Record Interaction for BB

Writing on the Editor's Website,Rod McKenzie says that coverage of the Big Brother bust up between Jade and Shipla produced record listener interaction on Radio's 1 and 1Extra.

What is particually interesting is how listener opinion changed over a period of time. The majority of listeners on Radio 1 thought it was a case of bullying rather than racism,1extra having a significant ethic listener base was of the other opinion but as the row continued there was a trend for more sympathy for Jade.

Staying with the topic,Guardian Media is reporting a rather bullish interview with Kevin Lygo in Broadcast magazine where he claims

I think we made the right decisions all the time. "I think we did react perfectly well. I don't think looking back at it we'd say, 'if only we'd done that' or 'if only we'd done this'."

Not only is he sticking to his guns but it seems that this controversy has given a boost to Channel 4

"Let's put this in perspective. This was in danger of being the most boring BB that we'd had in many years - maybe ever - and we were thinking 'oh dear - what can we do?' And then suddenly from the cooking of a chicken going wrong this argument erupted which was taken on by the media and erupted into this extraordinary story."

The BBC meanwhile has been critised for leading with the Big Brother story on the World Tonight,reveals Alistair Burnett its editor.Listeners seem to be critical that the serious nature of the programme should have meant the precedence of other stories.

Burnett reflects that perhaps the story on the night of Jade's eviction may have had too much exposure,it was vying that night with the Ruth Turner arrest for prominence.He gives the criteria here

which story was the most significant - a row that appears to lift the lid on racist attitudes or the arrest of a member of the prime minister's inner circle?

• which story was the freshest news - BB had been around all week, but Jade Goody was voted off the programme 20 minutes before air time, whereas Ruth Turner arrest was announced in mid-afternoon?

• how strong is the material we have on the story - a very good report from our reporter in Bermondsey on attitudes to Jade Goody's behaviour from her local area or strong criticism of the police from Lord Puttnam?

• and informing all of this we consider how a story fits with the agenda of The World Tonight, which aims to take a global, in depth, analytical approach, and whether our audience will be interested in itThere was not consensus among the team on this and we will take on board listeners’ complaints and will carry on discussing whether we got this one right for our programme and our audience.