[Scarlett.]

BIG Brother is to be scrapped by Channel 4 after this year's ratings disaster, The Sun can reveal.

The axe comes as barely two million tune into the tenth series of the reality show - compared to eight million only a few years ago.

A telly insider last night confirmed an official announcement will be made as early as Friday, saying: "The reality is people are BORED with it. Even at Channel 4 the vibe among staff is that if you like Big Brother you're not cool.

Dull ... Marcus in current show

Dull ... Marcus in current show

CHANNEL 4 / REX

"If the people commissioning the show don't think it's cool, what hope is there?"

The "bold experiment" that was launched in 2000 went on to make stars of housemates such as Jade Goody, Chantelle Houghton and the original Mr "Nasty" Nick Bateman.

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But this year's dull crop - including mutton-chopped Wolverine lookalike Marcus - have proved the death knell.

One final series - the 11th - will be screened on C4 next year because of the channel's £180million deal with the show's makers Endemol.

But after that it will only go ahead if the production house can flog it to a rival channel.

At its peak Big Brother was a huge money-spinner - generating profits of £70million a year.

But insiders now say it is only just "washing its face" - industry speak for covering its costs.

They accuse the show of failing to win over the "Facebook generation" after being watered down to avoid controversy following the Shilpa Shetty race row on the celebrity version.

The source said: "The truth is nobody's talking about Big Brother any more."

Fans of Celebrity Big Brother are likely to still get their fix of it in January - since that is also part of C4's current deal.

The Sun

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage...is-boring.html