Im glad she didnt say that I mean, if Davina says it, it’s definately going to be axed..but to hear she only mentioned the contract makes me think it might be on our screens for longer than expected..:) P.S: Does anyone know the actual official kick-off night for the show? Im *so* excited!

I’m starting to wonder if they’re doing a Syco production (BGT/XF) and putting out stories about the people involved with the show rather than the show itself … this is the third story now. Maybe they’re thinking if people think it is going to be gone in 2 years then they’ll watch it now before its gone.

The cynical side of me is thinking these stories are being released in order for potential buyers (e.g. ITV, Sky etc) to think the brand is past it, so they’ll get the next series for cheaper.

I think BB10 is critical for Big Brother if it has any kind of future on Channel 4. CBB6 was their last chance to restore Big Brother to at least 4m+ per night, but that is probably not going to happen now, ever. After the ratings meltdown of CBB6, if Big Brother can even stay above 3m every night and get a finale rating of at least 5m (which I think it can) then it has done its job properly and it will probably get renewed if they are deciding by the end of this year. But if Big Brother is to continue beyond 2011 on Channel 4, I think it is going to take a much more reduced role (ie nightly at 10pm, no real fuss about it but its still there getting a good 2.5m+ for Channel 4) rather than the flagship show it once was.

Glad to hear Davina being a bit more positive.

BB with Graham Norton? Would pull in more viewers now.

Brekkie I agree 100%. Sadly reality TV has evolved due to Simon Cowell and the Big Brother format can’t really keep up, but as I also mentioned in my post there is no reason at all why Channel 4 can’t take the show on (even if its just in its current format with no major tweaks) and let it settle into a low key summer home, probably at 10pm. If Big Brother stays with Channel 4 I think that is what it is inevitably doing.

Although ratings are way down on previous years, the show is still very good value. Putting things into perspective, some weekly shows cost more than around £250,000 per episode. The series budget for Big Brother is reportedly £5m per year, and with the amount of air time it gets that is more than justified even if figures permanently fell below 3m. They’ll never rush into another £180m deal but if Channel 4 can get a deal per series for significantly less than what they are currently paying for a series (£45m for summer and winter combined) then despite what anyone says about what they’re doing to BB, I think they’ll keep it. I think its inevitable that if they continue with BB past 2010, then its goodbye to Celeb BB and this January’s will be the final one, as I don’t think what would be CBB8 is in the contract.

Cowell does “talent” shows, not reality TV.

That’s part of the problem. Channel 4 are forgetting what the “reality” bit involves. BB needs to be unscripted, as live and unpredictable. Highlights only packages won’t do the trick.

But the average viewer sees them as reality shows, and there is a purpose to X Factor and Britain’s Got Talent; watching talented people battle against each other to win something that could possibly change their life. They take over the media when they are on, and Britain’s Got Talent has essentially shoved Big Brother out because it is on during the build up.

To the wider public, there just is no point to watch Big Brother anymore. The novelty of watching people when you want has long gone and there have been loads of copy cat shows, as well as some shows that incorporate Big Brother AND some form of “talent” (using that term loosely, I’m referring to things such as Hells Kitchen).

It will never have the impact it once had, but there is no reason at all why it can’t be given a less central role where it can become a cult hit (possibly with no media interest, though they don’t have much now anyway) with a good 2-4m viewers.

And I think most viewers are more than happy with highlights shows. The live feed is actually scripted, I think live feed viewers need to get down of their high horse and they’re kidding themselves if they think it is a true reflection of the house.

Big Brother has to literally be the best series ever this year, otherwise I think, sadly, it won’t continue. But I reckon that another Channel will buy the infamous contract, seeing as Big Brother is the daddy of reality - it just honestly wont be the same

The live feed was as true a reflection of the house as was legally possible (more so when multiple views were avaialble). It helped fulfil the show’s unique concept to be “the UK’s first fully interactive mass TV experience”.

The editorial team do not work on the live feed - the show’s directors choose the shots and anything deemed unsuitable is replaced in real time by soundcuts, stock shots or cutaways. There is no displacement of events to create a a false impression, no captioning or subtitling of alleged comments and no voice-over narration to direct viewers opinions in any particular direction. The live feed has no dramatic structure other than which the housemates brought to it at the time. Completely different from the HL shows which are very skillfully edited like a soap opera.

If folks weren’t fans of the live stuff, fine, but let’s not pretend that its loss does not damage the show both in concept and in form.

It’s worth fighting for its return if the show survives, prospers and attracts more revenue, though lack of a feed will make that harder as coverage in the media depended so heavily on “as live” access to the House to generate breaking news.

Well if BB is lagging in the reality stakes that is because the same creative team are dragging it down.

Sorry, but the comment about Cowell propaging and evolving mainstream reality though true is a little depressing.

He is hardly an Einstein!

All he has done is introduce huge reward - financial, fame and life changing potentials (well we all know about the failures)… but that dream really has a lot of power!

BB has an appalling prizefund - where you can get more on Deal or No Deal these days!

So people risk their reputations, their safety and put themselves on TV!

Where is the incentive? Fame is dying… there is no competition that matters. There is no personal reward (unless we talk about the usual motley crew and lads mags slags - hence we always get the clones casted)!

For godsakes! Endemols lack of imagination, lack of risk and lack of incentive for taking part in the show have put this format on the ropes!

Pathetic lack of ingenuity and increasingly a sad show, ruled by silly little salicious complaints that ofcom and the Daily Mail whingers have meant they have nearly bleed the show to death and made the producers even more afriad to break new ground!

It’s BS there’s no live feed - internet anyone… webcams… oh please! Again the fear. The need to control because C4 is so exposed to this media dictatorship and panic stricken country we live in. (Hypocrits).

So in a way, if C4 do not renew the contract - BIG DEAL!

I would rather see BB on Living TV or a subsidary channel. It might get it’s freedom back to be creative again.

Graham Norton! Well I would liked to have seen that - it would have been a different show. Davina - yes, well… ok… too little, too long! Get the This Morning gig and let someone else shape the future of BB.

But most of all - BB get some guts, make it competitive, have big rewards should people be able to fight for them, change the format, cast better (which would led on from a format change) and ignore ofcom!!!!!!!!!

Damn! Employ me!

I disagree with what you are both saying.

Dodge- it wasn’t a true reflection. The producers could cut away and cause sound dips whenever they want, and they did do that. If it really was for legal reasons, then surely some of the sound dips wouldn’t have been broadcast during the highlights?

We only hear and see what they want us to. I’ll give you that it is a more accurate representation than the highlights, but it is far from fully accurate. Maybe in the earlier series’ where there were no sound dips or cut aways because you could go into every room it really was Big Brother, but not anymore and it hasn’t been for the vast majority of the series’. The media don’t really cover Big Brother anymore. I think the bottom line is what you want out of your Big Brother experience. Significantly more viewers wish to see highlights shows, whether scripted or whatever. At the end of the day its an entertainment show and its time to stop taking it so seriously.

New Evolution- it isn’t necessarily to do with the same creative team, though it does have an impact to an extent. TV has simply moved on and Big Brother has been left behind. It was once innovative and fresh, but although I still enjoy it, it nowhere near has the same appeal and novelty it once had. All TV shows have to come to an end, and sadly for BB the end is in sight. It was good whilst it lasted but time to stop kidding ourselves it can still be the juggernaut it once was with a new format, but as I keep saying it is perfectly possible for the show to continue out of the main stream and to be just for the real fans.

First eye flash has aired!!

You can’t really tell its the eye but BB fans can … its pink/purple and just the centre of the eye. It looks very glossy, and has a black background. It would look amazing in HD.

Its also 3D similar to the BB8 eye flashes, thats the thing I meant to add in.

Well BBfan I feel the main component of BB is the creativity anjd input put in.

To keep a stagnant format means it falls to pieces. The show can be injected with a new life and not totally change its fundamental values.

There is everything to prove this year. I sometimes am so angry at how this programme is dying and how inane the producers have become!

BB is still successful in many countries. A few it has declined or disappeared. But in Britain our producers and ideas for reality tv should be and can be the best.

Look at all the exports to the US.

It should be nowhere near the end. If they had ideas, the concept and the entertainment value would not be exhausted. But ten years of repetitive ideas, casting, gutless concepts that are not followed through, paranoid interference, fear of Ofcom and criticism - have led to a stale and shrinking form.

Sack the BB team. Get new blood in from UK, USA and Europe.

Challenge the genre and challenge the viewer!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I’m fearful but hopeful for this series, though pessimism wins that Endemol will wreck this once and for all… just if they had ideas, gut and imagination the show could go on and on…

Opportunity Knocks may once have seemed innovative and fresh. Ditching the clapometer and calling it Britain’s Got Talent doesn’t make it in any way innovative. It’s a very old TV format, far older than Big Brother.

No way is the BB format past it’s sell-by date, as New Evolution says. That was a failing of the production team but alienating a wide swathe of internet & tabloid fandom by axing the live feed (which was one of its unique selling points) is really not the way for Channel 4 to boost interest in the series. They have just come to rely on it generating income without making any strong commitment to it.

Maybe this big setback will kick the production team out of their complacency. They have to win over new fans now, give us something really fresh, not just half-heartedly nick stuff from foreign BBs.

God Dodge! I couldn’t agree more with you!

Yes, all these stolen ideas from other countries they do in the most gutless and half hearted manner! Why even bother doing them!? Then they say, oh, the idea was a failure - so give up - but their haphazard, half-baked effort wreaks of —–!

Exactly, Simon Cowell a genius (well other than for copyrighting a tradition - God knows how he managed that) of talent contests!

But that’s what BB needs! Effort, rewards and incentives for it’s participants.

Instead of 4 years post BB5 of the most pointless winners of are barely seen of again!

If the gameplay was fierce, competitive, monetary (and no not for just shower tokens - I’m talking gain of Big Bucks for each player) then the game, the fame, the edge would come back!

I still believe best step forward…. owning own prizefund in competitive tasks. When evicted having to donate live in front of house half of that prizefund to housemate of their choice (would make strategic and bitchy) and then half of the whole prizefund would roll on to the last person standing.

Winners get privileges, win luxuries, better accommodation and get to choose punishments for 2/3 of their most disliked housemates, as well as winning immunity from the public vote!

There must be many ways to keep BB on top! Shame the people employed to do so are the same nepotist Etonians as they have always been - with few ideas, little substance and no imagination!