[Rory]

Reflecting On Celebrity Big Brother 2009

There is a distinct rhythm to my role as viewers’ editor, which is largely dictated by the enormous amount of comments that Big Brother and Celebrity Big Brother attract when either show is on air. As our Rated/Slated blog posts show, it consistently attracts the biggest electronic postbag, heading the charts for both compliments and complaints. In the calmer waters of February, I have been following up on two of the issues raised by viewers during the most recent series of Celebrity Big Brother: surprise and disbelief at the identity of the final winner and a continuing desire for a live stream to be broadcast during the time the show is on air.

I started my discussions with the person responsible for all telephone voting, who was keen to reassure me that the voting to win in the final week had been perfectly legitimate. After all the shenanigans with premium rate services in 2007, you can imagine it is something that all broadcasters are now very sensitive to, and she reminded me that Channel 4 has used Electoral Reform Services for a number of years now to oversee the voting process for all Big Brother votes. A representative attends each vote night and confirms that the viewers vote as reported by Channel 4’s telephony suppliers is the result that Davina announces on air. Interestingly, Ulrika was ahead in the voting from the moment that the vote to win opened following the final Monday eviction, and it may be that, because she was up against four men, the male vote was split giving her a comparative advantage?

On the thorny issue of the live feed, the commissioning editor confirmed that this decision was primarily a financial one although also in response to less viewers choosing to watch this. The team needed to ensure that the live feed is fit for broadcasting (that’s what all the sound dipping is about, when housemates say things that the Broadcasting Code prevents us from broadcasting) is a large one, and running it 24 hours a day is a very costly exercise. I asked him a question that had been raised by viewers and discussed in forums – if money is the issue, why not reinstate the live feed and drop one of the satellite shows? This took us into some tricky (and confidential!) territory relating to the contractual position with the production company, but he did understand from that question how important the live feed is to some viewers and reassured me (or rather viewers) that no decision had yet been taken over live feed for the summer show of Big Brother, and he had got the message!

http://blogs.channel4.com/thetvshow/...-brother-2009/

Interesting facts like Ulrika being the frontrunner ever since the lines opened!

[Princess]

Hope the live feed comes back,that sounds hopeful!

[BigBrotherfan4ever]

Does sound promising that they will consider bringing back the LF

[*mazedsalv**]

Hopefully!!!

[Spike]

Really interesting Ulrika was leading the voting all the way through
I expected Terry to be leading the voting until the live finale started

[Tom]

What b*llocks about the live feed! I never watch it and don't care if its there or not but the live feed was still on, you just couldn't get it if you had a Sky box. If you had a generic satellite box then you could, so obviously they were still paying for it and there were still people editing it!!

[Brekkie]

My issue with them axing the live feed was they made up the bollocks about the web videos being more popular rather than just coming out and saying it was being cut for financial reasons, which though annoying would at least have been the honest reason.

And as we've seen, judging the ratings of the live feed alone is a very narrow view of it all - the bigger picture suggests losing it seriously impacted the ratings of the main show - it wasn't long ago that "360 commissioning" was the buzz word in TV, commissioning not just the TV show, but the interactive content on TV, online and mobiles to go with it.


The TV Show don't seem to have released the Rated/Slated list for January yet, though in that article it suggests BB topped it. I'm interested to know how many complaints they got over the live feed.

[Tom]

Originally posted by Brekkie

And as we've seen, judging the ratings of the live feed alone is a very narrow view of it all - the bigger picture suggests losing it seriously impacted the ratings of the main show - it wasn't long ago that "360 commissioning" was the buzz word in TV, commissioning not just the TV show, but the interactive content on TV, online and mobiles to go with it.

I think the reduction in ratings of the main show was more to do with a rubbish series than a lack of live feed. To the vast majority of viewers it was just business as usual (as most didn't even know about the live feed anyway) and media coverage was higher than that of BB9.

[arista]

Originally posted by Tom

I think the reduction in ratings of the main show was more to do with a rubbish series than a lack of live feed. To the vast majority of viewers it was just business as usual (as most didn't even know about the live feed anyway) and media coverage was higher than that of BB9.

Millions knew about the 'No Live Feed.'
It destroyed it.
That was the first time Endemol got nasty and Dumb.

[Brekkie]

Originally posted by Tom
I think the reduction in ratings of the main show was more to do with a rubbish series than a lack of live feed. To the vast majority of viewers it was just business as usual (as most didn't even know about the live feed anyway) and media coverage was higher than that of BB9.

I wouldn't deny that didn't have a part to play, but considering the huge drop this time around it would be foolish to say the live feed being axed didn't play a part too.

And can I question you about your claim it was available on non-Sky boxes. Was it really as surely someone would have been ripping it off and putting it on justin.tv if that was the case. I suspect it was just there when E4 was broadcasting it, as that's the channel Endemol used to feed it back to C4.

[Tom]

Originally posted by arista

Millions knew about the 'No Live Feed.'
It destroyed it.
That was the first time Endemol got nasty and Dumb.

Wheres your source to suggest millions knew about no live feed? A lot of people on here, on DS etc never knew there was a 24 hour live feed so I'm assuming that if some of the die hard fans don't know then what hope do they have in the general public?

[Tom]

Originally posted by Brekkie

I wouldn't deny that didn't have a part to play, but considering the huge drop this time around it would be foolish to say the live feed being axed didn't play a part too.

And can I question you about your claim it was available on non-Sky boxes. Was it really as surely someone would have been ripping it off and putting it on justin.tv if that was the case. I suspect it was just there when E4 was broadcasting it, as that's the channel Endemol used to feed it back to C4.

I got it a bit wrong, I assumed it was always on but just read on FTA boxes that it was only on during BBLB etc

It probably had a tiny part, but I don't think it was fully to blame for a huge drop. Some say its because of media interest but there was more media interest in the first half of CBB6 than there was in the first week or so of BB9, and BB9 rated better overall.

[Brekkie]

I think the media were actually rather favourable to the show - more so than it deserves actually. Considering how poorly it rated, they could have really crucified it - but didn't.