Dancing on Ice and This Morning host Philip Schofield has defended Jason Gardiner over his alleged bullying of coach Karen Barber, saying the public have become too quick to complain to Ofcom.
In a series of Twitter posts this morning, the 48-year-old presenter pleaded with viewers not to call for the controversial judge’s sacking over his comments on Sunday’s show and described the flood of complaints to the broadcast watchdog as “crazy”.
He wrote: “Right, enough. Please do not expect me to condemn Jason or to expect his sacking! Firstly he is a friend. Secondly a telly spat is not a sackable offence, even if it is misplaced.
“Its crazy OFCOM have been swamped by complaints, why is this now the first port of call for ‘The Outraged’ why? No matter what the misdemeanour, is the general howl ‘sack ‘em’? (sic)
“Yes, a disagreement between 2 people spilled on to the telly, but it’s not the first row to be broadcast and it won’t be the last. If every tiny thing that might offend someone somewhere was cut, there’d be nothing to watch!!
“I’m a big fan of Karen & Jason, I don’t think they’ll be friends, but they should BOTH be on DOI.”
He then added cheekily: “If you are offended by these tweets, I will expect you to go to OFCOM and demand that I’m sacked immediately! ; – )”
More than 2000 people complained to ITV and Ofcom after Jason sniped at Karen over her removal from the judging panel, saying: “If your opinions mattered, you’d still be on the panel.”
A Facebook group and online petition were also created calling for him to be sacked.