U.K.'s Channel Four Won't Be Looking for Another `Big Brother' TV Series

Channel Four Television Corp., the U.K. publicly-owned broadcaster that’s commercially funded, won’t attempt to replace the “Big Brother” television series with a similar show as the contract ends.

The broadcaster, which opted not to renew the rights deal for the show after 2010, will aim for a “more balanced” schedule, with a number of “quite big hits,” Chief Executive Officer David Abraham told a committee of U.K. lawmakers, according to a statement today.

“Big Brother was the kind of show that happens in the television industry once in a decade and we should not be looking for the next Big Brother,” Abraham said.

The series, which started in the U.K. in 2000, reached more than 10 million viewers. The series showed the life of a group of contestants who live isolated from the outside world in a house monitored by cameras and microphones. London-based Channel Four will trial new programs at the beginning of next year, Abraham said.

The lawmakers said today they “do underestimate the size of the challenge facing Channel 4” as it tries to retain ratings.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jonathan Browning in London jbrowning9@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Vidya Root at vroot@bloomberg.net.