Celebrity Big Brother 2007 (UK)

Celebrity Big Brother 2007 (UK)

Celebrity Big Brother 2007, also known as Celebrity Big Brother 5, was the highly controversial fifth series of the British reality television series Celebrity Big Brother. The series was broadcast on Channel 4 in the UK (also on S4C in Wales), and involved a number of celebrities, referred to as 'housemates', who live in the Big Brother House with no contact with the outside world. The series saw the return of Jade Goody, who became a celebrity after appearing on the third regular series of Big Brother in 2002, arriving with her boyfriend and mother, it was the first series where family members could enter the house together.

The series launched on 3 January 2007 and ran for 26 days – though originally planned to only last 25 days – with the finale on 29 January 2007. The launch show peaked at 8.2 million viewers, making it the second most-watched launch in Big Brother history. As in earlier series, Davina McCall presented the main Channel 4 show. Dermot O'Leary presented Celebrity Big Brother's Little Brother and Celebrity Big Brother's Big Brain. Russell Brand presented Celebrity Big Brother's Big Mouth, this would be Brand's last appearance as presenter. Celebrity Big Brother Diary Room Uncut, and live streaming also returned on the Official Channel 4 website and also on E4 at selected times. It was the first Celebrity Big Brother series to be shown in the 16:9 widescreen format.

On 16 January 2007, this series had attracted the largest ever number of public complaints to the UK broadcasting watchdog Ofcom about a Big Brother series. The complaints received detailed concerns that housemate Shilpa Shetty had been subjected to bullying. Goody, Danielle Lloyd and Jo O'Meara's behaviour towards Shetty sparked widespread anger and demonstrations in India, where the alleged racism was reported on the news, and led Big Brother's main sponsor Carphone Warehouse to suspend its sponsorship of the show. As of 19 January 2007, a Channel 4 spokesman agreed that participants should be made aware of the controversy, probably explaining the recent explanations and apologies tendered by the housemates and their complete lack of surprise after learning about the latest eviction. One event in this series was a technical fault that affected voting lines in the eviction between Cleo Rocos, Dirk Benedict, Ian Watkins, O'Meara and Shetty. Everyone who voted was offered a refund. Any unclaimed money would be donated to charity.

On 28 January 2007, Shetty was voted the winner of Celebrity Big Brother 5 with 63% of the final vote. Due to the furore, Celebrity Big Brother did not return until 2009; in 2008, Celebrity Big Brother was replaced by the much less publicized Big Brother: Celebrity Hijack which was broadcast on E4 only.

No housemates from this series appeared in Ultimate Big Brother. As of 2013, two housemates have since passed away, Goody died in her sleep on 22 March 2009 aged 27, and Ken Russell died on 27 November 2011 at the age of 84.