Telly researchers want people to appear on a new Jeremy Kyle-style show just weeks after the controversial daytime programme was scrapped following the suspected suicide of a former guest.
They have hit social media with a series of appeals for potential guests despite the tragic death of Steve Dymond, that caused bosses to pull the plug on Kyle’s show.
One post is titled: “Are you happy with your partner having an affair?”
It goes on: “ITV are looking for couples who are both open about their affairs to take part in an exciting new entertainment show.”
Another post is headed: “Are you ‘the other woman?’.”
Last night a politician and a relative of another tragic Kyle guest blasted the recruitment drive.
Kevin McCarthy, whose alcoholic ex-boxer brother Paul, 31, killed himself four months after appearing on the programme, said: “How can these shows be allowed?
“I would not expect anything at all similar to be on TV.”
And in a stark warning to ITV bosses, Labour MP Rosena Allin-Khan said: “I would want extreme caution to be exercised when considering another TV programme. TV channels need to put people before ratings.”
The Jeremy Kyle Show was scrapped in the uproar after guest Steven Dymond died in a suspected suicide last month.
Steven, 63, buried in a pauper’s grave in his home city Portsmouth this week, had failed a lie detector test on the programme to determine if he had been unfaithful to his fiancée.
Presenter Kyle’s daytime hit was replaced by the game show Tenables but viewing figures have not compared and insiders say ITV bosses are desperate for a new show.
An advert on the public Facebook page of a researcher reads: “We are looking for audience members with opinions to take part in a new UK celebrity panel/ debate show.
“We are looking for people who have cheated, people who are cheating, the other woman/ man, a serial victim of cheating.”
They are further interested in “couples in open relationships and a couple who has survived an affair”.
Shocked, Paul McCarthy’s brother Kevin, 39, told the Sunday People: “I don’t think a similar show should be allowed. When are these people going to be held to account?
"It needs to be taken more seriously – not the way they do it, making a show of people for entertainment. They are ruining lives for a bit of TV.”
Paul’s alcohol problems were paraded before viewers when he appeared on the show in 2014. Bosses arranged a 12-week rehab stay for him but he was kicked out after three weeks for being abusive to staff.
He ended up homeless in London and was found dead on July 3 that year.
Kevin added: “They obviously had an audience for the show so they will want to win it back.
“You can probably help people with relationship problems but not by putting them on stage.”
Labour MP Rosena, who is also a medical doctor, said: “I have a concern, particularly as a doctor who sees people with mental health issues, over support that people going on shows like this could have.”
MPs are to hold an inquiry into reality TV following the Kyle scandal and two suicides of contestants on ITV’s Love Island.
Rosena added: “I’d have liked to have seen the outcome to that inquiry before the channel launched another show.”
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An ITV spokesman said: “As a broadcaster we are always developing and piloting potential programme ideas for the schedule.
“Tenable is airing from 9.25-10.30am and any further changes to the schedule will be announced in due course.”
A show insider said: “The show bosses are not planning anything conflict-based like Jeremy Kyle. They don’t want to rock the boat.”
