Good Morning Britain was not in breach of the broadcasting code over Piers Morgan’s controversial comments about the Duchess of Sussex, which sparked more than 50,000 complaints, Ofcom confirmed on Wednesday.
Piers Morgan stepped down from his role at Good Morning Britain following the wave of complaints to the broadcasting regulator.
The move comes as Ofcom launched an investigation into comments made by Good Morning Britain host Piers flowing Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s Oprah interview.
The ITV flagship morning show has become the most controversial show of the decade with 57,075 complaints.
But with a history of controversy surrounding Piers Morgan, what other GMB moments have had viewers up in arms?
Using Ofcom complaints data from the last five years, Uswitch have revealed the top five most complained about moments on the show.
5. September 2017 - 1,099 Complaints - Conversion Therapy
Susanna Reid and Piers Morgan (Ian West/PA)
In September 2017, ITV was criticised for allowing gay conversion therapist, Dr Michael Davidson, onto the show to express his anti-gay views.
Piers and his co-host, Susanna Reid, challenged Davidson’s extreme views, calling people who supported 'gay cure therapy' interventions ‘horrible little bigots’. The moment received nearly 1,100 complaints on the show.
4. November 2020 - 1,700 Complaints - Rishi Sunak Disputing Furlough Support
Complaints flooded in during a moment with Ben Shepherd and Rishi Sunak (Tolga Akmen/PA)
More than 1,700 complaints were brought to Ofcom in November 2020, however, this moment was involving Ben Shepherd and Chancellor, Rishi Sunak - not Piers Morgan.
Ben began questioning the Chancellor about the help that was being given to the 3 million people that had been excluded from the furlough scheme during the pandemic.
While being interviewed the Chancellor disputed the numbers, leaving hundreds of viewers infuriated by the lack of support and information.
3. January 2020 - 1,756 Complaints - Mimicking the Chinese Language
Phillips and his daughters (PA)
A whopping 1,756 complaints were brought to Ofcom in January 2020 when Piers Morgan mimicked the Chinese language following an advert Peter Phillips, the Queen’s grandson, featured in advertising Chinese milk.
While Ofcom agreed the moment had the potential to be particularly offensive, they concluded no action should be taken following ITV’s public apology for the incident.
2. April 2020 - 5,501 Complaints - Care Minister Helen Whately criticised by Piers Morgan for care home deaths
Complaints flooded in stating Piers Morgan's 'combative' interview with Helen Whately (Chris McAndrew/UK Parliament)
As the height of the first lockdown hit, Good Morning Britain was inundated with a string of complaints over two appearances from Care Minister, Helen Whately, as Piers argued over the number of deaths within care homes.
Ofcom received a large number of complaints stating Piers had a ‘combative’ interview style and was attacking and bullying the Care Minister with his comments.
More than 3,000 of these complaints were directly linked to the two incidents, with more received after an interview with Health Secretary Matt Hancock.
1. March 2021 - 41,015 Complaints - Comments About Meghan Markle
Meghan and Harry interviewed by Oprah Winfrey (Joe Pugliese/Harpo Productions)
Last week, Ofcom received more than 41,000 complaints for the show after Piers accused the Duchess of Sussex of lying in her recent interview with Oprah.
In the interview, Markle spoke about having suicidal thoughts and the racial abuse she had received from British tabloid press.
Ofcom are yet to announce an updated figure to the number of complaints received for the incident and is likely to break records as the most complained about TV moment ever.
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