PM joins critics as TV turns trashy

Michael Bric (left) and Michael Cox

CANBERRA - Australian television has been trawling the sewer amid public fury over sexual antics on Channel Ten's Big Brother reality show and the flashing of boardroom knives on rival Nine.

With the major channels fighting a desperate ratings war, Ten and Nine have become major news stories in their own right following Big Brother's sordid behaviour and revelations of alleged double-dealing at Nine over the future of one of its more glamorous current affairs celebrities.

Big Brother's bedroom romp has burned the sensitivities of some of the most powerful politicians in the land and prompted calls for the axing of a show that has already had a flood of complaints over previous seamy episodes.

"Here's a great opportunity for Channel Ten to do a bit of self-regulation and get this stupid programme off the air," Prime Minister John Howard told Macquarie Radio yesterday.

Opposition Leader Kim Beazley agreed, saying: "If my advice is worth anything to the folk who run Channel Ten ... I'd say make this Big Brother the last."

The latest Big Brother furore followed an incident in which a female housemate climbed into bed with two men, one of whom appeared to rub his crotch in her face.

The segment was not aired on the show, but appeared on the internet.

It shows the housemates sharing several beds and giggling, laughing and swapping sexual innuendo. The two men, Michael Cox ("Ashley") and Michael Bric ("John"), later evicted for alleged sexual harassment, call Camilla Halliwell across to the bed they are sharing.

Sliding in between the two men, a giggling Camilla is told to lie down and close her eyes, to which she replies: "You're not going to turkey slap me are you?"

Amid general laughter in the room, the alleged crotch-rubbing takes place, Halliwell yells "I just got turkey slapped" and, settling down back between the men she says, "You guys are mean to me."

The incident was too much for Ten, which evicted the two men, called in a counsellor, but still required a distressed Halliwell to discuss the incident on air.

She said the incident had been in fun and that she had not been offended and had laughed it off even if she thought Cox and Bric had gone "a little bit too far".

"I think as soon as I said enough's enough it stopped," she said.

"I've known these guys for a while and we were just mucking around."

Queensland Police said no complaint had been laid and there was insufficient evidence for an investigation.

More than 1.5 million people tuned into Big Brother on Sunday night after news broke of an alleged sexual assault in the house. The Ten Network recorded a national average audience of 1.56 million viewers - a significant increase on the past few weeks.

Meanwhile, Nine's new chief, former sporting commentator and gameshow host Eddie McGuire, is weathering a storm of media speculation over his future following revelations of boardroom behaviour by former news head Mark Llewellyn, now with rival Seven.

The revelations were made in an affidavit presented during court proceedings launched by Nine to prevent Llewellyn switching channels, and which Nine unsuccessfully tried to suppress.

Llewellyn's defection came after a A$250,000-a-year pay cut, and followed the sacking of 100 Nine employees.

The main focus of his revelations has been on apparent plans to sack Jessica Rowe, host of the struggling current affairs show Today.

The affidavit quoted McGuire as saying during a meeting of news executives: "What are we going to do about Jessica? When should we bone her? I think it should be next week."

Rowe, whose model looks have made her a media favourite, has been portrayed heavily as a victim and last week McGuire publicly denied he had any plans to sack her.