Doesn't surprise me. They've allowed a vicious woman to put a dark cloud over this years Big Brother with housemates that do sparkle when they emerge such as Ashleigh just wanting to go and becoming miserable because they can't bear the thought of 5 or 6 more weeks with Helen.

Furthermore, the editing... Who on earth thinks the average BB viewer wants to hear men talk about fingerblasting women in the first week? These people truly are vulgar and disgusting and have turned a good show for young people into something dark and depressing.

Chances of them fixing the problem? Zilch. No new housemates to boost some life into the old ones. A big twist that you can see being a damp squib a mile off and probably more and more Helen and the men talking in a crude manner. And popular HMs being evicted because they're up against each other.

I dare say they've given up anyway. I'm convinced the quadruple eviction for BB11 was a final up yours from Edgar-Jones to some viewers. This series may be an up yours to viewers who are left.

The first 20 minutes of last night I couldn't even hear the show.

Major sound issues.

I think a lot if people thought it was at 10, they need to stick to 9 or 10.

Please stop making excuses about ratings - it is rating dreadfully! And it deserves to. Where did it all go wrong?

4 years ago when they decided not to do a live feed. The website is appalling as well. This is supposed to be a Modern, edgy, interactive show and yet it feels dated and is keep the viewers at a distance.

:clap1:

The live feed hasn't got anything to do with it. :bored:
What was it even against last night?!

Maybe I'm wrong but I personally don't believe at all that the lack of live feed is the reason for the ratings today. It might have switched off a couple of hundred thousand hardcore viewers maximum but that's probably it. Didn't they introduce live feed at night last year on 5* and they had to cancel it because it rated terribly?

The move to C5 and the change in editing since BB11 to a more messy appearance as opposed to the simple, clean, MUCH better editing we used to get didn't help it. Equally, their choice in housemates has on the whole not been good in recent years. However, overall the ratings have generally been falling year on year since around BB7 so it was probably always going to reach this point eventually. Now it just fluctuates between 1m - 2m depending on how interesting the housemates are.

The problem for me this year was the abysmal launch show. That turned me off and made me decide to take a year out this year, as well as being sick of the show after having to put up with 3 series each year.

Urgh it's got another football match to contend with tonight.

No, they put it on at 7 pm against the soaps. How could it ever rate well at that time? Especially when it's the time they are often just in the kitchen cooking.


The decline began with the second half of BB7 after Nikki was evicted. The live coverage was dramatically reduced during BB10 which was the lowest rated series on Channel 4. The highest rated series on Channel 5 was last years which had an extra 2 hours of live coverage every night on the net.

It's not rocket science imo. Well over 200,000 watched the live coverage on Channel4/E4 red button throughout the day. It's hard to get a real figure because it's 24/7 but once you add up all the different individual homes watching throughout the day it could be well over a million in total.

When they have done live coverage on Channel 5 after the eviction shows, they've rated extremely well. Better than BOTS

Fact is people were desperate for Channel 5 to revive the show and do it properly. They promised the return of the red button interactive service and then it never happened. The lack of live coverage slows down all the talk about it on internet forums and fansites (not to mention twitter) and keeps viewers at a distance from what was always meant to be an interactive show.

There are other problems. Poor choices of housemates, terrible tasks, ridiculous twists, awful editing and so on. There's just no sense to me in picking housemates who talk about fingerblasting women on about day 3 and including that on the show. It's vulgar and offputting.

Yes but +1 would have been much higher if that was the sole reason.

The series simply hasn't been good enough.

I know a few folk who are tuning off slowly but surely for exactly this reason.

Oh for god sakes I agree with it being up against the soaps but the people in the kitchen cooking excuse?

Oh I did not realise that was the official plus 1, then that's quite bad.

The ratings today are going to be awful.

A pretty enticing WC quarter-final match bang on exactly the time BB Eviction is on.

The show has been in steady decline ever since the reduced live coverage. It's perfectly obvious why... You cannot get to know these people to anything like the same degree that you used to be able to do. Viewers feel nothing for the housemates and are increasingly distrusting of what they are seeing. They've grown cynical and fed up.

Yes, it's up against the soaps and it is probably one of the least interesting times of the day. That's obvious. After that proved to be a failure (as people pointed out to those who made the decision that it would be) they put it on at midnight to 2 am on the net thereafter.

The show had actually been steadily increasing, look at CBB in January almost getting 4 million on finale night and that's after 13 years on screen.

The normal BB also climbed in ratings with it being the highest rated on Channel 5 and the first time in 3 years ratings getting 2 million and above for some highlight shows and evictions.

The CBB series is obviously different to the normal series. Especially if they get a famous person like Jim Davidson. But what it does show is that there is still an audience for BB if you do it right.

People already feel they know something about the celebs. Without the live coverage it's difficult to get to know the normal housemates. Fact is, the normal series grew to the cultural event it became based on a simple format... House, housemates, 24/7 feed. They should have never fiddled with that.

The first year they have increased live coverage...

Big Brother Xtra @BigBrotherXtra · 1m

Big Brother Crisis only 924k (4.6%) tuned in last night - HUGE Shake up brewing, but will it be enough?

Bloody terrible axe it now

Helen is turning ppl away

Agree too many ppl suck up to bb terrible rating

It bloody does

Its hard for me its only me and my mum watching cant talk abuot it with freinds they wont give it the time of day they need a re launch and fast!

Ratings tonight will be messy with it clashing with Brazil.

After reading highlights it's the match for me.

It would annoy me if they did. For 4 years people have been campaigning about the live coverage and also with all sorts of ideas about making it a better, more complete show, adding to what was the original format with a great site, multiple feeds, exclusive diary room access for live nominations and so on. They've been doing it on the cheap for the last 3 years unfortunately.

They sometimes get by with a good selection of celebs, but they have never ever listened to the fans when it comes to the civilian BB.

The show generally needs a big shakeup

Yep. More likely to axe it without ever having listened to the fans and give it a go though.

ew, they should of just stuck it at 10Pm instead at least the +1 got it back up to 1.1

I'm kinda hoping this Armageddon twist involves evicting 4 or 5 housemates and replacing them with 4 or 5 new ones.

I'm not being funny, but saying axe it isn't going to help. Live Feed ISN'T the cause of the ratings drop. Live Feed doesn't even come into it anymore. After four years, you can't use Live Feed as an excuse for piss-poor ratings.

Channel 5 have failed in bringing us interesting and diverse Housemates this series, and with their "Power Trip" theme that's not working - they've just drawn up this whole Armageddon thing in a last ditch attempt at scrapping back some viewers.

The show has so much potential, I mean last years series was actually brilliant. They need to do what they did last year and we'll be good again. It's just this year the Housemates lack in interest and the theme has failed.

Power Trip > Secret and Lies

Power Trip has basically become Secrets and Lies, the twists are just rehashed from last year with a bit of power shoved in.

They need to stop with the themes next year if it's on next year

I really can't make any excuse for last night. 1.1m without football is very poor basically. But how do they get them up? I don't think they can for this series, they can for the CBB following, but it seems that it's just not BB's year this year. For those talking about axing the normal series, why? Last year did very well, they can't go by only this years numbers (even though officially it will probably be the same or beat BB12-BB13 anyway).

Viacom take over in like 2 weeks time (before the Armageddon thing), so maybe something will be done. Not sure what can make it climb; live feed NEXT YEAR must come back, surely they know that (Live From the House got 1.3m 2 weeks back).

They really should keep it as 'Big Brother', the subtitles make it look like some sort of joke or spinoff!

They won't axe it I'm sure of that since it's there most talked about and highest rated show

Actually, many shows are now doing better than Big Brother.

Channel 5 have announced they've recomissioned The Nightmare Neighbour Next Door, Can't Pay? We'll Take It Away, Autopsy: The Last Hours of... and Age Gap Lovers after most averaged at around 1.7 Million viewers throughout the series.

Not to mention that The Hotel Inspector and CSI bring in huge audiences in Channel 5's eyes.