Message boards and news forums buzzed a little bit early July 16 with the news that Big Brother 4, the CBS reality-TV program, showed a little over eight minutes worth of a live sex act between two participants, during a live Internet feed before dawn the same date.
The buzz was neither idle chatter nor rumormongering. Real Networks spokeswoman Lisa Amore told AVNOnline.com the sex act in question did, indeed, happen. "Well, in fact, it is reality television," Amore said from Real's Seattle headquarters. "And it is an experience you're not going to be able to get on television itself, which is why CBS opened up the camera 24/7 to the house (for the Net feed)."
But she said Real doesn't take responsibility for the content it distributed. "In terms of any editing or anything like that, that's up to CBS," she said. Amore also dismissed the likelihood that an online prankster could come up with something close to the BB4 Net segment and pass it off as an actual feed clip. "They'd have to really be spending an awful lot of time, money, and effort to fake something that's in the set that Big Brother is," she said.
A CBS spokeswoman assigned to Big Brother did not return a call from AVNOnline.com as this story went to press.
The feed showed Amanda and David, two living in the California home where the current version of the show is taped, in foreplay and an early stage of intercourse in the home's master bedroom, with CBS cutting the feed not long after it began.
The .avi format clip, playable on a DivX Codec player, was picked off and shared on a BB4 fan forum within hours of its Internet airing. It begins with the couple in the midst of foreplay on a large round bed beneath a thick satin-appearing comforter. At no time during the entire eight minutes is either of the couple shown fully naked.
At about five minutes into the clip, the couple pulls the blanket over all but their heads as they continue. Then, at about the six-minute mark, the man rises up on his knees, the comforter still draped over his shoulders, the woman wrapped around her breasts in either a sheet or lingerie. Shortly thereafter, he lays back down with her again, covered by the comforter, with the appearance of beginning actual intercourse. Several times, the couple pulls the comforter almost entirely over their heads, then finally keep it there as full intercourse begins, in the final minute of the clip.
"It is what it is," Amore said, after the clip was described to her. "I can't say that it embarrassed Real Networks. We're not responsible for the programming. When you put a bunch of sexy looking people in a house, for a couple of months, mind you it's only a week, well, things can and do happen there."
CBS and RealNetworks announced a deal July 8 to show BB4 on the Internet 24/7, the same day BB4 premiered on television. The deal covers the full three-month run of BB4, and fans could buy access for a one-time $24.95 fee or subscribe to RealOne SuperPass for $9.95 a month to get the show's 24/7 feed.
"The Big Brother 24/7 provides our loyal online fans with an all-accesspass to the HouseGuest's fears, tears and cheers as they compete for half a million dollars," said CBS senior vice president for interactive ventures David Katz. "We look forward to another exciting summer with one of television's most compelling interactive shows."
RealNetworks vice president of programming Erik Flannigan said they were "thrilled" to work a third straight year with CBS. "More than 65,000 dedicated fans experienced this unprecedented extension of the Big Brother television experience last year," he said, "and we look forward to reaching even more fans this season with enhanced interactive programming."
