An Australian talent show has sparked international outrage after featuring a segment with contestants portraying the Jackson 5, with their faces painted black.

The act, performed by six doctors who dubbed themselves the ‘Jackson Jive’, aired on a reunion episode of the Hey Hey It’s Saturday variety programme in Australia on Wednesday night.

US singer Harry Connick Jr was appearing as a guest judge on the show and complained on air about the offence caused by the act.

"If I knew that was going to be part of the show I definitely wouldn’t have done it," he said.

"On behalf of my country I know it was done humorously, but we’ve spent so much time trying to not make black people look like buffoons that when we see something like that we take it really to heart."

Show host Darryl Somers apologised to Connick Jr on air, but later claimed the episode had been exaggerated.

"If there were any Australians who were offended… on behalf of the show I apologise," he told Sky News. "To most Australians I think it’s a storm in a tea cup."

The doctors involved in the skit had performed the routine without controversy when they were medical students some 20 years previously.

Dr Anand Deva, a plastic surgeon based in Sydney, said the group had not meant to cause offence and admitted they would not have performed the skit in the US.

"Clearly, all of us want to apologise. I mean we have offended some people no doubt," he told a Melbourne radio station.

"So I want to say on behalf of all of us that this was really not intended… [to be] anything to do with racism at all."

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