[Greg!]

You couldn’t make it up

https://www.thesun.co.uk/tvandshowbi...ther-comeback/

THE battle for ratings can be brutal, but now it’s tougher than ever.

And I can reveal MTV had hatched a sneaky plan to steal Channel 4’s thunder after it announced it would air Big Brother’s Best Shows Ever Show, featuring the most memorable moments of the series.

MTV hatched a sneaky plan to steal Channel 4’s thunder after it announced it would air Big Brother’s Best Shows Ever Show (pictured original Big Brother host Davina McCall)
Insiders revealed how media company Viacom, which owns MTV and Channel 5, saw the huge reaction of Big Brother fans and devised a copycat plan that would have led to a battle between the channels.

As Channel 4 can only air highlights of Celebrity Big Brother and the civilian series from 2000 to 2010, when it was broadcast on the channel, it meant Viacom had eight years of the show to play with as it ran on Channel 5 from 2011 to 2018.

A TV insider said: “It was a genius idea by Channel 5. It was pretty cut-throat but that’s the nature of telly.

“After discovering what Channel 4 had planned, bosses at Channel 5 decided to attempt to get the rights of their series from [media company] Endemol.

Channel 5 decided to attempt to get the rights of their series (hosted by Emma Willis) from media company Endemol
“The format would have been almost identical and was planned to air on MTV, which has the perfect target audience.

“Like Channel 4’s show, it would include highlights from the Celebrity version and the civilian one.

“But the bit that would have led to mutiny was that Viacom had planned to air their version on the same day and time as the E4 series, meaning it would have been a direct battle.

“It was fair game but it would have been seen as playing dirty by everyone in the industry.”

Channel 5 confirmed to me that it had considered the move but decided against it.

The insider added: “Negotiating the rights to the Channel 5 series was lengthy and they’d have to factor in speaking to the contributors to see if they were happy for their scenes to be shown again.

“No one is saying it couldn’t happen in the future. But that naughty plan is out of the window for now.”

It’s a shame but I think Channel 4 will be breathing a big sigh of relief . . . they need those ratings hits more than ever.