[Loukas]

Control Freaks!!

CELEBRITY Big Brother chiefs are planning to SCRAP 24-hour coverage of the show — to avoid another fiasco like the Shilpa Shetty racism row.

And bosses will censor the footage viewers can see when the Channel 4 reality show returns on January 2.

The last series of Celeb BB was cancelled after the storm two years ago when Jade Goody, Danielle Lloyd and Jo O’Meara were accused of bullying Bollywood star Shilpa, 33.

A show source said: “Fans will be royally short-changed. What used to be a reality show has turned into a farce.

“They’ve scrapped the 24-hour feed for many reasons but the main one is to get more control.

“It’s now just an entertainment show where punters can see celebrities doing silly tasks.

“If the show isn’t 24 hours then it’s lost any caché it once had. Now it’s more like a watered-down version of I’m A Celebrity . . . Get Me Out Of Here! than anything else.”

Fans will still be able to watch live feed from the show for a few hours a day on Channel 4 and E4.

They can also see the main programme on Channel 4 and spin-off shows Big Brother’s Little Brother, Big Brother’s Big Mouth and Diary Room Uncut.

Our source added: “The spin-off shows are still around but there’s only about ten minutes of footage in each one.”

In previous years, viewers could watch celebrities round the clock using E4’s red button feature with a 15-minute delay on the live feed.

But bosses insisted they were making the changes in response to popular demand.

A spokesman for Channel 4 said: “Last summer we found that rather than watching live streaming on red button, viewers much preferred watching more bite-size video clips from that day’s action.

“During the series, there were almost 19million clips viewed — a 58 per cent increase.

“As they proved such a huge hit with fans, we’ve listened and responded to how viewers now consume Big Brother.

“We will still be showing all the other great shows that make up the Celebrity Big Brother experience.”

Jade, 27 — who is battling cervical cancer — publicly made up with Shilpa on Indian Big Brother this year.

Source - The Sun