SOME 15,500 have complained about an episode of Britain's Got Talent which featured a Black Lives Matters-inspired routine.
The number of people complaining about the episode featuring dance troupe Diversity has shot up from 1,121 on Tuesday and 10,267 on Thursday.
Diversity’sperformance is the second most complained about TV moment in a decade.
The routine featured Ashley Banjo being knelt on by a police officer, a reference to George Floyd's death in police custody.
There were also backing dancers performing dressed in riot gear and the group took the knee during the performance.
Media watchdog Ofcom said "almost all" complaints relate to Diversity.
Ashley Banjo had admitted earlier this week that he had received a barrage of abuse over the performance.
An official Britain's Got Talent video of the performance has had comments switched off.
But the show's stand-in judge thanked his critics for proving that it was a necessary performance.
Taking to Twitter, he wrote: "So much to say... But I’ll Just let the performance talk. Thousands of messages of Love and support - Thank you.
"For the thousands of messages of hate and ignorance - Thank you. You highlight exactly what needs to change. Sending nothing but love to you all."
ITV said the performance opened up "important topics of conversation" and "was complied for a family audience".
Ashley Banjo's brother Jordan said he was "genuinely sad" about the “horrible” complaints.
He said: "Of course you get some critiques but normally it's focused on the dance.
"But this one was different, it was really important, it was special to us.
"We are all about positivity and love and we got so much positivity and love back from this one.
"But we also got bombarded with messages and articles of horrible stuff about us, about our families, about how even now Diversity not diverse enough because there's only five white people in it."
The most complained about TV moment was Roxanne Pallett’s Celebrity Big Brother ‘punchgate’ drama with former Coronation Street star Ryan Thomas with 25,327 complaints and Kim Woodburn’s interview on Loose Women comes third with 7,912 complaints.
Earlier this week, an Ofcom spokesperson said: "We are assessing the complaints against our broadcasting rules, but are yet to decide whether or not to investigate."
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