Duncan And Lygo Defend Celebrity Big Brother
Channel 4 heads, Andy Duncan and Kevin Lygo, have fought back against the controversy that has blown up around the Celebrity Big Brother racism row.
Duncan and Lygo claimed that the furore which erupted over the bullying of Bollywood superstar Shilpa Shetty was good as it sparked a wider debate about racism.
Some commentators felt that the broadcaster should have acted sooner to defuse the tensions in the house, with Duncan facing criticism over his response to the confrontation, but Lygo, Channel 4 director of television, was adamant that the handling of the show was correct: “I think we did react perfectly well. I don’t think looking back at it we’d say: ‘If only we’d done that’ or ‘if only we’d done this.'”
In an interview with Broadcast, Lygo said that although the racism accusations had not been engineered, it had helped the programme to attract a larger audience than it might have done: “Let’s put this in perspective. This was in danger of being the most boring BB that we’d had in many years – maybe ever – and we were thinking ‘oh dear – what can we do?’
“And then suddenly from the cooking of a chicken going wrong this argument erupted which was taken on by the media and erupted into this extraordinary story.”
Viewing figures shot up during the height of the controversy (see Viewers Flock To Race Row Big Bro), with the show attracting a peak audience of 7.6 million adults for the Jade Goody eviction show.
Regarding the board meeting which took place this week and discussed the repercussions of the row (see Big Brother Controversy Could Force C4 To Rethink Remit), both executives insisted that no staff are in danger of losing their jobs, although the board was unanimous in its call for a review so that history is not repeated.
Complaints about the current series of Celebrity Big Brother have, according to the Guardian, reached a massive 46,700.
Coming just days after the Celebrity Big Brother racism row blew up, another Channel 4 reality show, Shipwrecked, also received complaints over racist comments made by one of its contestants (see New Reality Racism Row For Channel 4).
Lygo said: “We can’t let the BB furore interfere with the independent commissioning, scheduling and broadcasting of programmes that are absolutely fine in their own right.”
Duncan was certain that the racism row had not damaged the Channel 4 bid to secure its public subsidy, saying: “Politicians are more than capable of separating the furore about BB from long-term policy decisions.”
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