‘Saved By The Bell’ Reboot Creators Apologize For Jokes Regarding Selena Gomez’s Kidney Transplant

The reboot of the 90s classic, Saved By The Bell started streaming on Peacock last week and has received backlash over multiple jokes about the actress Selena Gomez‘s kidney transplant.

Gomez went under a major surgery in 2017 after being diagnosed with lupus. Lupus is a chronic autoimmune disease that attacks one’s immune system and can affect skin, joints, kidney and the heart. Francia Raisa, a friend of Gomez, donated her kidney to the actress. Gomez announced her diagnosis and surgery in an Instagram post in 2017.

Fans of Gomez spoke outrage this past weekend on social media over the show making multiple jokes over what was a life or death situation for the singer of “Lose Me to Love Me.” Peacock has released a statement to TMZ apologizing to Gomez, “We apologize. 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 first scene had two students in the school’s hallway talking about her transplant in a manner that does not respect Gomez and even goes to say that her organ donor was Justin Bieber‘s mother or Demi Lovato. In another scene, a football player is talking to a girl and written on the wall in the background are the words, “Does Selena Gomez even have kidneys?” The scenes making fun of Gomez’s illness have been removed and the edited versions are already streaming on Peacock.

The reboot of Saved By the Bell tells the story of a new group of students that attend Bayside High. In addition to the new cast, stars like Mario Lopez and Elizabeth Berkeley reprised their roles from the original series as A.C. Slater and Jessie Spano. All episodes are now streaming exclusively on Peacock.