The cast and crew of the Czech reality show VyVoleni (The Selected) were cleared from the Prague villa used for filming before dawn on Sunday by about 40 security guards and dogs sent in by the site landowner over a rent disagreement, broadcaster TV Prima announced.
The five remaining reality-show contestants were temporarily housed in a nearby Holiday Inn hotel while Prima staff worked out how the show, one of the most watched programmes on Czech television since its August 14 launch, could go on.
The broadcaster later announced it had reached an agreement with Slovakia’s TV JOJ for the Czech reality show to move to Slovakia and combine with that station’s existing reality show.
The first joint programme will be screened on Monday evening, Prima TV said on its website.
“Viewers can look forward to a world exclusive, the merger of two running reality shows,” said TV Prima general manager Martin Dvorak.
Dvorak said TV Prima was two days late in paying rent for the Prague villa in October, but denied that it had broken the rental agreement.
“We are really surprised by the extreme and violent step by the other side, which solves nothing and damages everyone,” he added.
VyVoleni contestants were also forced to quit the Prague villa on Friday, when workmen uncovered an unexploded World War II bomb nearby. — AFP