The BAFTA ceremony took a heavy turn Sunday night after a racial slur was clearly heard in the auditorium while Sinners stars Michael B. Jordan and Delroy Lindo were on stage presenting.

The word was shouted by Tourette Syndrome Campaigner John Davidson, whose involuntary verbal tic was picked up during the live event.

Warner Bros — the studio behind Sinners — reportedly flagged the issue immediately and requested the slur be removed before the delayed BBC One broadcast aired.

But it wasn’t cut.

Despite a two-hour delay between the live ceremony and transmission, the slur remained in the televised version.

That sparked instant backlash online and inside the industry, especially given that the delay is typically there precisely to filter out inappropriate content before pre-watershed viewing.

The BBC initially said producers “working from a truck” did not hear the slur during editing.

That explanation didn’t land well with critics, particularly since there was audible reaction in the room and significant social media chatter almost immediately after it happened.

By Monday, apologies began rolling in.

The BBC called it an “editing oversight,” removed the original broadcast from its website, and later uploaded an edited version.

Senior executive Kate Phillips told staff the slur should never have been aired and acknowledged the distress caused.

BAFTA also issued an unreserved apology, taking “full responsibility” and announcing a comprehensive review.

Lindo later said he wished someone from BAFTA had spoken to the presenters afterward.

Meanwhile, Davidson stated he was “deeply mortified” if anyone believed his involuntary tic was intentional or carried meaning.

The fallout hasn’t stopped there. BAFTA judge Jonte Richardson resigned, calling the situation “utterly unforgivable.”

Politicians including Kemi Badenoch and Dawn Butler publicly criticized the broadcast, with Butler calling for an urgent explanation from BBC leadership.

To make matters worse, Google had to apologize for an AI-generated prompt tied to coverage of the incident that awkwardly encouraged users to “See more on” the slur.

The company removed it and said steps were being taken to prevent similar errors.

It’s one of those situations where multiple failures collided — live-event unpredictability, delayed broadcast safeguards not working, and sensitivity around language that carries deep historical trauma.

The frustration isn’t just about the word being heard; it’s about how preventable many believe it was.