ITV praised after Britain’s Got Talent statement backing Diversity’s performance

Viewers have praised ITV after it showed its support for Diversity’s Britain’s Got Talent performance.

There have been 20,000 complaints TV watchdog Ofcom after Diversity took to the stage earlier this month with a dance routine inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement.

In a statement issued yesterday (September 15) in response to the objections, ITV said: “Britain’s Got Talent has always been an inclusive show, which showcases diversity and supports strong storytelling in all forms and ITV stands behind the decision to broadcast Diversity’s performance on BGT.”

They added: “Ashley and the group are a great example of the talent, creativity and diversity of modern Britain and their performance was an authentic, heartfelt response to many of the issues and events which have affected society in 2020.”

ITV’s words were met with praise from many Britain’s Got Talent fans, with one writing in reply on Twitter: “This is the politest possible way to tell racists where to stick it.”

Another added: “Damn right, and well done @ITV for standing up to bigotry!”

And Diversity’s own Perri Kiely responded: Thank you @ITV ??”

Notably, the post on social media has also recorded over 70,000 likes at the time of writing in less than 24 hours, dwarfing the original amount of complaints about the performance.

The statement followed Diversity’s Ashley Banjo taking to social media to speak about the response to the routine.

He said that the negative reaction was “in the minority”, explaining: “It is overwhelming, the positive reaction to what we did, hundreds of thousands of messages, comments, DMs and interactions in the street.

“I know a lot of the press reports have been about the complaints and the negativity, which there has been a lot – there’s has been what, 15, 16,000 complaints, a lot of negativity thrown back at the performance.

“Trust me, I am right in the centre of it and the negativity is in the minority.

“The positive response has been huge, so thank you so much to everyone who has supported, shown love and stood by what we did.”

TV watchdog Ofcom has yet to say if it will be investigating the complaints further.

Britain’s Got Talent continues Saturday nights on ITV.