What if CBB5 never happened?

[Headie]

CBB5 came right off the back of one of, if not the most popular civillian BB series with the British public. It pretty much ruined all the positive publicity that BB7 had generated the franchise. In my opinion I think that, had CBB5 not happened, BB would probaby still be on Channel 4 now getting decent viewing figures still (higher than C5's).

But then again there would also be drawbacks, e.g. a woman of colour never winning a UK BB series, the bullies never being exposed for their real selves etc. It would've meant Emily wouldn't have been ejected in BB8 but then again, the cast might have been completely different.

It really gets you thinking tbh doesn't it :laugh:

[Cal.]

BB could still have flopped afterwards. CBB5 was one of 3 factors that ruined BB (along with Nikki returning in the final week and the BB8 female launch) so it may have still flopped it just wouldn't have got as much press attention as it was flopping bc there wasn't anything bad to blame.

[Jason.]

Actually CBB5 was shaping up to be the lowest rated CBB at one point before the whole Shilpagate fiasco happened - which ideally brought in the headlines and ratings for that series (for all the wrong reasons admittedly but still). I remember the ratings falling to around 3.8m (which was worryingly low for BB at the time) in the first week of CBB5, but it picked up with the 2nd week with Jade's eviction etc.

[Pete.]

Jade saved the show then destroyed it all in one series

[Jason.]

Idk, I honestly think had BB8-11 aired as they were without CBB5 taking place, they'd still get low viewing figures because the production and quality of the show had changed massively from 2004-2006 and it wasn't really a good change.

I don't think the drop of viewership would've been as big though. I'm sure had CBB5 not happened or Shilpagate rather, BB8 would've rated around the 4.3m mark instead of 3.9m. Which would've still been the lowest BB at the time.

[RichardG]

Ratings probably would've still dropped but probably slightly slower and we might have got an extra series or two out of C4 before they axed it. I'm sure I read an article on here saying some head person at C4 hated the show so they probably would have found a reason to get rid of it anyway.

[HBIC]

BB8 actually debuted really high with 6.6 million viewers (only 0.5m down on BB7 and 0.6m higher than BB6), so CBB5 didn't do that much damage to the actual ratings. But the absolutely awful first few weeks of BB8 + all-female launch night + being up against Britain's Got Talent pretty much killed the series.

BB8 was responsible for the show's demise ratings-wise, not CBB5.

[Jason.]

BB8 actually debuted really high with 6.6 million viewers (only 0.5m down on BB7 and 0.6m higher than BB6), so CBB5 didn't do that much damage to the actual ratings. But the absolutely awful first few weeks of BB8 + all-female launch night + being up against Britain's Got Talent pretty much killed the series.

BB8 was responsible for the show's demise ratings-wise, not CBB5.

Hmm I partly agree with this. I remember the anticipation being extremely high for BB8 back in 2007, given the hype and success of BB7 the year before and how ugly CBB5 was. People just couldn't wait for BB8 in the summer because they knew it would be better than CBB5 and would follow on from BB5-7, but like you say the first week rated quite well and higher than BB6's first week and roughly the same as BB5's first week but because the production threw silly gimmicks like the all-female launch, people were disappointed and just couldn't be bothered with it and thought it was crap so didn't bother with the rest, so it lost a heavy margin of the 4.7m people that tuned into the first week and it didn't recover since. Had the production been better, the retention of that figure would've been higher.

[Braden]

idk, it was a matter of time before a scandal like CBB5 would happen. I doubt it would still be doing well on C4 imo.

BB7 was the height of controversy regarding the civilian series. There were many headlines of how BB were being insensitive by choosing housemates who were clearly mentally incapable of handling the experience. Yes there was successful media attention (and the show proved to be very popular), but the producers were toeing the line in terms of dangerous decision-making. This was proven in CBB5 with how long it took BB to actually deal with the situation in the house, and their choice to ignore the nations outrage by keeping Jade in the house.

[HBIC]

Hmm I partly agree with this. I remember the anticipation being extremely high for BB8 back in 2007, given the hype and success of BB7 the year before and how ugly CBB5 was. People just couldn't wait for BB8 in the summer because they knew it would be better than CBB5 and would follow on from BB5-7, but like you say the first week rated quite well and higher than BB6's first week and roughly the same as BB5's first week but because the production threw silly gimmicks like the all-female launch, people were disappointed and just couldn't be bothered with it and thought it was crap so didn't bother with the rest, so it lost a heavy margin of the 4.7m people that tuned into the first week and it didn't recover since. Had the production been better, the retention of that figure would've been higher.
Exactly. There is a misconception that BB8 was a ratings disaster from start to finish. That's not true. BB8 started off very well, despite being awful. The second week killed the show because of horrible scheduling (up against Britain's Got Talent at 9pm when it should have just been moved to 10pm the whole week). It went from 4.7m to 3.1m that week. Only about a million returned because the series was so poorly received.

In theory, I think the all female launch had potential but the producers really screwed things up with the way they handled sending male HMs in. They should have just had two big launches (one female, one male) or something instead of sending in Ziggy on Day 3 and drip-feeding the rest of the men over the next few weeks. The production that series was just terrible.

[Headie]

BB8's first week is the best first week in BB history imo so it's sad people didn't stick with it

[LukeB]

Putting Jade in CBB5 was a terrible move.. i don't get the hype for her.

[Jake.]

we'd be in the same place now

the interest in BB was still there, BB8's launch was the fourth most watched and the first week done fine, it was poor production that ruined things

[Babayaro.]

I don't think it would still be on Chanel 4 tbh, we probably would have gotten to about 2012 before it was axed

[Jason.]

I don't think it would still be on Chanel 4 tbh, we probably would have gotten to about 2012 before it was axed

If BB13 was on C4 :lovedup:

[Babayaro.]

If BB13 was on C4 :lovedup:

It would have been perfect tbh. All it needed was good production and Channel 4 would have provided that

[Jason.]

I mean the BB13 production wasn't even that bad on C5. (i.e it had none of the silly constant nomination twists we've had ever since BB15-onwards). But C4 could've made it Top 4 material (it was never going to be as good as BB5-7 on C4 anyway lbr) and improved it. Like having a Thursday launch or something so we didn't get that awful Day 4 eviction, ejected Conor, it wouldn't have had the awful editing and cotton-candy TOWIE visual quality that the early C5/Brian Dowling era fell victim to, and we would've had a Friday finale which felt like an event compared to the Monday one we had, and it probably would've been 13 weeks long (although I'm not sure that's a good thing but yeah)

[Babayaro.]

I agree. That's what I meant though, all they needed to do was get rid of the horrible editing. Also, looking back, the wildcard vote was very 'Channel 4' too. I wish they would go back to making it like BB13 again :(

[Jason.]

I forgot to mention Davina presenting BB13 :flutter:

[Babayaro.]

VTE in BB13 though...

[Cal.]

I mean the BB13 production wasn't even that bad on C5. (i.e it had none of the silly constant nomination twists we've had ever since BB15-onwards). But C4 could've made it Top 4 material (it was never going to be as good as BB5-7 on C4 anyway lbr) and improved it. Like having a Thursday launch or something so we didn't get that awful Day 4 eviction, ejected Conor, it wouldn't have had the awful editing and cotton-candy TOWIE visual quality that the early C5/Brian Dowling era fell victim to, and we would've had a Friday finale which felt like an event compared to the Monday one we had, and it probably would've been 13 weeks long (although I'm not sure that's a good thing but yeah)

I don't like the BB13 13 weeks idea - purely because like the longer C4 series' they would have just filled it full of newbies in the later weeks and transformed it into a brand new series. And Deana was not liked by the general public at the end of BB13 (going off the boos on finale night) so she would have probably gone on like Day 74/81. We also probably wouldn't have got the poetic ending that BB13 gave with the 3 soldiers coming top 3 as there wouldn't have been the 2 double evictions (Day 60 and Day 67) which got rid of the remnants of the insiders so it could have resulted in people like Ashleigh and Becky finishing in higher placers than Deana/Scott.

[EspeonBB]

I think BB would be in a similar position. The show started its decline with BB8 and was very stale by BB10 :shrug: