C4 reaffirms commitment to Big Brother

Filed: 15:44, 03 March 2005 by Neil Wilkes

Channel 4 has confirmed plans for future series of Big Brother beyond this summer's sixth run.

The broadcaster's contract with production company Endemol ends after BB6 - but C4 is keen to renew the deal for years to come.

"I'm sure we'll want to do it again and again until it stops working and clearly it isn't not working," Kevin Lygo, C4's director of programmes, told C21.

He went on to admit that BB5's controversial "evil" theme would not be repeated in the next series. "We're dreaming up what to do with the housemates, but essentially it'll be like it's always been. It's going to be a dozen people locked up in a house for two months."

Lygo's comments may put to rest speculation that the show would be extended to fifteen weeks this year, although C4 is typically secretive with the precise details of each series until the last possible moment.

He went on to rule out a German-style never-ending Big Brother, however. "Several years ago Endemol pitched us a never-ending series. You'd have to open a channel about it but you know what, I'd probably just go to an early grave, so no plans for that at the moment."



Good to hear
shame it sounds like this series wont be extended like speculated though.

So long as the ratings stay healthy there would be no need for C4 to drop the show. It's cheap to produce too - just one standing set for 10 weeks of TV round the clock and a cast of non-professionals.

Each BB will be compared to all the others that have gone before, it'll be impossible to have great one's each time, look at BB4.

yes i have a feeling they will go up to BB12 with the 12th being a show were they get all the winners from the previous series to find out who is the true BB WINNER

and they say there going for another theme this year now tell me if im wrong but bb 1,2,3 and 4 didn't have themes i throught the "EVIL" was the gimmick of BB5. And also if my memory serves me well the people behind BB dont like to repeat them selves and keep every series fresh and new, but there talking about themes again thats not new and it wasnt that good the first time. There is so many things they could do even if it is stealing from another countrys idea (Head of House ect).
Personal i would like a reworking of the rich side poor side(as some people on here may know i realy want there to be a series were there are 2 houses not nessaseraly a rich side poor side but if needs be then yes rich side poor side would be great. And it can be done they need to find a new location for the BB house this year(or so i think they do) they need to think ahead with this location and think about what BB7 will be about and how they can make the house now so they don't have to radicaly change the house every time its starting to look a bit bodged if you get what i mean.

It's good to hear it will continue...no news about the presenters though, especially Davina, I guess we'll have to wait & see.

I wouldn't rule out BB going beyond a couple of months duration, not yet anyway.

Davina, Dermot confirmed for BB6

02 March 2005, 20:44
By Neil Wilkes

Channel 4 have confirmed that Davina and Dermot will be reprising their hosting duties for this year's Big Brother.

The tentative news came as the broadcaster unveiled its programming plans for Spring 2005, which included the unsurprising announcement that Big Brother would be gracing our screens for a sixth series.

The other member of the BB presenting team, Russell Brand, will also be back to host EFourum.

A press release teased: "Expect the unexpected - Big Brother still has plenty of tricks up its sleeve for C4 and E4’s annual summer event."



Dermot n Davina are on board!!!

PRESS RELEASE FROM CHANNEL 4

As Davina,Dermott and Russell are such crap presenters they have been unable to land any decent other positions and they have excercised their options to remain at Big Brother.So we are stuck with the useless gobshites.At least the production staff know that they are crap and can plan known workarounds for them.Have a nice day.

Thanks for that nick, missed that yesterday, not good news for everyone I guess but personally I'm happy that the presenters aren't changing, just hope Davina learns (or is given more freedom) to interview better than recent attempts, get back to something like BB2 or 3.

It's the format of the eviction shows that need changing - not Davina.

Watching her host the Comic Relief documentary last night reminded me of how good she really is.

They usually have themes - sometimes they just don't say what they are. BB1 was experimental - but they must have known Nasty Nick would cheat. BB2 was building a community with various candidates for each role - mother, father, son, daughter. The community made sense as it allowed, and was necessary for, Helen and Brian to flourish - they couldn't but see they had 2 stars there.. BB3 was about divides - the opposite to one happy family as seen in BB2 . There were divides between rich and poor but also between two groups of HM - there were multiple (4) potential winners left to negotiate the divides and survive Jade. Last girl smiling won. BB4 tried to avoid the dangers exposed by BB 3 by being more subtle. Subtle antagonisms and nice people though turned into dull TV. BB5 responded to that by making sure something happened by scripting tasks and nominations to create drama. BB5 was themed for evil but also had a divided house withtwo gangs with the one winner firmly on one side and Dan and Shell there to provide the community for Nadia to survive in - its BB2 meets BB3 meets evil BB but with only one possible winner.


Bb6 is difficult. Do you control everything to avoid BB4. Risk another real competition like BB3? Build one community again like BB2. BB5 added previous BB themes do you keep on adding or simplify?

interestingly the combination they havn't tried is a united house under normal nomination rules against BB setting them challenges . Put in some potential winners and let BB provide the drama and let the best HM win. BB3 without Jade or Adele's side.

With the future now secured they need to ensure each year the show builds on the previous series - not just a one-off twist which is quickly forgotten about.

This is well illustrated by BB USA. BB2 was a complete revamp, then the Veto was added in BB3, with the Veto rules changed slightly for BB4 and then changed again in BB5 - and it wasn't until this year that the Veto really began to work.


The theme of BB5 may have been EVIL, but what it was really about was improving the tasks. Think back to BB4 when you were watching live Pass the Parcel on a Saturday night - this didn't occur in BB5.

Much more thought was put into the tasks - which made them better to watch and despite their evilness, I'm sure they would be more enjoyable to the housemates.

The standard of these tasks needs to continue in BB6 - and now they need to look at other areas of improvement.

If it's a complete revamp with the Head of House introduced, they need to work the format so that the Head of House concept remains for series to come - not just for one series.

If it's a minor revamp, they need to ensure the changes are permanent, not one-off. If a change isn't good enough to keep for BB7, why introduce it for BB6?

Personally I think the biggest problem with the format is currently the no discussion of nominations. It's very difficult to police and the rule is unclear.

Some people suggest British viewers don't like the concept of housemates plotting against each other - but without Nasty Nick, would Big Brother have ever been recommissioned?

As others have mentioned, if you formally permit discussion of nominations you run the risk of the show being dominated by game-playing. I think last year most of the HMs had a pretty good idea who their friends and enemies were on nomination day (though guessing Stu's votes would have been hard as he made no enemies).

Discussing nominations is bad tactics anyway. Why let others know what your strategy is? And it doesn't go down well with the voters as it makes you look bitchy.

What happnes in the german show then- it says never ending show?

How good is that? Every time I saw her, she was no different than she was at times on Big Brother. I don't believe a format change would help her, unless it's based on running through streets trying to find someone a date.

But if others share your opinion, perhaps the BBC will pay her lots of money to do nearly nothing (think of Johnny Vaughan and Graham Norton -- people who used to be on tv almost every day).

It looks like that's our ONLY chance to get RID of the shouter.

Not sure the tasks were improved - they still just had no consequence that mattered other than to the winners cheque and OK outpaid that anyway. You could have run the tasks with consequences in BB5 but the consequence was seen in the hanging task - the bravest, brightest and fitest ( in this case Shell) can do the task and Nadia and Victor fall off every week just like Helen, Fed, Gos and jade. Its OK if you want to find the bravest fitest or brightest HM - but it defeats the point of having a variety of HM.The answer to the inequality of HMt is tasks based solely on luck - like pass the parcel in BB3 and BB4 -which reduces the whole thing to random or nastyness like eating grubs better left to ITV and Sky.

Plotting depends on what you want and how the public react to nasty plotters. Plotters historically soon display sociopathic behaviour that really upsets viewers as they calmly try to remove people's favourites smiling as they do it - that just risks the BB3 problem with Adele and Jade. The other question is do you want war or a subtler drama. the classic conflict BB is BB3 and BB3 was so tense precisely because it wasn't clear who would survive and it wasn't clear because the two sides did not coordinate nominations and had internal disputes and some people had friends in both camps. If everyone was plotting everything changes. Jonny knows he must not nominate Spencer. Kate is told she must be against Adele, Tim is unmasked earlier, Adele cannot be friendly with Kate. Instead you get two sides in a predictable battle trying to eliminate anyone who might actually be popular with the public. .

Open plotting means either most of the mystery and every danger to the HM suddenly becomes far clearer to them (and probably the nastiest plotters win) or the whole thing collapses because some HM either won't (Spencer) or can't (Jade) play their role properly which leads to one side winning very quickly. BB3 might have had Sandy, Alex, Adele and Tim as the last 4 and audiences smaller than BB4 and BB5 could have ended up with Nadia, Marco, Emma and Michelle or Ahmed, Jason Victor and Stu if the teams had coordinated more with more intelligence availiable

personaly although the discussing nominations is ia good idea i dont think it will work mainly because they have left it 2 late to implement this rule its like telling a kid he is now aloud to do something that for the first 18 years of his life he hasnt been able to (and im not talking about sex and alchol lol) there like hmm what ever they have gotten into the habbit of not doing it so wont even bother now its aloud