Ricky Gervais: 'I worried The Office couldn't compete with Big Brother'

Published Sep 14 2011, 13:17 BST  |  By Adam Silverstein

Ricky Gervais has said that he was concerned his comedy The Office could not compete with the real-life drama of Big Brother during the reality show's first series.

The comedian revealed that he was a fan of Big Brother when it started in 2000, but suggested that the format has since lost its original purpose.



Gervais told Digital Spy: "Big Brother started off as quite an interesting social experiment. It was around the same time as we were doing The Office and I called Steve [Merchant] up depressed thinking, 'We can't compete with this. It's just amazing when Nasty Nick [was thrown out]', genuinely.

"Then it just became too knowing. People [were] going in there thinking, 'I'll promise to be outrageous, I'll be outrageous, I'll come out, I'll have my photo taken naked for a hundred grand in the Sundays, and then I'll get a house or a dodgy agent'."

Stephen Merchant, who created The Office and Extras alongside Gervais, added that he thought this year's series of Celebrity Big Brother on Channel 5 did not feature any real stars.

He said: "I used to pretend I didn't know who the people were on Celebrity Big Brother, because I didn't want to admit that I did. [But] I genuinely don't know who the people [were] on this [year's]. If Kerry Katona is the most famous person in the building, that's not Celebrity Big Brother."

> Ricky Gervais, Karl Pilkington, Stephen Merchant give Digital Spy the 'Idiot Abroad' treatment
> 'The Office' 10 Years On: Where Are They Now - In Pictures

Watch Digital Spy's interview with Ricky Gervais, Stephen Merchant and Karl Pilkington below: