UPDATE: Well, well. I post an opinion piece saying I’m not watching tonight’s episode, and all of a sudden rumours are flying around BB land that bbspy is closing - which is simply not the case.
Firstly, I’m just a guest blogger on here - it’s Matt’s site, and he remains committed to it. Indeed although my commitment to Big Brother may be waning, my commitment to bbspy isn’t. I’ll still be keeping an eye on Big Brother, and genuinely hope it can win me back at some point. For now though, I’m just not watching the highlights shows every night.
Unfortunately due to some comments we had to take this article down overnight, but here it is now in all it’s glory.
In the last ten years I’ve watched every single episode of Big Brother. Tonight, I’m not watching, and Big Brother only has itself to blame.
After all, if Big Brother doesn’t care about the viewers, why should we care about Big Brother?
Putting the whole live feed issue to one side, this series has just shown utter contempt for viewers, and the new eviction interview format was the final straw for me.
The fanbase has long argued that the eviction shows needed revamping, but although Davina has always got a bit of flak for her interview technique, I’ve not once seen anyone suggest bringing in guests to steal the evictees’ limelight was required.
No, we all said it was the first show that needed changing, so it was an actual eviction show like in the early series, not just highlights and phone numbers. What did we get last night - highlights and phone numbers!
Then in the months following Big Brother 9, and especially after this years Celebrity Big Brother, even the most purist of long term fans were agreeing a massive overhaul of the show was required.
What do we get - the same old format with the same old rules. Oh, and a few new ones nobody wants, like banning “fake romances”. Who is Big Brother to judge whether a romance is fake or for real?
We all want Marcus to let the action do the talking, yet the narration of the highlights remains unchanged, while everyone agreed the pre-season promo campaign was no longer effective. So what do C4 do - the same as always!
If C4 and producers had listened to the fans more closely, rather than relying on their imaginery “focus groups”, the show wouldn’t be in the mess it’s in now.
It might not be easy to keep viewers watching, but it’s going to be even harder to win them back - and those who have been the most loyal will be the toughest audience of all.
The only chance is for them to hold their hands up and admit they made mistakes, and like the current series in Germany, have a very public revamp in order too get BB10 back on track.
And that needs to happen sooner, rather than later.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of its author and are not necessarily representative of bbspy or its other staff members.
