Now BBC iPlayer removes shows featuring Russell Brand

Now BBC iPlayer removes shows featuring Russell Brand – after YouTube suspended his advertising revenue, gigs were cancelled and he was dropped by his publisher

• Click here for all the latest developments on MailOnline’s Russell Brand liveblog 

The BBC has removed shows featuring Russell Brand from iPlayer, after YouTube suspended hits advertising revenue, his gigs were cancelled and he was dropped by his publisher. 

An 2018 episode of QI featuring the comedian as a panellist and a Joe Wicks podcast about fame that featured him a guest in 2021 have been unavailable since Monday evening.    

A BBC spokesman said: ‘The BBC does not ban or remove content when it is a matter of public record, unless we have justification for doing so.’

The news is the latest blow for Brand since YouTube stopped him from being able to earn any money through his channel for ‘violating our Creator Responsibility policy’. The 48-year-old produces around five videos a week for his 6.6million subscribers, earning him an estimated £1million a year. 

Under the terms of his suspension Brand – whose net worth has been estimated between £15million and £40million – will still be allowed to post videos on the platform but will not receive any of the advertising revenue. 

YouTube said in a statement: ‘If a creator’s off-platform behaviour harms our users, employees or ecosystem, we take action to protect the community. This decision applies to all channels that may be owned or operated by Russell Brand.’

Other channels associated with his main YouTube page include Football Is Nice, which has some 20,000 subscribers, Awakening With Russell, which has 426,000 subscribers, and Stay Free With Russell Brand, which has 22,200 subscribers.

Shows featuring Russell Brand have been removed from BBC iPlayer. This includes a 2018 episode of QI 

A Joe Wicks podcast about fame that featured him a guest in 2021 has been unavailable since Monday evening

 Advertisers pay YouTube to show their adverts before, during or after videos that are posted on the platform. Most YouTube content creators will not get a say in what ads are served. 

The advertising revenue is then split between the platform, owned by YouTube, and whoever made the video. Each receives around half. 

On Saturday, The Sunday Times and Channel 4’s Dispatches reported allegations of abusive and predatory behaviour including rape, sexual assault and emotional abuse said to have been committed by the presenter between 2006 and 2013.

How does YouTube monetisation work? 

Advertisers pay YouTube to show their adverts before, during or after videos that are posted on the platform. Most YouTube content creators will not get a say in what ads are served. 

The advertising revenue is then split between the platform, owned by YouTube, and whoever made the video. Each receives around half. 

Tech journalist Chris Stokel-Walker estimates Brand could have been making between $70,000 to $1million a year before YouTube decided to stop sharing revenue with him. 

Advertisers generally pay based on a measure known as cost per mille (CPMs), meaning the cost of a thousand advert views. Certain types of content that are seen as less ‘ad safe’, such as the Ukraine war, generally attract lower CPMs than others. 

The news comes after the remaining shows of Brand’s Bipolarisation tour were postponed and the Metropolitan Police said they had received a report of an alleged sexual assault in the wake of media allegations about the comedian and actor. 

Brand ‘absolutely denies’ the allegations and insists all his relationships have been consensual.

The scandal has already seen Channel 4 remove all programmes linked to Brand on its website, including episodes of The Great British Bake Off and Big Brother’s Big Mouth in which he was featured. Brand’s PR firm MBC PR and talent agent Tavistock Wood no longer advertise him as a client, and his publisher Bluebird, an imprint of Pan Macmillan, has suspended their relationship. 

And Netflix has now been urged to remove his comedy special, Re:Birth, from its catalogue. 

Brand’s YouTube account has been suspended from YouTube’s Partner Programme ‘following serious allegations against the creator’, meaning his channel is no longer able to make money from advertising.

YouTube added that suspending a creator from the YouTube Partner Programme means they are ‘prohibited from using a new or alternate channel to circumvent our enforcement decision’.

Brand still has a presence on video platform Rumble, where his channel has 1.4million followers and he hosts a weekly live show at 5pm BST, but there was no new episode on Monday.

His most video on Rumble is the short clip from Friday when he denied the allegations against him which were published the following day.

The Rumble channel description reads: ‘Everybody knows that the old ideas won’t help us. Religion is dead. Capitalism is dead. Communism is dead. Where will the answers of the next century lie? Particularly, when we’re facing a mental health epidemic and ecological meltdown.’   

Brand has around six million subscribers on YouTube, which earn him an estimated £49,000 a month 

The clips regularly touch on conspiracy theories, including the idea that the pandemic, the Ukraine war and climate change distract from the activities of the global elite

Critics claim Brand has ‘set up a cult’ online to back him since the birth of the Me Too movement in 2017 by giving a platform to conspiracy theories including the idea that the pandemic, the Ukraine war and climate change distract from the activities of the global elite.

He also has 11million followers on Twitter, four million fans on Instagram and a hugely popular podcast with a lucrative ‘Stay Free’ merchandise range. While no longer being able to make money on YouTube will be a blow to Brand, 48, it will do little to dent his overall net worth – which has been estimated to be as high as £40million.

READ MORE – Did Russell Brand know this was all coming? Fellow comics and experts claim star spent four years ‘grooming’ online cult following ‘to support him when rape allegations become public’ 

He remains on Locals, an online community platform where members can pay a minimum of £48 a year for bonus content. 

His Instagram has a link to a merchandise store, which leads to a webpage saying the site it currently under review. Meanwhile, his personal website is still selling tickets to a wellness festival scheduled for next summer, hosted by him and his wife. Laura Gallacher. 

Some weekend tickets costing between £160 and £195 each have sold out.  

Brand’s personal company which he earns with his wife – Pablo Diablo’s Legitimate Business Firm Ltd – saw its net assets more than double from £2m to £4.1m in 2021, according to Companies House filings. 

The comic has received support online from the likes of Andrew Tate and Elon Musk and his fans were out in force at a gig in Wembley on Saturday to show their backing.

Far-right radio host a Alex Jones, who owes $1.5billion in damages to the families of the victims of the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting, said: ‘The matrix is coming after Russell Brand, anybody that challenges the globalists, anybody that challenges Big Pharma, anybody that’s popular, that comes out against the establishment… is going to be accused of assaulting women. Now, because he comes out against the New World Order, suddenly the allegations are happening to him’.

One fan said after allegations he abused women: ‘Somewhere along the way Russell Brand woke up and became a powerful dissenting voice who no longer served their agenda. No wonder they are desperate to destroy him’.

PR guru Mark Borkowski believes Brand has built a ‘cult following’ online who may be willing to back him despite the ‘horrendous’ accusations about his treatment of women.

Brand, pictured at the Troubadour Wembley Park Theatre on Saturday night, looks set to keep a large amount of his fanbase despite the allegations against him

Russell Brand pictured with his wife Laura Gallacher shortly before the allegations against him emerged

Russell Brand’s subscription and video views on YouTube have exploded since 2017

Comedian Rosie Holt said: ‘I guess the lesson is kids, if sexual misconduct rumours have been swimming about you for ages, set up a cult on YouTube to support you when the allegations become public’. 

READ MORE HERE: So what IS Katy Perry’s big secret about Russell Brand? How pop star said she knew the ‘real truth’ about her ex-husband but was keeping it ‘locked in my safe for a rainy day’ as she maintains her silence in wake of rape allegations 

One American writer said: ‘Russell Brand has known this day was coming for him since October 2017. 

‘Since then, he’s strategically cultivated and groomed a new mentally-malleable cult following that distrusts both women and the media so he can continue getting high on his other drug of choice — the spotlight’.

The investigation by Channel 4, The Times and Sunday Times began four years ago. Around the same time he stepped back from much of his TV and movie work.

His net worth has been estimated between £15m and £40m – with YouTube experts claiming he makes $61,000-a-month from YouTube plus another $100k-a-month from merchandise and paid subscriptions to his podcast. 

He lives with his wife Laura Gallacher in their £3million riverside home in Henley, Oxfordshire. 

PR experts have said that this army of fans means that he will never be cancelled. 

Mark Borkowski believes that the comedian, who has been accused of rape, sexual assault and emotional abuse by multiple women, has declared war on the mainstream media.

He said: ‘The crimes he’s been accused of are horrendous, and are damaging for him and for the people who were looking after him at the time’. 

Brand hosting Big Brother’s Little Brother in May 2006 – which is another one of the show’s Channel 4 has removed from its website containing the comedian

Channel 4 has since removed shows from its site linked with Brand. Pictured: Brand on Celebrity Great British Bake Off 

Latest Russell Brand News  

•  Ex-model tells how Russell Brand ‘stalked her through London streets demanding sex after they met in a bar forcing her to RUN to flee his advances’
• Inside Russell Brand’s rocky relationship with wife’s family: How golf legend father-in-law Bernard Gallacher ‘begged’ daughter Laura to split with the star 
• Katherine Ryan repeatedly accused Russell Brand of being a ‘sexual predator’ during filming for Comedy Central’s Roast Battle before he was dropped from what was his last major TV job in the UK 
• PETER HITCHENS analysis: Trying to have a serious argument with Russell Brand is like playing chess with a squirrel. Why was he given a place in the national debate? 
•  NADINE DORRIES analysis: How can Russell Brand’s wife stand by a man accused of sending a car to pick up a girl of 16 from school?
• More women come forward to accuse Russell Brand after sex allegations
• How the liberal media feted Russel Brand as a political messiah – and set him on his path to becoming a conspiracy-peddling crank 
•  Russell Brand accuser reveals the letter she wrote to the comedian after he allegedly raped her against a wall in his Los Angeles home
• Inside Russell Brand’s marriage to wife Laura Gallacher: Pair met through her Sky Sports star sister Kirsty and dated when she was 18 
• The shocking dossier of allegations against comedian Russell Brand 
• Russell Brand had sex with a Filipino prostitute when he was aged 16 while his father slept with two hookers in the same hotel room while on holiday 

The PR guru said some of his fanbase will stay intact thanks to the ‘unfettered unregulated world of social media’ – and raises serious questions for the BBC and Channel 4.

He added that the comedian’s denial of the accusations was reminiscent of how Donald Trump deals with accusations of improper behaviour.

Mr Borkowski said: ‘I think there will be a profound amount of people who will stand by him. Normally with allegations like this your career would be over, but not in this case, which is interesting. 

‘He’s a great content generator. He didn’t get to the top of his profession because he’s mediocre. He has the power to bewitch his audience.’

READ MORE: Met Police investigates sexual assault as woman comes forward to report alleged attack in Soho in 2003 – in the wake of Russell Brand sex scandal

Brand was accused of attacking four women between 2006 and 2013 when he was working a presenter for BBC Radio 2 and Channel 4 and later as an actor in Hollywood. Other women have made a range of accusations about controlling, abusive and predatory behaviour.

Mr Borkowski said: ‘It throws up questions against someone who has been allowed a certain amount of power because of his talent and his meteoric rise. 

‘It questions Russell Brand but also those in governance in TV. There will be a lot of people looking at themselves this morning – those people in power today won’t be the same ones in power that presided over this.’

Brand has since been dropped by a women’s charity he was working with, while TV production companies and channels have launched probes into his alleged behaviour. 

Mr Borkowski added: ‘There’s a question whether he’s going to face police action, but the question at the moment is of social media – the man isn’t going to get a fair trial when the police have the evidence to prosecute him.

‘More people may come forward, other people might see an opportunity. It’s a very complex case, mixed between old media and social media’.

A joint investigation by The Times, Sunday Times and Channel 4’s Dispatches includes allegations Brand assaulted one of the women when she was a 16-year-old schoolgirl and another woman has claimed he raped her against a wall in his home in Los Angeles.

The Times reports several other women have since come forward with fresh claims about Brand.

One woman, using the fake name Lisa, told the paper the comedian had sung about the Soham killer Ian Huntley during a consensual sexual encounter in 2008.

She said: ‘He started talking about Ian Huntley, the paedophile and child killer, and mentioned it quite a few times, like in a joking way, but also made up a whole song about it.

‘I just couldn’t understand why you would be able to have sex and talk about a child killer at the same time.’

Staff at Big Brother producer Endemol admitted last night that many feared Brand’s ‘predatory’ behaviour

The comedian released a video last week refuting all the allegations against him. Pictured: Brand leaving the Troubabour Wembley Park theatre after a gig on Saturday night

Another woman, known as Esme, told the Times Brand had been threatening and verbally abusive towards her when she refused to have sex with him.

In a now deleted YouTube video, Brand can be heard joking about raping a woman during a recording of Richard Herring’s Leicester Square Theatre Podcast in 2013.

Celebrities who have been banned from YouTube, from Andrew Tate to Donald Trump 

Russell Brand has been suspended from YouTube’s Partner Programme ‘following serious allegations against the creator’, meaning his channel is no longer able to make money from advertising. 

He joins a long list of celebrities who have been censured by the platform. They include –  

ANDREW TATE: The ‘King of Toxic Masculinity’ was permanently banned from YouTube last year. He had been regularly accused of misogyny and hate speech. 

DONALD TRUMP: The president was suspended from YouTube after the Capitol riot on January 6, 2021. The suspension took place for two years before he was permanently banned. 

ALEX JONES: The host of InfoWars was banned from YouTube in 2018. He had played a leading role in spreading conspiracy theories around events such as the 9/11 attacks and Sandy Hook school shooting. 

DAVID ICKE: The notorious conspiracy theorist had his YouTube account deleted in 2020 after he made false claims about coronavirus, including that it was linked to 5G. 

Before the first allegations were published, Brand posted a video on Friday saying he has been ‘promiscuous’ but that all of his relationships have been ‘consensual’.

The BBC, Channel 4 and Banijay UK, which bought Endemol, the company commissioned by Channel 4 to produce the Big Brother spin-off shows Brand hosted, have all launched investigations into his behaviour while he was working on their programmes.

Downing Street urged the broadcasters to set out the results of their investigations into Brand ‘transparently’.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s official spokesman called the allegations ‘very serious and concerning’.

Channel 4 announced it has removed content featuring Brand from its streaming service while it looks into the claims and will remind production companies of its code of conduct.

It comes after Brand was accused of pursuing audience members for sex while presenting Big Brother spin-off shows EFourum and Big Brother’s Big Mouth on Channel 4.

Banijay UK, which bought Endemol in 2020, said it has launched an ‘urgent internal investigation’ and encouraged ‘anybody who feels that they were affected by Brand’s behaviour’ to come forward.

The BBC is facing questions after one of the women, who was 16 when she claims Brand began a relationship with her, alleged he used the corporation’s car service to pick her up from school to take her to his home.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour on Monday, the woman, known as Alice, said Brand’s denial was ‘laughable’ and ‘insulting’.

In 2020, the same woman contacted Brand’s literary agent at the time, who was also the co-founder of talent agency Tavistock Wood.

A spokesman for the agency said Brand ‘categorically and vehemently denied the allegations’ at the time but they now believe they were ‘horribly misled’ and have terminated all professional ties with the comedian.

Yesterday a former model claimed Brand stalked her through streets in London demanding sex after they met in a bar, forcing her to run away from him in fear.

Revealing the distressing incident that took place in 2005, the woman – who remains anonymous – alleged that Brand followed five paces behind her for what ‘felt like a lifetime’ and shouted to her: ‘Let’s just f*** right here’.

The woman, who was in her 20s at the time, said she met Brand at a bar in Primrose Hill in London. She told of how despite telling him not to leave with her, Brand followed her into the street and became ‘creepy’.

‘It felt like he was hunting me down. It wasn’t flirty or fun. The word ‘predator’ is absolutely spot-on. 

‘He was dead set on his goal. His intention was to have sex with someone, anyone,’ she told The Sun.

As Dispatches aired on Saturday Brand performed a sold out comedy gig at the Troubadour Wembley Park Theatre in north-west London as part of his Bipolarisation tour.

A spokesman for the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) said they do not have an open investigation into Brand, and another confirmed there have been no arrests following two allegations concerning claims that are said to have happened in the US.

The Met police said: ‘On Sunday September 17, the Met received a report of a sexual assault which was alleged to have taken place in Soho in central London in 2003.

‘Officers are in contact with the woman and will be providing her with support.

‘We first spoke with The Sunday Times on Saturday September 16 and have since made further approaches to The Sunday Times and Channel 4 to ensure that anyone who believes they have been the victim of a sexual offence is aware of how to report this to the police.’

The woman who has reported the alleged sexual assault had not spoken to The Sunday Times.

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