Jade Goody, seen following her eviction from the Celebrity Big Brother house in 2007, shot to fame through her association with the British edition of the reality TV series. (Channel 4/Associated Press)Big Brother has fallen out of favour in the U.K., with Britain's Channel 4 announcing that the forthcoming 11th edition will be the pioneering reality show's last.
The controversial reality program — in which contestants are confined to a house rigged with microphones and cameras and compete to avoid eviction — has reached a "natural end," said Kevin Lygo, Channel 4's director of television.
The British version of the international franchise started in the U.K. in 2000, just after the debut of an American edition and as the reality TV genre began its rise in popularity. It spawned a "celebrity" version and turned a few of its most outrageous contestants into household names.
However, like other international editions, British Big Brother has also been plagued by controversy.
One notorious competitor, Jade Goody, shot to fame after taking part in Big Brother 3, but the public turned on the outspoken, working class woman when she was involved in racist bullying of a fellow contestant in the 2007 edition of Celebrity Big Brother.
Goody, who eventually apologized to contestant Shilpa Shetty, made headlines again in 2008 when she was diagnosed with cervical cancer and chose to allow reality TV cameras to document her decline. She died in March.
According to Channel 4, ratings for the U.K. show peaked at about eight million viewers in 2002 (the year Goody first appeared) but had recently fallen to about two million.
With files from The Associated Press
