Newspaper reports compared the controversy generated by Psychic Readings Live to the scandal caused by Play TV: "It will remind TV3 of a past life".

The Irish Times reported that a viewer phoned the show impersonating Will Smith's character on the U.S. television series The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, footage of which was posted on YouTube.

Declining the invitation, Psychic Wayne gave an equally lighthearted response: he claimed to be bowing to the greater force of Keith Barry, maintaining that such a battle (should it ever occur) would have irreparable consequences for the universe.

[6] Pope expressed his concerns about the programme in an article on 17 July: "The show appears to attract vulnerable and unhappy people looking in all the wrong places for answers, and then charges them staggering amounts of money for readings of questionable merit.

The growing controversy is not unlike the one which engulfed Play TV, an infomercial "quiz" night that TV3 eventually scrapped after complaints, fines and mountains of bad press.

[8] In the same Examiner article concerns were expressed by the charity Age Action Ireland, which feared that elderly and isolated people might be calling the programme for human contact and accruing large phone bills.

Two complaints were upheld,[11] since the BAI General Commercial Communications Code Section 8.10.4[12] states that claims pertaining to health, cures and/or healing are not permitted.

On 9 November BAI upheld four viewer complaints concerning Psychic Readings Live, including two pregnancy predictions and one in which a woman was told that her flat would burn down.