British television

I've harped on British programming before, but now it's getting ridiculous in an all new way.

On Channel 4's nightly news yesterday, there were three main stories. Besides the 80-mph gusts that knocked down buildings and trees and killed seven people, and the station's continuing coverage of global warming, live from Antarctica (and let's not forget Princess Anne's interview down there, since she's such an expert on climate change and all), the big news of the night was the "Celebrity Big Brother" debacle.

Haven't been following this sordid affair? To summarize, some of the C-list inhabitants of the studio bunker, who are mostly of the white trash variety (notably Jade), have been saying some rather unflattering things about Shilpa, an Indian actress. Could be that Shilpa's the most attractive person down there and that Jade's career is in the toilet, but in any case, charges of racism are being thrown around, Carphone Warehouse has pulled its sponsorship of the program, and some 4,500 complaints have been recorded, a station record. There was an eviction tonight, but the usual crowds were not permitted to gather around the exit and heckle the loser. Wonder why. (See http://www.channel4.com/news/special-reports/special-reports-storypage.jsp?id=4408 for further details.)

And I thought American Idol generated a lot of media flak...