NBC has apologised after facing backlash to jokes about Selena Gomez’s kidney transplant in Peacock’s Saved by the Bell reboot.
In 2017, the “Lose You to Love Me” singer revealed that after contracting lupus, she had received a transplant from her close friend Francia Raísa.
While Gomez shared this news on Instagram, a new episode of Saved by the Bell saw two high school students gossiping about the identity of Gomez’s donor after the school confiscated all their phones and left them in the dark about pop culture.
“I know for a fact that Selena Gomez’s kidney donor was Justin Bieber’s mom,” one student speculated.
“It was Demi Lovato’s kidney,” the other replied. “They’re best friends, like you and I were.”
In a later scene, graffiti spray painted in the background of a scene read: “Does Selena Gomez even have kidneys?”
The episode was widely criticised by Gomez’s fans who accused Peacock of making light of the singer’s illness, with “Respect Selena Gomez” trending on Twitter on Saturday (28 November).
“It’s not funny to make jokes about someone else’s illness, she's been through a lot and she deserves better treatment,” one Twitter user commented.
Later on Saturday, NBC and Peacock apologised, with a statement reading: “We apologise. It was never our intention to make light of Selena’s health.
“We have been in touch with her team and will be making a donation to her charity, The Selena Gomez Fund for Lupus Research at USC.”
The new series of Saved by the Bell is a reboot of the original high school sitcom which ran from 1989 to 1993 and airs on streaming service Peacock in the US.
