For Better or Werts : TV Worth Watching

REALITY CHECK: Bye-bye, 'Big Brother'

Could it be that the lowest of the low has actually hit rock bottom?

Britain's hit Big Brother "reality" franchise is being dropped by Channel 4 next year after a 10-year run. It's part of a "creative overhaul" described in this Financial Times article as C4's decision to focus "more on its public-service broadcasting responsibilities." Channel 4's own announcement cited its "public remit to champion new forms of creativity."

Which apparently don't involve locking strangers in a house under constant camera surveillance and waiting for the bad behavior to begin.

How will Britain survive without all the backstabbing betrayals, violent brawling, racist bullying, personal spitting, sex-for-cameras and other obnoxious activity devised to turn oneself into a reality show "celebrity"?

Oh, wait. Britain won't go without. Some other channel will doubtless pick up the Big Brother franchise and let the humiliations start anew. But at least a "prestige" broadcaster like Channel 4 has said enough is enough when it comes to "unscripted" seaminess. Could a U.S. broadcast network be far behind?

Probably. (Not.)

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Diane Werts has been glued to the tube since she can remember, growing up in a household where the TV came on first thing in the morning and stayed on till bedtime and beyond. She worked for the USA Film Festival, then for The Dallas Morning News writing about everything from Shakespeare to macrame art to rock music (and has the hearing loss to prove it). She moved to New York's Newsday to edit their glossy TV magazine, then returned to writing about television, specializing in its stranger permutations. She's a past president of the Television Critics Association.

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