Something had to be done.

The latest German incarnation of John de Mole's Orwellian nightmare, "Big Brother", has been hovering at the bottom of the ratings rankings almost since starting in March. Not even the revolutionary idea to stage this version in a village where contestants would, ostensibly, live for the rest of their life, attracted any viewers.

On Monday, the producers pulled the plug - or did they?

"I'm scared that everything is gone outside," said Guiseppe, one of the contestants. "Maybe something happened."

Well, yes. But probably not what he thought. In a shameless effort at a ratings bounce for station RTLII, "Big Brother" producers cut off food and supplies deliveries to the "village", the moving cameras stopped moving, and they stopped communicating to the 15 contestants. The plan was to see what would happen next and capture it on stationary cameras: Would things go on as they always had been? Would all hell broke loose?

The result so far has been inconclusive. Sure, one of the candidates has flitted through some of the houses off-limits to contestants. But the assembled crew has been more or less behaved, and scared.

"We're going to continue to observe the rules," said Thomas, the village's "mayor" during a crisis meeting. "The food and cigarettes will continue to be distributed, we will continue to work and every one will stay in their area."

Not exactly what the RLTII producers had in mind.