Michael Urie hits back at Billy Crystal's 'too much gay sex on TV' comments: 'I think there is far too much football, but I change the channel'

The gay Ugly Betty actor was responding to remarks Crystal made last week

Gay actor Michael Urie responds to Billy Crystal's 'too much gay sex on TV' comments: 'Just change the channel' (Getty Images)

Michael Urie has taken issues with Billy Crystal’s recent comments about the amount of gay sex shown on television.

The Ugly Betty star refuted Crystal’s claims that such scenes are overexposed, arguing that if people don’t like it, they can simply “change the channel”.

Crystal, who played one of the first openly gay characters on TV in Seventies comedy Soap, said last week that gay issues are “shoved in our face”, adding that “sometimes, it’s just pushing it a little too far for my taste”.

The Golden Globe nominee later clarified his controversial remarks, insisting that he meant “sex or graphic nudity of any kind, gay or straight, that is gratuitous to the plot of story”.

Urie, himself gay, believes the the same could be said for the overload of football on the box.

“I think there is far too much football on TV,” he told NewNowNext. “But I’m not going around saying they should take football off the air. I’m changing the channel.”

Screenwriter Russell T Davies, known for his gay dramas, said recently that there should be more male frontal nudity on TV because at the moment, there are far more naked women in shows than men.

His latest show, Cucumber, about gay life in Manchester, aired last Thursday on Channel 4 to warm reviews.

Davies is also planning to write two new dramas, one about Aids in the Eighties and another about “sextortion” gangs who blackmail people for private videos.