Big Bother

As phone scams go, Big Brother is up there with the best of them.






It's a Channel Four TV programme, completely funded by sponsors, encouraging people to vote for their favourite, or least favourite contestant using a premium rate phone or SMS number. Then, once the voting lines have closed, the unaudited winner is announced. Brilliant! What could possibly go wrong with a concept like that? A concept so good, it's also used by shows like X-Factor and Strictly Come Dancing.

Well, the problem comes when you try and take the proverbial urine out of your audience.

For those of you that are unaware, the Big Brother voting system encourages the audience, to vote to eliminate the brainless, talentless, fame-hungry contestant they least like from the house, which the audience duly did.
However, in a desperate attempt to boost flagging ratings, the producers pushed their luck too far.
From the contestants already evicted, Big Brother then told the public to vote again to keep out their least favourite, meaning that some would be sent back into the house. They had effectively misled the voters initially on what they were actually "paying for" and were then asking people to "pay again".
That led to more than 2,300 complaints to Ofcom and Ictis and has now landed Channel Four a £50,000 legal bill.

But despite all that, this bit has got me:

On reaching its decision, Icstis did accept that Big Brother was an "editorially inventive show".

How exactly is locking twelve delinquents in a house and then proceeding to mislead equally stupid people into phoning a premium rate number not once, but twice "editorially inventive"? The original concept may have been good and the first series may have gauged interest, but Big Brother is far from inventive. It is a tired concept which is resorting to desperate measures to maintain it's existence. I'd go as far to say that the only reason we are still subjected to this programme every summer is because it is profitable for Channel Four.

Channel Four is a good channel, with excellent programming. It's just a shame that Big Brother lets down it's portfolio.