British reality show to push the envelope.

So you think Big Brother has become too explicit…

British television is to sink to new lows with a reality game show based upon the exploits of a group of porn stars living in a Big Brother-style house. Private Stars, which has been inspired by Channel 4's hugely successful Big Brother series, centres on the experiences of five female porn models who are locked in a house with five male members of the public. The programme, which will run on cable and satellite television for 10 episodes next month, promises to go further than other reality programmes by offering “the real thing” in terms of sexual behaviour.

The contestants will be screened 24 hours a day as they produce their own X-rated porn film. The five men in the show, including one Briton, will be judged on their abilities to perform sexually with the women. Those judged to have done most poorly will be voted out, one by one, until a winner emerges. He will be awarded a full-time contract with a porn film producer.

Commissioned by the Bravo television channel, which is part of the British-based Telewest television company, the show will be produced by the Private Media Group, one of the world's leading producers of pornography. The plan for the explicit show yesterday enraged MPs and campaigners, who condemned it as “a step too far”.

There has already been growing concern over the behaviour of contestants on Big Brother, which was last week criticised for its lewdness. Channel 4 is under pressure to drop the show after two female contestants streaked through the house naked and another allowed fellow housemates to lick jam off her breasts.

[Rc's note: the british version of big brother is hilarious! One of the contestants right now is a transsexual. In a recent episode, they had a spanking contest :) ]

These sort of antics, however, are likely to be eclipsed by the housemates in Private Stars. The show has been designed to maximise the amount of sexual contact in the house, situated in the red light district of Amsterdam. Success for the men will depend on their willingness to lose their inhibitions and interact with the five professional female porn stars, two of whom are British.

John Beyer, the director of Mediawatch UK, a national campaign group that monitors standards in the media, said that Private Stars would just encourage immoral behaviour. “What do the producers of this programme think is going to happen with a house full of porn stars?” he said. “Programmes like this send a bad example to viewers and they impact on everyday life. They explain why we have such a problem with sexually transmitted diseases and such a high level of unwanted pregnancies.

“It is time that the Secretary of State looked at what is being broadcast in this country. Producers have a distorted view of life, which is undermining government policy in the fields of education, health and law and order. It is costing the country millions and it is no good just leaving everything to the regulator.”

Ann Widdecombe, the Tory MP, said that the programme was yet another step in the wrong direction for British television and should be stopped. “Once you let standards slip you lose them altogether,” she said. “Producers then compete with each other to see who can go on to the next level. Some of the things you see on television today would have been unthinkable just a few years ago.”

Last night as a spokeswoman for the Bravo channel, which specialises in sports and “lifestyle” programming for young men, declined to be drawn on the controversy. She said the channel, whose shows have included Italian Stripping Housewives, 3001 A Sex Oddity and Inside Spearmint Rhino, was still committed to a promise made last year to tone down the explicit content of some of its programmes. “We made a promise . . . and that's what we are intending to do,” she said.

A press release issued by the Private Media Group last week, however, played up Private Stars' risque credentials. It boasted: “All reality shows are trying to have elements of sex in them but our show is the real thing. In our show the participants are male first-time performers assessed by established female adult film stars in an adult movie production, a concept with great potential that will surely attract a lot of attention and become very talked about.” Brendan Courtney, whose company is editing the footage for Bravo, last night insisted that the programme had a “documentary feel” to it. “I am sure there will be people who will be offended but there is nothing we can do about that,” he said. “While the show also has elements of Big Brother it also has a very documentary feel about it.

“I think it will debunk a lot of the myths that surround the porn industry. Often in the programme the women are just filmed sitting around talking about their lives and their experiences in the industry. All of this is just a job to them.

“As for the men, some of them just want to be on television and some of them have a genuine interest in the world of pornography. We had hundreds of young guys wanting to take part.”

original link here: http://news.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/07/11/nporn11.xml