Previously… on the Brekkie Views
Brekkie wrote a blog on highlighting how other countries had attempted to rescue their versions of Big Brother in the face of falling ratings. Brekkie then abruptly ended his blog after realising he needed more time to consider what those changes could be.
Well, it turns out relaunching the series isn’t as easy as I first thought. It’s one thing relaunching the format with a new series, but much more difficult to relaunch it mid-series as you are somewhat constrained by the practicalities - the house and the housemates for example.
However, it is essential for any revamp to work that the changes made are the right ones, so as tempting as an eviction massacre might be, I think the problems with this series lie more with the producers than the housemates - so although some new housemates are inevitable, replacing the existing ones is not the solution.
Similarly this years house isn’t easy to adapt to new formats, so we pretty much are solely reliant on making changes to the format which affect how the housemates live together in the house, rather than changing the structure of the house itself.
So, how should this relaunch work?
Well, firstly it needs to be done sooner rather than later so forget using the face to face nominations twist yet again, and instead bring forward this weeks eviction to Wednesday. The Friday show then becomes Relaunch Night, and is heavily promoted as such to ensure people know change is coming to Big Brother.
And as for the relaunch itself. Well, in my opinion the relaunch needs to happen in two phases.
Firstly, there needs to be a major twist designed to grab the attention of those who are not watching and bring viewers back to the show. And secondly, there needs to be some more long term changes which will affect the basic format of the show for the rest of the series.
In addition, problems with how the show is produced need to be addressed too, with changes made to how the nightly highlights are put together and even more crucially, the format of the live shows changed so that eviction night stands out from a standard daily highlights show.
And to show they mean business, for many viewers the live feed really does have to return. That is a stumbling block which simply needs to be addressed to restore the relationship between the viewer and Big Brother. Without it, even the best relaunch could be in vain.
Ideas
As I said, relaunching the show mid-series is actually quite a difficult task and I haven’t really come to any conclusions as for the best way to proceed. Therefore, I’m just going to post a few random ideas below for you to see what you think:
Big Brother gets Tough
This is more a change in attitude than a change in format - but after three weeks of a rather easy life, Big Brother could make things a lot tougher for the housemates. Replace the comfy beds with army cots, and force the housemates to sacrifice many of their personal belongings, only allowing them to keep a few essentials.
Big Brother Slop could be put back on the menu, with new task rules meaning each and every housemate is judged individually when it comes to the tasks. Therefore if they want nice food, each housemate has to pass the task - and not rely on others to pass it for them.
And crucially, ensure the challenges get personal - tougher tasks with more desirable rewards for the winners, and more severe consequences for the losers.
The Glass House
Now, there are limits on how the house can be revamped, but it’s not completely impossible to make changes. However, that does means sacrificing the lounge - probably the best room in the house - by moving the sofas into the living area and converting the lounge for a new function.
In this case, it becomes “The Glass House”, and home to four new “glass mates”. However, only one of them can become a fully fleged housemate - and to do so they must outlast the others in a battle of endurance. There is a button in the middle which the “glass mates” can press at any time to quit - but once they do quit, they are evicted. If after one week a winner hasn’t been determined, during the next live show temptations would be made in order to encourage some of them to quit so a winner can be crowned.
Some of you may be aware that Australia did something similar with the ‘White Room’ a couple of years ago, and this could be very effective as phase one of any relaunch - the big twist which grabs the attention of the viewers Big Brother has lost this year.
The “glass mates” can see and be seen by the housemates, but can not socialise with them - although for an hour each morning the glass mates may get use of the garden, whilst the housemates are still in bed.
Head of House
Before this series began many fans, including the purists, agreed the time was right for the UK to fully adapt the Head of House concept, switching to a format similar to that used in Brazil, where each week the Head of House nominates one person for eviction, with the other housemates then nominating to determine the second housemate up for eviction. The public then as usual decide the evictee.
Now, ideally this format would have been in place from the start, but perhaps it’s not too late to make the change now. The only issue is that really for the Head of House status to mean more than just immunity, the Head of House should also have their own private room. Again, the house limits the possibilities, but again converting the lounge is really the only option.
One thing format would do though is give the week a more solid structure. The eviction shows could be revamped so the Head of House challenge takes place live during the second show, and then on Saturdays the housemates can compete for food, whilst on Sunday the nominations would take place.
On Monday another element of the Head of House format, the Veto, would come into play, with housemates competing for the power to save a nominee, and then on Tuesday the winner of the Veto can announce their decision, and should a nominee be saved, the Head of House would then nominate a replacement.
An extra luxury challenge on Wednesday would then mean the daily shows always contain a key event, giving Big Brother not just a more solid structure for the rest of the series, but a format new to UK viewers too.
And that’s about as much as I can squeeze out of my creative juices at the moment, but hey, unlike the producers, I’m not being paid to be creative.
So what do you think - could any of the ideas I’ve posted work, and even if not, is it better to try something rather than nothing?
And of course, if you’ve got any ideas of your own, please share them below. I’m sure between us we could come up with some sort of rescue plan to save BB10.
