Was the decision to keep Helen in through to the final justified?

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  • Karen_AnnaninaKaren_Annanina Posts: 1,226
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    I think it has been justified. In most series of BB, the audience quickly gets rid of the "big characters" and the house becomes quiet and rather dull for most of the last few weeks - or it can do if there are a lot of laid-back people in the house. This year, without Helen and an injection of Biannca, this bunch of housemates would have been as dull as watching paint dry. Even Ashleigh would have had no reason to stand out as interesting. Keeping the "dreaded" Helen in there (she now looks like a pussycat rather than a monster) MADE the series be interesting and generated loads of controversy.
  • BabelBrookBabelBrook Posts: 12,837
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    I think it has been justified. In most series of BB, the audience quickly gets rid of the "big characters" and the house becomes quiet and rather dull for most of the last few weeks - or it can do if there are a lot of laid-back people in the house. This year, without Helen and an injection of Biannca, this bunch of housemates would have been as dull as watching paint dry. Even Ashleigh would have had no reason to stand out as interesting. Keeping the "dreaded" Helen in there (she now looks like a pussycat rather than a monster) MADE the series be interesting and generated loads of controversy.

    It is impossible to say whether that is true or not. We always have this "big character" statement made yet other HMs develop and flourish.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 1,850
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    No, BB producers have meddled to much this year.
  • GibsonSGGibsonSG Posts: 23,681
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    Yes it was.
  • molly nogginmolly noggin Posts: 950
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    No, it wasn't. She has made for some very unpleasant viewing and gave little if anything in the way of entertainment.

    Nobody should get a free pass to final.
  • jarryhackjarryhack Posts: 5,076
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    No it wasn't. It's never justifiable to give someone a complete pass to the final, it goes against everything Big Brother is. They meddle far too much these days. Who knows how it would have ended up if Helen had been given the boot in the first few weeks, maybe Danielle might have been different, I certainly think Ashleigh would have been less bitchy and more fun loving. I do think she brought the house down to a unfriendly place. I think Ash would have had much more interaction with Ashleigh. And don't get me started on bringing the old housemates back for a party grrrr.....>:(
  • Kay2000Kay2000 Posts: 3,906
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    No housemate should of been awarded a free pass to the final, the whole concept of BB is that it's the viewers that decide. I am totally baffled how anyone can view Helen as being good entrainment. I am not aware of any other housemate that had been issued with so many warnings, yet still remained in the house. She had (to my knowledge) two verbal warnings, then went on to damage the fire exit door yet still remained inside the house! Pass or not, Helen was protected by the show, no doubt about it.
    Helen has not been on a journey that's any different from any other HM. She sucked the life out of the show, and the life out of the not so confident/outgoing HMs. I would be be very disheartened if she went on to win.
  • FanntastikFanntastik Posts: 12,310
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    Nope, she has ruined the series for me.
  • Kay2000Kay2000 Posts: 3,906
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    jarryhack wrote: »
    No it wasn't. It's never justifiable to give someone a complete pass to the final, it goes against everything Big Brother is. They meddle far too much these days. Who knows how it would have ended up if Helen had been given the boot in the first few weeks, maybe Danielle might have been different, I certainly think Ashleigh would have been less bitchy and more fun loving. I do think she brought the house down to a unfriendly place. I think Ash would have had much more interaction with Ashleigh. And don't get me started on bringing the old housemates back for a party grrrr.....>:(

    If BB had not meddled and Helen was evicted, we may of seen other characters. I don't feel that I really got to know any of the other HMs, because most of the upset revolved around Helen, most conversations revolved around Helen, most drama revolved around Helen. It really dud become the Helen Wood Show.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 514
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    No, but I can't help thinking that Mark would have won and that would have been, knowing what we know know, tragic.
  • Anya DAnya D Posts: 14,778
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    Kay2000 wrote: »
    If BB had not meddled and Helen was evicted, we may of seen other characters. I don't feel that I really got to know any of the other HMs, because most of the upset revolved around Helen, most conversations revolved around Helen, most drama revolved around Helen. It really dud become the Helen Wood Show.

    I agree.
    The line that "it would have been boring without her...", is opinion continually posted as fact.
    I think exactly the opposite. I would have loved to have seen these housemates without her there.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 3,591
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    Not sure, If she has been such a bully and the housemates so scared of her, no-one, would have nominated her and she would still be in there anyway,
  • Scarlett BerryScarlett Berry Posts: 21,135
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    Fanntastik wrote: »
    Nope, she has ruined the series for me.

    and me. :(
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 5
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    It was the wrong decision to keep Helen in because it condones the bullying. By big tv shows 'approving' the bullying, it makes it seems an ok thing for kids to do. Wrong move. Bad behaviour was rewarded - cos it made good tv.
  • Anya DAnya D Posts: 14,778
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    auntysplat wrote: »
    Not sure, If she has been such a bully and the housemates so scared of her, no-one, would have nominated her and she would still be in there anyway,
    You could be right, but I don't think she'd have escaped nomination and now they seem to need so few noms to be up for eviction, imo she would have been up.
    Just opinion, obviously.
  • Kay2000Kay2000 Posts: 3,906
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    auntysplat wrote: »
    Not sure, If she has been such a bully and the housemates so scared of her, no-one, would have nominated her and she would still be in there anyway,

    The divide had already been formed early, so I think she would of been nominated early on.
  • Anya DAnya D Posts: 14,778
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    It was the wrong decision to keep Helen in because it condones the bullying. By big tv shows 'approving' the bullying, it makes it seems an ok thing for kids to do. Wrong move. Bad behaviour was rewarded - cos it made good tv.
    I agree with you, but would argue that her antics were good tv. Certainly not for me, I found it very uncomfortable at times.

    Helen gets pass, Helen treats people horribly, Helen gets warned, Helen doesn't stop, Helen gets kicked out, is a much better story arc to me.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 210
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    absolutely not, no one should be given an massive unfair advantage
    on the scale helen has had, she has never been through the stress
    of nominations and eviction like the rest of them.

    unlike helen, the rest have worked for their place in the final.


    and we will probably never learn the truth about the number of warnings she's
    had, her protection has been sickening.

    there will be a story about her Saturday morning, how she got into an
    argument at the rap party, i guarantee it.

    the "journey" is bullsh!t.
  • Stan_BStan_B Posts: 588
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    It ruined it for the other housemates, the public and I think it ruined Helen's experience in the house. The producers should have conjured up a reason to remove the free pass after a few weeks. It was obvious by then it wasn't working.
  • An ThropologistAn Thropologist Posts: 39,773
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    JillyA wrote: »
    No - in my opinion it has "spoilt" the game. As she could nominate and not be nominated the balance of power was tipped in favour of her group. It was that power that lead to shock evictions of, for example, Winston and Tamera, as the public were then forced to vote tactically to save the "uncool" kids.

    Even now - despite what she said about being in the same position as the others - she isn't really. She will not face a vote to evict in which she most certainly would have gone. In a vote to win she will always get enough votes as an "entertaining" HM (although its not in my eyes but each to their own) to come out above some of the others such as Pav and Ash. The question is now whether the Team Helen campaign will get enough on side to get her into the top 2 because I truly hope for society she doesn't win.

    She was never going to speak about Rooney or the actor as she is subject to a superinjunction and even if she had Ch5 would not be able to broadcast it. That is why despite people saying why bring up others' pasts and not Helen's it could not be done.

    For me this is what made giving her the golden ticket worth doing. I should perhaps mention that I don't watch BB in the way many do. I am a fan of the process and the mechanism but tend not to become a fan of individuals - they are just lab rats to me.

    I liked the power trip idea and think weighting the scales unfairly (if that is what they intended) added a new dimension. Power often is weighted unfairly so it was good to see that acknowledged and played out. I like to watch BB to see what it can tell us about life, society and the human psyche.

    I am however sympathetic to the many for whom I can absolutely see it will have had a detrimental effect. If you watch BB as a sort of morality play and want the good to be rewarded and the bad vanquished then the unfair apportionment of power must be frustrating. But such is life, real life.. So for me unlevelling the playing field so to speak was interesting. I am not sure it was executed well though. It feels like they lost momentum with the idea at some point.

    I also think it is interesting that despite apparently weighted the odds in favour of a particular group. That group did not ultimately prevail.
    Menk wrote: »
    I think it's been an interesting experiment and fair play to BB for sticking to the decision rather than adding a twist when Helen was at her worst and cashing in on a hugely popular eviction.

    Of course, Pauline could have saved any of them. I'm glad that a big character was saved rather than someone like Kimberley or Chris who would have been even less interesting had they been safe. I would have loved to see Steven safe - imagine what he would have been like with immunity on his side!

    I think the interesting part of it has been Helen's personal struggle - she hasn't had to 'behave' to avoid eviction, so she has truly been herself. We have seen moments of redemption too, but it is debatable as to where these moments of clarity on Helen's part have come from - true integrity or the natural feeling of wanting to be liked when she finally comes to be judged by the public.

    It's not something which I would like to see repeated - I think the conclusion was always going to be that the saved person does not behave particularly well, or even worse, would sit back and do nothing for the duration - but it's been ok for a one off. It's often the call on here that we vote out the 'characters' too soon and are left with a dull and uninspiring group of HMs, but we now have an example of what happens if a big and divisive HM is kept in beyond their expected time span, and most of us don't like it.

    Yes I would agree with you on the whole.
  • academiaacademia Posts: 18,225
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    mrsdidi wrote: »
    So you believe that the producers fixed the viewer vote for Pauline to be the first power housemate then told her to give the pass to Helen?? You like a good conspiracy theory then?

    I don't like Helen but it was Pauline who gave her the pass NOT the producers. I don't think anyone should be given a free pass but all these conspiracy theories regarding the BB producers are getting a bit tiresome now.


    Every year there is nasty HM who gets voted out pretty quickly. This year the nasty HM got a free pass to the final at the whim of a woman who'd known her two minutes. You don't really believe that, do you?
  • danny_gamerdanny_gamer Posts: 3,369
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    Disgusting decision, then as it is now.

    Luckily everyone can see what the producers have been up to.
  • SunnydaysSunnydays Posts: 12,279
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    No I don't think it's been worth it, it's ruined the natural flow. She couldn't be nominated but could nominate, that ruins the whole premise right there.

    Agree.....
  • conchieconchie Posts: 14,052
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    No one should be handed a free pass, simples. It goes against the fundamental premise of the show. Whoever is there on final night should be a finalist because they have survived the nomination and eviction process and earned their place to be a contender for the money on final night.

    Helen did none of this…. it was bad enough handing her a place in the final, but to also allow her to nominate was the extra insult. If no one could nominate her, she in turn should never had any right to nominate, but they handed it all to her on a plate… ever form of manipulation was put in place to ensure she would have huge influence over the house. Its been disgraceful, a real all time low when it comes to how Big Brother is run.
  • Kay2000Kay2000 Posts: 3,906
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    I'm not even sure the whole nomination for eviction is fair, I get they as HMs should decide who they want to share their experience with, but I felt that there were some that were afraid to nominate for instance Ash, who did not take to well to being nominated by Jale and resorted to name calling. I doubt there would of been many that had the balls to nominate either Helen or Ash. I would prefer the HMs to nominate in private, where they can be honest in who they would like to see leave, it is them after all that has to live with these people 24/7.
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