I am writing to you about the current state of Big Brother UK and how I genuinely fear for its future on our television screens. I am just going to outline some of the issues and how they could be improved below, and hopefully you can take some of this on board and see a ratings success in future.
You NEED to Know and Understand your Viewing Audience.
The Viewing Audience now is not the same as the Love Island Audience and although a few of the younger generation watch it, a lot of the older, hardcore fans also watch but are switching off because it is targeted towards the wrong people. It now strays from the ‘Social Experiment’ it once used to be due to the casting choices and is now a Love Island/Ex on the Beach hybrid which is not what the fans want.
The Scheduling is All Over the Place
This year in particular, the scheduling is all over the place and it's causing fans to get confused about when they can watch the show. For example, the launch was not only on the same night as Love Island which was a massive mistake, but it was going against Coronation Street, just one of ITV’s flagship soaps. This put the first nail in the coffin for BB18, in my opinion. Then, as well as this, the 10PM showings are too late for many fans and although a good choice in terms of Love Island Clashing, it's too late. And finally, moving the evictions to Thursdays, and now Fridays at 10PM in favour of Paul O’Grady Documentaries and Legally Blonde of all films is a horrendous choice and makes the fans lose faith in the show. When this happens, us fans feel like you don't care about the show anymore.
Let's discuss how this could be fixed then. The first way of doing this is launching the show at least two weeks before Love Island and air it consistently at 9PM each night, and have a good two weeks on quality entertainment which encapsulates all that I am about to mention. The other way of doing this is moving Civilian BB to the Late January - Late March spot, and keeping the Celebrity for the summer. This way Civvy BB has no direct competition and is something for people to watch on the cold nights, and Celeb BB will be more relevant for people to tune into in the summer.
The Casts (Civilian)
The Casts are becoming downright appalling and they get worse every year. The public want to see more of your Raph, Hannah and Deborah, Charlotte and Mandy, Sue, Andrew types - the ones who are unique and you don't see often as compared to the Ellie, Sam, Lotan, Tom and Kayleigh (who, let's remember, compared the Show to an EOTB reunion) who are on TV often and should acuptually, by profession, be on CBB but more on that later.
So, how could this be improved. Scour the country in OPEN AUDITIONS and visit major cities like London, Edinburgh, Cardiff, Glasgow, Dublin, Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool, and the list goes on. It also ensures your casts are unique, interesting and don't originate from agencies.
The Tired Format
We all know the format is tired; from the lack of secret DR Nominations to the same tasks and twists. It needs shaking up, and not with something like The Others (that was great in principle) that lasts two weeks before being scrapped.
What would be an interesting shakeup is if you took at look at the USA web series; Big Brother Over the Top (BB:OTT for short). It has the brand new format (HOH, POV, House Eviction etc) but it allows the public to remain involved as they can name one of the three nominees, they can cast one of the votes to evict (the votes are tallied and the person with the most gets the vote), they can name the Have-Nots (a number of housemates (usually 3-4) who must live on slop for the week) and they can choose someone to have a Care Package (a Package delivered to one housemate each week that can help their game). It'd bring in much more revenue to give you more money for the shows quality.
Shopping Tasks are Losing Importance
The Shopping Tasks no longer have any importance. They aren't the unique games that used to take place, and now it's even harder to tell the difference between a Luxury and a Basic Shopping Budget especially now we don't see them writing the lists like we used to.
Live Feed
Live Feed would be a god send to all of the fans - allowing us to see what they're doing outside of the 45 minute Highlights and something to watch when it isn't on. If you wanted to bring this into more revenue, then you could offer a subscription service like BBUSA which asks for a small monthly fee to have complete access over feeds - and this could also include rewards to the fans like 5 free votes for watching a certain amount of feeds, or giving them excluding clips of audition tapes etc.
The Celebrity Series
The final issue I'm here to raise is the Celebrity Series, the casts more importantly. They now include 85% Z-List Reality TV Stars which isn't what we want to see. This could be improved by cutting the CBB to one slightly longer series in the summer and keeping Civilian BB to January-March. I can even prove how much Better the casts would be - as I looked back over 2016 and merged the casts together to make a more famous, well-rounded cast. Here is what I got;
Stephanie Davis
Darren Day
Daniela Westbrook
Gemma Collins
John Partridge
Christopher Maloney
Kristina Rihannoff
Angie Bowie
David Gest
Ricky Norwood
Aubrey O’Day
Samantha Fox
James Whale
Saira Khan
Christopher Biggins
Now there you have the perfect cast with a mix of ages, a few RTV stars to appeal to the remaining young fans, and some Media Legends. This has to be the perfect proof to my point.
Here I conclude this e-mail, and thank you for taking the time for reading it. I really hope I can get a response from you because I'd really genuinely love Big Brother to continue for much longer.
Yours sincerely,
Morgan (EDITED OUT MY SIRNAME), a diehard International BB fan
He replied with this
Spoiler:
All noted Morgan.
I agree with just about everything.
I am forwarding your email to Endemol as they will hopefully listen to you. They won't listen to me!
Regards
Ben
I'm happy at least that he is making effort to improve by forwarding to Endemol, and he agrees with all of my points about the Shows state so this could possibly be the start of something (but, you know, probably not )
No but seriously, thank you for sending that. It pretty much articulates everything I think is wrong with modern-day BBUK.
although missing Tiffany out of the hypothetical CBB line-up is a tad too shady for me
I love Tiffany just as much as the next person but myself and a lot others didn't know her before CBB so I didnt want to put her in the line up because it'd be a bit contradictory
EDIT: And it's a pleasure, someone had to do it and it's worth it if he actually listens and replies.
I don't think he has much control seeing as he put in his reply that Endemol are the production company. But Endemol produced the Channel 4 version so Idk why it's so messy. They also have to attend an International convention of Big Brother producers each year so idk why they're not taking inspiration from more successful versions.
The problem is the turnover of exec producers almost every series whereas the BBUS and BBCAN had the same exec producer each series.
I respect him for replying tbh! I thought it was channel 5 making all the bad decisions but from his reply it sounds like its endemol who won't listen to the fans.
I don't think he has much control seeing as he put in his reply that Endemol are the production company. But Endemol produced the Channel 4 version so Idk why it's so messy. They also have to attend an International convention of Big Brother producers each year so idk why they're not taking inspiration from more successful versions.
The problem is the turnover of exec producers almost every series whereas the BBUS and BBCAN had the same exec producer each series.
See I wouldn't know who at Endemol to contact, whereas I know that Ben would so he can forward it to appropriate people. At least he agrees it's **** pretty much.
But great letter Morgan, well done! I hope it helps with something, though I think it's actually dead after 2018.
I caqn't understand the relationship between Endemol and C5 in regards to BB. Does Endemol really the one to blame for all the wrong moves? I really doubt it.
I respect him for replying tbh! I thought it was channel 5 making all the bad decisions but from his reply it sounds like its endemol who won't listen to the fans.
I thought the same. I don't actually think C5 have much say in the show now tbh. And I can't imagin Endemol actually know what the fans want unlike C5 so if they can read my email then it lets them know it needs a turnaround.
But great letter Morgan, well done! I hope it helps with something, though I think it's actually dead after 2018.
I caqn't understand the relationship between Endemol and C5 in regards to BB. Does Endemol really the one to blame for all the wrong moves? I really doubt it.
CH5 have to take blame for the messy scheduling tbf
But great letter Morgan, well done! I hope it helps with something, though I think it's actually dead after 2018.
I caqn't understand the relationship between Endemol and C5 in regards to BB. Does Endemol really the one to blame for all the wrong moves? I really doubt it.
Yeah, this could be Ben Frow making excuses but I'd like to believe he does really agree with what I'm saying.
CH5 have to take blame for the messy scheduling tbf
You're completely right. I think the cock ups come from both sides of the pond. Endemol are to blame for the **** format The show has become but C5 are to blame for the scheduling and possibly even the castings.
C5 are still to blame for the tragic scheduling though right?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Blurryface
You're completely right. I think the cock ups come from both sides of the pond. Endemol are to blame for the **** format The show has become but C5 are to blame for the scheduling and possibly even the castings.
Viacom are to blame for the casts. They ensure each cast has a few MTV personalities. God knows why when most of them were on MTV shows years ago and have nothing to promote.
Seriously, where to draw the line between C5's responsibilities and Endemol's? Is Endemol the one who calls the shots? Is it C5? The EOTB casting - who's leading this concept? C5 who wants to appeal to the audience that brings raiting to itv and co, or is it Endemol who wants to make their product as "sexy and relevant" to look well in their catalog?
Makes me wonder who's worst...
Viacom are to blame for the casts. They ensure each cast has a few MTV personalities. God knows why when most of them were on MTV shows years ago and have nothing to promote.
But doesn't it mean that the cast is then a C5 choice (as Viacom owns C5 and not Endemol)? So what the hell Ben is on about with blaming Endemol?
I smell bull**** from Ben.
Andrew,
I sent Ben Frow an email ... :/
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