BBC sparks furious backlash after repeating episode of The Wheel featuring drag queen
BBC’s festive television was blasted on Saturday as it aired a repeat episode of Michael McIntyre’s The Wheel in its prime time weekend slot.
To add to the outrage, many fans also expressed disappointment in one of the categories of the family show being “drag,” with Ru Paul’s Drag Race UK winner Lawrence Chaney representing the category.
As viewers continue to expect fresh TV shows in the current period between Christmas and New Year’s Day, many were left furious as they tuned into BBC One to find it was airing a repeat episode of McIntyre’s game show.
It didn’t take long for floods of viewers to complain on X, formerly Twitter, with others also fuming over the fact that one of the categories was drag.
One penned: “Is the #BBC completely obsessed with the whole ‘Drag’ arena …tonight’s ‘The Wheel’ has a category on Drag ….so we have to have a Drag Queen on the show. Really ??? I don’t believe we need drag on any popular show!!”
“The Wheel has a man in drag as one of the Celebrities and one of the question categories is ‘Drag’.
“Yet more of the BBCs fixation with drag artists on prime time TV, with another on The Wheel tonight. I can go out for year after year and never see one, despite living a city. Why is that @BBCOne?
“Why are you constantly forcing drag artists upon us in your programmes? We want the media to reflect everyone, but it has to be representative of the overall mix of the population,” another argued.
“Oh FFS. The Wheel is on the Beeb and guess what? You’ll never guess! There’s a drag queen as a ‘celebrity’ expert. Colour me surprised! Or not,” a third fumed.
A fourth asked: “Is this episode of #TheWheel a repeat? It’s prime time tv on a Saturday night between Christmas and New Year and a repeat is on.”
“This is definitely a repeat of #TheWheel as I remember Ellie blurting out the answer,” another shared.
“Both ITV and BBC are repeating old shows. It represent cheap scheduling and cheap telly,” another viewer added.
“#BeatTheChasers was a repeat last night and #TheWheel tonight is Episode 6 of series 3 from 2022. And we pay for this stuff,” someone else posted.
Others were pleased with the show though, with another fan writing: “I AM NOW GOING TO WATCH MICHAEL MCINTYRES THE WHEEL, BBC 1.. NOW…COS I LIKE MICHAEL MCINTYRE, HE MAKES ME LAUGH.. AND I LIKE THE WHEEL TOO.” (sic)
Despite some viewer backlash, Lawrence Chaney proved to be a help to the celebrity contestants.
During the literature round, the contestant landed on the drag artist.
“It’s Lawrence Chaney! Is there a book by your bedside, Lawrence?” McIntyre asked.
Chaney sarcastically replied: “Erm, yeah… I’d know all about the books…”
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“It’s worth another £3,000 in the bank,” the host explained before moving on to the question.
“Which of these famous literary animals, which appeared in print first?” he asked, with the options including Shere Khan, Hedwid, Babe and Aslan.
“Not a clue what any of them are!” Chaney joked. However, they advised the contestant to go with Shere Khan, the tiger in Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book.
Despite Chaney’s advice, the guest opted for Aslan, the lion from The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, which unfortunately was incorrect.