The Hindu : Front Page : Channel 4 in another row over Shilpa Shetty

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Saturday, Jan 27, 2007
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Channel 4 in another row over Shilpa Shetty

Hasan Suroor

LONDON: Channel 4 was on Friday embroiled in another controversy over Shilpa Shetty after it flagged up a telephone number for viewers to vote to save her from eviction from the Celebrity Big Brother show.

Normally, viewers are given a number to vote to evict a participant.

The channel said it was a "genuine" mistake caused by "human error'' and denied that it was in any way intended to manipulate Ms. Shetty's survival in a bid to boost ratings, given the interest in her following the race row between her and Jade Goody.

All votes received on that number were cancelled and the process of voting was started afresh after the mistake was discovered.

Viewers who rang up that number have been promised a refund, and the channel announced that proceeds from the fresh poll would go to charity.

Ms. Shetty is among those nominated for eviction in a vote on Friday night (January 26) before the finals on Sunday. There were suggestions that the "mistake" was a covert attempt to help Ms. Shetty emerge the winner on Sunday.

Ms. Goody was evicted last week in a head-to-head count with Ms. Shetty.

But Endemol, the production house behind Big Brother, and Channel 4 strongly denied any mischief and pointed out that the voiceover had correctly said that the number was meant for eviction.

The embarrassment came after a senior Channel 4 executive admitted that the Shetty-Goody clashes had saved the programme from being axed.

"This was in danger of becoming the most boring BB that we'd had in many years — maybe ever — and we were thinking "Oh dear, what we can do?'" Kevin Lygo, director of television at Channel 4, told Broadcast magazine while denying that the row had been manufactured to attract viewers.

Ms. Goody suffered another setback when Harper Collins announced that it would not be printing a paperback edition of her biography in the "light of recent events". A perfume sold in her name has already been removed from shops and her career is said to be in free fall after her allegedly racist behaviour on Celebrity Big Brother.

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