ITV has issued an apology after accidentally airing an unedited clip of Gordon Ramsay swearing on a repeat of Food Stars USA more than 12 hours before the watershed
ITV2 accidentally aired unedited subtitles as Gordon Rasmay went on a sweary rant during an early morning repeat(Image: FOX Image Collection via Getty Images)
ITV has issued an apology after accidentally airing an unedited clip of Gordon Ramsay swearing on a repeat of Food Stars USA more than 12 hours before the watershed. The TV chef, 59, is well known for his use of profanity but in an edition that was broadcast at 8:25am on ITV2 in May, a blunder with the subtitles saw that the bad language had not been edited out and appeared in text form on the screen.
The swearing had been removed from the audio of the programme and replaced with the typical bleep sound but the censoring had not made it as far as the closed captions, The Sun reports.
The channel claimed that the subtitles were created before the “the implementation of new checking processes,” which now includes “steps to ensure that any mismatch” between versions within the scheduling system is “apparent and corrected” ahead of broadcast.
According to the outlet, the mistake was found to be “a clear breach” of Ofcom guidelines, which strictly prohibits the airing of swearing before 9pm. Viewers with the subtitles on would have realised that heavy use of the F-word from Gordon, and the Ofcom had to take into account that ITV2 did not apologise after the programme has finished.
A ruling from the broadcast read: “In this case, the broadcast of the words at 08:25 was a clear example of the most offensive language being broadcast before the watershed.
“This was a pre-recorded programme, which ITV2 would have had the opportunity to check prior to broadcast, and that it included two instances of the most offensive language before the watershed.
“Further, we considered there was no on-air apology made by ITV2 following the broadcast. Ofcom took into account the steps that the Licensee said it had taken since being notified of the incident to prevent future recurrence.
“However, in Ofcom‘s view, these steps would not have impacted on the offence caused to viewers as a result of this particular broadcast.”
Earlier this year, This Morning’s Ben Shephard had to issue an apology after Gordon swore during a live cooking segment while bickering with his daughter Tilly on the set of the ITV Daytime show.
The chef had been talking about his daughter Holly’s wedding to Olympic swimmer Adam Peaty and arguing with his eldest Tilly on This Morning when he knocked over a container of soy sauce.
“Oh s**t,” he said, while Ben quickly jumped in: “Just in case that spilled into the classic Ramsay work, apologies. We are live. I’m just pre-empting a strike.” Gordon argued back: “I said shoot! Ben – come on, Ben!”
The Mirror has contacted ITV for comment.
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