BBC’s The One Show sparked a flurry of viewer complaints as Roman Kemp was seen interviewing his parents Shirlie and Martin.
Roman and his co-host Clara Amfo were back on the iconic green sofa on Thursday night (October 31) for another jam-packed episode.
However, viewers were quickly put off by the fact that Roman was allowed to chat with Scissor Sisters legend Jake Shears as well as his own parents. Shirlie and Martin appeared on The One Show to discuss their stint on a Children In Need special of Interior Design Masters, the Mirror reports.
But disgruntled fans couldn’t help but draw parallels between The One Show interview and presenter Ed Balls interviewing his wife Yvette Cooper on ITV’s Good Morning Britain back in August. Taking to social media platform, X in droves, viewers voiced their complaints.
One spectator wrote: “Feel like #TheOneShow should get the same Ofcom complaints # GMB did with Roman interviewing his parents… like Ed interviewing his wife… the nepotism is real.”
Another disappointed viewer commented: “Nepo Baby gets to interview parents. Wow, great television”. A third fumed: “All we’re missing is Gary and we’ve got the full set of Kemps. Jesus. This is just wrong.”
A fourth chimed in: “Tonight on #TheOneShow, nepo kid Roman Kemp interviews his parents Martin and Shirlie at his workplace.” While another echoed: “@BBCTheOneShow, what’s this tonight, ‘Bring Your Parents To Work’ Day.”
Others were clearly charmed by the family’s appearance on the show, with one viewer tweeting: “3 members of the same family on the #bbctheoneshow and what a great family! ”
Another added: “I smiled all the way through #bbctheoneshow tonight! ” Meanwhile, ITV’s chief Dame Carolyn McCall was put in the spotlight last month as she defended the decision to allow GMB host Ed Balls to interview his wife, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper.
After a wave of complaints reached Ofcom, Dame Carolyn assured the watchdog that such an incident would not happen again. Speaking at the Royal Television Society (RTS) London Conference, she said: “It was a very, very tricky morning, there was a national emergency almost being called, and so we got very short notice that the home secretary was coming on the show.”
She went on to say that Ofcom had decided not to take further action, stating: “No one has picked up on the fact that Ofcom are not pursuing these complaints because they believe it’s fair, balanced and impartial.”
She concluded: “So would we do it again? No. Was it impartial, fair and balanced? And did they behave professionally? Yes.”
The contentious interview between Ed and Yvette sparked over 16,000 complaints to Ofcom from viewers.
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