The Jeremy Kyle Show Controversy
Chat Show Criticised By Judge and Sponsorship Withdrawn
The recent controversy surrounding "The Jeremy Kyle Show" has put its government-funded sponsor in an unusual position...
The Jeremy Kyle Show, a daytime talk show modelled on programmes like Jerry Springer and Trisha, has fallen under criticism after a man was charged with assault after headbutting a “love rival” he had been brought on the show to confront.
The judge in the case handed down a relatively light sentence, since he believed the man had been deliberately provoked, and he accused the show itself of being “ a morbid and depressing display of dysfunctional people” which set out to “titillate bored members of the public with nothing better to do.”
The show’s sponsor rapidly distanced themselves from The Jeremy Kyle Show, announcing that their £500,000 advertising contract would be cancelled. This is hardly surprising, as presumably few firms would want their name associated with what the judge called “human bear-baiting”, a phrase which quickly appeared in all the newspapers.
The sponsor in question, is in fact UFI (“University for Industry”), which is funded by the government to run the Learndirect programme as part of its “mission to use technology to transform the skills and employability of the working population.” An organization with such high aims as “improving economic prosperity and social mobility across the UK as a whole”, and connections to the government, must be even more anxious to avoid any link with a show being pilloried by the media in general as exploitative, destructive, and the epitome of “dumbing down” in television.
Learndirect, however, are in a paradoxical position. Though they have had to flee the bad publicity associated with the show, their market is surely made up in part of “bored members of the public with nothing better to do”, especially considering the show is broadcast at times when most people with jobs will be at work.
“Improving economic prosperity and social mobility” might well be better served by the audience seeing Learndirect adverts rather than those of many loan companies who advertise in the commercial breaks, continually demanding why they have not consolidated their debts into one easy-to-manage monthly payment.
One on hand, leaving aside how UFI may feel about the ethics of the show, the Learndirect brand cannot afford to be mixed up in the controversy surrounding The Jeremy Kyle Show, and the government certainly wouldn’t want it to be thought that their funding was propping up a programme which had managed to unite the media and judiciary into unusually joint loathing.
On the other, it seems unlikely that The Jeremy Kyle Show will be pulled off the air due to this furore, so the practical effect of withdrawing the sponsorship is a moot question. Possibly the most logical course (if a tricky one to carry out) would be for UFI to buy advertising space on and around the show so lavishly that it succeeded in slashing the audience for The Jeremy Kyle Show down to those whom the government are happy should be at home during the working day...
