Me and you know a great reality tv show when we see one blagman.
1.5 million viewers foe an interactive tv show isn't to be
sniffed 
The Devon farmer who has been coaching celebrities on Five's controversial reality show, The Farm, is set to get a starring role in another TV series.
And the station is planning another series of The Farm, which has been branded tasteless after David Beckham's former PA Rebecca Loos ********** a pig in an artificial insemination exercise.
Ben Frow, the executive who commissioned the series, said farmer Ryan Hooper, 38, was the star of the show.
"He's the big success of the show, he gets an awful lot of fan mail. He's gorgeous, so smouldery, sexy farmer Ryan. I was given a selection of farmers and he was chosen for looks. I don't want to watch a horrible, old, bearded farmer, we're Five, after all. I wanted the farmer to be young, funny, vibrant, sexy, warm, all those things.
"So I am already working on more things for him."
The decision to give Mr Hooper, whom some have likened to George Clooney, his own show won't please everyone. Newspaper columnist Christine Odone recently described the farmer as a "dimwit whose painful exhibitionism is the best argument for abolishing all agricultural subsidies".
However, Mr Frow is delighted with the performance of the show, which has been pulling in more than 1.5 million viewers - a sizeable hit for the station - and the controversy it has created.
He said it was "difficult to get noticed" at Five because of the perception that the channel is so downmarket, but that he genuinely believed the series has been educational.
"So I'm proud of The Farm in many ways. I am proud because I think it is very well made. I'm proud because I think it is an intelligent programme, and I think it combines some of the best bits of what people generally refer to as reality television in terms of people's relationships, confrontation and honesty.
"This is not a controlled environment, we're having to learn,. There's the weather, nature, it's a new challenge, we are trying to stretch reality television.
"How people live with a whole new dimension that most people know nothing about, which is farming. I certainly learn something every day.
"I didn't know calves were separated from their mothers at birth, that the milk we drink is calves' milk. I think it's an intelligent programme.
"We'll do it again. It was a bit too short. But I am very keen to do a show that is not gratuitous, salacious. And the profile is just fantastic. The truth is part of our bonus scheme at Five depends on whether we hit our demographic, the 16-34 audience.
"I would like to think The Farm would come back in some form or another.
medaiguardian
