Despite being a successful series I seem to recall a lot of the media calling the series boring, particularly the Daily mirror

BB7was ok BB8 was a great deal worse

The Daily Mirror said the very same thing about BB3...

BB7 got a lot of flak in the middle stages over being boring. Particularly once Nikki had gone which tbh it was. I remember The Mirror used to cover it every day, but one day was dedicated to all the best moments in the first 6 series and why BB7 was so boring.

Personally, I think BB7 started out strong but died off a little towards the end. The HND felt like a turning point for the show IMO and I think increasing it to 13 weeks is really what did the show in.

I remember journalist Kevin O'Sullivan writing about it in his column every day, saying how much he hated BB.

BB7 was much like BB9 in that, for the most part, it was a really gripping series but towards the final week or two it started to wear thin. I think thirteen weeks was a tad excessive for a BB series.

Both still two of the greatest series' ever though.

No matter what the ongoing series is, the general consensus on DS:BB is that it's the worst series ever, and that Big Brother is dead. Hell. I remember way back in the summer of 2002 when BB3 was on that people were saying that on here!

BB7 did get boring after about 7 weeks.

BB7 first few weeks were as good as any BB but it did fall apart once the show lost its bad guy in Grace, without her the house lacked that housemate you really hate but admire at the same time cause they make your favourites look great.

I think they bought in far too many newbies and the HND was when I lost interested.

I'm a big Pete fan but him been favourite took the Game side of it away. No one came close to it and I think many in the house knew he had it won.

Losing Nikki as much as I'm not a fan was a blow.

Plus going on for 13 weeks was overkill.

I remember, although I was young at the time, huge press attention to Nikki and Pete. HMs like Grace also got a lot of press attention.

Even though I was a huge Nikki fan, I actually quite enjoyed the last weeks such as prison task, BB going on holiday etc.

Overall BB7 was one of the best IMO.

BB1 and 2 were the only series where people have not claimed it was the worst series ever.

BB7 was the last series where strongly featured housemates had a good chance of media interest afterwards. It was in decline anyway in terms of media interest, but the Shilpa Shetty stuff did a lot of damage: several papers simply stopped covering it at all.

In some ways it was for the best that BB7 housemates got some work out of it: Lea, Aisleyne, Pete and Nikki were all, in different ways, very vulnerable emotionally, and I am not sure how well they would have coped with the kind of deafening media silence that greeted all the housemates except Josie from the last few years. And Grace was lucky to be given the chance to redeem herself; she will at least partly be remembered as the girl who won a circus skills competition with a broken foot, whereas Becky, for example, has had no such opportunities: she is stuck with the label "housemate whom hardly anyone liked".

I never understood why so many think BB7 is one of the best cause it really did tail off a few weeks near the end. It was the last one I was really invested in but it really got boring for me once Grace left.

Nikki and Pete's so called romance did get a lot of attention, one of the reasons why I think BB wanted her back in.

Yes, lengthening the series, and sending in 5 inferior replacement housemates, was an unwise decision for the future of the franchise.

At least we are back to a sensible length, even though we have CBB overkill.

Good Post WonkeyDonkey

I think BB8 was the last really where Housemates got any kind of Attention from a Media and Commercial standpoint. But BB7 was the last BB that felt like an event and housemates were treated like stars. Look at Nikki she even got her own show for a while on E4 nowadays if a BB contestant gets a photo shoot in a newspaper they are considered successful. Nikki even won that award at National Television awards. It was a big deal.

I do really take pity for some of the BB contestants over the past few years. You can tell some of them really want to be stars especially BB 12/13 housemates who lets be honest many won't know at all even major BB fans.

BB7's Jennie, Michael, Sprial, Janye were bloody useless

BB8 went overboard with that replacement hosemates and HND housemates, it did get a little silly.

I taught the ten weeks were perfect and not bringing in replacement unless someone leaves is the way to go.

Yes, I think it is quite hard. They get the disadvantages of celebrity: abuse on twitter and facebook, people sneering at them that they 'think they are a celebrity now', and none of the advantages in terms of paid work. I am still a bit gobsmacked about last year's Luke getting a completely unrelated tv appearence CANCELLED at the last minute when they found out he had been on BB. It 's a long way from people like Kate Lawler and Nikki having special projects (not very successful in their case, but still) devised for them in the wake of BB.

Yeah, I thought that at first but in hindsight it did have a strong story that kept week 5 and 6 going - Lea, Nikki and Ash falling for Pete and the arguments that followed between the three. Then there was the HND and the Nikki/Ash thing. And I thought the last weeks were actually really good. But Nikki, Ash, Lea and Grace are some of my favourite housemates so maybe Im just based


I really couldn't stand Michael and Spiral, especially Spiral's cringeworthy raps and the way he acted about Ash not wanting to kiss him. Ergh,

Jayne was quite a good addition though I think.

It picked up with the House Next Door onwards, many of the original HMs were rubbish, and bringing Nikki back was awful.

What "special project" was devised for Kate?

Anyway, although people often talk as if the opportunities steadily declined, I don't think that really works. BB7 was unusual in having so many HMs who got media attention. It's not like bb6 HMs did better, and bb5 ones better than that, and bb4 ones better still.

As far back as BB2, HMs could find that BB closed more doors than it opened. (See Dean's book.)

With BB8, housemates were not picked up by the usual agents who went for them, as the series was a flop. The agents who did pick them up then proceeded to use them for whatever they were worth. They were pretty much foisted upon an uncaring public, except those who wanted to see some nakedness.

"I do anything to you" ah Spiral what a plonker even I felt for Ash then (I was never a big fan). He even had a single release, so it shows even nothing housemates were still getting attention. Michael was trying to be BB7 version of Daniel from BB5 but he just came across like he was faking it up a little.

Janye I admit did at least bring a little bit of tension to the house, but at the end she did run out of steam.

You probably are a little biased . No I liked BB7 but it wouldn't break my top 4 cause the last few weeks were boring. The house needed a Villian and it had it in Grace but her gong really just left the house with the Girls trying to sleep with Pete.