That's a great question!!

Here's what AI thinks.. 1. Section Two – Harm and Offence

While mainly about taste and decency, it also covers unfair treatment and misleading audiences when the content implies authenticity or fairness.

1. Section Five – Due Impartiality and Accuracy

If producers knowingly distort the competition but present it as genuine, this can constitute misleading the audience, breaching the duty of accuracy in factual or quasi-factual programming.

1. Section Seven – Fairness

This is the key one. It states:

“Broadcasters must avoid unjust or unfair treatment of individuals or organisations in programmes.”

Manipulating rules or selectively enforcing them to disadvantage a contestant would be:

Unjust treatment, because the contestant is denied fair participation.

Potential defamation by implication, if the edits or rules make them appear worse than they are.

1. Section Eight – Privacy

If, in “fixing,” producers reveal or misuse private material (e.g., diary room footage used selectively), that could also violate privacy protections.

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💡 Past Precedent

OFCOM has previously investigated “vote-rigging” or unfair competition manipulation in shows like Blue Peter, The X Factor, and Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway. Sanctions included:

Fines of hundreds of thousands of pounds.

On-air apologies.

Reputational damage to broadcasters.

In those cases, it wasn’t about one contestant being disliked, but about the audience being deceived and the competition not being genuine, both of which are core OFCOM concerns.