It turns out the BBC received more complaints following the N-word moment involving Michael B. Jordan and Delroy Lindo at the BAFTA Awards than any other broadcast since the Glastonbury incident, where Bob Vylan proudly proclaimed “death to the IDF.”
Deadline reports the BBC received 1,588 complaints from watchers who said they were “unhappy a racial slur was heard and that it was not edited out of the broadcast.”
It’s the most complaints since the BBC received an astounding 3,396 messages following Bob Vylan’s anti-Israel stand, which was live-streamed by iPlayer.
According to Deadline, the BBC and producer Penny Lane TV held meetings ahead of the awards where they discussed plans to prevent another Glastonbury from happening. Well, things still got out of hand with the network blaming the now infamous N-word incident on a “misconmunnication.”
The BBC & Producer Penny Lane TV Wrongly Assumed They Caught The Incident
The BBC and producer Penny Lane TV assumed they caught the incident when a BAFTA representative flagged it in a WhatsApp group chat. Still, they were referring to a second incident involving Jordan and Lindo’s Sinners co-star Wunmi Mosaku.
Per Deadline:
The BBC has apologized for broadcasting John Davidson’s involuntary N-word interruption when Michael B. Jordan and Delroy Lindo were on stage. The incident stemmed from miscommunication on the night, as Deadline revealed last week in an account of events that was later confirmed by BBC boss Tim Davie.
The BBC and producer Penny Lane TV did not hear the racial slur from their position in the outside broadcast truck, but later caught and cut a second incident, in which Davidson again said the N-word when Sinners star Wunmi Mosaku collected her Supporting Actress prize.
On a WhatsApp group chat, a BAFTA representative raised the alarm about an N-word being audible, but sources said that this was only after Mosaku had left the stage. The BBC and producer Penny Lane TV received BAFTA’s message, but assumed it referred to the Mosaku incident, rather than the slur directed at Jordan and Lindo, meaning they thought the N-word had already been cut.
Welp.
The incident sparked plenty of reactions, with Jordan and Lindo even acknowledging the support they received following it during a moment at the NAACP Image Awards.
The BBC continues to feel the fallout, with people solely blaming them for letting it unfold the way it did.
