Big Brother Celebrity Hijack drew to a close last night with little more than half a million viewers.

Channel 4, keen to distance itself from last year's race row, introduced the show in place of Celebrity Big Brother, screening it on digital channel E4.

But the series failed to capture the public's imagination and last night went out with a whimper.

Student politician John Loughton, 20, beat circus performer Emilia Arata to win the show and take home the £50,000 prize.

But his moment of triumph was only watched by 644,000 people. A further 81,000 watched later on catch-up channel E4+1.

By contrast, last year's Celebrity Big Brother final - won by Bollywood star Shilpa Shetty - had an audience of 5.8 million.

Today, a Channel 4 spokesman insisted Celebrity Hijack was being counted as a success.

"Big Brother Celebrity Hijack has been one of the most successful original commissions for E4.

"It is the first time one of the terrestrial channels has stripped a reality show across the schedule of a digital sister channel, without the prop of a core channel show to drive audience. In this context, the ratings performance is strong," the spokesman said.

This year's show saw a number of celebrities "hijack" the house and take on the role of Big Brother.

The 12 housemates were chosen for their special talents and included an artist, musician, entrepreneur and racing driver.

During the show the contestants made frequent reference to the "millions" of viewers watching their every move, believing they would emerge to lives of fame and fortune.

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