London, Aug 26 - Big Brother, the British reality TV show that brought Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty into the international limelight, is to be scrapped because it is thought to be too boring, a newspaper reported Wednesday.

Britain's Channel 4 network is to take the controversial show off air after a fall in the number of viewers, and an official announcement could come as early as Friday, The Sun said.

Around two million viewers watched the tenth series this year, compared to 8.2 million when Shetty participated in 2007.

The Sun quoted an insider as saying: 'The reality is people are bored with it. Even at Channel 4 the vibe among staff is that if you like Big Brother you're not cool.

'If the people commissioning the show don't think it's cool, what hope is there?'

A source told the paper that Big Brother was failing to win over the 'Facebook generation' because it had been watered down following a controversial celebrity version of the show in 2007, in which Shetty was alleged to have been racially bullied by several other participants.

'The truth is nobody's talking about Big Brother any more,' a source told The Sun.