints for racy costumes, the revelation one of the contestants was a prostitute and Cheryl Cole’s choices of who went through.
It also topped the gripe charts the previous year with 6,089 amid comments by Dannii Minogue about the sexuality of contestant Danyl Johnson.
Third on the list is Jerry Springer The Opera. But the BBC got even more complaints about that show: 55,000, mainly from members of religious groups, when it aired in 2005.
The figures given are those collected from 2003 until the end of 2015.
Here’s the full Ofcom Top 10 list of shows receiving the most complaints in the past 12 years:
1. Big Brother/CBB (C4 & C5) 73,788
2. X Factor (ITV) 20,548
3. Jerry Springer The Opera (BBC2) 8,860
4. UKIP: The First 100 Days (C4) 6,187
5. Sky News 6,056
6. EastEnders (BBC1) 3,782
7. Britain’s Got Talent (ITV) .3,747
8. Coronation Street (ITV) 3,566
9. The Wright Stuff (C5) 2,788
10. Emmerdale (ITV) 2,531
