Mrluvaluva
05-07-2007, 10:08 AM
From The Daily Star
BIG Brother’s big guns will hold secret crisis talks today about how to sex up the series and win more viewers.
Show supremo Phil Edgar Jones is set to chair a hush-hush meeting of key producers in a bid to salvage BB8.
They will try to work out why it has not pulled in the same ratings as previous series.
Average viewing figures have dipped to around four million – at least half a million fewer than it would normally be drawing.
And the panel will thrash out new ideas for next year’s series of BB9 to ensure it doesn’t suffer the same fate. Among the topics for discussion will be:
* A plan to spring more stunts and twists and also bring in surprise new housemates to give the show a jolt and spark new romances rather than more Charley rows.
* Jaw-dropping new ideas for BB9 to ensure the series starts with a bang and keeps viewers glued throughout the series.
* A decision on moving from Elstree in Herts back to the show’s old home in east London where BB1 and BB2 were made.
* The design of a new BB “upstairs/downstairs” house with plans for it to become a twostorey building for the first time in the show’s history
Today’s brain-storming meeting will be headed by Phil, the creative director for
Brighter Pictures – the Endemol company which makes BB.
The 39-year-old Scot has been linked to the Channel 4 show for the past six years.
One reason for the ratings drop is that fans did not like the stunt of putting 11 women in the BB house on the show’s launch night.
The key audience for the Channel 4 series is young women and gay men and they were turned off watching girls squabbling all the time.
BB8 was also hit when ITV launched Britain’s Got Talent and broadcast the wacky talent show head to head against it.
Some fans switched allegiance for the week of the series’ run and it has taken a while for Big Brother to recover.
Disasters such as the Emily Parr racism row , Lesley Brain’s walk-out and constant arguments in the house have also been a hindrance.
With just under two months to go before the BB8 finale on Friday August 31, executive producer Rebecca De Young will be under pressure to come up with the new surprises and stunts to lift ratings.
There are already rumours that a pop star – possibly Prince – might play a gig in the BB garden as a treat for the housemates.
And producers are hoping to introduce more new housemates this month to change the dynamic of the house and hopefully spark a new romance – since fans are tiring of the Ziggy-Chanelle saga.
A source said: “The show hasn’t got the spark that other Big Brothers have had with the likes of Nikki and Pete, Nadia and the jungle cats Jason and Victor and not forgetting Makosi.
“They’re already losing big characters like schemer Billi and joker Seany.
“If this continues the show will sink if people like Carole, Tracey and Nicky are left at the end.”
http://www.dailystar.co.uk/news_detail.html?sku=1964
BIG Brother’s big guns will hold secret crisis talks today about how to sex up the series and win more viewers.
Show supremo Phil Edgar Jones is set to chair a hush-hush meeting of key producers in a bid to salvage BB8.
They will try to work out why it has not pulled in the same ratings as previous series.
Average viewing figures have dipped to around four million – at least half a million fewer than it would normally be drawing.
And the panel will thrash out new ideas for next year’s series of BB9 to ensure it doesn’t suffer the same fate. Among the topics for discussion will be:
* A plan to spring more stunts and twists and also bring in surprise new housemates to give the show a jolt and spark new romances rather than more Charley rows.
* Jaw-dropping new ideas for BB9 to ensure the series starts with a bang and keeps viewers glued throughout the series.
* A decision on moving from Elstree in Herts back to the show’s old home in east London where BB1 and BB2 were made.
* The design of a new BB “upstairs/downstairs” house with plans for it to become a twostorey building for the first time in the show’s history
Today’s brain-storming meeting will be headed by Phil, the creative director for
Brighter Pictures – the Endemol company which makes BB.
The 39-year-old Scot has been linked to the Channel 4 show for the past six years.
One reason for the ratings drop is that fans did not like the stunt of putting 11 women in the BB house on the show’s launch night.
The key audience for the Channel 4 series is young women and gay men and they were turned off watching girls squabbling all the time.
BB8 was also hit when ITV launched Britain’s Got Talent and broadcast the wacky talent show head to head against it.
Some fans switched allegiance for the week of the series’ run and it has taken a while for Big Brother to recover.
Disasters such as the Emily Parr racism row , Lesley Brain’s walk-out and constant arguments in the house have also been a hindrance.
With just under two months to go before the BB8 finale on Friday August 31, executive producer Rebecca De Young will be under pressure to come up with the new surprises and stunts to lift ratings.
There are already rumours that a pop star – possibly Prince – might play a gig in the BB garden as a treat for the housemates.
And producers are hoping to introduce more new housemates this month to change the dynamic of the house and hopefully spark a new romance – since fans are tiring of the Ziggy-Chanelle saga.
A source said: “The show hasn’t got the spark that other Big Brothers have had with the likes of Nikki and Pete, Nadia and the jungle cats Jason and Victor and not forgetting Makosi.
“They’re already losing big characters like schemer Billi and joker Seany.
“If this continues the show will sink if people like Carole, Tracey and Nicky are left at the end.”
http://www.dailystar.co.uk/news_detail.html?sku=1964