The ‘most complained-about’ show in Britain over the last five years has been revealed

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Most Ofcom complaints in Britain over the last 5 years

The TV show with the most complaints in Britain over the past half-decade has seemingly been confirmed, and we can’t exactly say it’s given everyone watching a good morning…

Yes, it’s GMB.

Well, that’s according to research by Aura Print, anyway; they dug down into the official Ofcom data to try and discover which British TV programme got the most complaints – an unwanted accolade that was earned quite comfortably by Good Morning Britain.

This might not come as too much of a surprise to many of you, especially regular viewers over the last few years, with GMB often popping up in headlines alongside phrases like ‘viewers complain’ and ‘Ofcom’. Either way, here’s what the study found:

RankProgrammeServiceNumber of complaints (2021-2025)
1Good Morning BritainITV191,890
2Love IslandITV266,252
3Julia Hartley-BrewerTalkTV18,525
4Dan Wootton TonightGB News9,207
5King Charles III: The CoronationITV18,389
6This MorningITV7,387
7Celebrities: What’s Happened to Your Face?Channel 57,082
8Oprah with Meghan and HarryITV6,456
9I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here!ITV16,203
10Jeremy VineChannel 54,982
11Big BrotherITV1 / ITV24,678
12LorraineITV4,675
13Breakfast with Kay BurleySky News3,467
14EmmerdaleITV12,405
15Vanessa51,986
16Loose WomenITV1,799
17Married at First Sight UKE41,748
18Coronation StreetITV1,348
19Lee Anderson’s Real WorldGB News1,668
20Friday Night LiveChannel 41,630
21HeadlinersGB News1,498
22Ant PayneCapital FM1,430
23Naked EducationChannel 41,413
24The Brit AwardsITV11,157
25Today with Samantha WashingtonSky News1,270

As you can see, GMB has racked up nearly 92,000 complaints over the past five years, which is well over 25k more than the next most inflammatory.

The rest of the top five is also made up of other mainstream news commentary programmes (four out of five), bar the second runner-up in Love Island, with 66,252.

It’s also worth noting that ITV is the most complained-about broadcaster of any network on the list. GB News came in second with three different shows on the list: Dan Wootton Tonight, Lee Anderson’s Real World and Headliners.

Certainly not surprising whatsoever was the particular episode that received the most complaints of all those in the history of Good Morning Britain, which went out on 8 March 2021.

In case you haven’t guessed which one this is already, it was the infamous Piers Morgan episode discussing Meghan Markle’s mental health, which was reported to Ofcom a whopping 57,973 times.

This feels like a lifetime ago, but we remember it receiving most Ofcom complaints Britain had ever seen at the time.

Yes, more than half of the complaints they have ever received come after ONE viral moment.

In terms of particularly divisive presenters, second only to Piers Morgan, Julia Hartley-Brewer was the next most complained-about presenter, racking up a total of 18,500 complaints.

GB News’ Dan Wootton came in at number three with 9,207 complaints, but also worth noting that plenty of what most would consider popular mainstream entertainment IPs like I’m A Celeb and Big Brother racked up over 10k collectively during this period.

You can find the full breakdown of Ofcom data from 2021-2025 right HERE.

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Featured image: Glenn Carstens-Peters on Unsplash