[Red Moon]

Big Brother 3 sold to Polish TV network

Polish viewers will get the chance to enjoy Big Brother 3, the 2002 show that launched Jade Goody's media career, after producer Endemol sold the entire 2002 series of Channel 4's reality show to one of the country's broadcasters.

The TVN network in Poland has snapped up the full series of Channel 4's Big Brother 3, which aired in 2002 and saw Kate Lawler win, as well as 2003's Big Brother 4, won by devout Christian Cameron Stout.

At the time Big Brother 3 was seen as the most outrageous series of the reality format so far, although it is now looked backed on as a more innocent period for the show after last year's Celebrity Big Brother race row rocked Channel 4.

Goody - who eventually came fourth - was pilloried in the tabloids for appearing naked on the show and her lack of general knowledge when she asked questions such as "Rio de Janeiro, ain't that a person?" and "Where's East Angular though? I thought that was abroad."

She had to be given extra security when she was evicted because of the campaign against her, although she turned the tables by becoming a media star and ended up becoming the first UK Big Brother millionaire.

However, Goody's career nosedived after she was embroiled in the Celebrity Big Brother race row last year.

Big Brother 3 was the highest rating of the eight series of the show broadcast by Channel 4, with 9.4 million viewers watching the finale when Lawler won on July 26, 2002 - nearly 50% of the available audience. Channel 4's overall audience share that day, 22.8%, remains its highest ever daily rating.

The 2002 series also proved a phone and text voting bonanza for Endemol and Channel 4, with 22.7 million eviction votes cast across the series and a whopping 8.5 million on the night of the final alone.

Big Brother producer Endemol has concluded the sale of the two Big Brother series to TVN at the Mip TV programme market in Cannes this week.

It is thought to be the first time a foreign broadcaster has bought an entire series of the UK version of Big Brother, and is even more surprising given that Big Brother 3 and 4 were broadcast several years ago.

The American version of the show is more regularly sold abroad, with the eighth series - currently airing on CBS - bought by E4 in the UK, which is broadcasting it in peak time.

A spokesman for Endemol said the 2002 and 2003 UK series were the latest versions to have their international rights cleared and be available for sale.

"The Polish broadcaster will be showing the full series," he said. "We have done ready-made deals for Big Brother before, but it is normally for the US series while it is on air. This is fairly unusual."

TVN is one of Poland's main commercial television networks and is available terrestrially and by satellite. TVN also airs internationals shows including So You Think You Can Dance, Without a Trace, Smallville and Men in Trees.

Source: The Guardian