'Shattered' offered potential prize money of £100,000 with presenter Dermot O'Leary treading a fine line between promising viewers the excitement of watching participants descend into paranoia and delusion while stating that their health was of the utmost importance.
A doctor was on hand 24 hours a day during filming and an ethics board, consisting of a sleep expert, a doctor, a psychiatrist and a health and safety adviser, was convened to advise on ethical issues surrounding the show.
'Shattered' finished on Saturday with trainee police officer Southern winning the £97,000 prize.
Ofcom says that it is looking into the programme because it received 11 complaints from the public. It would not detail the specifics, saying that they were about the general content.
The show has come under fire on a number of fronts with Channel 4 being accused of putting the health of contestants at risk and of making light of those who have been tortured through the use of sleep deprivation by corrupt regimes.
Last year the Independent Television Commission cleared Channel 4's live broadcast of the magician Derren Brown's 'Russian Roulette' of complaints that it was in bad taste. Despite a vast amount of coverage in the media, only eight people complained about trailers of the show and another eight complained about the broadcast.
Ofcom, which came into existence on January 1, is also investigating The Number's 118 118 advertising campaign after complaints by the British athlete David Bedford that the mustachioed runners had ripped off his image.
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