There’s certainly nothing like a little controversy to raise TV ratings, but is it possible to go too far? An incident that happened last weekend on the Australian version of Big Brother has a lot of people calling for the show to be taken off the air, after two male houseguests reportedly sexually assaulted a female in the wee hours of the morning. Michael ‘Ashley’ Cox and Michael ‘John’ Bric crept into the bedroom of Camilla Halliwell for a little fun one night, and after fooling around with her (consentually mind you) they went a little too far, as John held her down while Ashley “turkey slapped” her in the face. The incident was streamed live to the internet at the time but was never re-broadcast on TV. John and Ashley were later ejected from the show for a breach of the show’s policies. Interviewed about it later, Halliwell claimed that they were just joking around, and that while they went too far, they did stop when requested. She will not press charges. Australian prime minister John Howard is now insisting that the show be axed, while Cox and Bric both recently stated that they fear being beaten up in the street due to public outrage over what happened. Can you imagine what kind of war would erupt if this happened on the American Big Brother?

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