Top 10 TV Scandals of 2024

This was the comeback story absolutely nobody was interested in, when Phillip Schofield returned to the small screen after over a year hiding from the spotlight. In the wake of his monumental scandal in 2023, he disappeared from the public eye, only to reveal that he’d been filming an edition of “Cast Away” in Madagascar for Channel 5. For three nights on the trot, Schofield roasted crabs and complained vaguely about all those backstabbers at ITV, claiming that if he’d had his affair with a young woman, he wouldn’t have lost his job. It was hours of Schofield feeling sorry for himself and revealing very little of interest about the fallout from ITV, and a big waste of time for everybody involved.

In January 2024, thirteen-year-old Willis Gibson became the first human being to beat “Tetris” and reach its notorious kill screen; the kill screen had previously only been reached by AIs, and some didn’t even believe this was possible. However, when the story appeared on Sky News, anchor Jayne Secker wasn’t all that impressed by Gibson’s feat, saying that it was pointless and Gibson should spend some more time outside. She laughed it off, but it soon became a media storm, with people attacking Secker for not valuing Gibson’s accomplishment. Gamers were outraged and wanted Secker to apologise – although, she never did. Perhaps she was too busy being outside to check her phone and see what had happened.

In late 2024, TV stalwart Gregg Wallace became embroiled in a scandal when dozens of women came forward to accuse him of misconduct. Specifically, many people - including well-known celebs who appeared with him on various shows, including Kirsty Wark and Kirsty Allsopp - have said he has a habit of making lewd jokes and inappropriate, sexual remarks. Apparently, some of this was even caught on camera, and affected many productions dating back as far as 2005. He left his presenting roles and denied the allegations, but then went on a bizarre rant on social media blaming middle-aged women for smearing him. This was after he had another more minor scandal in February when he revealed his baffling weekend routine.

In October, Brendan O’Carroll got in trouble when it was reported that he’d made a racial joke during a read-through for “Mrs Brown’s Boys”. We won’t repeat what he said, but he did use a slur and “implied” another one, in the BBC’s words. O’Carroll publicly apologised when it all came out, saying that he was “in character”, and the BBC issued a follow up statement saying that it’s opposed to racism. There were widespread calls to finally cancel “Mrs Brown’s Boys” but alas, it’s bad news for all the haters: it’s not been cancelled and will indeed broadcast a Christmas special AND New Year special ahead of a new series in 2025.

The government and Post Office itself got a long overdue reckoning in this decades-old scandal at the beginning of the year, and it was all thanks to ITV making a drama about it. “Mr Bates vs The Post Office” made the public at large aware of this shocking miscarriage of justice and the years campaigners have spent fighting to get convictions quashed and the culprits punished for what happened. With the UK’s sub-postmasters accused of theft and fraud because of a dodgy IT system, some people even lost their lives when the court cases became too much to bear. It’s even more appalling that it took ITV making a television show to get the government to do something and that, by the end of 2024, they’re still waiting for the wrongs to be righted.

In August, Jermaine Jenas found himself sacked from “The One Show”, with the news breaking publicly while he was presenting a live radio show. The BBC’s handling of the incident has raised as many eyebrows as the incident itself, with Jenas accused of sexting a female member of the production crew unsolicited. He was dropped from his presenting duties immediately, and eventually admitted that the claims were true and that he’d been lying to his wife about it. Nevertheless, they’ve remained together and resolved to move past his scandal, and Jenas wants to return to broadcasting in the future. We’re not sure it was necessary to sack him live on air, though.

The BBC’s most wholesome show, “The Repair Shop”, was hit with a shocking scandal of its own this year when popular host Jay Blades ended up in court. He was charged with controlling and coercive behaviour, with the public previously unaware of any legal troubles. In October he plead not guilty so a trial will follow, but at the moment, the BBC has decided not to re-broadcast episodes of “The Repair Shop” featuring Blades. He's also stepped down from many of his high-profile public roles while he deals with the cases, as he’s also been to court recently for using his phone while driving.

This summer, “Strictly Come Dancing”, the BBC’s most popular show by a wide margin, came under fire from various former stars. Chief among them was Amanda Abbington, who threw accusations of misconduct at professional dancer Giovanni Pernice. He ultimately left the show, as did fellow dancer Graziano di Prima when similar allegations went his way. Though the BBC has been cagey about the scandal and has apparently refused to release the footage of Abbington’s own training sessions to her solicitors, it was a watershed moment for telly’s most glamorous show. Now, celebs are accompanied by chaperones during training to ensure this won’t happen again.

2023’s biggest TV scandal was Huw Edwards leaving the BBC after The Sun broke a story that he’d exchanged inappropriate images with a minor. While in that case, police didn’t find evidence of criminal wrongdoing, Edwards was eventually taken to court for different offences in 2024. He was charged with making indecent images after being sent them by somebody else who was also charged, pleading guilty. More shocking, it turned out that the BBC had known about this since the previous November and had asked the police to keep it quiet. Edwards was still being paid until he resigned from the Corporation in April, nearly six months after his initial arrest and charge.

This small and intimate show about comedian Richard Gadd’s allegedly true experiences being stalked by a woman named Martha took the world by storm in April. It became a mega hit, but viewers didn’t listen to Gadd’s requests not to try to identify Martha. Ultimately, she was identified as Fiona Harvey, who went on to claim publicly that she’d been harassed by Gadd’s fans and that the show was defamatory, as she’d never gone to prison. Harvey sued Netflix, and while some of her claims were dropped, it DOES look like the defamation case is going to go ahead because of the show’s claims at the beginning that it’s a true story. Let us know in the comments what your favourite TV show of the year has been.