A new article about Big Brother has been posted on Broadcast which has a lot of interesting facts and figures. It might disappear soon so I've pasted it behind the spoiler tag below.
Notably, it points out how this year has been the most unsuccessful year for BB to date, yet it still takes up the best part of C5's most watched TV shows of the year in the 16-34s category (it takes up the first 18 before any other show appears). One episode of CBB in January had 950k and the closest show behind that is an episode of Rich House Poor House which managed 600k. It also states how any episode of this years BBUK ranks at number 35 in most watched C5 shows of 2017, yet in the 16-34s key demo it's still in the top 5. Full article below
Spoiler:
The reality franchise is starting to lose its appeal with viewers, but is still key to Channel 5’s quest for the youth audience and as a launchpad for new shows.
At the Edinburgh International TV Festival, Channel 5 director of programmes Ben Frow caused a bit of a kerfuffle when he said he would be much happier with a channel “that did not have Big Brother on it”.
Endemol Shine, he said, had a “gun to my head” over renegotiations – the current contract runs out next year.
As frustrating as it is for the creative head of a broadcaster to be over-reliant on one brand, the alternative – life without it – can be just as challenging, especially for a commercial broadcaster.
Losing a high-volume franchise full of advertiser-friendly audiences can take many years to recover: just ask Channel 4. In 2011, its first year without the franchise, the broadcaster lost 5% of its 16-34 audience, with another 4% decline in 2012 as the channel sought to replace them. The arrival of Bake Off might just help – seven years later.
Recognising its commercial value and knowing how hard life might be without BB, Frow, perhaps suffering from the TV equivalent of Stockholm Syndrome, did have to admit how much he loves the ratings.
Frow’s public fretting was probably driven by BB’s worst year since moving to the broadcaster in 2011.
Celebrity Big Brother had been the stronger of the two versions. Its latest run ended on Friday 25 August 2017 with 1.9 million/10%, which was 263,000 behind 2016’s finale (2.1 million/11%). This latest series, excluding the late-night Bit On The Side, averaged 1.7 million/8% overall, C5’s lowest series to date.
The 2017 summer series also hit a low among 16-34s: 551,000/16% was below the previous low, 2015’s 601,000/14%.
The 2017 winter series, in January, averaged 2.4 million/9% (775,000/ 19% 16-34s) – C5’s lowest-ever winter CBB for both audiences.
CBB viewing figures
The latest series of the non-celeb BB, which began on 5 June, averaged 1.2 million/7% and 388,000/13% 16-34s. Significantly, it was also shellacked by ITV2’s Love Island, which launched on the same night and went on to average 2.5 million/11% (1.5 million/34% 16-34s) for eight weeks.
C5’s 2015 winter series of CBB, with 3.1 million/11%, remains the one to beat. The best for 16-34s was 2014’s winter run, with 1 million/19%.
C5’s best BB for both audiences was the 2013 series (1.8 million/9% and 592,000/14%). None of these were, however, as good as C4’s final series.
Its final CBB in 2010 averaged 3.6 million/15% (1.2 million/25% 16-34s), while BB averaged 2.9 million/14% (1 million/23% 16-34s).
Despite its obvious declines, BB, celebrity or otherwise, remains a key programme for C5 – a source of comfort and frustration.
This year so far, in a hardly vintage season, it features strongly in C5’s top programmes. The 18 January episode of CBB achieved 2.8 million/10% at 9pm, still the best rating for the channel this year so far, ahead of The Yorkshire Vet’s 2.5 million/12% at 8pm on 9 May.
BB viewing figures
Ordinary BB’s best this year, 1.6 million/8% on 8 June at 10pm, languishes in 35th place. However, it’s in young audiences that the franchise earns its corn. BB’s 7 June episode attracted 560,000/20% 16-34s, the fifth highest of any show on C5 this year by volume.
Top of the young audience table is, of course, CBB. Its 18 January episode drew 991,000/22%, well ahead of the next best: Rich House, Poor House on 4 June at 9pm (607,000/16%).
BB’s value becomes more sharply apparent when considering share of viewing, especially among 16-34s. So far this year, C5’s top two titles by share in peak are CBB and BB.
Demonstrating the franchise’s other important role in the schedule – launching youth-oriented shows – the next best was brand new Make Or Break on Monday 7 August (476,000/17% 16-34s), which aired at 10pm in the wake of CBB’s 644,000/16% 16-34s at 9pm.
The best of the second series of Lip Sync Battle UK on Friday 13 January at 10pm (577,000/17%) was next, sandwiched between CBB at 9pm and 10.30pm (800,000/19% and 781,000/ 24% respectively). The fifth best, and doing its work on its own, was Blind Date’s opener on Saturday 17 June, with 409,000/16% 16-34s at 7pm.
C5 might be concerned about having so much of the schedule devoted to one show that has been on air for 17 years, but even as it declines, it brings significant value to the broadcaster.
When it arrived in the autumn of 2011 to a channel not known for its consistent delivery of youthful viewers, it helped boost the average 16-34 audience by 20% on the previous autumn.
Even in this less than stellar year, BB still features highly in the channel’s best programmes list. This year, the two versions of the format have occupied more than 100 of the key 9pm and 10pm shop-window slots.
As tempting as it is to imagine filling these with, in Frow’s words “our own programmes”, suddenly losing such vast swathes of programming can create significant instability in the schedule.
That’s an awful lot of new stuff to find – and all of it would be under pressure to attract the same youthful, usually fickle, audiences.
Maybe if securing the franchise is cheaper next year, some cash might be freed up to do other, different things as well. Given BB’s stubborn usefulness – even in decline –maybe that’s what much of Edinburgh’s observations were about
07-09-2017, 03:19 PM
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