Big Brother 8

[Bungle]

Will be shorter than this year's, according to the MediaGuardian today.

Which is good.

[Robbing the Dead]

Big Brother has been getting better since the whole Cameron fiasco, and continually upping its game. But as we saw this series, it is starting to push it a bit too much. The return of Nikki was a disaster, and a humiliation for the show. I heard that all the proceeds for that vote were given to chairty because Ofcom forced them to do it. And it was too long and there were far too many housemates. The problem Endemol has is that every time they make BB better they are raising the bar for the next series and eventually they'll run out of ideas.

[Joel]

There were some great ideas this series. Prison with a hidden luxury spa; Big Brother going on holiday and leaving an answering machine; Big Brother speaking in Welsh and so on. More Big Brother being a bitch (telling Nikki to sit in silence, refusing to tell Glyn his punishment), less throwing more and more housemates in whenever you get panicky. And everything will be fine.

Next year, please please please start with, say, 14 people, and get rid of them each week until the end. No secret new housemates. If someone walks, just don't have an eviction - don't replace them. And absolutely positively no putting someone back in the house with them able to win.

[Robbing the Dead]

I don't mind new housemates going in along the way. Just only do it once and near the beginning. If someone walks I think we should get a new housemate, and soon after they leave. Geroge left and nothing happened, it just left us and the housemates confused.

[David]

But wasn't that the whole point? The housemates were supposed to be confused by what was going on.

[coxy1979]

BB8 should be Back to Basics.

That is all

[Cherubic]

You want them to have books and guitars again?

[David]

They tried Back to Basics already. Cameron won it. No one watched.

[booers]

BB4 was shit. I hated the way they said 'right, it'll be back to basics on this one, no gimmicks like rich house/poor house this year' (which I actually thought was great and really worked) and then as the viewing figures took a nose-dive they used gimmick after gimmick to get the viewers back. Still didn't work.

I think this year's comes a close second as worst BB ever. They need to look at BB5 to see where it went right. That was a great series. It had a good mix of people (wannabes, freaks, loons, idiots amongst some genuinely likeable nice ones), gave them great tasks and had a fantastic final pitting the hero and the villain of the series against each other.

This year's was dire for many reasons but one stands out above all the others. Nikki. Without a doubt the biggest fucking wanker I have ever seen on TV in my life and she got TWO attempts at being in the house!?!? What a joke. I missed the final but her first eviction was one of the most cringey TV moments I have ever seen. I seriously hope she pisses off for good now. It also went on for about 4 weeks too many (something I felt made BB6 a bit of a let down too), had too many housemates, rubbish tasks and not enough secret missions.

Rant over. I just hope BB8 is back on track as I was thoroughly let down by it this year.

[groopie]

I'd also like it if every day didn't end with them getting 2 bottles of wine, then asking for more, getting it, getting pissed and dancing about in stupid outifits. It was really noticable that the "best bits" for the duller housemates was just footage of them dressed in 80's wigs / cocktail frocks etc.

[WhiteNoiseMaker]

booers said:

It also went on for about 4 weeks too many (something I felt made BB6 a bit of a let down too), had too many housemates, rubbish tasks and not enough secret missions.

Rubbish tasks? I thought the tasks and gimmicks - other than the ones that buggered about with the rules - were genius. I also thought this year's was the best big brother for ages, perhaps since the second series, I was glued to the screen for large stretches although it did raise my blood pressure like nobody's business.

The rich/poor house *was* shite. The prison one this time was much wittier and entertaining to watch.

Also the long running didn't bother me. Even though it was shit putting Nikki back in, at least they kept up a bit of momentum right until the end.

All I hope for next year is - no buggering about with the central, basic foundations of the show such as putting ex-housemates back in, and less of the horrible, horrible people.

But still a few of em, obviously.

[Bungle]

The rich house/poor house was the worst section of any BB to date. Just painfully dull and a waste of time and effort.

BB can manipulate the housemates as much as it likes, but not alter the basic rules. My personal favourite moment of this year's BB was when BB went on holiday.

[booers]

The rich/poor thing created tension and jealousy and was a good idea I thought. I never really saw why everyone was so against it. It's quite interesting to see how opinions differ so much with this year's though. One of my best friends thought it was great this year too but for me it lacked a hole load of stuff previous ones had.

[coxy1979]

When I mean back to basics, I really mean no fiddling with the nominations.

It all felt really contrived and controlled this year.

[Greg]

I don't think the long run matters if the people in the house are interesting. It only started to be road kill in the last few weeks because there were Imogen, Susie, Pete, Glyn still in there.

If there'd been a house full of Sezers, Aisleynes, Bonnehs, Graces and Nikkis the show could literally run for years (though some call that prison).

Maybe that should be the gimmick next year? That's it's all ex-convicts and the house is actually a prison.

Or do what BB did this year and have like 47 housemates in the house but this time after ten weeks, regardless of whose in there and how many, open the doors and ask them if they want to stay or leave. Give the ones that leave a share in the prize money. Then turn off the cameras and leave the horrid attention seekers in there until BB9.

I didn't like the 5 new housemates thing mid way through this season. Especially after Susie. New housemates should be banned. I'm unsure about replacements and that too. If someone leaves, they should just leave.

And no messing around with nominations. Whoever gets the most nominations is up. If someone talks about nominations they shouldn't nominate. No mass nominations. No double evictions. No voting to save. NO letting housemates back in.

They could do a Shipwrecked style thing and have two houses that compete against each other. Like the rich and poor divide-ish, but the housemates can't switch. Maybe keep them hidden from each other for as long as possible, with new 'mole' housemates, from the other side joining. And a pair of twins, with one in each house, and they can swap in the diary room or something (though BBUSA did the twin thing I know).

I should work for Endemol.

[audrey notwhatsheusedtobe]

It should definitely be more like a prison and MUCH harsher. I don't like all this ability-to-leave thing. What's the fucking POINT if you can just walk out?

I thought we came up with some excellent ideas here: lowculture.proboards34.com/index.cgi?board=bb&action=display&thread=1146888477 (I had to trawl 6 pages to find this, gosh we did talk a lot about BB this year).

Thing is, it could actually be kinder. This year most of the cruelty was dished out by the contestents themselves, in their horrid bullying. By giving them some adversity to deal with, they might bond more. Hopefully they wouldn't though.

[sgood]

10 contestants in 1 house; like it was originally.

[David]

Do you really want that? Do you? No one will watch, least of all anyone here.

[MoondialSlater]

audreyhorne said:

Thing is, it could actually be kinder. This year most of the cruelty was dished out by the contestents themselves, in their horrid bullying. By giving them some adversity to deal with, they might bond more. Hopefully they wouldn't though.

I think hopefully they would. Too much of this year's highlight shows were taken up by one group slagging off another group and one individual slagging off another whilst we missed out on some genuinely entertaining stuff. Even the tasks get glossed over more and more every year (unless they cause one group to slag off another group or one individual etc) and they're supposed to help break up the monotony of watching the same group of people in a house for days on end.

Also the games the housemates come up with, especially late at night with alcohol involved which again are quite fun to watch, hardly ever appear unless they cause slagging off afterwards or snogging.

Basically watching housemates bitching about each other might be entertaining for a day or so but after a week of it it gets as boring as if they'd be sitting in the house all day doing nothing.

[WhiteNoiseMaker]

moondialslater said:

Even the tasks get glossed over more and more every year (unless they cause one group to slag off another group or one individual etc) and they're supposed to help break up the monotony of watching the same group of people in a house for days on end.

I thought it was absolutely criminal that we didn't see all of the words they all shouted... what did Imogen shout? Did we see what Ais shouted? There were loads of moments like that where they totally cut out bits that would have been interesting. Unless I just managed to miss em all.

[Lucinda]

I definitely think more of the tasks should be shown as well. I seem to remember them being some big event of the BB week with a live show on Saturday night, isn't that how it used to be?

As long as next year's is shorter, and it doesn't take me several weeks to know who everyone is because there are just so many, I'll be okay with it. Oh, and I am against letting ex-housemates back in as well.

[parsnip]

I think that Endemol this year did not seem to start with a definate game-plan, they kept making u-turns and rule changes that just smacked of bias towards certain house-mates (ie Nikki going back in) They should really set their plan out at the start and stick to it. I thought it looked really unprofessional how they kept changing their minds about things.

[georgie]

I dont think allowing an acoustic guitar in there would be THAT bad. After all, that indicates the owner has a certain degree of musical talent. Maybe even a half decent voice that can be drowned out by the guitar.

The housemates sung A LOT this year. And it wasnt all good (Glyn, being the only great music man.)

[SweatShop]

They shouldn't introduce any new housemates half way through. Or at all actually.

I mean, what was the point? They weren't even good.

[thelovelykate]

Technically Aisleyne was a new housemate this year. Clearly some cretin at Big Brother HQ thought that George was more entertaining than her. Rubbish.

In the American one they got it down to about 5 housemates and then brought in each of their exes. This is a brilliant use of new housemates.