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Nine denies Big Brother rigging – says auditor witnessed vote tally

big brother logoThe Nine Network has denied the voting process behind Big Brother is manipulated after the network aired a promo about an evicted housemate hours before public voting in last night’s Live Eviction program had finished.

The reality show was accused of ‘rigging’ the eviction process via its Facebook fan page by from dozens of users after the promo aired. A Facebook post from Big Brother received over 700 comments.

Nine told Mumbrella independent auditor Ernst & Young is used for the voting system.

A spokesperson for the Nine Network told Mumbrella: “Channel Nine created three promos in advance, each featuring the nominated contestants for broadcast after the eviction announcement when voting lines had closed.  Early yesterday afternoon the promo featuring George aired due to technical error. After consultation with Southern Star, the Nine Network is confident the airing of the promo in no way affected the outcome of voting.”

A spokesperson for Southern Star Entertainment the production company that produces Big Brother said: “Southern Star, the producers of Big Brother, engages a third party service provider to receive and process voting for evictions. Yesterday, the voting lines closed at the usual time of 18:43 AEST.  Ernst & Young, the independent adjudicator appointed by our service provider, witnessed and verified the tallying of votes for each nominee which confirmed that George received the least amount of votes, resulting in his eviction.”

The promo aired at 1.45pm in the Sydney metropolitan region only.

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