Countdown apologises for 'error of judgement' after broadcasting homophobic slur on quiz show

Countdown has apologised for broadcasting a homophobic slur as an answer to one of the word rounds during the daytime quiz show.

Viewers of the Channel 4 gameshow voiced their offence on social media after contestant Matthew Gould from Whitley Bay read aloud the word "p*****r" as a possible answer during the letters round and was awarded seven points.

A spokesperson for the show told Yahoo UK: "The airing of the word was an error of judgement. It does not align with our values and we apologise for any offence caused."

Gould wrote on Twitter: "I apologise for my part in this. I thought it might be edited differently. At the time I said ‘I have an inappropriate seven that I know is in the dictionary or a riskier seven that I’m less sure about’. I thought that bit would be reshot with a non-offensive 7 letter word."

During the broadcast of Countdown at 2.10pm in the afternoon on Monday 16 August, during the school holidays, contestants were challenged to form the longest word possible from a selection of eight vowels and consonants, using the letters 'A O O E D R P F T'.

Gould was asked to read out his seven letter answer, to which he replied: "I've got a rude word that I know is in the dictionary, 'P*****r'."

Host Anne Robinson did not react and swiftly moved on to ask fellow contestant Roy for his seven letter word which was 'Proofed'.

Former Sky News presenter Jeremy Thompson who joined Susie Dent as a guest on dictionary corner for the episode did not comment on the offensive answer but confirmed 'Proofed', and offered an alternative 'Footpad'.

Both contestants scored seven points for offering up a valid word.

Richard Osman, presenter on BBC gameshow Pointless commented on Twitter: "Yes, I think, the contestant was embarrassed to be saying it, but in that situation the easy solution is to all agree he scored 7 points and to retake with a different answer. We've done that a couple of times with 'correct' answers."

Osman added it was "A very easy fix, and not an uncommon one."

He went on: "I don't think people are insulted, I think they would probably just rather not be reminded of a word that was thrown at them for years if there's a simple alternative. I suspect people are just very very tired of it."

He was responding to a tweet from viewer and TV critic Scott Bryan, who said: "Sorry to go serious on something quite trivial - but as someone who was called a "p******" by homophobes on a daily basis why on earth is Countdown allowing it to be said cheerfully as an answer on daytime television?"

Writer and comedian Adam Kay agreed: "I don't think it's trivial. If the best word someone could come up with is a word in the dictionary that would have the channel taken off the air, I'm sure they'd replay the round. Not sure this should be treated as any different."

And BBC Radio 1 presenter Dean McCullough replied: "Immediately not this."

Words considered to be rude or offensive are accepted on the show if they are in the Standard English Dictionary but have previously been bleeped out if read aloud, or edited out of the broadcast.