[carlcon]

The following is taken from: http://www.rte.ie/arts/2008/0908/bigbrother.html

The final of this year's 'Big Brother' had the lowest last night audience in the show's history.

The Guardian website reports that Rachel Rice's win on Friday's show attracted a peak audience of 5.1m viewers.

The final in 2007 had a peak audience of 5.7m and in 2006 8.2m.

In a statement, Channel 4 said: "This year's 'Big Brother' has regularly delivered an audience of around 3 million viewers - even after nine years on air, it is still right up there among our highest-rating programmes.

"No other programme delivers us such a consistent, sizable audience and we are incredibly pleased with its performance. We look forward to celebrating 10 years of 'Big Brother' next year."

10th and [b]final[b] year?

[rayheartbliss]

i dont think so

[dupin]

I very much doubt it - you can say the ratings are awful, but realistically, it's the highet rated C4 show. It's not just the highest rated, but it generates the highest interest of any British programme in term of magazines/newspapers/other media and I'd imagine C4 still feel very happy that it's associated with their channel. If it is cancelled, I have no doubt that another channel like ITV or Sky One will buy it and change it...

[carlcon]

I'd sell it if I was Mr. Channel4. It's going to make them less and less cash every year, so selling the contract now would be a great deal.

(If they can sell the contract - for lets say a 5 year deal to Sky - Sky would pay them $$$ x5. $$$ being what the show is currently worth. In 5 years time when sky have made a decent amount, it'll be worth a lot less). Win C4.

[Dal1966]

People are just sick and tired of Davinas blatant biasetness towards certain housemates, people have seen through her now.

For me she has ruined BB this year, constantly banging on about Luke & Bex, the two most disgraceful housemates ever.

[carlcon]

Originally posted by Hammer2
People are just sick and tired of Davinas blatant biasetness towards certain housemates, people have seen through her now.

For me she has ruined BB this year, constantly banging on about Luke & Bex, the two most disgraceful housemates ever.

I tend to agree... a bit. I think there's more to it though.

[bringbackscience]

If Channel 4 got rid of BB at the moment they would strugle to fill the air time left by it and they certainly wouldn't manage to get the ratings BB gets every night.

For the Summer they would have to produce 93+ hours worth of prime time programming for the Channel 4 to start with.

Then theres the hole left by BBBM and BBLB on E4 although they'd probably just fill it with repeats of Friends.

All the Live Feed time on E4 would need filling too but they'd probably just put any old rubbish in it's place becuase most of the time it's on at ungodly hours.

Remember they can't put E4 music there, though because they have a seperate channel for it now.

And as much as I dislike Davina I doubt they will get rid of her because they probably can't be bothered finding someone else to fill the role (Look how poor there efforts were at finding BBBM presenters and the current BBLB presenters), plus they'll look at how the Ozzie version got cancelled after the presenter of that got sacked/left and it'll put them off.

As soon as Channel 4 find something to fill the space, with that will pull in regular ratings as high as BB, the show will be cancelled. I can't see this happening for a few years but eventually Channel 4 will find something and I wouldn't be surprised if it was a new Reality TV show.

Obviously if BB ratings drop really low so that they are lower than other programs on Channel 4 in that timeslot, they will pull the plug a lot quicker.

[Indierock&roll]

i hope it doesnt finish next year

[XxShortyxX]

BB next year will be celebrating 10 years, I have a feeling BB is going to be the best next year, with better tasks. I really liked this year's BB, every year you get some people saying it's boring or the worst yet lol, but it can't be that bad, because they still watch it lol.

[Tom]

Ratings down- audience appreciation up.

It seems to have leveled around 3-4m for the past 2 years, its not exactly the drop of about 2m between series 7 and 8.

BB has had its day, but it still rates very well for 4. It will never reach the heights it once did but I think 2009 is going to see a renewed interest in the show. They just need to get as many big names as possible into Celebrity Big Brother, and that should bring back some viewers who stopped watching at some point in 2007.

[Magic]

Originally posted by Tom
Ratings down- audience appreciation up.

It seems to have leveled around 3-4m for the past 2 years, its not exactly the drop of about 2m between series 7 and 8.

BB has had its day, but it still rates very well for 4. It will never reach the heights it once did but I think 2009 is going to see a renewed interest in the show. They just need to get as many big names as possible into Celebrity Big Brother, and that should bring back some viewers who stopped watching at some point in 2007.

I agree with Tom's CBB points.

[markofthebeast]

i couldnt see sky buying a programme sponsored by virgin media

[NettoSuperstar!]

Originally posted by Hammer2
People are just sick and tired of Davinas blatant biasetness towards certain housemates, people have seen through her now.

For me she has ruined BB this year, constantly banging on about Luke & Bex, the two most disgraceful housemates ever.

I dont agree! If Davina was replaced the ratings would plummet furthur. The novelty has worn off and its on too long! Noone I know wants to give up 13 weeks to BB! Im about the only one of my friends still watching and thats because Ive just had a baby and theres bugger all else to do!!!

[Tom4784]

BB will be on air for a few years to come yet. Like it said in the article it's one of their most watched shows. Why end it before it's time?

[Spike]

It was expected after 3 bad series but C4 would be mad to axe it because its their highest rated and most profitable show
I agree with Tom if they could get a few big names for CBB6 like Paris Hilton that could help boost ratings for BB10

[DeonLime]

I don´t know much about television in Uk but how well is reality shows like BB doing compare to a couple of years ago and do you belive it´s more or less dead in a few more years?

I´m asking because I´m from Sweden and what happened here. Sweden produced lots af reality show very early. The first country to produce Survivor and other reality shows.

It quickly became more and more shock tv with shows like Big brother etc until about 5 years ago when it suddenly faced a quick death with no sign to ever recover. People got sick and tired of seeing freaks and drunk teenagers and jumped over to teve series like Sopranos, Lost and Dexter.

The few reality show left is all based around more ordinary people and much more family friendly.