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Ahead of the launch of Big Brother 2015: Timebomb tomorrow night, here is bbspy‘s wishlist for the new series – and this time there’s only one thing on it….

Just before each regular series of Big Brother, we like to lay out what we want to see from the summer ahead.

New nominations formats, harsher punishments, eviction percentage details, zero access to outside information and vote to save are just some of the things we’ve mentioned over the past few years.

We also open up these posts to you, our readers, to put forward your suggestions – and they never fail to impress us.

However, this year, we’re going to talk about just one thing: honesty.

Over the past few years we’ve been waxing lyrical about Big Brother Canada. Although this year it has caught too-many-twists syndrome from BBUK, it still remains a vastly superior programme, and one of the reasons why is that it treats its viewers with respect.

Prior to this year’s season of BBCAN, one of its executives Erin Brock gave an interview in which she emphasized the importance of live feeds to the Big Brother format. 24-hour streaming may be long dead over here, but some of Brock’s comments ring true for all aspects of the show.

“You have to tell true stories, you have to tell people’s true experiences, and you can’t make up some cagey reality thing,” she said. “You’re held accountable to the truth of the experience with those houseguests.”

And if there’s one thing that BBUK’s sorely lacking at the moment, even more than the live feeds, it’s accountability.

Back in ye olde Channel 4 days, when a big twist was about to take place, it’d typically be revealed to viewers in advance.

Sure, that never stopped the conspiracy theorists. One example that comes to mind was ‘Fake Week’ from Big Brother 8 in 2007 – when one housemate was evicted and interviewed by Davina, only to be sent straight back in.

The more cynical types claimed that producers were nervous about losing Charley Uchea, one of the most, er, loud housemates, and had therefore cooked up a last-minute twist to save her.

But the fact that the twist was announced before nominations – and therefore it was unknown who would face eviction that week, never mind what the outcome would be – ensured that such speculation remained just that: speculation.

Fast forward to 2014, and bosses reckon that it’s alright to hand eviction immunity to a ‘Power Housemate’ that was chosen by the public – only to remove that safety net for no apparent reason whatsoever.

We can’t see any reason why they wouldn’t want to explain twists in advance: doing so would ensure they remain legitimate and give casual viewers a reason to stay tuned, without affecting the potential for drama in the house.

You know a twist is dodgy when the only explanation that can be offered for it is “no comment”. But that is only one of the fibs over recent years – there have now been at least eight instances of Celebrity housemates being granted privileged contact with the outside world, while everyone was under the impression that they were playing by Big Brother’s once-sacrosanct rules.

As if all that wasn’t bad enough, in a press interview last week, Bit On The Side presenter Rylan Clark insisted that Big Brother isn’t ‘set up': “Big Brother is one of the only reality shows out there that is not edited or scripted. Everything else that you see is set up for your entertainment, but Big Brother is not.”

Now, let’s be clear, we don’t blame Rylan for those comments – he has to toe the party line, especially in generic interviews issued to the entire media, and that’s certainly what the top brass would like us to believe.

But while it may not be scripted in the manner of The Only Way Is Essex and Geordie Shore, they will have a hard time convincing any regular viewer that it’s completely genuine. Let’s take a look at some more examples:

- In BB12, Faye’s sister Jem arrived as a latecomer – just as she was getting close to Aaron;

- In CBB11, Speidi were sent to their secret bunker for a few days to the relief of the other housemates – only for arguments to ensure a few days later when they returned;

- During Secrets & Lies, viewers could only vote pre-selected couples in to the Safe House – and the producers capitalised on the sexual tension between Hazel and Daley by pairing them up, despite the latter having a girlfriend on the outside;

- During Power Trip last year, Chris was instructed to ‘groom’ Ashleigh in a task – after being branded ‘Creepy Chris’ over his innocent friendship with the 18-year-old.

These are just a few of many questionable situations from recent series – although no-one was necessarily too bothered that the first two happened (the less said about the third, the better) – but it’s an insult to Big Brother fans’ intelligence if they’re supposed to believe that these weren’t set-ups for entertainment.

After all, when Channel 5 first got their hands Big Brother in 2011, they denounced the social experiment aspect of the format and turned it into a pure entertainment show.

We know sometimes we moan so much that it seems like we hate Big Brother, and that couldn’t be further from the truth – it is the world’s greatest reality TV format and it’ll always be our favourite. But we do hate what it has been reduced to in the UK: everything that made Big Brother unique and honourable has been needlessly sacrificed for shock value.

The dishonesty and lack of regard for the fans – who are expected to pick up their phones each and every week and spend 50p a pop casting votes to evict – has left many disillusioned. Bosses haven’t even made a copy of the Big Brother rules public since the show was on C4.

Fortunately, there have been some positive signs ahead of the new series: its eye logo is C5’s best yet, its new house is very lush (with an outstanding Diary Room), the producers have already displayed a willingness to try new things by revealing the housemates before launch night, and on first impressions those housemates look like the best mix since Secrets & Lies (even if two-thirds of them have a claim to fame).

That said, we’re sure we can still expect the gazillionth incarnation of the BB5 bedsit, and no more than two rounds of normal nominations.

But this summer, as long as everything is above board, we’ll deal with that. All we’re hoping is that in ten weeks’ time, once someone has walked out of the house £150,000 richer, we can look back on Timebomb as an upbeat, enjoyable series we respect – not a miserable Power Trip-style middle finger to the public.



…oh okay, another thing – we’re still thrilled friends and family nominations were ditched last year, please don’t use a Timebomb to bring them back. Or the pass to the final for that matter – that’s definitely better off left in the past. Thanks in advance!

http://www.bbspy.co.uk/bb16/features...accountability

such a great article. It raises a very important point with the current state of the show at the moment. I'm really hoping that the producers do read it and take the criticism on board.