MasterChef viewers have slammed the BBC‘s decision to include Gregg Wallace in tonight’s semi-final.
The grocer-turned broadcaster, 60, last week stepped away from hosting the show after nearly 20 years.
His absence comes while allegations of inappropriate comments he made towards staff and celebrity guests over 17 years are investigated.
The star is accused of making ‘inappropriate sexual jokes’, asking for the phone numbers of female members of production staff, and undressing in front of and standing ‘too close’ to women working on his shows. The presenter allegedly even walked naked on set with only a sock on his penis.
However, in a move that has shocked some viewers, Wallace has continued to appear on MasterChef: The Professionals, with the programme’s semi-final airing tonight.
Furious fans took to social media to blast the BBC for not editing Wallace out of the show, despite the presenter stepping down from his role last week.
One furious viewer wrote on X: ‘I see the BBC is being its usual tone-deaf self. BBC refuses to pull “misogynistic” Gregg Wallace off air.’
Another wrote: ‘Watching @MasterChefUK and while I’ve never thought Gregg Wallace brought anything positive to the show I’m finding it near impossible to watch the show.’
A third said: ‘I was expecting them to have edited Gregg Wallace out though.’
Gregg Wallace, 60, has stepped away from hosting MasterChef after nearly 20 years while allegations of inappropriate comments he made towards staff and celebrity guests over 17 years are investigated
The BBC have decided to go ahead and broadcast the rest of MasterChef: The Professionals, which will conclude on December 12
Furious fans took to social media to slam the BBC for not editing Wallace out of the show, despite the presenter stepping down from his role last week
A fourth penned: ‘After the revelations of the last few days I’m finding Gregg Wallace more irritating than usual.’
MailOnline has contacted the BBC for comment.
A former MasterChef contestant tonight claimed that Wallace ‘humiliated’ her and drove her to tears with a sexually inappropriate comment during filming.
Jackie Kearney, a chef and author who finished fourth in the BBC hit show in 2011, claimed Wallace made sexual innuendos ‘constantly’ in front of crew members.
Ms Kearney spoke about how Wallace left her breaking down in tears in the toilets after making a lewd joke about his penis.
She told Sky News: ‘There were several times that he would comment on my legs, or comment on the skirts I was wearing… he made a comment once: “If I’d known you had legs like that, maybe you’d have made it further”.’
Ms Kearney returned to MasterChef as a guest judge in 2017, where she hoped to impress Wallace and co-host John Torode with her book about vegan food which she published two years prior.
But recalling how the interaction went, she claimed: ‘I came into the studio and was like, “Hi Gregg, I’ve got something for you!” And he said, “Oh, is it a present for my c***?”’
Ms Kearney said the comment left her feeling ‘humiliated’ and ’embarrassed’ and that she broke down in tears in the toilets.
Greg Wallace (pictured) apologised for ‘any offence I caused’ after his controversial comments on Instagram on the weekend
She said she also walked around hating what she was wearing because Wallace had allegedly already made a comment about her legs earlier in the day.
Ms Kearney thought that someone would check up on her, but that nobody said anything. She claims that Wallace was mic’ed up when he made the sexual comment.
The chef claims that Wallace created an environment where his sexual remarks were ‘normalised in way that you would expect to see in a ’90s lads mag’.
The presenter has defended himself, pinning the blame on ‘middle class women of a certain age’. But today he apologised for his controversial comments, admitting he was ‘not in a good head space’ when he posted the rant.
