Reality Bites

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Recently we’ve found ourselves wondering what was the most outrageous moment of reality television in the year that was 2011. Lucky for us such a list has been compiled, featuring Ofcom’s most-complained-about shows of the year!

Unsurprisingly, The X Factor has dominated the top 100 most complained about television shows with a whopping 15 entries! These vary from the out spoken antics of Frankie Cocozza who showed up off his face for one of the shows and proceeded to swear when he didn’t get voted out what was just the tip of the iceberg.

Rihanna managed to get people complaining about some bad language which was written on her shoes.  So mostly it was the language on the show that was getting it in trouble?

That and judge Tulisa Contostavlos who was investigated by Ofcom for her tasteful tattoo. The judge of the show drew complaints as a tattoo on her arm matched the name of her perfume range and many people believed that she was illegally advertising her own product by raising her right arm in a salute.

Dancing on Ice also chipped in in pushing reality TV up the complaints hit parade. Jason Gardiner, one of the judges from the show who is known for his cutting remarks, crossed the line when he suggested that one of the contestants was missing one or two chromosomes after completing their dance. Obviously not the smartest comment to make.

So are reality shows doing this on purpose? Surely when they select people to be on the show they must think about who the person is. It was probably less Frankie Cocozza’s singing voice and much more his highly marketable behaviour that got him such attention on the show. Ofcom’s investigation of Tulilsa managed to raise the profile of her perfume more than she could have hoped. You have to start thinking about how much planning goes into these ‘scandals’.

You can find the complete top ten here.

What did you find to be the most controversial reality television moment? Do you think it’s all a careful stunt? Let us know in the comments.

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