Fox News' co-host of "The Five" Bob Beckel has called on CBS to apologize for an episode of "The Amazing Race” set in Hanoi, Vietnam.
In the episode, contestants go to a B-52 Memorial, which is the wreckage of an American bomber plane shot down during the Vietnam War, to find the next clue in their televised round-the-world journey.
"Do you realize, CBS, there were four Americans that went down with that plane?" Beckel said on "The Five" Thursday. "Two of them died."
Beckel said despite calls to CBS head honcho Les Moonves and "Amazing Race" producer Jerry Bruckheimer, nobody would comment on the controversy.
FOX411's emails to reps for the show also went unanswered.
"There are 850,00 American Vietnam veterans alive today, and you owe them an amazing, big apology," Beckel said, noting he once worked for CBS, and had even been against the war for "policy" reasons.
On the show, the twisted metal of the downed plane is treated as any other prop, with a bright "Amazing Race" "Double-U-Turn" signed planted in front of it, signifying to contestants the next phase of their scavenger hunt.
The show also had contestants learn a song that was performed for them by children in front of a portrait of North Vietnam communist leader Ho Chi Minh, with subtitled lyrics that included “Vietnam Communist Party is glorious. The light is guiding us to victory.”
“It’s like One Direction,” one contestant said of the performance, referring to the popular boy band.
“How did it not cross the producers’ minds that this might offend the men who fought in Vietnam and the families of those who died there?” Fox News’ Greg Gutfeld said on his late night show “Red Eye” Tuesday night.
Beckel and Gutfeld weren’t alone in their opinions.
“So, did anyone but me find the ‘Amazing Race’ going to Hanoi and extolling the greatness of Hanoi offensive?” a viewer remarked online. “Especially the part where the contestants had a ‘clue’ box at a Hanoi monument of a downed B-52? And none of them even slowed down to look at it or reflect on what it meant?”
“This will ensure that I will continue to miss the 'Amazing Race,'" wrote one on an online message board, while another on the same board added: “I don’t know how many Vietnam vets are on here, but there should be a campaign to have CBS apologize publicly.”
FOX 411's emails to CBS and "The Amazing Race" were not returned, either.
Almost 60,000 Americans lost their lives in the Vietnam War.
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