Celebrity Big Brother returns to the UK; cast will be "chucked out" for racism, bad behavior – reality blurred
by Andy Dehnart
5 Jan. 2009 | 6:27 am
The sixth season of Channel 4’s Celebrity Big Brother debuted Friday night in the UK, after being cancelled last year over racist taunting of a houseguest and other incidents during the 2007 season. (A poorly received spin-off, Big Brother: Celebrity Hijack, did air last January on E4.)
Racist language or similar behavior won’t be tolerated, producers said. Executive producer Phil Edgar-Jones told the Guardian the new cast members “are not stupid. They know if they say anything like that they will be chucked out.”
And executive producer Sharon Powers said that producers “have spoken to the celebrities. If they have not seen it already we have explained to them the things that happened in the last Celebrity Big Brother and made the rules really clear to them, what sort of language won’t be tolerated and unacceptable behaviour. We have spoken to all of them in detail and they are all very clear what the boundaries are. I think they have all seen [the show]. We have told anyone who hasn’t seen it to go and look at it on YouTube.”
The 11 new housemates include Coolio, Verne Troyer and La Toya Jackson, all of whom have previously appeared on US reality shows.