Now meet Big Brother's little sisters

If an idea works once, it's worth doing a hundred times. STEVE CLARKE and KARIN MOCHAN report on the Big Brother look-alikes THE docusoap is dead, according to Greg Dyke. "Four years after Driving School, we killed it," says the BBC's director-general proudly. But if the tired genre is buried for good, there is little doubt what will take its place in the schedules. The runaway success of Big Brother, here and abroad, means that the rise and rise of "reality television" is unstoppable.

Mark Thompson, the BBC's director of television, admits that, "like everyone else", he is looking at ideas for such shows. "The best reality formats can be very exciting, but there is a danger of overdoing it," he says. But he warns: "We need to go for the very best and most original, and ration ourselves." Dyke, too, sounds a caution. "I'd be very concerned about Big Brother version 12," he says.

They may both be too late. For the programme - originally a Dutch format - seems already to have spawned dozens of imitators and rivals. Peter Bazalgette, whose company Bazal made the British version of Big Brother, says: "The challenge for us as programme- makers is to come up with ideas that are as clever as Big Brother and that work across different media." Bazal is owned by the Dutch entertainment giant Ende-mol, which created Big Brother.

Several of the Big Brother-style shows that Bazalgette hopes to sell to British networks come from the Endemol stable. In the pipeline is The Big Diet, which debuts on German TV next spring. The concept is simple: plump contestants are locked up in a house where they compete to lose weight. For every gram of fat they shed, they get gram of gold.

In the surreal world of reality TV, the dramas are not confined to the screen. The Dutch equivalent of the High Court will shortly hear the latest round in an 18-month legal battle between Endemol and British TV maker Charlie Parsons, whose company Planet 24 created The Big Breakfast and The Word. Parsons claims Big Brother is a rip-off of Survivor, his own format, which has performed brilliantly in America and elsewhere. He claims that Endemol paid Planet 24 for two six-month options on the show in 1996.

His international sales manager, Gary Carter, who brokered the deal, subsequently left Planet 24 to joint the Dutch outfit. Parsons is appealing against a previous Dutch legal ruling in Endemol's favour.

As the lawyers' fees mount, Survivor - a reality TV show set on a desert island - continues to conquer all. A fortnight ago around 50 million Americans watched the final episode there. ITV has optioned the series for British viewers, but won't release details of when it will reach our screens.

CHANNEL 5, meanwhile, is showing no reticence over its new reality project, Jailbreak, which begins next Tuesday (see below). It is the channel's flagship autumn series and its most expensive programme ever, costing around 60,000 per half hour. With so much at stake, the channel is taking no chances. The series is backed by a 1 million marketing campaign and will be screened in six nightly instalments.

Jailbreak is one of the few reality shows devised in Britain. If it fails, perhaps the Belgiums will save the day. Channel 5 plans to follow Jailbreak next year with a version of The Mole (see below). That format was rejected by the BBC. Under its public service obligations, the corporation will have to tread carefully in the battle for reality-show formats unless it wants to be seen as simply mimicking commercial rivals. As more extreme shows like The Big Diet are created, there are fears in the TV industry that the genre could spawn ever more titillating and dangerous programmes.

It remains to be seen what audiences will make of Chains of Love, Endemol's plan to handcuff pairs of young men and women together for a week.

Phil Harding, the BBC's head of editorial policy, says: "Two years from now when there are dozens of these shows, everyone will be looking for that extra bit of drama. Less responsible producers than Bazal may be tempted to push the format further and further, to the extent where a killer application becomes just that - a killer application."

Maybe his warning is already too late. In Sweden, one contestants in Expedition Robinson committed suicide after the series. The tragedy led to much hand-wringing in the Swedish press and forced the resignation of a senior executive at the public service station which broadcast the programme.

But ratings are ratings. Neither the participant nor the TV man's career survived. But the show did - and it is now in its third series.

lSteve Clarke is executive editor of Broadcast.

And for something completely similar

SURVIVOR The concept: 16 contestants fend for themselves on a desert island, with only cameras for company. Viewers vote them off one by one. Final survivor can win up to $1million.

Devised by: Charlie Parsons at Castaway (original title "Survive").

Sold to: 16 countries. Optioned in a further 39 territories, including ITV in the Britain.

THE MOLE The concept: 10 strangers taken to a different locations must tackle various tasks. To qualify for the 100,000 prize, they must identify which person is the production company's mole trying to sabotage the team's efforts.

Devised by: Desert Fish, Belgium.

Sold to: Action Time/Channel 5 in the UK and 12 other countries. Optioned in a further 26 countries.

THE BUS The concept: 11 strangers tour around on a double-decker bus for 16 weeks, sharing an 18ft bed on the top deck. They pay for their keep by doing chores both on and off the bus, as viewers vote to keep their favourite contestants on board.

Devised by: Endemol Entertainment, Holland.

Sold to: Belgium and Spain.

JAILBREAK The concept: 10 contestants have three weeks to break out of a specially constructed prison. The first out wins 100,000. Viewers can also win some of the spoils by betting on who is likely to be first out of jail.

Devised by: Channel 5 and Princess Productions.

Sold to: Nowhere yet, but optioned to America's ABC network.

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