Love Island viewers have so far made 147 complaints to Ofcom about Michael Griffiths’ behaviour towards Amber Gill in an episode earlier this week.
In Monday night’s show, Michael irked viewers when he was seen commanding Amber to “sit down” so he could speak to her about why he didn’t want to rekindle their romance.
While Amber and a number of other contestants commented on his abrupt tone, so did fans of the show, who have been complaining to broadcasting regulator Ofcom about the incident.
As is standard procedure, they will review viewers’ complaints before deciding whether to make the matter any further.
Following Michael’s initial comment, a surprised Maura was heard telling the others: “Did she just let him talk to her like that? Sit down? That was really rude.”
Amber later told the other girls: “He comes to us and says, ‘sit down’ like that, as if it was me that brought someone back from Casa Amor, but that wasn’t the case. It’s really, really, really starting to upset us and wear us down.”
In the Beach Hut, Amber went on: “I can handle people talking to me however they want if I feel like I have done something wrong, but when I’ve done nothing wrong, it’s like, ‘what have I done to you?’. I’m just really angry.”
Michael later apologised to her in the following night’s episode, insisting: “When I came over and told you to sit down, it was because you had wearing heels all night and I didn’t want you to walk anywhere else. I am apologising if it came across in a bad way.”
Amber replied: “I just think you really need to think about the way you speak to me, because it comes across really badly.
“I knew you before and you never spoke to me in a way that made me feel upset.”
Several other incidents have sparked complaints to Ofcom during this year’s Love Island, including Maura Higgins’ early advances towards Tommy Fury, when she was seen sitting on top of him and trying to kiss him, despite his protestations that he didn’t want to.
These complaints were later dismissed by Ofcom, who said at the time: “While we recognise that many viewers disapproved of a contestant’s behaviour in this episode, we took into account the context in which it occurred, including the nature of Maura and Tommy’s relationship, before and after.”
Meanwhile, there were over 600 complaints about the treatment of Lucie Donlan at the hands of Joe Garratt and some of the female Islanders.
Almost 200 people also voiced their concerns to the TV watchdog about Amy Hart’s distress when she discovered Curtis Pritchard’s head had been turned by a new contestant when she was in Casa Amor.
There were also complaints about the way Amber Gill and Anna Vakili spoke to Danny Williams, following his choice to recouple with Arabella Chi, which led to Yewande Biala’s elimination from the show.
Love Island continues tonight at 9pm on ITV2.
