Complaint
A viewer complained an inaccurate answer had been accepted by the presenter, leading to one of the contesting couples being unfairly prevented from going through to the next round. The ECU considered whether the programme met the requirement for due accuracy set out in the Guidelines.
Outcome
Contestants were asked to give names of cities in the United Kingdom in which the letter A did not appear. The criterion was “according to the updated list of cities with official city status published by the UK Government website at the end of August 2022”. A contestant proffered the name “Derry”, which was accepted as a correct answer although the city is named in the list as “Londonderry”. In the ECU’s view, it was within the discretion of an entertainment programme like Pointless to allow such a reply.
Not Upheld