Word: bbc
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...provoking the kind of controversy that still hooks big audiences. Controversy is, of course, hard to control. Channel 4's last run of Celebrity Big Brother sparked riots in India after Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty was subjected to racial abuse from fellow contestants. Earlier this year, The Verdict, a BBC reality show, brought together a jury of celebrities, including the novelist, former politician and jailbird Jeffrey Archer, to rule on a fictionalized rape case. It attracted heavy criticism for trivializing a serious subject, and viewing figures were paltry...
...shock tactics don't grab viewers, star power often will. That's the thinking that drives the competition between the BBC and other broadcasters to sign and retain big-name talent. A recent hit for the BBC, a science-fiction-infused detective series called Life on Mars, made for the BBC by the independent production company Kudos Film & Television, won over viewers with its originality and an unstarry cast. It's an exception in an era when schedules at the BBC and at commercial broadcasters buckle under the weight of leaden fare built to showcase stars or to reprise themes...
...Graham Stuart avers that broadcasters do need stars. He co-founded So Television with Graham Norton, an Irish-born comedian who fronts BBC chat shows and game shows. Norton "is paid a lot of money by the BBC," says Stuart, but "what we're doing here is show business and everything relies on a small number of talented people who are stars. They're the reason people will switch on." He adds: "If Lord Reith, a cranky old Presbyterian, could use the entertainment word, then other people should be able...
...Another cranky presbyterian seems anything but entertained by the BBC. At a September press conference in Downing Street, Gordon Brown gestured to a journalist near the front of the throng, indicating that it was his turn at the microphone. As the journalist identified himself, Brown motioned him to stop. The press conference had barely begun and the Prime Minister had already answered questions from four BBC correspondents. Now here was a fifth. Brown didn't care that each journalist represented different BBC outlets catering to different audiences: to him, the BBC was the BBC and enough was enough...
...There's been little love lost between the BBC and the government since the 2003 clash over claims made, in an unscripted on-air exchange between John Humphrys and reporter Andrew Gilligan, that a dossier making the case for the Iraq war had been "sexed up." This led to a judicial inquiry after the source for Gilligan's story, government scientist David Kelly, committed suicide. Strained relations with the government probably did not directly affect license-fee negotiations, but add to the sense that the once-beloved Auntie Beeb has become the relative nobody wants to sit next...