It did frequently win its slot and it has been consistently second or third so far this year. Ratings overall don't really mean anything. Advertisers are only interested in 16-34 year olds as they are the best market to, and this age group are hard to get hold of in TV. Big Brother consistently draws the most, or at worst the third most 16-34 year olds every day. Would Channel 4 really risk that? Also some of the Big Brother related shows on E4 are some of the highest performing multichannel shows. And given the amount of air time, the cost and the viewers, it is more than justified and probably would be with just 2m viewers.

You're so complacent Tom I can only conclude you work for either Endemol or C4.

If the ratings hang onto the 3.3-3.5m mark in overnights, it will go up to 3.8m or even over in the officials and thats really safe and good for C4.

BB makes a lot of money for C4, but IF C4 decide to axe it(which i doubt as they would be stupid to do that), i doubt it will go completely, Ive heard that ITV had an interest in buying the series.

Nah, I can just see things in the bigger picture. Anyone who thinks what C4 pay for Big Brother is not justified with its coverage and viewing figures for that coverage (including 16-34 year olds) is imo deluded. People just need to let go of the past and look at the ratings in comparison to todays TV climate, not that from 2002. Channel 4 recently described Big Brother as their version of Eastenders- so using that, look at the soaps ratings now to 6 years ago. Huge drop, but still the best on TV. It doesn't mean they are failing.

If it is ever dropped from Channel 4, it really wouldn't surprise me if E4 comissioned the series instead, or if Sky1 finally got their hands on it. Perhaps even ITV or five would take it on- they are reported to have shown interest in the past. I definitely don't think its the end of Big Brother if Channel 4 are daft enough to axe it, which I strongly doubt.

They've shown interest in it in the past when the show had a better reputation, which it's lost over the last couple of years.

Tom speaks the truth, I've got one media qualification and are currently in my final year for a second one so without blowing my own horn i can say he is correct. In order to be successful a show doesn't need to have huge ratings, it just needs to find an audience who are suceptible to advertising (That is if it's on a commercial channel like Channel 4 or any channel with adverts). BBC doesn't have to worry about this is they are a Public broadcast channel. Since BB regurlary gets around 3 million viewers nightly at the moment it's doing well as most of the time C4 only gets around 1-2 million viewers. Plus these viewers are the 16-24 so Channel 4 can get loads of money for advertising fees.

Profits = More BB.

It's 16-34 figures aren't as great as they used to be either though. I've not got the stats but it's fair to extrapolate that the ratings in that bracket have fallen by as much as the ratings overall.

Indeed it's arguable that it's since C4 tried to make BB appeal to more that it has indeed lost it's audience. It's now pushed as a mainstream show, and hence is considered a flop - while in the past as a cult show it was a massive hit, and even with twice as many people watching back in BB3 back then it still felt like a cult youth show rather than a tired mainstream programme.

Of course the 16-34 year old figures aren't what they were, if the viewing figures have fallen then of course the sub groups are going to fall. But its still consistently in the top 3 drawers for 16-34 year olds which is what advertisers are after.

And the argument isn't valid IMO about appealing to a wider audience. It has appealed to a wider audience since 2004 and the drop didn't come until 2007.

Yup, Oh well Big Brother won't be around for ever, hope it ends sooner rather than later. :spin2:

At the risk of being (more) annoying where have you got the data that it's in the top 3 for 16-34s?

To be honest though it's the perception which is the bigger problem - The Simpsons and Hollyoaks may only get half the audience BB gets earlier in the evening, but are considered to be far more successful at the moment.


Also the wider audience really didn't come in until 2006 with Celebrity Big Brother. CBB3 didn't really worry the ratings, but CBB4 was the first time it really made as much of an impact as the summer series made and the first time it really got talked about on shows like Richard and Judy, This Morning, GMTV etc. After that C4 decided to move BB7 from late peak to a flagship 9pm slot, and that's kind of where the problems started.

I know its not exactly what you're after (I can't really remember anywhere off the top of my head, I've just read bits here and there about it) but heres something that kind of suggests about the 16-34 year old shares, although its likely to be distorted by Hollyoaks, Sunday Night Project etc. It just suggests that Channel 4 has more 16-34 year old viewers, although it could easily be that ITV have more but they have more viewers overall, but its all I can find :joker:

http://www.channel4sales.com/data/viewing_profiles

Also just by taking a random week in July on the ratings website it still shows what an impact Big Brother still has on Channel 4, with the Saturday show with low ratings still making the weekly top 10!

1 BIG BROTHER (FRI 2236) 4.03
2 BIG BROTHER (FRI 2100) 3.92
3 BIG BROTHER (TUE 2204) 3.58
4 BIG BROTHER (WED 2202) 3.47
5 GORDON RAMSEY'S F WORD (TUE 2100) 3.42
6 BIG BROTHER (THU 2102) 3.36
7 BIG BROTHER (MON 2202) 3.20
8 BIG BROTHER (SUN 2101) 3.05
9 8 OUT OF 10 CATS (FRI 2201) 2.98
10 BIG BROTHER (SAT 2101) 2.68

(and you're not annoying me at all btw)

The things with ratings is channels use the ones that make themselves look best. My understanding is these don't suggest C4 have more 16-34 viewers than ITV, but that of the viewers watching C4, a greater percentage of them are 16-34 than for the viewers watching ITV. But as ITV has twice as many viewers, generally they'll be getting more 16-34 yr olds watching.