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| Version 1 | Version 2 |
|---|---|
| Big Brother to bow out next year | Big Brother to bow out next year |
| (10 minutes later) | |
| Channel 4's final series of reality TV show Big Brother will be broadcast next year, it has announced. | |
| The station, home of the programme since it began in 2000, will honour its deal to screen series 11 next summer. | The station, home of the programme since it began in 2000, will honour its deal to screen series 11 next summer. |
| Channel 4's director of television Kevin Lygo said the show "had reached a natural end point on Channel 4 and it's time to move on". | |
| Big Brother has suffered from falling ratings in recent years, with the current run the least watched. | Big Brother has suffered from falling ratings in recent years, with the current run the least watched. |
| 'Huge hole' | |
| The latest series has picked up about two million viewers per show, compared with an audience high of eight million in 2002. | |
| Speaking at the broadcaster's new schedule launch, Channel 4 head Julian Bellamy said: "Big Brother has been our most influential and popular programme over the last decade." | |
| But he added that "inevitably we're both excited and ever-so-slightly terrified by the prospect of getting by without it". | |
| He added that the loss of Big Brother would leave a "huge hole" in the station's schedules, but would prompt "the most fundamental creative overhaul" in Channel 4 history. | |
| The programme thrust contestants including Jade Goody, "Nasty" Nick Bateman and Kate Lawler into the spotlight. | The programme thrust contestants including Jade Goody, "Nasty" Nick Bateman and Kate Lawler into the spotlight. |
| Big Brother also spawned a celebrity spin-off, with one more series expected to be screened at the beginning of 2011. | Big Brother also spawned a celebrity spin-off, with one more series expected to be screened at the beginning of 2011. |
| The show may not disappear from British TV screens, with the prospect of producers Endemol securing a deal with another broadcaster. |