BB lives on

Big Brother will continue to shock British fans for another three years after Channel 4 signed a 60 million new deal with makers Endemol.

12:36 15 April 2005

Big Brother will continue to shock British fans for another three years after Channel 4 signed a 60 million new deal with makers Endemol.

The deal, reported in the Daily Star, means that the spy-on-the-wall series and its celebrity spin-off remain on our screens until 2008.

Dutch production company Endemol has rolled out the hit show across 23 countries worldwide, thrilling audiences with its blend of the saucy and the very strange.

Germaine Greer, who walked out of Celebrity Big Brother earlier this year, dismissed the show as bullying and said it treated contestants "irresponsibly".

But the huge audiences attracted by the show - more than seven million tuned in for the opening series last year - and the seemingly unending supply of people willing to enter the house every year have secured its future.

"This deal is a lot of money but Big Brother is Channel 4's biggest show for ratings and advertising income and fills up its schedules for more than three months a year," an industry insider told the Daily Star.

The new contract reportedly gives Channel 4 all rights to the show in Britain, including merchandising, interactive and mobile rights, which suggests it will soon recoup its investment.

Recent reports revealed that series six, which hits our screens this summer, will see a celebrity thrown into the house to shake it up.