Two MasterChef celebrity Christmas specials have been pulled from the BBC’s schedule after Gregg Wallace stepped away from hosting the cooking show, a BBC spokesperson has said.
The spokesperson said: “As we have said, MasterChef is an amazing competition which is life-changing for the chefs taking part and the current series of MasterChef: The Professionals is continuing as planned.
“The celebrity Christmas specials are obviously a different type of show and in the current circumstances we have decided not to broadcast them.”
Despite the ongoing investigation into Wallace, three episodes of BBC Two’s Inside The Factory, which are repeats, are also coming out of the schedule, the BBC said.
The decision comes after there were calls for the broadcaster to take them off the schedule due to Wallace’s alleged serious misconduct allegations.
Last night, the BBC decided to go ahead and air the current series of MasterChef: The Professionals and aired at 9pm on BBC1 – being the 16th episode out of 21 episodes recorded for the current series.
Gregg Wallace stepped down from his presenting role last week
BBC
Wallace currently faces allegations of inappropriate behaviour from 13 people across five shows over a 17-year period.
The BBC’s decision to take the episodes off of the schedule has come after Labour MP Rupa Huq, a member of Parliament’s culture, media and sport committee, urged the broadcaster to pause broadcasting the show while investigations continue.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Huq warned that airing the shows “could be massively triggering for the women involved, in fact any woman involved in any type of similar incidents”.
She expressed concern about the message being sent to viewers, stating: “To the casual viewer, there’s not going to be any difference. If it’s on TV tonight, it looks like he sort of got away with it”.
The MasterChef Christmas specials have been pulled from the schedule
BBC
The MP called for the BBC to “send a strong signal” about such behaviour, adding: “We need to let the investigation do its work, but at the same time, if he’s being dangled on our screens while this is going on, I just think at the moment maybe pause it”.
Wallace sparked further controversy with an Instagram post on Sunday, dismissing his accusers as “a handful of middle-class women of a certain age, just from Celebrity MasterChef”.
The presenter has claimed and maintained the point that in his 20-year career, he had worked with over 4,000 contestants, receiving only 13 complaints during that time.
Since his decision to step down from the show, Wallace has landed himself in even more hot water after he addressed the complaints head-on and said it “wasn’t right” that the complaints he’s faced are from “middle-aged women of a certain age” all from the celebrity edition of the cooking show.
However, he has since apologised for his comments, and issued a statement on his Instagram account where he said: “I want to apologise for any offence that I caused with my post yesterday and any upset I may have caused to a lot of people.
“I wasn’t in a good headspace when I posted it, I’ve been under a huge amount of stress, a lot of emotion, I felt very alone, under siege yesterday when I posted it.
“It’s obvious to me I need to take some time out, now, while this investigation is under way I hope you understand and I do hope you will accept this apology.”
