The announcement came depite newspaper reports that it was giving up on the show and looking for a new format.

However, the BBC director of factual programmes John Willis has claimed that interest in reality TV is "starting to fade".

His comments came as BBC One announced its first new documentary strand in 15 years, One Life, which will focus on human-interest stories.

Do you still enjoy reality TV? Or do you feel that it's time for a new style of programmes? Has reality TV had its day?

This debate is now closed. Read a selection of your comments below.

The following comments reflect the balance of views we have received:

I really like these programmes, they are always entertaining Antony Forst, England

I really like these programmes, they are always entertaining. I for one am always glad when Big Brother rolls round each summer. One has to admire the people selected giving up the lives to the whims of TV producers. I'm sure that all the shows will continue for as long as the public want them, and there seems to be no wane of interest now.
Antony Forst, England

"Reality TV" has to be the ultimate oxymoron. If you want reality, switch it off. How strange we are that we sit and watch people on TV who then sit and watch TV. How dull have we become? Even worse are the programs "... from hell". Can't we put anything good on TV any more?
John Airey, UK

I hope so this just T V on the cheap. How about some real entertainment For a change?
Ron Eversden, England

Reality TV - get a life. Boredom of watching wannabes. They haven't seen life or lived it. They just want a soft ride to the top. Bring back the pop groups of the 60s 70s and 80s they had to really work for their stardom, and most of them weren't manufactured like today's rubbish. They wont be remembered in ten years time. Long live the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Manfred Man, Yardbirds at al.
Christopher Bass, England

I love reality TV. Many of the programmes are interesting exercises in social psychology. I love reality TV for the same reason I like crappy women's magazines, it's easy to watch and relaxes a tired mind. Don't get me wrong, I love history and current affairs programmes, but they are not my first choice EVERY TIME. There has been a lot of intellectual snobbery in these comments and I can never fully trust the word of a person who tries to make out they have a superior brain because they choose to watch Panorama over Big Brother. Reality TV is not to be taken so seriously and I feel that the people who do take time to formulate a serious attitude of disliking it are the ones that need to get a life.
Helen, UK/living in Norway

The title "Reality TV" in itself is wrong. These shows have nothing to do with reality whatsoever. If you want reality, then watch the news!
Johno, UK

TV needs a mass overhaul at the moment Alex (16), England

TV needs a mass overhaul at the moment. You have trash like Fame academy, Pop idol, Popstars, Popstars the Rivals, Soapstars on 24/7. Even Big Brother was dull this year! Then you have the manic depressants such as Eastenders and corrie - WHO COMMISSIONS THESE?! It's all incest and 'you slept with my brother-who-is-actually-my-daughter's nephew.' What is going on? Can we have more quality programs; comedy up to the standard of "the good life"? More drama to the standard of "waking the dead", "spooks" and "tipping the velvet", more family programs. Not the current garbage that is prime time telly!
Alex (16), England

Pop Idol and Fame Academy are absolutely atrocious and cannot really be called reality TV. Real people doing real things in a real setting, that's reality TV. Certainly these loser young adults who want to get famous the quick and easy way without working their way through and paying their dues is NOT reality.
Jennifer, USA

I hope so get more programmes on history and natural history; not brain dead scheduling - if I want singing id go down pub and listen to karaoke.
Mark Hemmings, UK

Well, I think there's a difference between shows like Survivor, Manor House and Faking It and those I-have-no-talent-but-I-wanna-be-a-star shows like Fame academy and Pop Idol. When our society stops putting so much praise and worship on the glorified Court Jesters of the world and starts placing the proper respect on those who truly deserve it because of their contribution to the betterment of the world, then we will have hope for the future.
Louise, USA

Candid Camera was a "reality show" of sorts. So were shows like "What's my Line". We just have a slightly different format now. NOW, we have tons of people mugging for the camera and wanting to be overnight celebs without having any real talent, under the pretext of a "reality show".
Dana, USA

You only have one life - so live it. Time is precious and it is bad enough having to spend a period of 'dull time' managing one's own domestic chores. How dull are these people who want to watch other, often very un-interesting people, passing the time of day. How very sad.
Kevin C, Scotland

It is the most entertaining programme on TV at the moment Toby Clempson, England

My parents, my daughter and myself are all absolutely riveted to Fame Academy (spanning ages 17 to 74). It is the most entertaining programme on TV at the moment. Have confidence in the show and don't try to compete with the tepid Pop Idol! Please do another series after this one, (and celebrity FA was also great).
Toby Clempson, England

I can't understand why everyone spends so long moaning about reality TV programmes. I personally find Eastenders and Coronation Street appalling TV but don't moan about them every second of the day. Reality TV will die when there's no one left watching it. Whilst there's still an audience, it will be on TV and there will be an audience for many years, so I'd suggest those who don't like it, exercise your right to change the channel.
Dave, UK

I have an idea for a new reality TV show for the BBC. It centres around a group of BBC executives responsible for coming up with new reality TV shows being forced to sit in a room on a Saturday night and watch the mind-numbing rubbish they are responsible for. (Although I think that the human rights group would consider that torture).
David Nicholson, UK

I do think that six million viewers can be wrong. Totally brainwashed and can not get enough of it, that's what they are. Look at the fuss that is made about that Blaine bloke, I mean how pathetic is he?
Lucia Nemwman, London

Reality TV will be about for a while Scott, UK

Like everything in life there is good and bad. Reality TV took off because of a few good and innovative shows which captured the public's attention and large audiences with it, but with any new idea the rush to copy it or add a new flavour soon floods the market and leaves everyone overexposed and tired of the format. Reality TV will be about for a while I think but the recent glut of reality TV shows and my own pet-hate, DIY/home improvement shows will soon subside when viewers become bored and switch channels.
Scott, UK

Are shows like big brother really reality TV? If you were producing the show would you take the first 10 people you could off the street and put them in the big brother house or pick 10 people you thought could argue with each other, form relationships and make good viewing? You pick the 10 as it's your job to produce good (ok, you know what I mean) TV, so is that really reality?
Dave, UK

TV companies make shows that will attract the largest audiences. So when people stop watching these programs then it will have had its day.
Simon, UK

The total time spent in this household watching 'reality TV' over the past three years probably amounts to less than one hour. Sitting and watching a group of people doing very little is for those who do very little themselves. Watching a group of people trying to become 'personalities or celebrities' is just for those with no self belief. Reality TV is not in decline with us, it never started!
Barry P, England

If you don't like what is on TV, you can always hit the big red button. I'm sure there's something else for you to do. Personally I can't stand the reality TV programmes, but there are a good healthy bunch of history channels to watch that are available to most.
Peter, Herts

Never before has our television set been haunted with such fake, unrealistic rubbish Andy, UK

In my opinion, Reality TV has never had its day. There is nothing "real" about it. Never before has our television set been haunted with such fake, unrealistic rubbish as Big Brother, Fame Academy, and Pop Idol. Perhaps advertising standards should be alerted, as I see this as nothing more than false advertising.
Andy, UK

Don't knock it; every time I see a British newspaper I think "Surely this can't last much longer". Just popular I guess.
Steve, UK

Yes - an awful lot of it panders to our baser, negative sides i.e. enjoying the humiliation of others. I can't deny enjoying this, but hate myself for it and wish it would stop!
Dennis, London, UK

When Big Brother was first announced, I thought "What rubbish! No-one would ever watch something as inane as people being locked in a house." How wrong I was. I still stand by my original thoughts, even after being forced to sit through a number of episodes. Thankfully, I now don't have a TV.
Jo, UK

To a certain extent it had its day. I wouldn't mind having more first rounds of pop idol. You know, the funny stuff. But just watching a bunch of actors and/or nobodies in a house, on a beach or in a secured forest? No thanks.
Volker, England (ex Germany)

I've just painted a wall in my kitchen, and am toying with the idea of getting Channel 4 to come and film it drying... should be good for six million viewers.
David, UK

"Reality TV" will just keep on reinventing itself. Interestingly, the latest "Reality TV" show has received little media interest. "The Games" on Channel 4 is actually quite compelling. Where else can you see Bobby "psycho" Davro belly flop into a pool from 7.5 metres? Or James Hewitt in action (on and off the track!)
Andy, UK

We have had reality TV for some years now. Isn't it about time TV channels focused on interactive TV and start looking for the big thing?
Joe, UK

Yes. Those people who take part in them know that even if they don't win the big prize will move in stardom (even if the public don't want it - Rik Waller). They play up to the camera more so now than they ever did.
Nick, UK

It is just a way for program makers to make cheap TV buy not having to pay its stars to be on it Safina Aziz, UK

Reality TV is just a big rip off. It is just a way for program makers to make cheap TV buy not having to pay its stars to be on it. Look at the last series of pop idol, all that licence fee spent on that house, the staff to work there, electricity, heating, etc for what? It didn't achieve what it set out to do that was make a pop idol. You hear more of the pop star failure Darius than you do of David Sneddon. Look a the Big Brother series, can you name all the people that have been in them? do all these people who watch these shows have nothing else in their lives that they have to watch other people? It seems like that.
Safina Aziz, UK

Reality TV is the norm over here in Japan. On recent one was a show in which one person set up (usually) her boyfriend. A celebrity of some kind feigned interest in said set up partner who, as was expected, reciprocated. The show ends with the partner who did the setting up confronting the set up partner for the amusement of the audience. Fascinating to watch but only if you see it as a research tool for a Desmond Wilcox style documentary. Apart from that, what do we learn? Not to trust anyone? Great! So much for evolution.
Richard, Japan

I'm so so so sick of it. I 'crave' actors, drama, plots, documentaries I can learn from, visions of the world that I've never seen... No more reality TV, it is so utterly boring and average. These people have no character and no talent. Please get them off our screens!
Nat, UK

Aren't programmes such as Fame Academy and Pop Idol just the modern day take on the talent show format? Surely they are better than the 1970's formats: Opportunity Knocks and New Faces?
Howard Vaughan, Scotland

Reality TV is lowest common denominator rubbish. It always was, it is, and it always will be. The sooner this tripe ceases to occupy transmission time the better.
Antony, UK

I want good dramas, good comedy and good documentaries, not bad reality TV. I can never understand why people want to watch a group of strangers locked in a house together.
Caron, England

I see no reason for them not to remain PART of television in this country Ian B, UK

There is room for everything on television - challenging documentaries and reality tv. Six million viewers cannot be wrong. There is a huge appetite for shows such as Fame Academy and Pop Idol. As long as they grow and develop over the years I see no reason for them not to remain PART of television in this country.
Ian B, UK

It's no wonder why people are now playing longer on computer games than T.V. We need to try and tear a leaf out off the good old days programme like back in the '70/80s etc. Not watching people trying to be famous for nothing!
George Nipah, England

I object to all these millions of pounds of licence fee money being squandered on a great big mansion, fitting it all out etc. etc. for what was, after all, a one-hit wonder (like David Sneddon).
Chrissie, Scotland

After drilling a hole in my ceiling and placing a small camera inside, I have happily being watching Kev-TV. Although not much happens, it's just a bloke watching a bloke watching TV...
A wee bit boring, but at least I don't have to pay a licence to watch it!
Kevin, UK

I hate to say it but I can't see us ever being without it. It's been around longer than people realise, with such shows as Candid Camera, Beadle's About, You've Been Framed, and all those other monstrosities. They were all reality shows of a kind, and they evolved into reality shows of another kind. And sadly I think they'll keep evolving. The latest offering here in the US is an 'unreal' reality show (some poor unwitting sap is locked in a house with a bunch of actors who he assumes to be genuine saps like himself). Sad...so very sad...
Karl, Brit living in USA

Despite the seemingly best efforts of TV to kill genuine curiosity into the wonders of life, people are beginning to wake up and switch off. Watch out TV bosses!
Graham, UK

There is nothing realistic about people being dropped off on an island or being suddenly locked in a mansion together Robert Miller, US

I sincerely hope that the scourge of reality TV is soon removed from this world. The name itself is extremely misleading. There is nothing realistic about people being dropped off on an island or being suddenly locked in a mansion together. While people do become shipwrecked, they do not engage in a series of competitions to see who gets to go on to the next round of stupidity. I have never enjoyed these programmes and I feel that the little time I did spend watching them was a complete waste. May we be rid of idiocy TV before it degenerates even further into the cesspool of sensationalism.
Robert Miller, US

But if reality TV has had its day, wherever will we find all those new, exciting, talented and articulate TV presenters who are currently filling our screens and newspapers? Where will we find the new nano-brained Kate Lawlers, Brian Dowling's and Jade Goody's of the world? Heaven forbid we actually have someone who has something to say and knows how to say it.
Mark, Scotland

Is it any wonder that reality TV isn't working? Most British 20-somethings have no idea of what reality is. As something like 70 percent of the UK population over 40, can we have more for the grown-ups please?
Alister, UK

To the producers of" Reality TV" programmes: If you want a fresh idea for a reality TV programme that would truly be entertaining and informative, how about a Big-Brother style show featuring members of the House of Commons. Let's find out what really goes on!
SC, UK

It has become another excuse for lazy and cheap programme making Katherine, UK

Like many novelty formats, when done the first couple of times, reality TV was interesting and innovative - something a bit different. Now it has become another excuse for lazy and cheap programme making. Enough already - it got tired and boring quite some time ago.
Katherine, UK

Whilst such rubbish can be made so cheaply they will continue - and just think about how much worse things will get if the BBC is ever "privatised".
Andrew M, UK

Please, please give us back challenging documentaries, well-presented drama, current affairs and natural history programmes We have had far too much of this mind rotting "reality" TV and its unhealthy obsession with celebrity. To those who enjoy it....get a real life!
LH, UK

Even people I know who expressed interest in the first of the genre are now unaware of any current reality shows. The increasing desperation of producers and marketing folk is completely transparent - there is no substance to the format now. Give it ten, maybe only five years, and the next generation of TV hungry gullible punters will be lining up for their fix, but the old hands will smile knowingly and say "Ah, but it won't last!"
Rick Hough, UK

Reality TV was a phenomenon for way too long. Producers desperately need to move on and find something that actually entertains people without being crass, boring or insulting to a viewer's intelligence.
L. da Silva, UK