Jeremy Kyle Show compared to Roman coliseum as MP condemns ITV

A leading MP has likened The Jeremy Kyle Show to the Roman coliseum and condemned ITV for its “lack of contrition” over how the controversial programme was run.

Production of the daytime TV show, which was cancelled in May 2019 following the death of a guest, was scrutinised during the second session of the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee’s inquiry into the future of public service broadcasting, held on Tuesday morning.

Committee chair Julian Knight criticised the programme for the “psychological exposure of very vulnerable people” to the public eye, as he quizzed Dame Carolyn McCall, chief executive of ITV, over her role in allowing the show to be aired.

Asked if she was proud to head up the company that ran The Jeremy Kyle Show for as long as it did, Dame Carolyn said: “It was a highly regulated show, it was a conflict resolution show, it was not to everyone’s tastes.

“It may surprise you to know that I actually got hundred of emails complaining about stopping the show when we stopped it because they thought it was their own outlet of being able to listen and understand problems that were in their own lives.”

Referring to clips of behind-the-scenes footage the committee was previously shown, Mr Knight said: “Frankly they are outrageous, these were people who were taken off screen and presented with an individual who was meant to be a psychiatric counsellor and they were filmed during these processes.

“They were baited over a long period of time. My jaw is dropping at the lack of contrition here from ITV and from yourself as a chief executive.”

The footage, first viewed by the committee last October, showed that guests were filmed backstage and in dressing rooms. Mr Kyle was seen using “abusive language” which “could be edited out of the broadcasted show”. It “makes a mockery of the ‘aftercare’ [ITV] has claimed to provide,” the panel said at the time.

Dame Carolyn said that while the programme did “polarise opinion” over the course of its 15 years on air, more than 1 million people watched it every day on ITV.

“Everyone on that show knew what the show was, it was informed consent, it was adults, they went through a screening and vetting process, they went through quite a lot of hoops before they went on that show, but it was conflict resolution – it was not always comfortable to view, yet people viewed it,” she said.

Mr Knight later said: “The Roman coliseum held 55,000, it doesn’t mean because it was popular it was right.”

The ITV chief executive the programme had been regulated for 15 years, to which Mr Knight replied: “Not well enough.”

He added: “I’m just astounded that you don’t accept the premise that this programme itself, although it ran for 15 years and seemingly was highly popular, it involved the psychological, not torture, but the psychological exposure of very vulnerable people to often public ... people who were out there in the public domain who should have not been in the public domain.

“I’m just surprised you can’t see that perhaps that was the wrong step and perhaps ITV should have ended it earlier, and perhaps we shouldn’t see its like on TV again.”

The Jeremy Kyle Show was first broadcast on ITV in July 2005. It featured members of the public attempting to resolve sensitive issues such as extramarital affairs, addiction and familial conflicts.