The Pussycat Dolls haven’t even been back together for a week yet, and they’re already at the centre of controversy.
On Saturday night, the girl group gave their first live performance in a decade, performing a medley of their hits during the X Factor: Celebrity final, on which frontwoman Nicole Scherzinger is a judge.
However, the band’s revealing outfits and provocative choreography clearly proved too much for some viewers, with more than 400 complaints made to Ofcom so far.
As is standard procedure, the media regulator will assess all 419 complaints they’ve received, before deciding whether the show breached their broadcasting guidelines.
Last week, it was confirmed that the Pussycat Dolls had reformed and would be touring arenas around the UK in 2020.
During their X Factor performance, they also debuted a new single, React, which is the band’s first new music since their release of their Doll Domination 2.0 album in 2009.
The controversy surrounding the Pussycat Dolls’ X Factor appearance mirrors a similar backlash the show faced following its finale in 2010, following guest performances from Christina Aguilera and Rihanna.
While Ofcom received close to 3000 complaints, the TV watchdog ruled that none of their guidelines had been broken.
Ofcom also pointed out at the time that “approximately 2000” of the complaints came after a report criticising the performances in the Daily Mail.
Considerably fewer people saw the Pussycat Dolls’ performances live compared to Christina Aguilera and Rihanna though, with a reported 2.6 million people watching the X Factor: Celebrity final, compared to 14.3 million in 2010.
