LONDON (Reuters) - Channel 4 was left with a bill for 50,000 pounds on Thursday after a telephone watchdog ruled a voting stunt on its Big Brother reality TV show had misled viewers.
The premium phone line regulator ICSTIS received 2,635 complaints after contestants who had been voted off the seventh British series of the show in public votes were allowed to return to the programme.
Viewers paid 50 pence each to vote by telephone to evict Grace Adams-Short, Nikki Grahame, Mikey Dalton and Lea Walker, only to see them brought back to the camera-filled house and given a second chance to win the 100,000 pound top prize.
Newspapers at the time said they were bombarded by angry Big Brother fans who said they felt cheated.
"The complainants believed that they had been misled as they were under the impression that they had voted to evict the contestants permanently," ICSTIS said in a statement.
The watchdog said it was convinced by the strength of feeling expressed by the complainants together with a statement on the Big Brother Web site which stated: "Once a housemate leaves they forfeit any claim to the prize money".
ICSTIS ruled the stunt had breached its code but said it accepted that Channel 4s show was "editorially inventive" and so had not sought to deliberately mislead viewers.
It decided against imposing a fine but charged the two phone line operators, iTouch and Minick, administrative charges of 36,000 pounds and 12,700 pounds respectively.
However the watchdog said neither company would have to provide financial redress to the complainants saying the event had not materially changed the shows outcome.
Channel 4 said it would pick up the bill on behalf of the phone service operators, according to ICSTIS.
"We take our involvement in premium rate telephony and text services very seriously and worked closely with our service providers and ICSTIS on this investigation," Channel 4 said in a statement.
"It was never our intention to mislead viewers and all profits generated from this vote were donated to charity."
It is the third time in a month that Big Brother has fallen foul of UK watchdogs.
A contest to find a random new housemate using a "Golden Ticket" promotion has been criticised twice by the Advertising Standards Authority for breaching its guidelines following complaints from the public.
Thatll teach em for bringing back their losers
