Fingers crossed they bring back the classy contestants of the golden era like Kinga and Michelle Bass :fc:

Whether it succeeds or fails is dependent on the housemates and always has been. BB3 had controversial and interesting characters, BB4 did not. BB5 - BB7 followed the BB3 model and that was probably BB's peak (Though BB3 did the highest ratings). It began to go downhill when the producers felt the need to meddle in the second half of BB7 (starting with the House Next Door), and then again with Jade Goody and her family on CBB, and worst of all, BB8 which started with that absurd (though at times amusing) all-female cast. The halfway house nonsense that year was just dire, and the idiot producers seem to have tried to recreate it this year and it's even worse this time.

Almost all of BB's problems have come about because they turned their back on an original format which with good housemates that people were fascinated by was still bringing in a lot of viewers. And imo, still would providing you have the live coverage and a good website to allow people to get to know them and feel involved in it all, which you can't anymore.


I'm not sure young people are the ones watching it. I suspect it's older people who are still the majority of the viewers. The reason more and more people are switching off is because everything has the feel of cheapness and desperation about it and no one knows what the hell is going on anymore. This was most perfectly demonstrated by last nights live twist.

Tbf, they were more than bodies. Kinga had the singing voice of an angel and Michelle Bass could do things with an aubergine you wouldn't believe.

Agree with everything you've said, you're pretty spot on.

This is the main problem with Big Brother now. Tasks are, well, tasks have been the same every week for every series for the past few years, "who said x about y" sums up 90% of C5 tasks, including the shopping ones. Where's the creativity? Overnight tasks and daily tasks that tested abilities became a true staple of the show in its best days. Now it's just about who said Gill has hairy armpits. If you guess right you get unlimited alcohol and a party.

The characters, they need more diversity, you don't need a house of 18 vain people that love the sound of their own voices and like to shout. Have a mix, have some quiet ones, people who work in different areas, people that come from different upbringings, a diverse cast is far more likely to clash and create an interesting show more than a cast of people who just want the same thing. C4 got casting far more right than C5 ever have.

The current website is appalling, and the lack of live feed is shocking for 2016, the internet is bigger than it has ever been and they don't use that for a live feed?

Big Brother as it is now tries far too hard to be complicated and create twists for the sake of it. If they stood back, stripped the show back a little, actually created interesting tasks and shopping tasks, the show could easily stick around for many years to come and thrive.

C5 have dragged the show so far into the ground by now, when the show does eventually get axed no other channel will buy it, and I doubt any channel would buy it after a break of a few years either. Channel 5 have tarnished the brand completely in the UK.

Less is more. We know times are different and a show needs to reflect this, although Big Brother does not have to be as over the top of silly as it is now, it needs to be simpler and more clever.

Yep - I think the programe is geared towards a target audience of 13+ even though it has adult themes....they know younger people watch it and want them to - due to the advertising mantra "get em while their young"

I agree with all that. And I would just add that the real advantage of a show like Big Brother was that it could reflect changes that have gone on in a society with the housemates it chose. It didn't need to change its format, it just needed housemates that were relevant to discussions going on in the outside world. Instead, they've chosen housemates with nothing to say, no interesting backgrounds and even if they did, they give us so little footage today, no one could ever know. It has become almost solely reliant on twists which no one understands and which people have been expressing their frustration about for years, to no response whatsoever from the people making what is supposed to be an interactive show. It's just dire. Everyone involved in the making of the show seems to have their fingers in their ears.

I'm not sure if anyone else caught it, but the day before last night's episode, I tried to watch the stream on channel5's website and the "test picture" came up a few times with it going back and forth. They eventually gave up and the live stream never happened... lol

Then last night we had the same thing, except cutting in with adverts and it happened with everyone not just the live stream. So to be technical, it's two nights of technical/production fumbles.

Totally agree with you two