Big Brother is watching Big Brother.
Australian lawmakers have been tuning into a risque late night edition of hit reality TV show Big Brother -- and they don't like what they're seeing.
Communications Minister Helen Coonan has ordered the country's television standards watchdog to take a look at Network Ten's fly-on-the wall series to see if it breaches a voluntary code of conduct that covers what networks can and can't air.
The show features a group of contestants who are sealed off in a house where their every move and comments are caught on cameras and microphones dotted around their temporary home.
An edited version of the day's events is broadcast every night and each week television viewers vote to evict one of the "housemates."
The last surviving contestant wins a cash prize that currently stands at A$750,000 (US$585,000).
Controversial scene
The probe came after heated debate broke out this week over scenes of full-frontal nudity aired in a weekly late-night spin-off called Big Brother Uncut.
In one scene, viewers saw a male contestant with his genitals exposed massaging a woman.
The uncut show, which is preceded by a raft of warnings and advertised as adults-only viewing, also features regular use of profanities and has shown contestants naked in the shower.
"It's mind-boggling banality," government lawmaker Paul Neville said yesterday. "I think it lowers the standard of Australian television."
Network Ten advertises the show, which airs at 9:40pm, as: "The naughtiest, skimpiest, downright dirtiest bits of Big Brother that we can't show you any earlier."
`Titillate'
Lawmaker Peter Lindsay, for one, does not want to see it all.
"Now we're not prudes, but this is something that needs a bit of community leadership," he said this week. "Channel Ten is just trying to titillate."
Big Brother is in its fifth season in Australia, airing every night of the week, and is a regular ratings winner for Network Ten.
Network Ten issued a statement yesterday apologizing to viewers who had been offended by the Uncut show.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese