Channel 4’s commissioner has addressed the criticism the broadcaster received for platforming the documentary Bonnie Blue: 1000 Men and Me.
The documentary took viewers inside OnlyFans star Bonnie Blue’s sex stunt earlier this year, which saw her sleep with 1,057 men in 12 hours.
However, the documentary was branded ‘disturbing’ by a number of viewers, with graphic scenes of the adult content creator during the sex stunt as well as her dressed in a school uniform in a classroom with other younger stars, preparing to film an orgy.
Channel 4’s chief commissioning officer Ian Katz has now defended airing the controversial documentary during a discussion at the Edinburgh TV Festival 2025 on Wednesday (20th August).
Speaking about the Bonnie Blue documentary, as well as the reality show Virgin Island which also concerned certain viewers when it aired this spring, Katz said that both were intended to start ‘meaningful discussion’.
Katz also noted that both were ‘extremely successful shows’, adding: ‘Channel 4 is not in the business of being shocking for shocking’s sake. That’s just attention-seeking behaviour.’
He continued: ‘I think they are two sides of the same coin. Bonnie Blue is, if you like, ground zero of the porn culture, and Virgin Island is about what the porn culture does to young people.
‘It’s been creating a generation of young people which has been struggling with intimacy.
‘Both of those subjects are absolutely the kind of territory Channel 4 should be exploring.’
The Channel 4 boss said it was ‘perfectly sensible’ to question the format of the Bonnie Blue documentary, but noted it caused ‘good discussion’. Katz also said that 60% of the viewership was women tuning in.
Metro’s take on the Bonnie Blue documentary
Assistant Entertainment Editor Brooke Johnson shares her opinion…
I went into the screening expecting to see a victim of something – patriarchy or trauma.
I came out sure of one thing: Bonnie does not see herself as a victim, so who am I to call her one?
It becomes clear as the film unfolds that, for Bonnie, sex can be fun, but mostly it’s lucrative. And she seems to enjoy the power this gives her over people who insist on romanticising what, for her, is just a physical act akin to weight lifting.
She compares the gangbang to a marathon: not always comfortable, but a physical feat nonetheless. It’s hard to ignore the double standard – we glorify athletes who push their bodies, but recoil when she does it with sex.
Surprisingly, I felt a strange sense of admiration. Perhaps she’s provoking us deliberately, not just to shock, but to force us to confront the discomfort we’d rather displace onto her.
Katz also spoke more broadly about the TV landscape, describing it as ‘quite boring and safe’ and said Channel 4 can also be prone to ‘reverting to known formats’ rather than testing out new talent.
Bonnie Blue, whose real name is Tia Ballinger, was one of the most successful OnlyFans creators, claiming to earn more than US$2 million (£1.5 million) per month.
However, she was banned from OnlyFans after she advertised a ‘petting zoo’ event in which she planned to be ‘put in a box for people to do what they want’.
The Channel 4 documentary got into how she has stoked significant controversy, most notably for seeking out ‘barely legal’ teenage boys to have sex with at Freshers’ Weeks across the UK and cajoling unhappy married men to sleep with her.
Bonnie Blue: 1000 Men and Me is streaming on Channel 4.
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