Five Suspends Brainteaser Amidst Phone-In Controversy
Five has become the latest broadcaster to suspend programming involving premium rate phone-ins, after Endemol UK told the channel about issues surrounding its quiz show Brainteaser.
As well as the daily quiz show, the suspension will affect Quiz Call on Five and Five US and competitions in and around programming.
“We are shocked and disappointed and wish to apologise unreservedly to our viewers,” said Five’s chief executive, Jane Lighting in a statement.
“The production company involved has failed to meet the high standards we demand of our suppliers.
“We have decided to suspend any output which involves any premium rate services and to appoint an external auditor, though we have found no evidence of any issues involving any programmes other than Brainteaser.”
Responding to recent public concerns, Five has been reviewing its premium rate services to ensure producers comply with the law and ICSTIS and Ofcom codes.
As part of this on-going review Five wrote to all its production companies and suppliers reminding them of their legal and regulatory obligations in this area.
Following this communication, Five was contacted yesterday evening by Cheetah Television, a production subsidiary of Endemol UK and maker of Brainteaser, who raised an issue regarding this programme.
Endemol UK then confirmed to Five that irregularities had been found regarding the newly introduced “Quickfire” element of the quiz where viewers are given a set time, approximately five minutes, to solve a word jumble puzzle.
Endemol UK outlined five separate incidents, dating from January until Tuesday this week. When the five-minute window and the phone lines had closed, Cheetah Television, working through a list of callers supplied by the phone service provider, were unable to find a caller with the correct answer before the winner was due to be announced on air.
Instead of informing viewers that no winning caller had been found in the time period available, the production company put fictional names on screen as “winners” and on one occasion a member of the production team went on air as a “winning” contestant.
Five has said it is currently ascertaining how many callers have been affected on these five separate occasions and will be giving them a full refund of the cost of the call.
Earlier this week, ITV suspended all premium rate phone-ins and interactive services, and took digital quiz channel, ITV Play, off-air (see ITV Suspends Premium Rate Phone-Ins).
This came after the commercial broadcaster admitted to overcharging red button users by a combined total of £200,000 on eviction votes for The X Factor (see ITV Joins Vote Scandal List For X Factor Overcharging).
BBC One show Saturday Kitchen (see Saturday Kitchen Goes Live After Phone-In Mistake) and Channel 4’s Richard & Judy (see Richard & Judy Phone Quiz Controversy Takes New Twist) have also been embroiled in the controversy.
It was announced today that Five made a €1 million (£680,000) loss in 2006, with its owner, RTL, putting this down to the slowdown in the advertising market and the cost of launching the two digital channels, Five Life and Five US (see Five Makes €1 Million Loss).
Yesterday Lisa Opie announced the broadcaster was to launch an initiative to enable viewers to directly pitch programme ideas to commissioners to arrest the channel’s decline in viewers (see Five’s Opie Announces Plan To Boost Programming).
Five: 020 7550 5555 www.five.tv