[Yaki da]

Originally Posted by Jack_

I'm not speaking on my own behalf because I like the viewer nomination, merely reciting what others have claimed. My point is not everyone agrees that the series has been "fair" up until this week, there's always going to be something that someone disagrees with, so.

There's a difference between disgareeing with something and whether or not it is fair. The viewer vote has been conducted in a fair manner. Changing a voting format to suit a particular result is something else entirely.

Sure, but what I said was 'they've done worse than this in the past, and things that were actually to the detriment of the show too.'

I'm struggling to care when it's the opposite. Positive manipulation is a-okay with me and part and parcel of reality television, especially in the modern era.

It is not part and parcel of a reality show. And who decides what is positive and what is not? And again, it is the very manipulation itself that has got so out of control, people have switched off. They've damaged the show by doing this.

Not really...that's just a sense of entitlement on behalf of the viewers. Channel 5, Endemol or quite frankly any British reality show production team are under no obligation to provide a public vote - it has just become the "done" thing in this country.

Yes, it is an integral part of the format and has been for the entire time it has been on the television. It is an interactive show. It was alienating the viewers that led to the show losing them and being axed.

The production team also has a duty and objective to ensure that they are maximising the potential of the cast and storyline strands, and attempting to prevent the public from destroying that is totally understandable.

Not on a show where they are asking the viewers to decide. Can you really not see the damage that has been done to the show over the years? Look where it is now. 500k viewing ratings and axed.

The show's demise has been due to a lot of things (most of which are Channel 5's doing - you can read my post in the Ratings Thread for my thoughts on that), but this isn't one of them. There was production manipulation well over a decade ago, and surprisingly enough there were still in excess of 5m people watching.

The show's demise began on Channel 4 (hence the reason it was axed there as well) because of this kind of interference.

Do you know what is damaging to series of Big Brother though?

Is urinating all over a chosen format for a show, pissing off half the audience by doing something so clearly unfair in the process, not damaging to the show? Are you serious?

Dreadful eviction orders. There have been examples in BBUK's history where several big characters have been evicted and the show's ratings for that series have declined. It has even happened this year...and people think it doesn't matter

It doesn't matter half as much as rigging an entire show to keep certain people in. And if they picked a better set of housemates it wouldn't matter anyway. And many people like watching Big Brother to see "big characters" get their comeuppance. Indeed, some of the biggest viewing figures ever have been watching people like Grace get evicted.

Love Island has a production manual which details certain "safety nets" to protect the "key characters" (which is how they refer to it) from public votes to ensure they last as long as possible - and guess what? Over 3m people watch it every night and it's ITV2's most successful show. They tried a vote to evict dump once, it got rid of the villain and they never repeated it again. The production team understand the necessity of keeping key characters and what do you know...it pays off. It's time Big Brother started doing the same thing.

This is to the benefit of the overall series and franchise, not just Lewis. It should've been implemented five years ago, let alone now.

I have no problem with there being a vote to save at the start of the show. But when you do this after weeks of it being the other way, you are rigging the show. It is that simple. Whether this should be the chosen format is irrelevant. You don't just change a voting format to suit a particular agenda one week.

You're essentially saying they can do whatever they want including saying "Yeah, **** the format, **** the viewers, **** the voters, **** you all. We do as we please despite this supposedly being an interactive show"

That kind of attitude stinks and it is what ultimately destroys a show. The show has not benefited one bit from it.