Tilly83
28-01-2008, 09:37 PM
Oscar Wilde said: "Yet each man kills the thing he loves." Although I'm sure he intended his assertion for something more lofty than a reality TV show, I still can't help thinking how apropos with regard to the Big Brother franchise. Y'see, it's my opinion that the producers of the series and broadcaster Channel 4 are slowly killing their golden goose. A case in point - it's the final of Big Brother: Celebrity Hijack tonight and, in the infamous words of Lauren Alesha Masheka Tanesha Felicia Jane Cooper: 'am I bovvered'?
This time last year, a race row involving Jade Goody, Jo O'Meara, Danielle Lloyd and Shipa Shetty engulfed the Big Brother house. It ignited debate in Parliament, provoked an international storm, prompted flag-burning in India and resulted in over 45,000 complaints to the authorities. In addition, it saved Celebrity Big Brother 5 - ratings soared.
The annual summer Big Brother went ahead and faced the usual criticism of attracting the fame-hungry and talentless. Yet even before Brian Belo was crowned BB8's winner, the inquest had begun. Ratings fell to the worst weekly figures of any Big Brother series (dropping to an average of 2.7 million viewers one week in June when it struggled against ITV1's Britain's Got Talent); the tasks were far from memorable and hardly any of the twists worked. Remember Big Sister - the oestrogen-filled house of the first week? Liam's £100,000? The disastrous Halfway House? Although I personally preferred it to BB7's big yawner (Golden Ticket winner Susie anyone?), like a curry-chomping Jade Goody in the London Marathon, Big Brother 8 huffed, puffed and struggled towards the finish line.
So, time for a rebrand.
Instead of Celebrity Big Brother, we had a three-week winter show with 12 talented (in some cases) but not-quite-famous young people aged 18-21. The twist on the celebrity angle coming from stars, including the likes of Matt Lucas and Russell Brand, hijacking the role of Big Brother and having the run of the House. Channel 4 launched the show, then made the horrendous mistake of shoving it solely on their channel of endless Friends repeats, E4.
The effect was immediate: average ratings dropped from two million in week one to 700,000 in week two. Week three was even worse - down to 540,000. The 9pm highlight shows have produced disappointing figures too, hovering around an average of 500,000 viewers; a disaster considering that Reaper, E4's new US import, managed 779,000 viewers in the same slot. Even the evictions, normally solid ratings pullers, performed badly. When entrepreneur Liam and circus performer Victor got the Big Brother boot on Friday January 18, it saw one of the worst average ratings of the series. During the first part of the eviction, which aired between 8pm and 9pm, only 350,000 viewers bothered to tune in. Ratings were hardly spectacular over the weekend that followed; Saturday's highlights show achieved 422,300 viewers, while Sunday's edition managed 421,500 viewers.
However, more telling has been the quality of the Celebrity Hijackers - going from the well known (Ian Wright and Alan Cumming) to the not-so-well-known (some girls off Hollyoaks and Mat and James, the two presenters of Big Brother's Big Mouth) and the truly bizarre (art critic Brian Sewell and soldier-turned-novelist Andy McNab).
The general reaction on sofas across the land hasn't been the normal outrage and indignation at Big Brother antics. It's been even worse - indifference. The success of this series can be approximately measured as follows: ratings (down), tabloid press interest (down), celebrity magazine covers (down), forum message threads (down) and number of eviction votes cast (down).
The stench of disinterest has also extended to the auditions for the forthcoming Big Brother 9. It was all a bit of a damp squib in Glasgow; two days of try-outs saw fewer than 300 wannabes turn up for their chance at infamy and quick fortune. That fell far short of the thousands predicted by the organisers. A spokeswoman admitted numbers were down but added: "There have been a few promising people."
As if that wasn't bad enough, there are gleeful reports Big Brother 9 may face a kitchen nightmare. Rumours abound that Channel 4 plans to shunt it from its primetime 9pm slot in favour of Gordon Ramsay and Jamie Oliver. The reality show would apparently air after 10pm instead. Julian Bellamy, Channel 4's director of programmes, told The Daily Star that Big Brother 9 would definitely air on both Channel 4 and E4. He said: "Exactly where we play Big Brother in the summer has yet to be decided. It will depend on the quality and mix of the other programmes coming through."
Errrrrrrr….excuse me? What's all this 'it depends' and 'yet to be decided' rubbish? This isn't ethnic minority programming - traditionally the bastion of much umming and aahing - this is a money-earner. Channel 4 relies heavily on Big Brother for a staggering percentage of its annual advertising revenues. It reportedly paid over £30 million to air the series until 2010 ergo the show has to deliver - and that's the bottom line. In the light of all the problems the Big Brother franchise has faced in the space of one year, why take the risk of shunting it around the schedules? The last broadcaster to try that tactic was the BBC with Top Of The Pops. And we all know what happened in the end, don't we? A 40-year institution went off to that big archive of cancelled shows in the sky. Finito. Goneski.
Truth is, the Big Brother rot set in long before Jade Goody's disastrous argy-bargy with Shilpa Shetty. And yet, it's hard not to see the irony of its most successful housemate consigning the series to the graveyard: "Sorry," she told the Daily Star, "but that show is over." If Big Brother 9 flops, maybe it is.
http://entertainment.uk.msn.com/tv/realitytv/big-brother-celebrity-hijack/article.aspx?cp-documentid=7221074
This time last year, a race row involving Jade Goody, Jo O'Meara, Danielle Lloyd and Shipa Shetty engulfed the Big Brother house. It ignited debate in Parliament, provoked an international storm, prompted flag-burning in India and resulted in over 45,000 complaints to the authorities. In addition, it saved Celebrity Big Brother 5 - ratings soared.
The annual summer Big Brother went ahead and faced the usual criticism of attracting the fame-hungry and talentless. Yet even before Brian Belo was crowned BB8's winner, the inquest had begun. Ratings fell to the worst weekly figures of any Big Brother series (dropping to an average of 2.7 million viewers one week in June when it struggled against ITV1's Britain's Got Talent); the tasks were far from memorable and hardly any of the twists worked. Remember Big Sister - the oestrogen-filled house of the first week? Liam's £100,000? The disastrous Halfway House? Although I personally preferred it to BB7's big yawner (Golden Ticket winner Susie anyone?), like a curry-chomping Jade Goody in the London Marathon, Big Brother 8 huffed, puffed and struggled towards the finish line.
So, time for a rebrand.
Instead of Celebrity Big Brother, we had a three-week winter show with 12 talented (in some cases) but not-quite-famous young people aged 18-21. The twist on the celebrity angle coming from stars, including the likes of Matt Lucas and Russell Brand, hijacking the role of Big Brother and having the run of the House. Channel 4 launched the show, then made the horrendous mistake of shoving it solely on their channel of endless Friends repeats, E4.
The effect was immediate: average ratings dropped from two million in week one to 700,000 in week two. Week three was even worse - down to 540,000. The 9pm highlight shows have produced disappointing figures too, hovering around an average of 500,000 viewers; a disaster considering that Reaper, E4's new US import, managed 779,000 viewers in the same slot. Even the evictions, normally solid ratings pullers, performed badly. When entrepreneur Liam and circus performer Victor got the Big Brother boot on Friday January 18, it saw one of the worst average ratings of the series. During the first part of the eviction, which aired between 8pm and 9pm, only 350,000 viewers bothered to tune in. Ratings were hardly spectacular over the weekend that followed; Saturday's highlights show achieved 422,300 viewers, while Sunday's edition managed 421,500 viewers.
However, more telling has been the quality of the Celebrity Hijackers - going from the well known (Ian Wright and Alan Cumming) to the not-so-well-known (some girls off Hollyoaks and Mat and James, the two presenters of Big Brother's Big Mouth) and the truly bizarre (art critic Brian Sewell and soldier-turned-novelist Andy McNab).
The general reaction on sofas across the land hasn't been the normal outrage and indignation at Big Brother antics. It's been even worse - indifference. The success of this series can be approximately measured as follows: ratings (down), tabloid press interest (down), celebrity magazine covers (down), forum message threads (down) and number of eviction votes cast (down).
The stench of disinterest has also extended to the auditions for the forthcoming Big Brother 9. It was all a bit of a damp squib in Glasgow; two days of try-outs saw fewer than 300 wannabes turn up for their chance at infamy and quick fortune. That fell far short of the thousands predicted by the organisers. A spokeswoman admitted numbers were down but added: "There have been a few promising people."
As if that wasn't bad enough, there are gleeful reports Big Brother 9 may face a kitchen nightmare. Rumours abound that Channel 4 plans to shunt it from its primetime 9pm slot in favour of Gordon Ramsay and Jamie Oliver. The reality show would apparently air after 10pm instead. Julian Bellamy, Channel 4's director of programmes, told The Daily Star that Big Brother 9 would definitely air on both Channel 4 and E4. He said: "Exactly where we play Big Brother in the summer has yet to be decided. It will depend on the quality and mix of the other programmes coming through."
Errrrrrrr….excuse me? What's all this 'it depends' and 'yet to be decided' rubbish? This isn't ethnic minority programming - traditionally the bastion of much umming and aahing - this is a money-earner. Channel 4 relies heavily on Big Brother for a staggering percentage of its annual advertising revenues. It reportedly paid over £30 million to air the series until 2010 ergo the show has to deliver - and that's the bottom line. In the light of all the problems the Big Brother franchise has faced in the space of one year, why take the risk of shunting it around the schedules? The last broadcaster to try that tactic was the BBC with Top Of The Pops. And we all know what happened in the end, don't we? A 40-year institution went off to that big archive of cancelled shows in the sky. Finito. Goneski.
Truth is, the Big Brother rot set in long before Jade Goody's disastrous argy-bargy with Shilpa Shetty. And yet, it's hard not to see the irony of its most successful housemate consigning the series to the graveyard: "Sorry," she told the Daily Star, "but that show is over." If Big Brother 9 flops, maybe it is.
http://entertainment.uk.msn.com/tv/realitytv/big-brother-celebrity-hijack/article.aspx?cp-documentid=7221074