[smartalec2718]

After reading this thread the whole way through, I have a couple of thoughts. This is gonna be a long post, but stick with it.

Here's what it comes down to, guys. A combination of the race row, bad housemate selection (going from average, likeable, and relatable people to faux-celebrity freaks with mental problems and God complexes), and the elimination of live feed, is what brought down Big Brother. Obviously C4 can't take back the race row, no matter how much it probably wishes it could. The race row made it harder to find sponsors for the show, which was a problem, and it also just highlighted a lot of the things people didn't like about the show in the first place (not to mention the fact that it drove away a lot of viewers who were loyal to that point but disgusted by what they saw on CBB5).

Housemate selection is the biggest problem with recent series - remember the days of Brian Dowling, Jade, Nadia, Daniel, Victor, Makosi, Kemal, Derek, Nikki, et al? I mean, come on, let's be honest - there haven't been any housemates that were remotely entertaining since BB8, and even that's a bit of a stretch. At the end of the day (there's a classic BB phrase for you) it doesn't matter how much money C4 throws at BB, if there's a good selection of HMs then the magic happens on its own. That's what happened up until BB8 aired. C4 could, theoretically, fix this problem in BB11, but what are the odds of that, after 3-plus years of terrible casting? If they could get the right mix of people in the house once again, people would watch again. But it most likely won't happen.

Finally, there's the live feed. This is one problem that C4 could easily rectify, and they should, because the justification for axing LF in the first place was empty. Honestly I think canceling LF was the only reason BB lost 2 million or so viewers after BB9 because there was no noticeable difference in the quality of BB8-10. BB10 could have pulled 4-5mil easy if live feed were still around. Maybe that's one thing C4 will fix for BB11. We'll see.

In the end I agree with Tom. BB was a great show for what it was between 2000 and 2006, but over time it's gone so far downhill that it hardly seems worth saving or grieving over. I think we can all appreciate what BB once was, but now it's time to move on. Nothing lasts forever.