GB News's ‘anti-woke' comedy show faces axe after thousands of complaints
GB News is considering cancelling its 'anti-woke' comedy show Headliners amid a barrage of complaints.
Presenters of the Right-wing, late night panel show appeared to suggest it could be taken off air within a fortnight ahead of this weekend's broadcast.
Lewis Schaffer, one of the show's panellists, posted on X: 'I'm heading into the studio! I've been told by management that the show will be on air for another two weeks while they decide what to do!'
At the start of Saturday's show, Mr Schaffer said: 'We're not allowed to talk about it.' Leo Kearse, the Headliner's host, replied: 'Thank you for not talking about it.'
GB News declined to comment on the show's future.
The uncertainty comes after Headliners, a comic spin on traditional newspaper review shows, was hit with tens of thousands of complaints after one of its hosts appeared to suggest the LGBTQ+ community included paedophiles.
The remarks, by the comedian Josh Howie, are now the subject of an Ofcom investigation. In a segment discussing a sermon by a US bishop, which urged Donald Trump to 'have mercy' on gay, lesbian and transgender children, Mr Howie quoted a statement from the bishop's church calling for the full inclusion of LGBTQ+ people. He said: 'I just want to say, that includes paedos, if you're doing the full inclusion.'
The Headliners segment triggered more than 1,200 complaints by viewers, as well as a petition signed by more than 70,000 people from campaign group the Good Law Project that has been handed to the regulator.
Angelos Frangopoulos, the chief executive of GB News, said the channel had been 'subjected to a coordinated political campaign by far-Left pressure groups'.
Mr Howie has said his remarks were intended as a joke, adding: 'It's a comedy show. Where three comedians make jokes as we review the next day's newspapers.' GB News has said the comedian has been 'misrepresented'.
Headliners has been on air since 2021 in the 11pm slot and is one of GB News's longest-running programmes. The show typically features mostly Right-leaning comedians. Mr Kearse's YouTube channel describes him as 'one of the UK's few openly Right-wing comedians' and one of his stand-up shows as 'about comedy triggering the wrath of woke mobs'.
GB News has grappled with a series of disputes with Ofcom, the media regulator, over the content of its programming as it attempts to import Right-leaning, US-style panel shows and current affairs to Britain.
In February, GB News won a crucial major High Court battle against the watchdog after a judge quashed the regulator's ruling that the channel breached impartiality rules by airing programmes presented by Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg, a then-Tory MP.
The channel is separately challenging a £100,000 penalty handed down by Ofcom over claims it broke impartiality rules with a 2024 programme featuring Rishi Sunak, then the prime minister, alleging he had been given an 'uncontested platform to promote the policies and performance of his government'.
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