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The end for Big Brother

By Nicholas Glass

Updated on 26 August 2009

Channel 4 has confirmed there will be no more Big Brother after 2010 and hails the change as its "biggest creative transformation in its history".

Davina McCall and Craig Phillips (picture: Reuters)

Only one more series is planned so the reality programme will not be part of the channel's schedule in 2011 but Channel 4's director of television Kevin Lygo claimed the decision was not due to falling audience figures.

He said: "Big Brother is still profitable for Channel 4 despite its reduced popularity and there could have been the option to renew it on more favourable terms.

"That's what a purely commercial broadcaster would have done, but Channel 4 has a public remit to champion new forms of creativity.


"That remit to push the boundaries has been an essential part of the weird chemistry behind Big Brother's success, but it's now what is telling us that the programme has reached a natural end point on Channel 4 and it's time to move on."

Channel 4 plans to spend an extra £20 million on original drama as part of its plan to fill the hole left in the schedules and bosses have set their sights on a long-running comedy drama.

History

Big Brother was first broadcast in Britain in 2000 and later spawned several series of a Celebrity edition.

It made the late Jade Goody a household name and she was also involved in the programme's most notorious incident when she and fellow housemates Danielle Lloyd and Jo O'Meara were accused of making racist comments about the Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty.

The first series based on the concept was broadcast in the Netherlands in 1999 and it has since led to more than 40 versions around the world but that number has been falling steadily.

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