Sabrina Carpenter may have once again fallen out of British broadcasting's good graces with her show-opening performance at the BRIT Awards over the weekend, with some viewers claiming that it violated regulator Ofcom's watershed rule that "material unsuitable for children" should not be shown before 9 p.m.
The pop star took the stage at London's O2 Arena on Saturday (March 1) to open the award show with a mashup of "Espresso" and "Bed Chem," which saw her (and several dancers) clad in lingerie. Carpenter ended the performance by descending to her knees in front of someone dressed as a King's Guard, who then gave the camera a cheeky wink.
While none of this could be considered unusual for the artist (the stage setting looked like a replica of her Short n' Sweet tour staging), some viewers were reportedly "outraged" and "shocked" by the explicitness of Carpenter's performance. (It's not like lacy negligées or sex jokes are her thing, right?)
"As a dad of 11 and 13 year old girls I am fuming that this was the opening scenes of #BRITs2025," a viewer wrote on the social media platform formerly known as Twitter [via the Daily Mail].
"Sorry not a good idea to open up with before 9pm! It's still family time, very inappropriate," another wrote, pointing to the fact that it is standard in British broadcasting that content aired prior to 9 p.m. should be family-friendly. This year's BRIT Awards broadcast began at 8:15 p.m.
Many of these angry tweeters threatened to call Ofcom and the ITV network with their complaints, but neither organization has revealed whether they have actually received backlash from the broadcast. That's camaraderie!
You can check out Carpenter's BRITs performance below. At least (probably) nobody is getting demoted from the priesthood over this one?