When Big Brother was taken over by Ch5, Big Brother the show was already on a significant ratings slide. So it seems to me they should have tried something new with the format than just transporting a shrinking show to a smaller channel and churn out multiple series a year. That was a huge mistake in my opinion. They never rested the show. It was Normo then Celeb then seemingly right behind that Normo version...repeat. Plus they seemingly still operate with the illusion the show is a social experiment. It would have been smarter to a try something different with the show. Maybe use the North American version. But the time for a format shake up is gone and so has the audience. The North American version is about game strategy rather than arguments over food and cleaning and it launched a week before BB UK. If the article about the impending demise BBUK proves to be true.....oh well RIP.
I don't think they operate the show as a "social experiment" at all. For it's entire Channel 5 run at least it has been fame hungry wannabes (and I'm including the celebrity version in that) who just want their 15 minutes (again) and have affected odd personalities to get camera time and a social media following and its purely a popularity contest now more than anything else. Interestingly enough when watching it last night, before one of the breaks was an appeal for contestants for the summer series with Marcus saying "the original social experiment is back". So, perhaps they are going to make the summer series much more like the old series where they picked normal people to see how they got on. But the way society has become and how the audience has changed, will they ever be able to find people who are just "normal" and would the public even watch it if it wasn't all OTT drama? I don't think the show should end completely but I think it would be better if Channel 5 rested it for a while and then did one series a year and one celebrity series a year. Save the money from the extra celeb series and offer some bigger, better names to come on for the celeb ones, not just a load of reality TV fodder who jump from show to show. They could also do with changing the format back to how it was for the first series and we don't need Marcus's drawn out commentary and personal opinions like they are now. The live feed could do with being brought back, even if it is on 5 STAR overnight, must be better than what they are currently churning out.
When Big Brother was taken over by Ch5, Big Brother the show was already on a significant ratings slide. So it seems to me they should have tried something new with the format than just transporting a shrinking show to a smaller channel and churn out multiple series a year. That was a huge mistake in my opinion. They never rested the show. It was Normo then Celeb then seemingly right behind that Normo version...repeat. Plus they seemingly still operate with the illusion the show is a social experiment. It would have been smarter to a try something different with the show. Maybe use the North American version. But the time for a format shake up is gone and so has the audience. The North American version is about game strategy rather than arguments over food and cleaning and it launched a week before BB UK. If the article about the impending demise BBUK proves to be true.....oh well RIP.
The occasional Late night live debate shows seem to go relatively unnoticed. Its a shame they go to effort but I dont see Channel 5 promote it.
No surprise there, probably similar to the Neighbours situation not long back where Channel 5 looking to not spend more than they have to.
I’m surprised everyone took the Daily Star as gospel on this.
C5 have basically damaged the show beyond repair now
To be honest I think a lot of the blame lies with Endemol. The senior production team has been largely unchanged for many years now, some of them have spent most of their career on the show, and frankly they're just not that good at making it any more. They've finally hired some new execs for this celeb series and it's certainly been for the better but the last few years have been such a turn off for more casual viewers that they're not going to come back any time soon. Last summer's was the first series I haven't watched in all of its 18 years because it was so poorly produced.
As has been mentioned Ben Frow wants it gone because it's arguably damaging the new C5 brand he's trying to build. The tricky thing with the show is although it takes out a large chunk of the programming budget you have to look at it like a primetime version of a daytime quiz show. It's an incredibly cost effective format that fills countless hours and is still able to bring in a decent audience, hence why they have two celeb series a year. That's also why it stayed on C4 long past its prime and they initially struggled to fill the gap it left behind. It's a Catch 22 and they have to really size up whether they can afford to drop it.
From memory the show's popularity peaked for the Series 3 final in 2002, when it got some huge rating that was one of Ch4's biggest ever. Series 7/8 was when the decline began and when you started getting contestants saying on camera that they were solely there for exposure and fame.
I stopped watching after Series 8 but I knew a fair few who carried on with Series 9, then Series 10 had dismal ratings for Ch4 (but probably still higher than any Ch5 series). Seems odd to still be talking about it as they made such a big deal about it ending forever in 2010...
MR
mr_vivian
Big Brother went from being an interesting experiment to a play doll house.
It changed a lot after Series 4 and although making Big Brother Evil was interesting for a bit it was the beginning of the end.
It's hard to believe Big Brother was the trend setter of reality tv and now it needs to pull contestants from other reality tv shows to fill out the celebrity version of the show. It is a shadow of its former self.
Last edited by mr_vivian on 22 January 2018 3:48pm
As has been mentioned Ben Frow wants it gone because it's arguably damaging the new C5 brand he's trying to build. The tricky thing with the show is although it takes out a large chunk of the programming budget you have to look at it like a primetime version of a daytime quiz show. It's an incredibly cost effective format that fills countless hours and is still able to bring in a decent audience, hence why they have two celeb series a year. That's also why it stayed on C4 long past its prime and they initially struggled to fill the gap it left behind. It's a Catch 22 and they have to really size up whether they can afford to drop it.
I think 4 years ago when they renewed it, it was still valuable to the channel but now I think the channel is at a point where they could drop it, it'll be tough finding something that skews young for them like Big Brother does.
As has been mentioned Ben Frow wants it gone because it's arguably damaging the new C5 brand he's trying to build. The tricky thing with the show is although it takes out a large chunk of the programming budget you have to look at it like a primetime version of a daytime quiz show. It's an incredibly cost effective format that fills countless hours and is still able to bring in a decent audience, hence why they have two celeb series a year. That's also why it stayed on C4 long past its prime and they initially struggled to fill the gap it left behind. It's a Catch 22 and they have to really size up whether they can afford to drop it.
I think 4 years ago when they renewed it, it was still valuable to the channel but now I think the channel is at a point where they could drop it, it'll be tough finding something that skews young for them like Big Brother does.
I think it would be a mistake to drop Celebrity Big Brother just yet but I do think the civilian series is toast....
As has been mentioned Ben Frow wants it gone because it's arguably damaging the new C5 brand he's trying to build. The tricky thing with the show is although it takes out a large chunk of the programming budget you have to look at it like a primetime version of a daytime quiz show. It's an incredibly cost effective format that fills countless hours and is still able to bring in a decent audience, hence why they have two celeb series a year. That's also why it stayed on C4 long past its prime and they initially struggled to fill the gap it left behind. It's a Catch 22 and they have to really size up whether they can afford to drop it.
I think 4 years ago when they renewed it, it was still valuable to the channel but now I think the channel is at a point where they could drop it, it'll be tough finding something that skews young for them like Big Brother does.
I think it would be a mistake to drop Celebrity Big Brother just yet but I do think the civilian series is toast....
I think the civilian series is part of the deal with Endemol, it’s either both or neither.
I think 4 years ago when they renewed it, it was still valuable to the channel but now I think the channel is at a point where they could drop it, it'll be tough finding something that skews young for them like Big Brother does.
I think it would be a mistake to drop Celebrity Big Brother just yet but I do think the civilian series is toast....
I think the civilian series is part of the deal with Endemol, it’s either both or neither.
I bet there would cut a deal if Ch5 stick to its guns. I dont know anyone that watches the Civilian version anymore. Mind you it does fill a void during the summer months, when Ch5 doesn't have to waste money on new programmes.
It will be interesting to see what will happen to the house should the show be axed. Endemol kept it mothballed beyond its axe by C4, clearly believing that the format would be picked up by someone at some point. I can’t imagine they’ll be as confident this time round and as willing to keep paying Elstree the rent, though stranger things have happened.
Elstree will certainly be sorry to see it go, Big Brother’s rent stopped the studios from going bankrupt during the recession and they bent over backwards to accommodate the show’s move into the mobile production village and on site eviction studio when Channel 5’s lower budget meant the C4 set up was no longer affordable.