Thank you for taking the time and effort to post this reply. Much appreciated, and I will watch the first three seasons. At present I am working my way through BBUS, and have watched seasons two through till season eight. Very different format, based essentially on the game playing aspect. It will be strange to once again watch BB where no discussion of nominations is allowed! Not sure which version I prefer - they both have their pros and cons I guess. It seems that in UK and Aus, any form of 'game playing' is frowned upon, when in fact that is exactly what any Housemate/house guest is doing, whether on their own or with an alliance in US.
BB Canada starts on the 5th March - based on the US format, and I will be enjoying that as well.
One of the very few pleasures of getting old is that we have time on our hands - and can afford to waste it!

If i was in your position I would give the US version a break and jump straight into the australian version. I can vouch for Season 2-4(I only saw the end of season 1) Great characters and as always the format and editing makes for an utterly compelling tv show. Australian big brother has always been the pinnacle for me because the housemates genuinely seem to have the time of their lifes and the editors tend to focus on this rather than the bickering or negativity. I'm green with envy as I have to wait another 6 months for my fix :-/

I am a huge fan of BBAU - much better than ours (UK). I've watched nearly all the series on youtube (back now to 2003) and the 2004 with Fitzy and Trevor I laughed out loud at those two. There will always be the odd series where HMs don't appeal to you (I skipped one BBAU completely - can't remember the year but it had some numpty going around sprinkling glitter everywhere - they all irritated me no end) just the same as any series anywhere.

As another poster has said, Gretel did a better job than Sonia Kruger (she doesn't come across as real for some reason) and I liked Gretel's no nonsense approach and she could control the crowd (up to 2000 people). One thing I do enjoy is Friday Night Live - that is so much fun to watch (but could do with less focus on the presenters - Bree just isn't funny); Big Brother and It's a Knockout in one programme, what more could you ask for .

However, there has been news that they may not be renewing the series or it could move back to Ten (or Nine - whoever had it first) if the ratings can be raised.

Couldn't agree more.

BIB: that is what puts me off BBUK - imo, it's just laziness and cheap alternatives to actually putting on a show: a few bottles of booze is a lot cheaper and no brain work involved as would be needed if they did the tasks that BBAU do (esp with FNL).

Does anyone know when BBAu be back on again this year, I loved last year it was the first time I saw it.

No, but they began the process of finding new house mates few weeks ago.

And the house is being redeveloped, if you follow Tim's channel on youtube, you'll know he got his rocks recently from the house clear out.

I know I'm in the minority, but I really did not like Tim. I hate seeing contrived people on the show and he was one of the most contrived HMs I've ever seen. Everything he said and did was for the audience's benefit and to get them talking about him. He was desperate for attention. He was like a stereotypical schoolboy that deliberately plays up in his lessons to get attention.

He was desperate to get a showmance going. He tried with several of the female HMs. He would do particular things to try and make others look bad. For example, he instigated the moment where he and a few others loudly blew straws in the garden to annoy the others to try and get them to kick off which would make them look bad. He was also more than happy to play pranks and stuff on other people, but he just couldn't take it himself when people did it on him. People criticised Ed for being "fake", when Tim was IMO, one of the fakest people in there. He was a master manipulator and was extremely good at talking his way out of trouble and like he hadn't done anything wrong.

I know that people say it's a gameshow, but I much prefer seeing people who are themselves and the things that they say and do are exactly the things they would say and do back home.

Sorry, rant over.

To Tim's credit he does seem just the same out of the house as he was in the house, he's very OTT. lol
I like that he regularly meets up with the other housemates and gets involved in anti-bullying campaigns ect. Putting his big gob to good use.

I don't think the problem with Ed was being fake, it was holding back. I can understand a housemate holding back in certain situations, but Ed seemed almost pained and frustrated with himself because he had to be Mr Perfect all the time and had a weird kind of envy towards Tim for having such a careless attitude towards the game.
I think that was the major appeal to Tim for alot of people. Usually the camera-hogs and attention-seekers like to portray themselves as angels and saints, but Tim would admit to having a dark side and was also embracing the game aspect of the show, aswell as showing the vulnerability and humour to endear viewers to him. I personally felt like instead of him being fake, he basically threw everything at us and did what he wanted to do without much thought.
He had his petty childish qualities that irked me, but then I can remember other housemates displaying equally unpleasant traits, especially with the way they spoke about others in the house. I think in terms of those negatives most of the house were on equal footing, but in terms of positives Tim totally overshadowed them.

I personally think other HMs like Ben and Katie and Lucy had more positive qualities and less negative qualities than Tim ever had.

I think Tim was a better HM than either of them. My problem with him was more that the producers gave him just a bit too much focus and airtime, they could have spread the focus more, even more so in the earlier weeks. As it was he ended up being the main focus from start to end which was a bit much.

They were probably the nicest housemates in there, but that could be a reason why they were evicted. People lost the motivation to save them, K&L wasn't too much of a shock but Ben was expected to go much further than he did.
I think Ben did have an edge and wasn't always nicey-nice (he was no pushover) but I think the show played him up as way too harmless and naive and he lost his edge to the voters. Even just assuming he would be safe means they couldn't be arsed to vote for him.

I do agree that it wasn't too much of a shock that Katie and Lucy were evicted and that it was definitely a shock that Ben was evicted. From checking the stats, there was less than two percent between him and three others that week, so it could probably have easily been any one of them that had gone.