The shocking behind the scenes behaviour brought to light in Channel 4’s Jeremy Kyle: Death on Daytime, has been branded as ‘utterly shameful’ after a team member claimed guests had to compete for a spot in rehab.
The first part of the horrifying exposé premiered on Sunday night, and left viewers horrified after learning about the scandals that took place behind the scenes.
Former production workers – who were voiced by actors – alleged that they had to aggravate the guests to extremes, in order for physical bust-ups to occur on screen.
‘You’d tell the addicts and their families that there’s three other families going on the stage, it’s a fight for that one bed,’ one actor claimed.
‘Jeremy is going to pick who he wants, so you need to get out there and say what you need to say. It was to get more emotion on the stage.’
André Gomes, a spokesperson for Release – the UK’s national centre of expertise on drugs and drug law – told Metro.co.uk that using people’s personal struggles for entertainment purposes isn’t acceptable under any circumstances.
‘Making a show out of people who struggle with the cost of drug treatment services highlights society’s failure to provide help to those who need it, and of opportunistic shows looking to profit off others’ suffering,’ he said.
‘Wheeling out “addicts” and getting them to relive and purposefully exaggerate their traumas to win treatment is utterly shameful – you wouldn’t ask people going through cancer treatment to do this.
‘In no field of medicine would it be acceptable to do this. Why should it be okay with people with drug-related issues?’
The eye-opening two-parter also focused on the death of former guest Stephen Dymond, who died by suicide aged 63.
Dymond died days after appearing on the ITV show, in which he ‘failed’ a lie detector test to prove whether he had cheated on his partner.
In response to the Channel 4 documentary, ITV said it does not ‘accept the central allegation of this programme of a “bad culture” within the production team’.
‘ITV would never condone any of its production staff misleading or lying to guests.’
Jeremy Kyle Show: Death on Daytime returns on Monday at 9pm on Channel 4.
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