The Stage

Five’s Chambers attacks C4 over Big Brother coverage

Published Wednesday 12 October 2005 at 17:35 by Liz Thomas

Dan Chambers, Five’s director of programmes, has lambasted Channel 4 for the scale of its Big Brother coverage, claiming it has eroded its public service provision.

The executive, who in his previous role as science editor was jointly responsible for commissioning the hit reality series, said that Channel 4 was forced to make the show increasingly outrageous and exploitative to attract audiences because people were beginning to get bored with the idea.

He alleged that the rival broadcaster aired a total of 38 hours of Big Brother a week during the last series, and said more of that time should have been spent on original production. He said: “Channel 4 is supposed to be the home of innovative programming. When I was there it was doing Big Brother 3. There was already talk about whether the show had run its course. Tim Gardam [former director of television] was seriously questioning whether or not they should continue with it. It is interesting that three years on they are still doing so.”

Big Brother has been on screens for six years and the broadcaster has signed a further deal with producer Endemol, which will keep it on air for at least two more years. While ratings for the last series have been down and less people are voting in eviction shows, the programme continues to raise a huge amount of revenue for the broadcaster and dominates the summer schedules.

Chambers added that if he was in Channel 4’s position he would now only make Big Brother for digital entertainment channel E4 in order to still benefit from the increased cash the show brings while freeing up time for more innovative public service programming on the terrestrial station. He also confirmed that Five had axed The Farm and was trying to step back from its reality output.

A spokesman for Channel 4 declined to comment.