Big Brother 8 UK – Britain’s Mr Big Brother decides to depart from Endemol

The following article is from the UK Gaurdian and is in my opinion great news for the future of Big Brother, it’s safe to say that it has gone off the boil in recent years and in order to bring it back to it’s former glory I do strongly feel like big changes are needed, a complete shake up of the show and having one of the big wigs move on is a great start

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The man whose name is synonymous with the Big Brother phenomenon in Britain is to step down as chief creative officer of Endemol, the independent production company behind the show.

As part of a wider management shakeup that coincides with the return of founder John de Mol, Peter Bazalgette said yesterday he would step down on January 1, when he will also relinquish his position as chairman of Endemol UK. He has been with Endemol for almost a decade since he sold his TV production company Bazal to the Dutch group in 1998. Mr de Mol retook control of the company this year with Silvio Berlusconi’s Mediaset and Goldman Sachs after a protracted sale process, in a deal worth €3.5bn (£2.4bn). The consortium bought it from Spanish telecoms group Telefónica, which had paid €5.5bn for the company at the height of the dotcom boom in 2000.

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The broadcaster said the move is part of a programme of “creative renewal” and the series, which attracts huge ratings, is expected to return in 2009.

Celebrity Big Brother sparked huge controversy earlier this year when a record 54,000 viewers complained at the allegedly racist bullying of Bollywood star Shilpa Shetty by the likes of Jade Goody and Danielle Lloyd.

Gordon Brown, then visiting India, was drawn into the row.

Channel 4 was forced to broadcast apologies ahead of the start of the current eighth series of Big Brother, following an Ofcom ruling which revealed that further instances of racial abuse had occurred but not been shown to the public.

The decision also comes as this year’s series of Big Brother is failing to make as big a splash as usual, even though it has still attracted healthy ratings.

Not running Celebrity Big Brother will mean 29 hours of new programmes will be needed to fill the gap in January.
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Jodie Marsh, who was given a hard time by fellow contestants last year, has said she never wants to speak about the show again.

The model broke down on tears several times after being relentlessly attacked by TV host Michael Barrymore and Respect MP George Galloway on the show.

She summed up her feelings in an interview with Sky News earlier this year.

“They voted Michael Barrymore as the runner-up,” Marsh said.

“I couldn’t believe it. They voted Michael Barrymore second when everyone had watched him bully me for the last week on TV.

“My first thought was that I just hate Britain – I hated Britons. The country is really screwed in the head. How could they do that?”

Comedian Jack Dee won the first series of Celebrity Big Brother in 2001. Other winners since it became an annual event have included Mark Owen, Bez, non-celebrity Chantelle Houghton, and Shetty.

The show, which would have been the sixth series next year, has also featured appearances from names like Michael Barrymore, George Galloway and Pete Burns.

Source: Sky News

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