Gogglebox faces complaints after ‘derogatory’ and ‘insensitive’ coronavirus comments

17 September 2020, 07:14 | Updated: 17 September 2020, 07:47

Gogglebox fans complain to Ofcom after coronavirus comments

The Michael family spoke about the prospect of another lockdown on Gogglebox last week.

Gogglebox viewers have reportedly complained to Ofcom after The Michael family spoke about coronavirus during the show last week.

The Brighton-based family - made up of siblings Louis and Alex and parents Andrew and Carolyne - were watching BBC News when they started discussing social distancing rules at universities.

Louis said: "As long as they’re not going clubbing and picking up 18/19 year olds and taking them back to halls, things will be fine.

"It seems crazy that they were putting out all of these schemes like Eat Out To Help Out and trying basically to get everyone back to normal, and now they’re blaming young people."

Gogglebox's Michaels family faced complaints. Picture: Channel 4

Alex then agreed, adding: "It just seems backwards to me because if there’s small group of people who are at risk of dying, then it should be them self-isolating - not the large group of young people.

"And also it should be their choice because if they’re aware of the risks and the statistics then it should be their choice whether they isolate or not. But to make everyone else put their lives on hold, it’s ridiculous."

However, it seems as though viewers were divided over the comments, as according to The Sun, complaints were lodged to Ofcom branding the comments ‘derogatory’ and ‘insensitive’.

One person tweeted on Friday: "Seriously not impressed with the views of the Michael family on #Gogglebox."

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Another added: "They should ban them from talking about corona on gogglebox."

A third called the comments ‘selfish and ignorant’. Heart.co.uk has reached out to Channel 4 for comment.

This comes after Gogglebox returned to our screens with a 16th series on Friday following a short break.

And bosses have thrown a couple of new families into the mix including the Baggs family and the Walker family.

Meanwhile, favourites such as The Malones, Giles and Mary and Stephen Webb and his husband Daniel were all back in their rightful positions on the sofa.

Gogglebox airs on Fridays at 9pm on Channel 4.

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