The Farm, the reality show that turned Rebecca Loos from tabloid pariah into minor overnight TV celebrity, is to return to Five in April.
The reality show that famously featured Ms Loos manually collecting pig semen, will return for a second series in two months' time, according to sources close to the show.
Ben Frow, the executive who commissioned the first series and who will be in charge of the second, is understood to have picked April, after looking at the weather and the positioning of rival reality shows such as Big Brother.
"It's like owning a holiday timeshare; you have to find out when everyone else is booked in; you don't want two shows butting in on each other. Unless you go for daytime or late at night 11pm," Mr Frow told the Guardian last year.
Five is understood to be collating a short list of possible candidates for the show, which was a hit for the channel last October.
The rural-based reality series, filmed on a working farm in Wiltshire, drew complaints from some quarters but drew nearly 2 million viewers to the final episode in which Jade Goody's former boyfriend Jeff Brazier was crowned Top Farmer
Ryan Hooper, the Devon farmer who coached celebrities in the first series, is expected to return to drill the new line up of celebrities, after Mr Frow describes him as the "big success of the show".
"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," he said.
Though dozens of viewers complained about the incident when Ms Loos manually stimulated a boar, the reality show was subsequently cleared by Ofcom of infringing guidelines.
"We don't believe that the scene was degrading or harmful to the boar," the media watchdog said in a ruling last November.
"The task performed by Rebecca Loos is one that occurs regularly on UK farms. It was properly supervised by qualified veterinary surgeons and was carried out for a genuine purpose - to artificially inseminate the pigs on the celebrity farm."
The scene caused a minor tabloid frenzy, which boosted the show's ratings. "Dispigable" was the headline in the Sun, while the News of the World branded it "Loos Behaviour".
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