[Mrluvaluva]

From Sky News

Channel 4 received nearly 1,000 complaints about last night's Big Brother episode - all saying Emily Parr should not have been evicted.

Evicted: Emily ParrThe 19-year-old drama student was thrown out of the house after she called black contestant Charley Uchea a "******".

Last night's show attracted an average of 4.6 million viewers - peaking at five million - which is the highest audience of the current series since launch night.

As well as 922 complaints backing Parr, the broadcaster also received 68 messages supporting its stance.

Media watchdog Ofcom received 140 complaints, but the nature of the calls was not revealed.

Instead of tonight's planned eviction, which has now been cancelled, two more men will enter the house.

Channel 4 bosses acted quickly after being damaged by the last series of Celebrity Big Brother, when they were accused of not taking allegations of racist abuse seriously enough.

The race row earlier this year involving Jade Goody, Danielle Lloyd, Jo O'Meara and Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty sparked over 44,000 complaints.

But Channel 4 bosses faced criticism again for deciding to screen the word in last night's highlights show - which it said was done to give context to the day's events.

A brief warning that it contained "racially offensive language and strong language" was given before the show started and the word is to be bleeped over in streaming on E4 and in any repeats.

Charley, Emily and Nicky Maxwell were standing in the garden at around 8.30pm on Wednesday night when the incident took place.

Charley started to stick out her stomach and Emily said: "You're pushing it out, you ******."

Both Charley and Nicky told her they were shocked by what she had said.

At 3am the following morning Emily was woken and called into the diary room, where she defended herself by saying she had not meant to be offensive.

Shilpa Shetty"Where I come from, it's just like a friendly term you know, making fun of people, being in a group, pally," she said.

She added: "It wasn't the smartest move to make. Oh my god, I'm so sorry. I am so sorry - I really didn't mean it offensively..."

Head of the Big Brother commissioning team for Channel 4, Angela Jain, said the word was used "carelessly rather than maliciously" but that it was "clearly racially offensive".

The Commission for Racial Equality (CRE) said: "Whichever way you look at it, the 'N' word is clearly offensive", but added that it was relieved Channel 4 had acted so quickly.

Pressure group Mediawatch condemned the decision to broadcast the offensive word.

National spokesman Dave Turtle said: "They shouldn't broadcast any material which is racially offensive. This will certainly undermine the programme and more importantly, cause resentment. It's very unhelpful."

Shilpa Shetty said: "I'm glad that Channel 4 has taken action. Well I'm really happy and I compliment them on the action they have taken."