Ofcom has rapped ‘The Jeremy Kyle Show’, after an investigation found the ITV daytime show breached broadcasting rules regarding offensive language, aggressive confrontations and sexual references.
The TV watchdog had received a complaint about the episode that aired on Easter Sunday (27 March), with one segment entitled: “Did You Sleep With My Boyfriend And Is He Your Baby’s Dad?”, with them now ruling that the show was “unsuitable for children before the watershed on a Sunday morning”.
The item featured a number of sexually explicit comments, with one guest describing another as smelling of “fish and raw sex ... a really, bad, smelly fishy smell”.
Jeremy Kyle then joked: “I nearly asked you why, but I don’t want to go down that route, so to speak.”
The host also probed them about “orgasm noises”, even turning at one point to the show’s security guard and asking: “Steve, do you know your average orgasm noise for a woman? I’ve got to ask you this, they’ll probably cut it out, have you got an orgasm face?”
Ofcom upheld the complaint about the episode, agreeing that any offence caused by airing the programme on a religious festival was justified.
A spokesperson (via Media Guardian) said: “We found this programme broke broadcasting rules because it included content that was unsuitable for children before the watershed on a Sunday morning.
“The sound was dipped to mask offensive language about 130 times.
“The programme also contained several aggressive confrontations between the participants and Jeremy Kyle, as well as sexual references and themes.”
In response, ITV insisted they would be “taking steps in the future to avoid scheduling similar material ... on religious holidays in future ... (or) close to films that are more likely to attract a younger audience”, adding they had decided to schedule the show in that slot “in the context of the established expectations of the content of ‘The Jeremy Kyle Show’.”
Earlier this year, the show escaped a telling off from Ofcom, after airing uncensored footage of a guest dropping the c-word, as the guest’s thick Scottish accent made it difficult to understand.