Big Brother is big business and costs to UK businesses of employees accessing its website were £1.4 million sterling (€2.29 million) a week. Tonight we will know the winner (Channel 4, 8.30 p.m.). If you missed what all the fuss was about you can catch up this Saturday when Channel 4 gloats in its mega-success and looks back at what made Big Brother so big. Inside Big Brother (9 p.m.); The World Is Watching . . . Big Brother (10 p.m); and Big Brother Omnibus (10.30 p.m.).
Chicken farmers are fed up being paid chicken-feed, reports Ear To the Ground (Monday, 8.30 p.m., RTE 1). The programme comes from Monaghan, the home of the industry, and looks at why a super-efficient business is on its knees. The programme also reports on the IFA's recent sleep-in at the European Union Commission offices in Dublin. The uncomfortable nights paid off and the IFA managed to get an extra £40 million (€50.79 million) from the Exchequer.
The final programme in The Department (Thursday, 10 p.m., RTE 1) telling the story of the Department of Social, Community and Family Affairs - one of the biggest spending departments - focuses on the Community Development Programme.
sokelly@irish-times.ie
