Britons over the last week have filed 38,000 complaints with Britain's television regulator alleging that Indian actress Shilpa Shetty had been subjected to racial abuse from fellow contestants Jade Goody and Danielle Lloyd, both minor British celebrities.
The show held its scheduled public vote on Friday, with both Shetty and Goody nominated for eviction from the “Big Brother” house, where contestants live together, cut off from access to the outside.
Neither Shetty nor Goody was fully aware of the furore the show had caused.
After announcing Goody's eviction live on Channel 4, show host Davina McCall said: “Jade obviously has no idea that for the last week she has been at the centre of an international crisis.”
The alleged racist incidents sparked an outcry in both Britain and India, where protesters earlier this week burned an effigy said to depict the show's producers.
Under public pressure to deal with the issue, Channel 4 said producers had spoken to Goody and Lloyd. Goody, apparently after hearing that some viewers were offended by her remarks to Shetty, broke into tears and said she was “petrified” by the idea of facing the public “because people think I'm a racist.”—AP