In recent weeks, a handful of shocking clips from some classic shows like X Factor and The Weakest Link have been doing the rounds on social media, which have shone a light on how far we’ve come as a society since they originally aired. 

With that in mind, we took a delve into the TV vault to look at other problematic moments that would now be met with a more negative reaction than they were at the time… 

Popstars judge Nasty Nigel calls Kym Marsh fat

Popstars broke new ground when it first aired in 2000, and introduced us to the original harsh talent show judge, “Nasty” Nigel Lithgoe. 

While viewers loved his barbed approach to judging talent, one uncomfortable moment that still sticks with us almost two decades on is when he fat-shamed Kym Marsh.

He told the singer: “You need to lose some weight. It’s alright saying ‘Christmas was there’, but the goose has gotten fat.

“I think you’ve put on weight over Christmas and I think you needed to lose weight before Christmas.”

Kym, who was understandably upset at the time, later claimed there were “no hard feelings”, insisting Nigel was “just doing his job” and “making a TV show that was absolutely not-to-be-missed television”. But we still think about the harmful message his comments sent out to hordes of young viewers at home. 

Dancing On Ice’s Jason Gardiner calls Lauren Goodger a “walrus on ice” 

Jason Gardiner may still be fat-shaming contestants on Dancing On Ice (just ask Gemma Collins), but while many people have called him out for his comments on the most recent series, he went pretty much unchecked when he made similar remarks to Gemma’s fellow TOWIE star Lauren Goodger on the show in 2013. 

After a less-than-impressive routine, the acid-tongued judge compared Lauren’s performance to a “walrus on ice”. 

Sadly for her, she was voted out of the competition shortly afterwards and never got the chance to prove Jason wrong, or indeed call him out for his comments. 

X Factor does cultural appropriation

Last time we checked, Girls Aloud’s hit Sound Of The Underground had no roots in Japanese culture, but somehow X Factor bosses thought it was appropriate to have Saara Aalto, a white Finnish woman, perform the song dressed as a Geisha surrounded by a load of Japanese-inspired creatives. 

While you might have thought something like this could only have happened back in the earlier years of the show, this is actually from the 2016 series.

At the time, X Factor creative director Brian Friedman defended the Japanese-inspired performance, sharing photos of other pop stars in similar attire on his Instagram and noting: “If you took this wrong, your head was in the wrong place… only love!”

Anne Robinson shames Weakest Link contestant 

Anne Robinson wasn’t exactly known for handling contestants on The Weakest Link with kid gloves, but this particular moment saw her taking that to the next level, asking one woman if she had “any ASBOs”, before going on to shame her for being on benefits. And that wasn’t even the worst of it. 

After Anne grilled her on on “where her husband” was, she was forced to admit she’d had two failed marriages, to which Anne responded: “You didn’t go gay, did you?”

Outrageous. 

X Factor judges fat-shame pregnant contestant

This unearthed X Factor clip caused a furore when it came to light again in January 2018, showing Simon Cowell, Sharon Osbourne and Louis Walsh telling a pregnant contestant Samantha to lose weight. 

After Samantha, who had cut her own honeymoon short to try out for the ITV show, sang a rendition of Mariah Carey’s Hero, Simon told her: “You sound nice, but you look like a shop girl.”

“I know what you’re saying, that I’m overweight basically,” the contestant replied, with Simon agreeing: “You are. You really are.”

Louis then refused to put her through to the next round, calling her “mission impossible”, before Sharon added: “Missus, go on a diet and we’ll see you at the next round.”

While it was unclear if the judges actually knew Samantha was seven months pregnant, she had informed presenter Kate Thornton when she was interviewed by her beforehand.

The former host has since admitted she was “surprised” at the content of the clip when it was brought to her attention, adding: “What I am pleased about is that kind of language and behaviour is no longer tolerated, and that is a good thing.”

Louis Walsh calls Paije Richardson “a little Lenny Henry”

Louis Walsh raised eyebrows on The X Factor back in 2010, when he told contestant Paije Richardson that he reminded him of “a little Lenny Henry”, despite Lenny being a comedian and not a singer. 

Dannii Minogue comments on Danyl Johnson’s sexuality

X Factor contestant Danyl Johnson’s bisexuality had been the subject of various tabloid stories during his time on the show in 2009.

But when he chose to change the lyrics to the Dreamgirls song And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going so that they referred to a woman, Dannii Minogue brought up his sexuality live on air before he’d had the chance to address it publicly himself. 

She said, in front of a stunned Simon Cowell: “If we’re to believe what we read in the papers, there was no need to switch the gender reference in that song.”

Dannii’s comments attracted more than 4000 Ofcom complaints at the time, forcing her to issue an apology to Danyl. 

She insisted it “was meant to be a humorous moment”, adding: “Danyl and I were joking about the very same thing in rehearsals on Friday, so it carried on to the show. 

“I’d like to apologise to anyone that was offended by my comments, it was never my intention. I spoke to Danyl straight after the show last night and he wasn’t offended or upset by my comments, and knew exactly what I was saying.”

Ant and Dec dress up as Japanese women

Ant and Dec’s Undercover sketch is one of the audience’s favourite parts of their Saturday Night Takeaway show, but it hasn’t been without its problematic moments. 

In 2013, the pair dressed up as two Japanese Coronation Street superfans to cause havoc on the set of the ITV soap, using prosthetics to change their appearances and putting on Japanese accents, with their characters also relying heavily on tired stereotypes. 

However, this isn’t the only controversial moment in the Takeaway vault…

Ant and Dec do blackface

Another Undercover skit that aired during the original run of Takeaway saw Ant and Dec doing blackface to transform into two Jamaican women to cause havoc on the set of Emmerdale as a pair of extras in the early 2000s. 

Funnily enough, the sketch doesn’t appear on the show’s official YouTube channel any more… 

Sinitta’s questionable Judges’ Houses outfit

Sinitta’s outfits during her appearances at Simon Cowell’s Judges Houses on The X Factor have created some of the show’s most iconic moments. 

However, her look in 2014 overstepped the mark somewhat, when she decided to wear a Native American headdress, and subsequently faced claims of cultural appropriation. 

She later tried to justify the outfit claiming her “great grandmother was a Native American”.

Basically everything in Little Britain 

Trans people, disabled people and those with mental health issues were regularly the butt of the joke on David Walliams and Matt Lucas’ sitcom Little Britain back in the mid 2000s.

The pair would also regularly play characters from different ethnic backgrounds to themselves, who were often over-the-top stereotypes. 

In 2017, Matt expressed his regret at his part in the show, admitting he wouldn’t make it today, telling The Big Issue: “If I could go back and do Little Britain again, I wouldn’t make those jokes about transvestites. I wouldn’t play black characters.

“Basically, I wouldn’t make that show now. It would upset people.”