Peter Bazalgette emerges as Arts Council job favourite Davina McCall, the presenter of Big Brother, in 2002 at the height of the show's popularity. Photograph: Channel 4 He is best known for bringing Big Brother to Channel 4, launching the boom in intrusive reality television 12 years ago. Now Sir Peter Bazalgette has emerged as the leading candidate to become the next chairman of the Arts Council, the patron of 690 arts bodies across England. The deadline for applications closed on June 13) and sources close to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), which makes the appointment, say the multimillionaire independent producer - now chairman of English National Opera and president of the Royal Television Society - has won wide support, including that of culture minister Ed Vaizey. One source told the Observer: "Bazalgette is a shoo-in." The vacancy arose when the culture secretary, Jeremy Hunt, broke with established convention in March and decided not to reappoint Dame Liz Forgan - who also chairs the Scott Trust, owner of the Guardian and Observer - to a second four-year term, partly because he was seeking fresh ideas for fundraising at a time of harsh spending cuts. The Arts Council is suffering a 29.6% cut in grants - aimed at specific projects - between 2011 and 2015 to £1.5bn. It also administers National Lottery funds worth £850m. Tough challenges ahead include halving its number of administrators by 2014, assuming responsibility for libraries and museums, and harnessing the opportunities of super-fast broadband and connected television, that can also link to the internet, to open access to consumers. Another source close to the DCMS said: "Peter Bazalgette is the preferred choice, a pretty decent choice. He has the support of Alan Davey, the chief executive [of Arts Council England]. In the end they got rid of Liz Forgan because they wanted someone to come with fresh ideas. Other names who have been linked with the post include Veronica Wadley, former editor of the London Evening Standard and deputy editor of the Daily Telegraph, who chairs the London Arts Council, and former Conservative minister Michael Portillo, but there are likely to be others from the world of business. Opposition to Bazalgette, already stridently voiced by Daily Mail columnist Quentin Letts, springs from the view that Big Brother degraded British culture with its intrusive surveillance, and that he made his name devising glib TV formats. In March, Letts described him as a "buttery schmoozer" but a "brutal populist" at heart, who "throws champagne parties at his £10m house," a reference to the fact that he lives in a magnificent house in Notting Hill. The job specification for the Arts Council chairman, which carries a modest annual payment of £40,000, states that the next incumbent needs "experience in developing new and more diverse streams of major fundraising programmes, increasing philanthropic giving, development of endowment schemes and increasing commercial income." This must be combined with a "strong understanding of new media and technology that can help cultural organisations create innovative new work, improve experiences for audiences and open up new revenue streams." Some consider it a job made for Bazalgette, 59, who declined to speak to the Observer. His application will emphasise that in the past decade he has served as deputy chairman of the National Film and Television School, managing to raise £8m for new buildings. On joining the board of ENO eight years ago, he wrote the plan for its new website and then took over the chairmanship this year. He is on the advisory board of The Space, an experimental digital arts service backed by the Arts Council and the BBC, which is streaming, hosting and commissioning a range of new productions alongside archived works, including Shakespeare's plays performed at London's Globe Theatre in 37 languages as part of the Cultural Olympiad. The Space is seen as a potential template for a new, accessible approach to production, offering a range of dance, music, theatre, literature, comedy, performance and digitally created art to all comers. Ruth Mackenzie, project director of the London 2012 festival, a former special adviser to three Labour culture secretaries and a fellow board member of The Space, said: "He's very good at digital innovation, he's hugely arts literate, a very experienced non-executive director, a huge expert on heritage issues. He must be a very strong contender. Simon Albury, chief executive of the Royal Television Society, also noted that Bazalgette works at a range of less high-profile projects, including those with young television entrants. He's done a lot of things people don't know about, he's a man of enormous energy. He's a good listener, very sensitive to other people's views, has great attention to detail. He's not some Johnny-come-lately to the arts either. Reality television hit UK screens in summer 2000 with Big Brother, which ran for 11 series on Channel 4 before moving to Channel 5. Davina McCall, above, hosted the programme for 10 years. Jade Goody and Pete Bennett are among its most famous alumni. Alan Titchmarsh presented this makeover show between 1997 and 2002. The show ran for three years after his departure, and turned Charlie Dimmock and Tommy Walsh into DIY royalty. Part of the home improvement boom of the late 1990s, Changing Rooms brought Carol Smillie, right, Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen, and "Handy Andy" to our screens from 1996 until 2004.