BBC cancels Christmas episode ‘University Challenge’ after complaints from disabled contestants

The BBC has one University challenge Special Christmas episode of the festival program following complaints from two disabled participants.

According to the BBC, one blind and one neurodivergent contestant took part in the episode, in which teams of prominent alumni compete on behalf of their former universities. However, the episode will not air due to complaints about missing audio description and subtitles. The participants are not named.

One of the participants was quoted by the BBC as saying the experience was “disturbing”, while the other was “overwhelming and overstimulating”. The first said they were told a minute before the show that there would be no audio description and that “your captain would instead have to explain everything,” according to the BBC article, while the second claimed a request for pre-captions was rejected is wax .

Today, the decision was taken to cancel the episode of the iconic BBC quiz show hosted by Amol Rajan. The rest of the spinoff series will continue as planned.

A BBC spokesman said: “We can confirm there is an episode in the upcoming series Alumni University Challenge will not be broadcast because two of the contestants felt that their entry requirements were not sufficiently met by the production.

“We are working closely with manufacturers to improve access to our programs across industries to ensure a consistent approach is implemented. We would like to apologize to the people and teams involved and have been written to personally by the producers.”

ITV Studios supported Lifted Entertainment production university challenge, confirmed that during the pre-filming briefing, participants “requested certain adjustments to enable them to fully participate.”

“After admission, however, we were informed that the adjustments made did not meet their requirements. We have spoken to the individuals involved and we sincerely apologize,” Lifted said. “After listening very carefully to their descriptions of their experiences, we agreed with the BBC that showing this particular issue was not the fairest course of action.”