‘Victim’ Entertainment Comes Under Fire

The Jerry Springer Show was one of the primary targets in the ITC Programme Complaints and Intervention Report for the past two months. Originally broadcast late at night, since it was moved to its afternoon slot of 1:30 in March the show has received a total of 86 complaints.

Although the programme, frequently described as ‘victim entertainment, has a role – in the view of the ITC – in covering difficult social and emotional problems, 15 complaints were rallied against the amount of violence present in the programmes. These complaints were upheld by the Commission, and 3 particular editions were ruled in breach of the family viewing requirements of the programme code.

The ITV series My Wonderful Life also came under attack for its content of bad language and sexual references, provoking 18 complaints in total. ITC ruled that the use of a number of expletives coupled with the amount of sexual references made within the first 10 minutes of one episode was unacceptable and in breach of the programme code.

The ITC received 462 complaints in total during June and July, the majority of which were concerned with ‘other taste and decency’ and ‘other unfairness’.

Independent Television Commission: 0171 306 7743