2007 British premium-rate phone-in scandal

The 2007 British premium-rate phone-in scandal is a period that relates to a series of controversies regarding the use of premium-rate telephone numbers by several British television and radio broadcasters.

Shows and/or other material related to the Scandal

• Richard and Judy (Channel 4) - The first named program to be affected by the scandal. This teatime chat show (broadcast from 2001-2008) featured a phone-in game entitled "You Pay, We Say". In it, the presenters guess images on a TV screen that they can't see but the caller can, but are not permitted to refer to the displayed objects by their ordinary names.
  • It was revealed that the phone line operator had selected 24 potential winners at random from callers who rang within the first five to seven minutes of the show, but after that viewers were still urged to call.
  • Both Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan were unaware of this and were completely shocked to find out what was happening behind the scenes of their show after the scandal hit. The two apologised to affected callers the following day when the news was revealed.
• Saturday Kitchen Live (BBC) - The show asked viewers to call a hotline that would allow them to appear in the following week's show.
  • However, despite the title; the show is not always broadcast live, sometimes pre-recorded the week before. This meant that viewers were put through a phoneline for something non-existent.
  • The phone-in supplier was the same for the show above, and were both produced by Cactus TV, at the time owned by All3Media.
• Brainteaser (Five) - Being a combined game show and phone-in game show, the show had many phone-in games supplied.
  • Endemol, who produced the show, was caught faking winners on the show's phone-in games whenever there were no real winners, with one instance listing a member of the show's production team as a winner. This kind of practice is borderline illegal to do in some countries.
• Blue Peter (BBC) - The longest-running children's program was affected not once, but twice:
  • The first instance involved a charity-promoted phone-in-game from November 2006 where a caller would have to identify a mystery celebrity through their shoes. However, a technical issue with the line ended up with the show's production team posing a girl visiting BBC Television Centre that day as the caller; to which she knew the answer and won everything that was offered, cheating out everyone who wanted to call in.
  • The other instance was in September 2007, which involved a website/phone-in competition to name the newest Blue Peter cat. The name that gained the highest votes was "Cookie", but problems with the voting system caused the staff to name the kitten "Socks", blaming a surge in the name. After some firings and an apology, the show made up the situation when Socks was joined by another kitten named "Cookie" in January 2008.
• Ant and Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway (ITV) - The show had several premium rate phone competitions, but was rigged by the production staff where the callers would have little or no chance of winning. Such techniques used included:
  • The production staff selected competition finalists before the telephone lines were announced as closed, limiting the chances of winning.
  • Selecting finalists based on their suitability to be on television and where they lived instead of choosing someone randomly.
  • Listed an individual already known to them as a finalist for one game and let them win scot-free.
  • In December 2013, Ant and Dec said that the scandal was the worst thing to ever happen in their career.
• Ant and Dec's Gameshow Marathon (ITV) - Repeats on ITV2 were not citified as being repeats, leading to callers being charged over a closed hotline.
• The X Factor (ITV) - During the third season, the phone operator for the show overcharged callers by 10p during voting.
• Soapstar Superstar (ITV) - The production team for the show would overwrite song choices in favor of what they wanted to choose and closed the hotlines before they were due to close.

Why This Scandal Sucks

1. It shows how much corruption and shadiness can happen behind the scenes in the entertainment industry.
2. Rigging phone-in games if the lines are hitched ruins the game for callers who want to win.

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