'Celebrity Big Brother 2007' Controversy

Industry observers regarded 'Celebrity Big Brother 2007' as one of the most controversial reality shows. They wondered whether Channel 4 would be able to profitably run such reality shows in the days ahead, given that its sponsors had also withdrawn support until such time as the 'racism' issue was resolved, and it was ensured that it would not crop up again. According to Tim Suter, Partner, Ofcom⁹, responsible for the regulation of content and certain standards¹⁰, "It is not a question of not being able to broadcast serious or challenging material, but if you are going to do that, you really need to make sure that the way you do it is appropriately handled - that you give the context, that you intervene if necessary, that you use fully the battery of tools that Big Brother has available to it."¹¹

The first 'Big Brother' television show was developed and shown in the Netherlands in September 1999. It was produced by John de Mol, a Dutch billionaire, and TV production company, Endemol, which had subsidiaries and joint ventures in other countries across the world. In the following year, a version was produced in the UK and subsequently several countries across the world started having their own 'Big Brother' shows (Refer to Exhibit I for the Rules of 'Big Brother').

'Celebrity Big Brother 2007' was the fifth series of the UK reality television series 'Celebrity Big Brother' (CBB) (Refer to Exhibit II for the logo of 'Celebrity Big Brother 2007' (UK)).