TV host apologises for black-face skit

An Australian variety show host has apologised for a skit in which singers parodying the Jackson Five performed with blacked-up faces.

The US singer and actor Harry Connick Jr, who was a guest judge on the Hey Hey It's Saturday reunion show, was visibly shocked by the skit, in which four men with afro wigs and black faces sang and danced behind a Michael Jackson impersonator wearing white make-up. He gave the performance a zero and told them it would have been pulled off the air in the US. He said he would not have appeared on the show if he had known about the skit.

The host, Daryl Somers, apologised to him at the end of the live show.