The BBC has confirmed that it received official complaints from viewers who were “unhappy” about the charities that the winners of this year’s Celebrity Traitors chose to give their money to.
Last month, the broadcaster aired the second season of The Celebrity Traitors, in which comedian Romesh Ranganathan and Heartstopper actor Sebastian Croft came out on top.
Coincidentally, the pair had both opted to give their share of the winning prize pot to charities giving aid to refugees, with Romesh donating to the Refugee Council and Sebastian playing on behalf of Choose Love.
Lamentably, after the episode aired, the usual suspects on the far-right voiced their upset about the Celebrity Traitors victors splitting the prize pot between refugee charities, with some going as far as complaining to the BBC.
On Wednesday, a post on the corporation’s website explained that it had received “complaints about the charities chosen by the winners of The Celebrity Traitors”.
By way of response, the BBC said: “We recognise that some audience members were unhappy with the charities chosen by the winning celebrities. This feedback has been shared with the relevant parties.”
Speaking to Sebastian on the actor and singer’s podcast, Sunday Scaries, last week, Romesh commented that the two of them giving their money to refugee charities was a “slay of the week”.
“I had got involved with Refugee Council because I was so fed up with the rhetoric against refugees and how these people had been demonised,” the Weakest Link host explained.
He added: “I feel like – look, people have different opinions, but I feel like [demonising refugees is] a distraction tactic, and people have been pointed in that direction for things to blame.”
BBC/Studio Lambert/Euan Cherry
While acknowledging the backlash from some critics who had been “kicking off”, Romesh also pointed out that “loads of people have come out in support” of the pair.
During a separate interview on his own podcast, Romesh later revealed that the “insane” reaction got so severe that he was confronted about it by disgruntled viewers at his place of work.
