The organizer of the TV reality show “Big Brother Vietnam” has issued a press release admitting its PR staff accidentally leaked the clip and images in which its contestants stripped almost naked in one of the show’s challenges during the Dec 12 broadcast.

BHD which produces the local version of the US show said that the uncensored images, which were leaked on the Internet and also were briefly aired, were blurred by VTV6 channel during its Dec 12 broadcast.

During the show’s episode 5, nine remaining contestants were asked to lose 18kg in their total weight. With Nguyen Hien, a contestant who claims to be bisexual, recently being eliminated, each remaining contestant had to shed 2kg.

To overcome the challenge, several contestants, including female ones, didn’t hesitate to take off their shirts, trousers and even bras and were wearing only underpants. The girls clumsily covered their breasts with their hands.

According to reporter Ta Bich Loan from Vietnam Television (VTV) on Dec 14, editors of VTV’s Teens and Kids Department had carefully cut and blurred all the sensitive images. However, she admitted that many TV viewers remained resentful and offended about the stripping.

“While the nude photos were cut when the show was on air, several of them were leaked onto social networks, which deepens viewers’ misunderstanding about the incident and taints VTV’s reputation,” Loan noted.

“We‘ve strictly penalized BHD for this blunder and will tighten our control over the show content. If such a blunder happens again, we will propose terminating our cooperation in the show,” she stressed.

The show has been broadcast on national channel VTV6 at 8pm every day in the past month and will run for another month.

The 12 selected contestants spend that time living in one large house. During their stay, they are totally isolated from the outside world and will not be aware of outside events.

Contestants will be continuously monitored by over 30 in-house cameras as well as personal microphones during their stay. They will also face highly demanding challenges provided by ‘the hidden man.’

The contestants learn how to cooperate and interact with one another to complete the challenges while outwitting each other to avoid elimination.

In every weekly live show, a contestant will be eliminated based on the collective decision of the other house members and viewers’ votes. The last person in the compound by the series' conclusion will be crowned winner and own the key to a VND2 billion (US$95,800) house.

Prior to its debut last month, the show has attracted mixed opinions, as many have voiced concerns that it might be culturally inappropriate to display the contestants’ personal lives 24/7 over 65 consecutive days.

Debuted in 2000, smash-hit “Big Brother”, which is a reality game show franchise created by John de Mol, has been made into 40 different versions around the world and draws over 2 billion views each year.