The Big Brother show is a competition that involves strangers living together in a large specially-designed house before round-the-clock TV cameras with viewers voting them out one by one and deciding on a winner, who takes a cash prize.

Big Brother became controversial in 2007 after Shetty was alleged to have been racially bullied by British celebrities Jade Goody, Jo O'Meara and Danielle Lloyd.

As the row ballooned, Channel 4 received a record 40,000 complaints against Goody, forcing the network to 'evict' her from the show, which made Shetty the winner.

Although the show peaked at 8.2 million viewers, sponsors Carphone Warehouse withdrew after global protests.

At its peak Big Brother generated profits of 70 million pounds a year.

There will be one final series next year, after which the show will only go ahead if the production house can strike a deal with another channel, the newspaper said.