‘Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway’ has been hit with Ofcom complaints over its alien virus skit.
Last weekend’s episode of the ITV favourite featured the fifth part of the ‘Men In Brown’ sketch, in which it was revealed Paul Hollywood was the leader of an alien force and had the "Universal Collider", which could see him infect the entire world.
Ofcom has confirmed some viewers were offended by the content, which was aired amid the coronavirus pandemic.
During the skit, he laughed: "Now we have the Universal Collider we can open up portal zero-zero and give the whole world the squits."
And it also saw ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ judge Amanda Holden later affected, and she said: "Infect the human scum."
Ofcom has received 29 complaints about the episode, including 22 relating to the sketch itself.
Some of the other seven were from viewers offended by people licking their fingers.
A spokesperson told Metro.co.uk: "We are assessing the complaints against our broadcasting rules, but are yet to decide whether or not to investigate."
Due to the ongoing health crisis, the variety show has changed its production and been forced to move away from a live studio audience.
Instead, the most recent episode was partly pre-recorded, and Ant McPartlin and Dec Donnelly also each hosted from their own homes via a split-screen video link.
Before the taped episode aired, the duo wrote: "That’s settled then.. this week we’ll be doing @itvtakeaway on the telly… from both our houses! (Suits for you at home are optional!) #SaturdayNightTakeaway #TogetherAtHome #StayHome (sic)"
The at-home episode came a week after the duo presented the first-ever episode of ‘Saturday Night Takeaway’ without a studio audience.
During the episode, they confirmed the next show would be pre-recorded, and said it will feature some of Ant and Dec’s favourite moments and they will be at home watching alongside the viewers.
Ant and Dec hit with Ofcom complaints over alien virus skit
