Big Brother contestant evicted

Former Big Brother contestant Bateman

LONDON (CNN) -- Nick Bateman, known as "Nasty Nick," was on Thursday disqualified from the popular British television programme Big Brother for repeatedly breaking the show's rules.

Channel 4 said Nick -- known for his back-stabbing behaviour on the reality TV programme -- had been evicted from the house at 1600 GMT after it was discovered that he had been trying to manipulate the show's nomination process.

Each week the housemates nominate two for eviction. The public then decides who should be removed from the show by a telephone vote. The final person left in the house wins £70,000 ($105,000).

Some of the housemates, who have been living in a specially-constructed house in east London since last month without any contact with the outside world, searched Nick's suitcases after it became clear he had been lying to them.

They found notes that 33-year-old Nick had been showing to fellow contestants in an attempt to influence their voting.

Access to outside world forbidden

Channel 4 has repeatedly forbidden the contestants from talking about their nominations.

Last week Channel 4 searched the house -- which is fitted with 24 cameras and 60 microphones -- after the Sun tabloid newspaper reported that Nick might have concealed a mobile phone, giving him forbidden access to the outside world.

Contestants Craig Phillips, a 28-year-old builder and Tom McDermott, 30, called a meeting with the other four remaining residents on Thursday to decide what to do about Bateman and his manoeuvres.

Channel 4 say there was a "verbal confrontation" between Nick and the remaining contestants desperate to avoid eviction from the show, which has versions in the U.S., and across Europe.

A Channel 4 spokeswoman told CNN.com: "He has been disqualified and was evicted by Channel 4 producers."

Owning pen or paper is an infringement of the programme rules, so too is owning a mobile phone -- which Bateman is widely reported to have smuggled in. He was also reported to have a pager.

Already Bateman has admitted lying about his wife dying in a car crash.

'Fraught meeting'

An industry insider told CNN.com: "The meeting at the Big Brother command centre at Channel 4 was very fraught.

"Obviously they wanted Bateman to stay as he has become such a big ratings draw. But at the same time his desperation to sow the seeds of dissent and win the cash has now reached the stage where he has broken the rules. It left the TV station with a heart-breaking choice, but really no choice."

Bateman, the most notorious of the show's contestants, now stands to make more than the £70,000 prize from selling his story.

Big Brother was last year's most popular show in Holland. In Germany, a politician called for a ban on the programme claiming it violated the human dignity of the participants.

In Spain, where football enjoys mass support, more people watched Big Brother than watched soccer.

And in the U.S. the 45-year-old creator of the programme, John de Mol, earned $13 million from CBS for the show.

Reuters contributed to this report.

Reality TV: We have met the product, and it is ourselves
August 16, 2000
The changing faces of fame
July 19, 2000

Big Brother nur eine "reality - tv - show" oder eine Verletzung der Menschenwürde ?
Big Brother - Die neue Show für Voyeure bei RTL2
TV-Show Big Brother auch in USA

Note: Pages will open in a new browser window

External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive.