Big Brother to attract C4’s ‘largest audience’

Channel 4 is this week expected to attract its largest audience to date, as viewers tune in to the final episode of cult TV show Big Brother on Friday night.

Media agency Optimedia, which predicts the final show will pull in more than 6 million viewers, bought the entire four-minute centre ad break more than six weeks ago to offer to its clients.

The decision on who wins the £70,000 prize money, out of Craig, Anna and Darren, will be announced at 10.45pm and then the programme will cut straight to the centre-break.

Optimedia trade director Clive Reed says: “We spotted early on that Big Brother was a tremendous success in terms of both size and profile of its audience. We decided it was a must-have for many of our clients.”

The agency has already signed up British Airways, which will top and tail the break, Renault Clio, Siemens and SC Johnson’s Dust & Go.

C4’s highest audience figure so far recorded is 5.7 million, also for Big Brother, on the night “Nasty Nick” was thrown out of the house last month. Last week’s show, in which Melanie was evicted, broke the record for the highest UK TV telephone vote in history, with 3.3 million callers.

The record was previously held by ITV’s The Monarchy Debate, with 2.6 million calls.