Swearing rap for Jeremy Kyle show

Jeremy Kyle's show has been found to be in breach of Ofcom rules before

Daytime programme The Jeremy Kyle Show is in trouble with media regulator Ofcom after broadcasting one of the "most offensive" swear words.

The watchdog said its use on an edition of the show aired on 2 July on ITV2 was "highly offensive and unacceptable".

ITV said the swearing was not spotted because it had happened when two guests were talking across each other.

Living's Most Haunted has also been rapped for 16 uses of offensive language during one daytime broadcast.

'Third instance'

Ofcom investigated The Jeremy Kyle Show after a viewer complained that a guest had sworn when referring to his partner.

ITV said the language had been picked up before broadcast and edited out of the main programme.

But it failed to remove the offensive language when the same exchange was used in a brief "tease" earlier in the show.

The broadcaster said the word was not "readily audible" - although it accepted it was possible to hear it - and said the single complaint received by Ofcom backed this up.

The watchdog accepted the word "may have been difficult to identify" but said it was "the third instance during a period of just over one year where the most offensive language had been included in error in a daytime edition of The Jeremy Kyle Show".

Ofcom, which found the show in breach of its rules, said it welcomed steps taken by the broadcaster to tighten up editing procedures.

ITV said that, in the future, teases would only be taken from already-edited programme material.

Human error

Meanwhile, an episode of ghost-hunting show Most Haunted - aired on cable and satellite channel Living 2 on 21 July - has also been found in breach of Ofcom rules on offensive language.

To allow a programme containing 16 uses of the most offensive language during daytime was a clear breach

Ofcom

Virgin Media, which owns the channel, said the episode had been "identified as being a post-2100 show due to swearing and, as such, had a language warning attached to the programme".

It said the episode had been broadcast in the morning due to human error.

Ofcom said: "To allow a programme containing 16 uses of the most offensive language during daytime was a clear breach."

Virgin Media said it had subsequently broadcast on-air apologies and had undertaken "further checks to this series to avoid a similar incident".