Big Brother 5

That was some crazy poo in the last 15 mins of the show. What really hit home with all that mess was when Emma was crying.

Things are quieter tonight on the streaming coverage. It appears they are all watching the England match on the tv. A rare occasion to get televisual footage from today on Big Brother.

Well that's the first time I've sat down and watched a full episode of Big Brother (aside from the final shows) since Big Brother 1, and my verdict?

Never mind evicting one or two - just lock them all in the house and throw away the key. Each and every one of them are the sort of yobs you find on the street causing hassle at 3am in the early hours of a Saturday morning (the row resembled a fight on a street). They're all thick ("Comeuppance - what does that mean?" and "They all think I'm Jade Goodier" being great examples, Jade presumably being related to a former Radio 1 DJ). There's no characters that have any personalities which are remotely interesting to those of us who don't just want to see people strip off every five minutes. It was perfectly cast in the first - Anna being reasonably intelligent, Nick being the cheat, and the Scouse bloke whose name somehow evades me at the moment being seemingly thick, but having a coming of age moment in finding Nick out). It was an original concept, and it was far more subtle. It was based on personality, not porn. This lot are all the same.

And another point - how many of the rules have been broken? We've got colluding - which was what Nick was caught doing, we've had fighting, everything.

If we're only going to throw those directly involved out, then it's the two bampots (nice word that) who threw trays at each other. Your dancer man gets a yellow card. That's of course on the evidence we've seen - we all know how clever editing can change things.

It seems amazing it's going to continue despite the fact we've effectively had a riot in the house. At least they're not in Portugal I suppose.

Everyone derided Ben Elton's Dead Famous, which was very much based on a Big Brother style show, for being unrealistic after it continued when one of the characters was murdered. This episode has crossed another line - how many more can we cross?

I liked what they did at the end of tonight's show on Channel 4, with the camera panning to the graffiti on the wall which said "No More War".

That was when I started to realise how serious that riot was.

I am appalled by what I've just seen. C4 should pull the plug on this series straight away, or at least throw out all the housemates and replace them. Their behaviour with food fights, physical and verbal abuse, should result in them being thrown out - they do not deserve to be there, and cetainly do not deserve the kudos and or any prize money.

By allowing any of them to stay is condoning their very childish, scummy behaviour. I guess this reflects the general breakdown in the behaviour, lack of respect and selfishness increasingly displayed by a growing number of the ferral scum that I encounter daily.

A summary I wrote for the Behind Big Brother (.com) forums:

The show has just aired and been dealt with really well.

Opening with a warning from C4 about strong language and disturbing scenes of controntation, the show begins. No teaser bits are shown throughout the show, but C4 screen another warning before it kicks off.

The action is all in the final part of the extended show (so if you didn't see your video long enough, you miss it!). The actual footage contradicts reports - it was Nadia who through the table over after Jay confronted them about the food fight, but this argument had more to it than that - it began with Marco dancing.

Victor became caught in the fight when he tried to break up Nadia and Jason, with Emma getting involved and throwing a plate at him, with him retaliating with the rest of the kitchen utensils, before Stuart pulled him off.

The funniest thing is Marco in the bedroom calling Jason **** this and **** that, then really campily walking away. Dan is trying to get Emma to calm down and remain in the bedroom, with Nadia trying to pull her into the living room to continue the fight.

The most disturbing scenes are of Shell who is visibley upset and shaken, sitting on the floor in the corner of the bathroom as Jason began packing to leave. Vanessa quickly comforts her, with Nadia and Marco following in, only to start another row with Vanessa when Shell says she wants to be left alone. At this point security entered the house and broke up the housemates.

Emma was sent to the bedsit, Jason to the snug, Ahmed, Michelle, Marco and Nadia were locked in the bedroom with the others in the house on the sofas as the security guards remained in the house.

Then a classic shot to end the show.

The camera pans away from the sofa and turns towards the exit door, with the Security Guard in view. Then it pans in on a phrase Kitten wrote that led to her eviction - "No More War".

Dan came out of this show very well, and it'll probably keep him in the house tomorrow. He remained calm and dealt with the situation well.

And I know this weeks task was football themed, but I don't think they wanted to test them on their hooliganism skills aswell.

Seriously though, critics today have come out of the woodwork to say reality TV has reached a new low. But considering the original pyschological concept of Big Brother, this episode tells researchers more about how drunken riots break out than any surveys or police interviews ever would.

And the eviction is going ahead tomorrow - it was advertised during the show.

There was a substantial amount of footage on tonight's shwo that wasn't shown on the live stream last night. What actually happened makes more sense now.

I didn't spot Nadia starting the fight - maybe I should be a football ref... chuck her out as well then.

As for the defence of Big Brother.... I know it's nearly Wimbledon time so "You cannot be serious". You surely don't believe Channel 4 has this programme on as a psychological experiment? It sounds a lot like the defence in Dead Famous (there's that book again). And you could argue that Channel 4 is responsible for causing the fight - they certainly put all the ingredients in place (letting two housemates see what other people are saying about them, which annoys two other housemates, plying everyone with drink). They're blatantly getting them as drunk as possible to almost entice behaviour which takes things to the edge (hence the nudity shortly before) - it was a matter of time until something like this happened.

And I'm sure the police are perfectly aware of how drunken riots start. They have to deal with them every weekend after all.

Yawn... *Then* what would I watch?

This group have been well chosen for 'watchability'. That's the real name of this game.

I must admit I wasn't expecting that level of total belligerence, but having watched the broadcast it did seem to stem from jay, who was tensing up like a coiled spring throughout the evening. There was really no escape anywhere in that tiny house, which is why everyone got involved.



It was a shouty-row, not a riot. I think there was a dollop of irony at play.

Don't get me wrong here - I am in no way defending or condoning the behaviour of some of the housemates last night, but as many of the above posts have shown, this confrontation has led to people tuning into BB who wouldn't normally watch the midweek episodes (if they watch at all). Rightly or wrongly, Joe Public tunes into something like this.

As we know, as far as Channel 4 is concerned it's all about ratings, and about money. If they evict all or some of the housemates and replace them with more reserved or conventional contestants, won't the public just switch off again and/or complain about how boring it was. Fans of the show are going to call and text to evict or keep someone in the house depending on how they came across in last night's debacle, thus raking in more money for the producers and the channel.

Channel 4 / BB bosses are not stupid - they've had plenty of time to watch and analyse the housemates' personalities, and they knew that the 'bedsit' scenario would create tension and confrontation, and they got what they wanted - only somewhat more than they bargained for.

Oh you're completely right - I'm well aware of my hypocrisy in complaining about a show that I sat through because I knew what was going to happen (although it was partly because I liked the first series and was curious as to what it had become). I suppose the days when TV bosses were expected to have some sort of moral leadership are over. It's up to us to, if we're unhappy with a programme, to just switch it off. It's certainly ensured I won't be watching it again.

I enjoyed tonight's show and the row was very interesting indeed, but once you started to understand it (IMO anyway) the more serious it became. Obviously it is not a light thing but I thought that it was very unappropriate at the end tell people to get the latest info. Tonight it just didn't seem right to do that. But I think they edited it rather well, as we only had about a minute of the bodyguards whilst Marcus read through what happened was probably better than to seriously invade the privacy of the innocent housemates.

Though at the end of it I felt very sorry for the girls except for Nadia and Emma, as it did appear to be very traumatic for the ones crying in the bathroom. (Forgot their names)

I think on balance the show will gain more viewers than it has lost, much like the Nick incident did for the first series.

With regard to Ben Elton's book - I think his scenario obviously pushes the reality tv envelope to its limit, but he certainly had me turning pages.