14 DAY TRIAL // In its long run, “Big Brother” saw record ratings in the UK, turning faded celebrities into overnight stars again and generating profits estimated at around £70 million a year. However, as all good things, it too must come to an end, and it will do so after next year’s season is over, after the tenth season pulled in disastrous ratings of just two million, The Sun says. Channel 4, the network carrying the show, claims the cancellation is based on creativity considerations, and not financial ones.
Sources close to the network are telling the British tabloid that even staff working at Channel 4 are “bored” with “Big Brother,” not to mention the audiences, who could in no way be convinced to watch the most recent season. They say the cancellation comes because the network is no longer seeing the show as a profitable business, therefore it will invest the money in something else, perhaps in a bunch of new series, an allegation that a spokesperson for Channel 4 strongly denies.
“‘Big Brother’ is still profitable for Channel 4 despite its reduced popularity and there could have been the option to renew it on more favorable 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 program has reached a natural end point on Channel 4 and it’s time to move on.” the network’s Director of Television, Kevin Lygo, tells The Sun.
According to the insiders, the network would have axed the show without doing the upcoming season, but a £180m contract with Endemol contractually binds it to do another one. Ratings were so poor this year that they completely pale in comparison to those the show pulled in previous years, when a two-million-viewer number was small pickings (an average rating was of eight million, sources in the industry say). Moreover, spies claim that even with Channel 4 staff, being a fan of “Big Brother” is the ultimate “uncool” thing to do, which bespeaks of the uselessness of the show at this very moment, when not even its creators are buying it anymore.
However, the official line remains that the show has simply run its course and the time has come to move on. “Big Brother has been our most influential and popular program over the last decade. It’s been hugely innovative in its own right, has provoked a really astonishing level of public debate and has been an underappreciated showcase for social diversity and youth culture. Inevitably we’re both excited and ever-so-slightly terrified by the prospect of getting by without it.” Julian Bellamy, Head of Channel 4, says for the same publication.