THE battle for ratings can be brutal, but now it’s tougher than ever. And I can reveal MTV had hatched a sneaky plan to steal Channel 4’s thunder after it announced it would air Big Brother’s Best Shows Ever Show, featuring the most memorable moments of the series.
Insiders revealed how media company Viacom, which owns MTV and Channel 5, saw the huge reaction of Big Brother fans and devised a copycat plan that would have led to a battle between the channels.
As Channel 4 can only air highlights of Celebrity Big Brother and the civilian series from 2000 to 2010, when it was broadcast on the channel, it meant Viacom had eight years of the show to play with as it ran on Channel 5 from 2011 to 2018.