The Independent (oh yes, we read real newspapers too) today reports that the, er, godfather of Big Brother - Peter Bazalgette - is leaving the Big Brother producer Endemol after nearly a decade.

One of the most influential figures in broadcasting, Bazalgette made his plans to leave known earlier this summer. Bazalgette leaves Endemol - who also make Deal or No Deal to pursue projects in digital media. Smart man. I don't want to give too much away, but we may be having a new blogger joining us here at Panto soon... I'm joking of course. Bazalgette would never work for us. For one thing, he's the director of online polling firm YouGov, and we use Poll Daddy.

Bazalgette's career began at the BBC, where he masterminded a number of television formats that could be imported around the world. In the 1990s, his successes included Changing Rooms, Ground Force and Ready, Steady, Cook.

In 1998 he joined Endemol and soon became the main defender of Big Brother in the UK, a role which became quite a struggle, as a series of scandals engulfed the show. The craziness culminated in the eviction of Jade Goody from the Celebrity Big Brother house after the alleged racist bullying of Shilpa Shetty.

He said: "In the past 10 years, I've been on the set menu, the table d'hôte and I want to go à la carte. There are lots of exciting things happening in the digital world. I'd like to do some non-executive work for a number of different digital companies. I've done my bit at Endemol. I've been the spokesman for Big Brother for seven years in the UK. That's enough time in the trenches."

Bazalgette believes there are countless exciting opportunities for traditional broadcasters and digital media to work together. Deal or No Deal has already branched into online gaming, while Endemol has just signed a deal for a comedy project which will involve funny people the company has found on YouTube. Mr Bazalgette said the highlights of his career at Endemol ranged from the launch of Big Brother the year after he joined to "the hundreds of thousands of people who play Deal or No Deal on their mobile phones".

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