Bye-bye, Big Brother!

Big Brother's days are numbered. Channel 4 confirmed today that their long-running reality show will come to an end after its eleventh series next summer. Celebrity Big Brother is also being axed after its next series in January. The channel stand to free up £50 million to spend in other areas, which they'll need to fill a 200-hour gap in its summer schedule...

Kevin Lygo, Channel 4's Director of Television:

"Big Brother is still commercially viable but it's at a level now where the new programmes we commission, if we're optimistic, can do as well. If we were a purely commercial station, we probably wouldn't be axing it, but beating at the heart of C4 is a desire to do new things. We ought to be able to bring a new range of shows in that get 2 to 3 million viewers. The audience is very discerning and we owe it to them to give them new stuff. The channel's always gambled commercially. The creative challenge is more interesting than a sure commercial bland bet."

"Cancelling Big Brother does not solve Channel 4's funding issues, this year we've nearly £125m less to spend on programmes than we did a couple of years ago and budgets for next year may have to be reduced further. However, assuming advertising revenues stop deteriorating at some point, we should have greater flexibility in how we spend our commissioning budget. The significant sums that have been committed to Big Brother in the past should now be available to boost budgets in genres, such as drama, that have had to be cut back sharply during the downturn."

I'm not surprised by this news. I even welcome it, speaking as a loyal Big Brother fan who's still watching the show. Fact is, BB has run its course, even if there's still much to enjoy about it. Anyway, take heart BB anoraks: Big Brother is the kind of malleable format that isn't likely to disappear forever. I wouldn't be surprised if a digital channel pick it up from Endemol for a knock-down price^*, or it's revived in 10 years time.

This is all great news if you hate Big Brother, though. According to Broadcast, Channel 4 are already planning to increase their drama budget as a result of Big Brother's cancellation, from £10m to £20m in 2011.

* Update: Five, Sky1 and ITV2 have now ruled out bidding for Big Brother's format when it becomes available in 2011.