[CanITouchThem?]

Maybe BB9 is a bad example of how boring it was, but say BB6 or BB7. Are any other countires Big Brothers as good?

Like Big Brother US or Big Brother Aus?

Is it worth the time watching them? Or don't they really live up to the standards set by UK?

[ange7]

Aussie BB got so bad that the last one was like 16 Rachels in the bb house hehe.
The early one's were pretty wild ... lots of people getting naked etc, police called in for sexual assaults, plus lots of politicians slamming it all the time....it got out of hand. But by the last bb is was very boring... terrible ratings and the channel that airs them has said "enough is enough" and axed the show. No loss, this bb Uk 9 was great ...

[melanie]

BBUS is good.. just don't watch season 9.

[:)tom:)]

yer i really like bb usa.
very different game

[Rory]

I don't really have an interest in BBUS, but if you like strategic gameplay then that's a good BB.

[Spike]

BBUS is great and I think better than BBUK is the last few years

[RiPPn]

I think BB US sucks, completely different rules, more of a game show, public isn't really involved, nominations are strategy, and forming alliances and lying your ass off are key. Also in US BB10 they seem to be trying to take things from UK BB such as live crowds at evictions, but it has been horribly executed. Not to mention that Julie Chen the host of US BB is the most robotic drone hostess I've ever seen, she will make Davina haters thankful for what they got. Also they always play music during the highlight and live shows to add dramatic feel? I don't know but it feels fake and is really unwatchable. Plus there has been a lot of controversy that it is rigged and that they are persuaded to do certain things while in the diary room, which they never show the diary rooms except when live voting is taking place. And big brother is pretty much non existent, he isn't much a part of the show like in the UK and AU.

A couple cool things they do are:

1. head of house: gives someone the power to nominate 2 people for eviction, and replace a vetoed housemate, it appears both UK and AU have now adopted a form of head of house with different powers.

2. Veto competition: this is also pretty cool, it allows people nominated and a couple other housemates the ability to compete in a game which allows the winner of the competition to remove one nominated person, head of house then can replace this person with another housemate of choice with the exception of the veto comp winner.

I will admit that the US show is what got me in to big brother, the problem with BB US is it's always the same show no matter what housemates they plug in. It's the same strategies, scheming, and all that every season, so it gets boring after you have seen 2 or 3 seasons.

-------------------------

I just started watching AU BB8, and it's okay, first thing you will notice is the house is ginormous, another thing is it took 2 weeks for them to even have a fight. Their rules are different as well, the public votes all week for the housemates they "like" most, then the bottom 3 are put on the hot seat for a live show on Sunday. The head of house then gets to remove one person and the person in 4th then drops to the hot seat, the housemates then get to go to the diary room and vote 2 points for 1 of the 3 on the hot seat, then 1 point toward a second person on the hot seat. This is poorly executed because it should be the choice of the head of house to remove someone or not instead of it being forced, I think this screws the public voting system. Also people only know they are on the hot seat for less than an hour and then one is evicted, so no sweating nominations, I think a simple fix to this is do the eviction voting and eviction first from the previous weeks nominations, then do the nominations second so they sweat it all week.

Another thing they do is Friday night live which is where they compete for head of house, this show is also okay, but because they do like 4 different elimination games, there is a lot of down time and the show really drags. The hosts of the show are then required to provide most of the entertainment and they are really not funny. They should fix this by showing previous day highlights like UKBB does during their Friday night live eviction show Another problem with the games is the team that goes first usually figures out the best way to do a game, and since the second team is watching them, they pick it up and almost always win. This could also be solved by putting the second team in a room where they can't watch the first team. A couple other problems with this are the winner in the first 2 i have watched has been meaningless, they told the first guy he would win 10000 dollars, then they screwed him by giving him another countries 10000 dollars that exchanged to 1 Aussie dollar, this makes the viewer feel cheated for waisting their time watching the Friday Night Live show. Then the second week the winner gets hoh, well they let people who couldn't nominate play, and the person who won couldn't nominate so they gave the hoh role to the runner up, again the Friday Night Live viewer feels robbed as it was a waist of time.

Last thing is their daily show is edited to crap, they bleep everything and blur anything that might even resemble nudity, they cut interesting segments way short, and their upcoming before commercial breaks usually give away to much which makes it harder to watch because you already know whats going to happen. Another weird thing is the daily shows start at different times of day and sometimes span 2 days, it's weird.

A couple cool things they do well are:

1. Food lottery: This is where people sit at a different number every meal, then food comes out on a conveyor belt with a number on it and you get what you get, sometimes good dishes come out and sometimes crap comes out and they aren't allowed to trade.

The sad thing is they got rid of this only after about a week in the house because of the housemates complaints.

2. Nomination voting: They award 2 points for the person they want to evict, and 1 person for the next in line. I like this because if you feel strongly that someone should go they get more points then someone you don't feel quite as strongly about. I think this would work well in the UK system where you are basically voting for anyone in the house.

3. Housemate Hand Grenade: This is where the evicted housemate gets to make someone in the houses life miserable. So far the first grenade made it so someone has to live outside and is not allowed in the house the rest of the show, they have a kombi where this person gets to sleep and he has his own diary room in the kombi, it's cool, and the other was the evicted housemate got to pick a housemate to have all their personal belongings removed from the house. Very unique and fun idea.

Another poorly executed thing is they have a holiday room where they take 4 housemates, they walk in to a room that resembles a plane, make them sit in there and stuff like they are really flying, the plane even shakes like turbulence and then several hours later the plane lands and they go in what is basically a secret room in the house that is set up like a resort. The problem is the people that got to go where just drawn from a hat by the BB staff rather than making it a competition, or a fake eviction, this made it boring and worthless.

Also they have houseguests which I'm not quite sure what their role is at this point, but it's people they put in who can't win but just go on the show, I don't know how this works and will have to see how it pans out.

Even with all that said it is still very watchable, they have some interesting characters in there like a guy that has a voice that sounds like Mickey Mouse, and a midget. It can fill that void until CBB starts in January,

UK big brother definitely is head and shoulders above these other 2 countries versions. Are there any others that are in English and watchable?

[SiaSiaSia]

Originally posted by RiPPn
I think BB US sucks, completely different rules, more of a game show, public isn't really involved, nominations are strategy, and forming alliances and lying your ass off are key. Also in US BB10 they seem to be trying to take things from UK BB such as live crowds at evictions, but it has been horribly executed. Not to mention that Julie Chen the host of US BB is the most robotic drone hostess I've ever seen, she will make Davina haters thankful for what they got. Also they always play music during the highlight and live shows to add dramatic feel? I don't know but it feels fake and is really unwatchable. Plus there has been a lot of controversy that it is rigged and that they are persuaded to do certain things while in the diary room, which they never show the diary rooms except when live voting is taking place. And big brother is pretty much non existent, he isn't much a part of the show like in the UK and AU.

A couple cool things they do are:

1. head of house: gives someone the power to nominate 2 people for eviction, and replace a vetoed housemate, it appears both UK and AU have now adopted a form of head of house with different powers.

2. Veto competition: this is also pretty cool, it allows people nominated and a couple other housemates the ability to compete in a game which allows the winner of the competition to remove one nominated person, head of house then can replace this person with another housemate of choice with the exception of the veto comp winner.

I will admit that the US show is what got me in to big brother, the problem with BB US is it's always the same show no matter what housemates they plug in. It's the same strategies, scheming, and all that every season, so it gets boring after you have seen 2 or 3 seasons.

-------------------------

I just started watching AU BB8, and it's okay, first thing you will notice is the house is ginormous, another thing is it took 2 weeks for them to even have a fight. Their rules are different as well, the public votes all week for the housemates they "like" most, then the bottom 3 are put on the hot seat for a live show on Sunday. The head of house then gets to remove one person and the person in 4th then drops to the hot seat, the housemates then get to go to the diary room and vote 2 points for 1 of the 3 on the hot seat, then 1 point toward a second person on the hot seat. This is poorly executed because it should be the choice of the head of house to remove someone or not instead of it being forced, I think this screws the public voting system. Also people only know they are on the hot seat for less than an hour and then one is evicted, so no sweating nominations, I think a simple fix to this is do the eviction voting and eviction first from the previous weeks nominations, then do the nominations second so they sweat it all week.

Another thing they do is Friday night live which is where they compete for head of house, this show is also okay, but because they do like 4 different elimination games, there is a lot of down time and the show really drags. The hosts of the show are then required to provide most of the entertainment and they are really not funny. They should fix this by showing previous day highlights like UKBB does during their Friday night live eviction show Another problem with the games is the team that goes first usually figures out the best way to do a game, and since the second team is watching them, they pick it up and almost always win. This could also be solved by putting the second team in a room where they can't watch the first team. A couple other problems with this are the winner in the first 2 i have watched has been meaningless, they told the first guy he would win 10000 dollars, then they screwed him by giving him another countries 10000 dollars that exchanged to 1 Aussie dollar, this makes the viewer feel cheated for waisting their time watching the Friday Night Live show. Then the second week the winner gets hoh, well they let people who couldn't nominate play, and the person who won couldn't nominate so they gave the hoh role to the runner up, again the Friday Night Live viewer feels robbed as it was a waist of time.

Last thing is their daily show is edited to c**p, they bleep everything and blur anything that might even resemble nudity, they cut interesting segments way short, and their upcoming before commercial breaks usually give away to much which makes it harder to watch because you already know whats going to happen. Another weird thing is the daily shows start at different times of day and sometimes span 2 days, it's weird.

A couple cool things they do well are:

1. Food lottery: This is where people sit at a different number every meal, then food comes out on a conveyor belt with a number on it and you get what you get, sometimes good dishes come out and sometimes c**p comes out and they aren't allowed to trade.

The sad thing is they got rid of this only after about a week in the house because of the housemates complaints.

2. Nomination voting: They award 2 points for the person they want to evict, and 1 person for the next in line. I like this because if you feel strongly that someone should go they get more points then someone you don't feel quite as strongly about. I think this would work well in the UK system where you are basically voting for anyone in the house.

3. Housemate Hand Grenade: This is where the evicted housemate gets to make someone in the houses life miserable. So far the first grenade made it so someone has to live outside and is not allowed in the house the rest of the show, they have a kombi where this person gets to sleep and he has his own diary room in the kombi, it's cool, and the other was the evicted housemate got to pick a housemate to have all their personal belongings removed from the house. Very unique and fun idea.

Another poorly executed thing is they have a holiday room where they take 4 housemates, they walk in to a room that resembles a plane, make them sit in there and stuff like they are really flying, the plane even shakes like turbulence and then several hours later the plane lands and they go in what is basically a secret room in the house that is set up like a resort. The problem is the people that got to go where just drawn from a hat by the BB staff rather than making it a competition, or a fake eviction, this made it boring and worthless.

Also they have houseguests which I'm not quite sure what their role is at this point, but it's people they put in who can't win but just go on the show, I don't know how this works and will have to see how it pans out.

Even with all that said it is still very watchable, they have some interesting characters in there like a guy that has a voice that sounds like Mickey Mouse, and a midget. It can fill that void until CBB starts in January,

UK big brother definitely is head and shoulders above these other 2 countries versions. Are there any others that are in English and watchable?

WOAH
you should be a critic!

[rayheartbliss]

bbuk was the only bb that starte off as a social experiment..( and its still suppose to be)

bbus is defenatly 100% gameshow......as the houseguest are the ones who vote for the win...not the viewers

[RiPPn]

Originally posted by rayheartbliss
bbuk was the only bb that starte off as a social experiment..( and its still suppose to be)

bbus is defenatly 100% gameshow......as the houseguest are the ones who vote for the win...not the viewers

Actually BBUS started off with similar rules as the UK version and was also a social experiment in season 1, however the show did so poorly in the ratings that it was retooled for season 2 in to the version it is now. I find it unfortunate because I would really like to see a US version with the UK rules and setup, but it will likely never happen because big corporations don't gamble especially on a project that has already been tried and failed.

[Cody™]

I find that once you get use to the Brit way of doing BB, you dont like any of the other versions.

[brandstifter]

Originally posted by CanITouchThem?

Are any other Big Brothers as good as UK?

...Oh yes:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=keAvjHYRuZQ

[MrGaryy]

BBAU is very good Series 8 is really good as is BB4 and BB5, I'd stay away from BB6 and BB7 though. BBUS is good. but it's totally different.

[Conor]

Germany has the best Big Brothers in the world.

2 have lasted a year and the second one of these was built in a special village instead of a house with 55 housemates and originally didn't have an end date. The last series had a house that was REALLY big and took the rich/poor divide to the extreme where poor housemates were sitting on crates and sleeping in mouldy bedsheets while the rich side got a massive garden, 2 floors and a really big pool. The last series ran for 155 days. Oh and we also stole the treadmill task from them.

Series 9 is due to begin on 5th December 2009.


An extreme version is Big Brother Belgium. The housemates have been shot at with dart guns, had to live with triantulas running around the house and passing a task where if they failed the housemate they were helping would be hanged.

[MrGaryy]

Originally posted by Conor
Germany has the best Big Brothers in the world.

2 have lasted a year and the second one of these was built in a special village instead of a house with 55 housemates and originally didn't have an end date. The last series had a house that was REALLY big and took the rich/poor divide to the extreme where poor housemates were sitting on crates and sleeping in mouldy bedsheets while the rich side got a massive garden, 2 floors and a really big pool. The last series ran for 155 days. Oh and we also stole the treadmill task from them.

Series 9 is due to begin on 5th December 2009.


An extreme version is Big Brother Belgium. The housemates have been shot at with dart guns, had to live with triantulas running around the house and passing a task where if they failed the housemate they were helping would be hanged.

Actually, we stole it from Beligium. I think Argentina have done it too.

[Callum]

Big Brother US is great. I love it, I've preferred it from recent UK series'. The whole gameplay aspect of it is fantastic and much more appealing for me.

[Xander]

To Be honest, although as much as I hated this series, I think our BB is generally alot better than the other shows, ours comes across as being the one of the best, like more organised? Like our houses have been so much better than any other countries. Our format's crap though and other countries have better formats. But Generally our one is much better.

[Wildcat!]

Originally posted by Conor
Germany has the best Big Brothers in the world.

2 have lasted a year and the second one of these was built in a special village instead of a house with 55 housemates and originally didn't have an end date. The last series had a house that was REALLY big and took the rich/poor divide to the extreme where poor housemates were sitting on crates and sleeping in mouldy bedsheets while the rich side got a massive garden, 2 floors and a really big pool. The last series ran for 155 days. Oh and we also stole the treadmill task from them.

Series 9 is due to begin on 5th December 2009.


An extreme version is Big Brother Belgium. The housemates have been shot at with dart guns, had to live with triantulas running around the house and passing a task where if they failed the housemate they were helping would be hanged.

WAAWWW, thats wiked. i didnt know that!

[bigbr0ther]

Try BBUS!



Lol, just kidding.

Originally posted by Conor
passing a task where if they failed the housemate they were helping would be hanged.

Erm... wouldn't this count as either murder or assisted suicide (if they agreed to the task) and thus be illegal? Lol.

[brandstifter]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=keAvjHYRuZQ

[Tom]

Originally posted by melanie
BBUS is good.. just don't watch season 9.

I liked BB9 when it was shown over here ... I wouldn't go out of my way to watch it though

Our BB9 isn't a bad example to use, BB7 is though. BB3 or BB5 would be the best example to use.

[Brekkie]

It's all personal taste, but having followed both the US and Aussie ones quite closely over the last few years BBUK pretty much comes out on top.


BB USA is different, but it's an excellent format in it's own right. My main issue with it though is each series basically follows exactly the same structure - there aren't really any major surprise twists thrown in along the way, certainly not big enough to affect the outcome of nominations or evictions.

I've not really followed the current series (BB10), but those that have say it is one of the best. BB8 was also very good, and I'd recommend any of BB2-BB5 really, though BB4 is probably considered one of the weakest links.

I wouldn't recommend BB6 - a bit like our BB9 really with all the dull "friendsheep" people remaining to the end thinking they're high and mighty and all those that have been evicted are despicable human beings.


As for BB Aus - again when you watch one series for the first time you'll probably like it, but it's been pretty repetitive for the last few years and it was no surprise when it got axed. BB1, BB3 and possibly BB5 would be recommended though - especially BB3 with the two houses.


BBUSA is easier to watch online though as it's only 3 episodes a week, so around 30 episodes per series - while BB Aus would have six "daily shows", plus evictions, nominations and specials making it nine or more episodes each week to download - so around 100 in total.

[stonedape]

BBUS is great if you have live feeds...the edited show is pretty cheesy and often insulting to your intelligence. BBUK has the biggest budget and by extension the best BB. But even the most badass BBUK contestants wouldn't last 3 weeks with BBUS rules...slop, constant plotting, backstabbing, talk of nominations, eviction from your own HGs. BBUK HMs cry when they have to nominate in front of eachother! If you're youtubing it, watch seasons 2, 3, 6, 7 or 10.

BBAUS had a few good seasons I hear, and its most recent was like a poor man's BBUK. They have good competitions over there though.

As for foreign language BBs...well...I'm not into reading that many subtitles.

p.s. All three started off as "social experiment" shows, in fact BBUS aired first and went by the traditional BB rules- private nomination, public voting, but the public is so god awful at voting over herel they changed rules in season 2.

[hannah-14]

I just finished watching BBs from different countries i have to say BB-AU is the best, i watched a few of them from old to new and i have to say 2 many sluts and coock-teasers no wonder where Sara got it from lol she had lucky escape if u ask me,. but overall its fun, sexy and entertaing and the hse is like a mansion. That BB hse has a wow-factor compare to the rest BB houses around the world.

Youtube video

[CrossingGuard]

Originally posted by Brekkie
BB USA is different, but it's an excellent format in it's own right. My main issue with it though is each series basically follows exactly the same structure - there aren't really any major surprise twists thrown in along the way, certainly not big enough to affect the outcome of nominations or evictions.

It's true that they don't throw in many twists in the middle of the season, but the producers have added a twist to almost every season. BB2's whole format change, BB3 added the POV into the game, BB4 had the "X-Factor", BB5 had "Project DNA, BB6 had the "Summer of Secrets", BB7 was All-Stars, BB8 had the whole ememy twist, and BB9 had "Til Death Do Us Part".

The twists were too much. I didn't mind them as much as other fans, but in retrospect, it would have been better if the producers didn't throw in all of these stupid twists. Take this season for example. The season didn't start off with a twist, and I find it quite enjoyable. It's not the best season, but it's better than some of the past seasons.

My favorite season of BBUS is season 3. I don't think it's on YouTube because it was released on DVD. But I've also heard good reviews for season 2 (I haven't watched it yet), and that season is on YouTube. I also enjoyed season 6 just because the house was so torn apart.