[James]

From Media Guardian

Sun offers £50k for Big Brother sex

Ciar Byrne
Tuesday May 20, 2003

The Sun is trying to push the boundaries of taste and turn Big Brother 4 into "Big Bonker" by offering a £50,000 bootie to the first couple to have sex on live TV.

While there has been action aplenty between the sheets in international versions of the reality TV show, British Big Brother has so far seen nothing more than a few fumbles beneath the covers.

Now, in an effort to keep up with its European cousins who have already witnessed Big Brother sex, the Sun is offering a generous bounty for the first couple to "get it on".

Editor Rebekah Wade hopes that now it has thrown down the gauntlet, the fourth series - which kicks off on Friday - will indeed live up to the newspaper's prediction that it will be "the raunchiest so far".

Today's offer, however, includes a number of caveats designed to ensure the paper's interests are maintained.

First it made plain the reward did not extend to homosexuals. "The rules are simple - we will give £50,000 to the first Big Brother boy-girl bonk," it said in plain English.

And secondly it might pay out even if there is some doubt over whether sex actually took place. Sun readers will be asked to decide in a telephone poll whether a couple were "making it or faking it".

Jade Goody and PJ Ellis in the third series of the Channel 4 show and Paul Clarke and Helen Adams in series two set tongues wagging with some steamy bedroom action - but neither couple actually had sex.

Today's offer marks the start of a new circulation battle between the Sun and the Mirror, which last year positioned itself as the official "anti-Big Brother paper" as part of its bid to transform itself into a "serious" read.

Holland, the home of the hugely successful format, was also the first country where housemates had sex.

Earlier this month on the French Big Brother, Eleanor Legge-Bourke, the cousin of former royal nanny Tiggy Legge-Bourke, was filmed apparently having sex with a fellow contestant.

Housemates have also had sex on the Swedish, Norwegian, Australian, Italian and Belgian versions of the show.

There were a record number of applications for contestants for the fourth series, which will run for nine weeks, with more than 10,000 people sending in home videos.

Channel 4 is hoping to repeat the success of last year's show, which achieved the best ratings yet and generated more money than ever through text messaging and telephone voting.

However, last year's tabloid coverage noticeably dwindled, with the Daily Mirror declaring itself the "ant-Big Brother" paper. Today's challenge suggests the Sun at least has revived its interest in the show.

The newspaper also called on the friends, family and former boyfriends and girlfriends of any of this year's 12 contestants to contact the paper, saying it will pay for "stories, pictures and useful information

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That sounds like prostitution if you ask me. Tasteless. The tabloids continue to miss the point about why people watch Big Brother I think.