Channel 4 bosses have admitted that the race row that erupted on 'Celebrity Big Brother' saved the current series of the show from being the most "boring" ever.
Chief executive Andy Duncan and director of television Kevin Lygo have told Broadcast magazine that they believe they handled the situation "perfectly well".
Mr Lygo said: "Let's put this in perspective. This was in danger of being the most boring BB that we'd had in many years and we were thinking 'Oh dear, what can we do?'."
"And then suddenly from the cooking of a chicken going wrong this argument erupted and then was taken on by the media and then erupted into this extraordinary story."
Media watchdog Ofcom received more than 40,000 complaints from people claiming that Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty was being bullied by other housemates.
Lygo also denied suggestions that the producers had manufactured the row in order to boost the show's ratings.
"One of the extraordinary and infuriating things about it is that you can't engineer situations as easily as some people think you can," he said.
