[James]

Race row 'saved dull Big Brother'

The controversy over alleged racist bullying in Celebrity Big Brother saved the show from being dull, according to Channel 4 chief Kevin Lygo.

"This was in danger of being the most boring BB that we'd had in many years, maybe ever," the channel's director of television told Broadcast magazine.

Lygo admitted wondering "what can we do?" before the race row "erupted into this extraordinary story".

Broadcast reported that no jobs would be lost over the situation..........

..........'Right decisions'

Lygo, who was giving his first interview since the Big Brother row began, said he stood by the programme's producers.

"I think we made the right decisions all the time," he said. "I don't think looking back at it we'd say: 'If only we'd done that' or 'if only we'd done this.'"

Channel 4 chief executive Andy Duncan also stood by the programme, and denied it would harm the channel's campaign to secure new funds from the government.

"Politicians are more than capable of separating the furore about Big Brother from long-term policy decisions," he said.

Duncan has said Channel 4 urgently needs a new form government subsidy to replace the free broadcasting space it was given when it launched, and which has become increasingly redundant as viewers switch to digital.

Media watchdog Ofcom has received more than 40,000 complaints about the alleged racist bullying in the current series of Big Brother.

Duncan said Channel 4 regretted causing offence, but would not apologise for broadcasting the footage or sparking a debate on racism.

The broadcaster, which has faced calls to axe the show completely, was ordered to conduct a review of Big Brother by its board earlier this week.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6297969.stm



I'm amazed at that. How can they say the show was dull when it had barely started when the bullying started up (after the Goodys entered). They didn't give it a chance to be anything other than a hate-fest.

Sounds like they knew what they were doing with sending the Goodys in.