Channel 4 defends BB7's formula changes

Channel 4 director of programmes Kevin Lygo has defended the changes to the formula of Big Brother 7, stressing the need to keep the show fresh.

At the Edinburgh International Television Festival he admitted that not all series of the show could be expected to be up to the same high standard, but maintained that "this was a particularly good Big Brother."

"When it's going well?it has lots of viewers, young viewers, everybody talks about it and it's all over the papers," he continued. "It's a fascinating thing. It is an established summer event, a bit like Wimbledon, and like Wimbledon some years are a bit sh*t and you can?t remember who won and some years it's brilliant."

Despite wide criticism of the producers' decision to meddle with the format and allow evicted housemates to re-enter the competition, Lygo explained that the show must evolve to keep it fresh and unpredictable. "If we did the same thing every year?it would be boring and no-one would watch it?it adapts and changes and morphs into a different kind of beast every time."

Asked whether there is a finite shelf-life for the premise of the show, he said: "I think that part of my job is to, like an Olympic flame, I have to preserve it and hand it on?[and] there's no reason it can't keep running every summer for ever."

Finally, he also acknowledged that the series had a longer run than usual, spanning thirteen weeks rather than the nine weeks of the first four series. "It was the longest Big Brother," he observed, "[and] I think this is as long as we're ever going to do it."