Celeb Big Brother Bows Out With A Bang
The Celebrity Big Brother house closed its doors last night as series three drew to an end, with Manchunian music man Bez striding to a surprise victory, watched by a peak of six million viewers.
The series enjoyed a strong performance in its last few days, with average audiences of around 4.5 million for the evictions of former Radio 1 DJ, Lisa I’Anson; supermodel Caprice and actor, Jeremy Edwards.
The series notched up a respectable average viewing figure of 4.1 million across its two-week run, a figure just below that of the last series. The show’s latest outing also failed to top the performance of its debut in 2001, which drew an average audience of just under 5 million.
Former Happy Mondays star, Bez, secured victory last night with 54% of the public vote, while bookies’ favourite, teenage rapper Kenzie, was shunted into second place at the last minute.
Last night’s viewing figures will please Channel 4 bosses, topping the show’s launch night peak of 5.3 million, to become Channel 4’s highest rating show of the year so far.
Elsewhere, the irreverent spin-off show Celebrity Big Brother’s Little Brother averaged audiences of 1.4 million, the highest rating episode being aired on 11 January, watched by a peak of 2.2 million, and featuring an interview with former housemate Germaine Greer.
Bez’s victory secured him a personal prize fund of £50,000, while the show raised over £262,000 for charity through more than a million phone, text and interactive TV votes. Viewers were charged 50p for each vote cast, with a total of 25p going towards good causes.
Channel 4 donated 16p from each vote to a group of charities chosen by the celebrities, while a further 9p was donated to the Asian tsunami relief effort (see Channel 4 Donates Big Brother Vote Revenue To Tsunami Relief).
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