Kim Woodburn appeared on Loose Women yesterday (August 29), in what was pitched as an attempted reconcilliation between her and her former Celebrity Big Brother fellow housemate, Coleen Nolan. Of course, it didn't go down well, as the majority of people watching could have predicted from the off.
In under 10 minutes, Coleen and her sister Linda Nolan had referred to Kim as "vile", "self-centred", "a demon", and "a witch", with Linda also inferring that the television star was talentless. Not a single member of the panel jumped to her defence, with only Janet Street Porter asking if they could all stop "the slagging off".
Linda Robson may have put a comforting arm around Kim (which was thrown off as Kim told her to "stop being two-faced") when she started to get upset talking about her childhood, but that didn't stop her from calling Kim "terrible" when she got up to leave the show, and called Coleen "lying trash".
Now, we're not for a minute suggesting Kim is an angel and darling of television, but she's certainly not somebody who deserves what she got at the hands of the Loose Women panel this week. Producers, in bringing her onto their show, owe a duty of care to their guests which was not afforded to Kim, and for that they should apologise.
Not only was she isolated on the panel, but she had predictable conflict with a woman everybody knew she did not get along with, whilst her sparring partner sat with her blood relative. It was an unbalanced and distasteful portion of the show, and to put it on right after a portion that talked about self-harming and mental health was flagrant sensationalisation, to say the very least.
Plenty of social media users jumped onto Twitter to comment that Coleen and co. had gone too far:
There was one particular moment in the so-called "interview" which saw Kim talking about her troubling childhood, in which Coleen muttered under her breath (seemingly forgetting she had a microphone on), "we got this every day too". Linda also repeatedly commented "we know!" whilst Kim touched on her earlier years.
The Loose Women social media account promised that Kim was being "looked after backstage" following the confrontation, and ITV said in a statement that she was offered counselling, which she allegedly refused.
Mirror Online got a statement from a spokesperson for Kim, who said: "Kim was invited onto Loose Women as she was told Coleen wanted to hold peace talks with her. When she arrived this morning, Kim was briefed and told Coleen would speak first and give her reasons for their row. She was told Coleen wanted to bury the hatchet. However when Kim walked on set, Coleen refused to speak first and made Kim do all the talking."
They added: "This incident has left Kim incredibly upset and she feels disappointed with what happened."
Producers care about ratings, but they should also care about their show's image. Those in charge yesterday would have a hard task in proving the latter.
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