Celeb Big Brother draws lowest final audience ever

The future of Celebrity Big Brother is in doubt after Friday night's final was watched by two million fewer people than any other in the show's history.

Around 3.5 million people watched as Ulrika Jonsson, pictured, was crowned the surprise winner of this year's show, says The Sun.

But the past five Celebrity Big Brother finals have pulled in more than five million viewers, with Chantelle Houghton's victory in 2006 witnessed by 6.8 million.

The show is more expensive to make than ordinary Big Brother as producers have to pay the celebrities' fees. It was reported that Ukrika pocketed a massive £175,000 for appearing in the three-week show.

An insider said: "This series has basically been a flop and bosses are pretty unhappy as it costs so much to make. They expected ratings to be down a bit as the format is getting tired, but losing two million was unthinkable.

"There are also problems with the audience. Most people who watch it are old and not attractive to advertisers. C4 and producers will now meet to find out what went wrong and there are concerns that CBB may bite the dust."

At one point this series, ratings slumped to an all-time low of 1.2 million viewers - beaten by BBC2's Victorian Farm with a million more.

Celebrity Big Brother was 'rested' in 2008 following the Shilpa Shetty bullying scandal in 2007.

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