Piers Morgan boosts Ofcom complaints to ‘unprecedented level’ with Meghan Markle backlash and Good Morning Britain rows

Piers Morgan is the most complained about man on TV by quite a stretch (Picture: Ken McKay/ITV/Shutterstock)

Piers Morgans take down of Meghan Markle and Diversity’s BLM inspired routine on Britain’s Got Talent boosted Ofcom complaints to an ‘unprecedented’ level. 

The TV watchdog confirmed the complaints it received quadrupled in 2020/21 from 34,545 in the previous year to 142,660. 

‘We’re a nation of TV lovers, and it’s kept us entertained and informed like never before during lockdown,’ said an Ofcom spokesperson. 

‘But, from time to time, viewers see things that trouble them, and that’s where we come in.

‘We assess every complaint we receive, and while we don’t step in lightly given the importance of free speech we take strong action where we find serious harm to audiences.’

Piers’ penultimate Good Morning Britain episode in which he accused the Duchess of Sussex of lying about her suicidal thoughts became the most complained TV moment in Ofcom history back in March. 

Piers dismissed Meghan Markle’s claims to Oprah (Picture: AP)

A total of 54,453 people complained to the regulator about the episode.

The presenter actually took four spot in Ofcom’s most complained about moments of the last year, with serval on-air rows with MPs also making the cut. 

Dance troupe Diversity received the second most complaints with their routine on Britain’s Got Talent, which sparked 25,017 complaints, despite going on to win a Bafta TV Award. 

I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! attracted 11,516 complaints over the welfare of animals used in trials on the show.

Diversity’s BLM inspired routine sparked over 25,000 complaints (Picture: Dymond/Thames/Syco/REX)

Ofcom’s report said it is ‘unusual’ to receive such a large volume of complaints about individual broadcasts.

It said there was an ‘increase in the number of complaints specifically about potentially racially offensive broadcast content’ and the pandemic.

‘Most of these complaints did not raise issues warranting investigation under our rules,’ the report said.

‘However, when they did, we expedited investigations due to the serious nature of some of the content.

‘We recorded eight breaches of our rules in this area including on the service Loveworld, which featured highly misleading statements about the pandemic without providing adequate protection to the audience.’

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