Facing the axe: Big Brother ratings have slumped again

The death knell for Big Brother may have been sounded after bookmakers slashed the odds on the Channel 4 show being axed.

It came as Australian TV bosses pulled the plug on their version of the reality show after a steep fall in ratings.

The UK run also has poor viewing figures compared to previous years as the nation tires of its contestants' desperate antics. 

Despite the fact that two have been evicted during the current series - one for spitting in someone's face and the other for making sinister threats - many viewers have simply ignored the show.

Monday night's episode managed to attract just 2.6million viewers and a 15 per cent share of the audience, down from the ten million Big Brother achieved in its heyday in 2003.

The programme's rapid decline has led to comparisons with the Australian version, which was dumped because it no longer surprises viewers.
Now bookmakers have claimed the UK show is down to 8-1, from 16-1, to be axed.

A spokesman for Ladbrokes said: "BB's fall from grace Down Under demonstrates that everything has a shelf life.

"It suggests the format is getting a bit tired."

Bosses Down Under even brought in former Baywatch star Pamela Anderson in a doomed attempt to revive their series, but it has still flopped.

Producers of the Channel 4 programme, aware last year's series was branded Big Bore, tried to take the series back to its outrageous worst this summer.

But this year's collection of attention seeking exhibitionists and would-be eccentrics, despite living up to billing, have failed to improve ratings.

The show has never fully recovered from the fiasco of the Celebrity Big Brother race row over the treatment of Bollywood star Shilpa Shetty last year.

Low note: Alexandra de Gale was thrown out of the house this year for her threatening behavior

The broadcaster was forced to broadcast a humiliating apology after the show sparked 55,000 complaints and derailed Gordon Brown's visit to India.

Contestants Jade Goody, Jo O'Meara and Danielle Lloyd were accused of 'racist' bullying of the Indian celebrity.

Channel 4 bosses dumped Celebrity Big Brother this year and replaced it with a new show call Big Brother: Celebrity Hijack, which proved unpopular.

Many senior executives at C4 are embarrassed that they have to rely on Big Brother to maintain much of the channel's ratings success.

Rock bottom: Jade Goody's attack on Shilpa Shetty in Celebrity Big Brother last year

But as its viewing figures tail off there will be a stronger case for dumping the show, which nearly cost top bosses at Channel 4 their jobs following the race row.

This year's series has been accused of sinking to a new low on at least two occasions.

First, contestant Alexandra De-Gale, 23,  was kicked off the show for threatening to set "gangster friends" on rival housemates and their families.

Then housemate Dennis McHugh, also 23, was ejected from the show after he spat in a housemate's face following an alcohol fuelled row. 

Last year contestant Emily Parr was removed from the Big Brother house for using a racially offensive word to a black housemate.

Desperate: Actress Pamela Anderson appeared on the Australian version of Big Brother, but even she couldn't salvage the diminishing ratings

Speaking about the decision to axe the Australian version, David Mott, the Ten Network chief programmer said: "The audience know how it works, the housemates know how it works."

Channel 4 has a deal with production company Endemol to keep the show on air until 2010. It first aired in the UK in 2000.

A spokesman for the show said: "We've got another two years on our contract. However for the time being we're focusing all our energies on the current series."

This ninth series of Big Brother had the worst ratings for a launch show, 5.3million, since 2000. It has also boasted the worst episode rating, 2million viewers, since 2004.

The series has also had the worst ever Friday interview episode. The first 40 days of the show are said to have been the worst performing since 2001.