The choice of housemates & constant contact & interference from the outside world, has really spoilt this years big brother.

The producers must know that bb is on it's last legs? As the implications of breaking confidentiality, both in and outside the diary room, will surely damage any future series. As housemates will be more cautious of expressing opinions, due to fear of these opinions being used to stir up trouble.*

This years housemates were possibly the least likeable bunch yet. Surely locking anyone up with the likes of Pauline, Helen & Toya is unnecessary cruelty. It's been a real strugle for any decent people in the house, Chris , Christopher & Ashleigh.. Whichever one wins, they will deserve it.. But it'll be a hollow pyrrhic victory after such a horrible series. *

*Pav has been shafted. *Coming in at this late stage, *it's very difficult to be accepted by Helen and her horrible gang. Well done to Zoe for managing it. This years BB is not a comfortable place for anyone with any venerability, *or self doubt..*

Some of the decisions made by the voters... Wow. After all these years, voting out Bianca, not that I have any great fondness of her, but what were they expecting to watch this week? I guess it's little wonder the producers have to turn it into a gundge Fest to fill an hour.*

I'm glad mark has been exposed... And ruined his chances of winning. My biggest fear, and this would surely would be the final nail in the bb coffin, is a Winston victory. Not that I've anything against Winston, but after Sam.. A Winston win would confirm that the voting public are only interested in a winner that keeps their head down & has a six pack.. Is this what bb has become? **

Last nights show kind of summed it all up.. Lots of dumb tasks. Not much conversation or insight into what anyone was thinking. Other than what was instigated by breaking the basic rules of the show. *It was more like a nasty version of it's a *knockout than bb.

By far the worse year ever, only the year Luke A won comes close... Sad times

Yes I agree. Since Marlon and Jale and Danielle left, it's past saving.. They have killed it by manipulating evictions, and housemate choices. I am sorry but the two newcomers will not bring anything to the series. Imagine Ashleigh and Chris had gone and we had Danielle and Jale and Marlon left.. It would be an enhancement, also Bianca was chosen and the two other newcomers were evicted? The remaining housemates look bored and just waiting for the end.

I completely agree. I've stopped watching and I feel a deep sense of mourning over it but as I said in another thread,I will tune in for the final

Spot on op.

Ashleigh has ruined BB just as Sam ruined last year's BB. There's always one housemate who ruins it.

I hope Ashleigh wins! I also have £10 on her at 14/1

How exactly as Ashleigh ruined BB????

The manipulation of the evictions by the producers has spoilt the show. That can't be blamed on Ashleigh.

The mistakes were made right from the beginning with the 'Power Housemate' idea. If Pauline hadn't been given that power on the first night, how very different things would have been. From then on the show has been cobbled together with more and more stupid twists.

How I yearn for those early BB's with straightforward tasks, nominations and evictions....

It was just as bad last year for meddling. And in fact, much worse in terms of letting HMs know what the outside world thought of them.

# We had that early reveal that viewers thought Wolfy would be, what was it, the smelliest? I didn't like her but man, that was cruel

# There were numerous tasks revealing what HMs had said about each other privately that caused huge conflict, e.g. between Callum and Dexter, and Gina and Hazel

# There was at least one task where viewers voted HMs as "most this" or "worst that". Remember, Hazel dressed as a snake? I'm sure there were more...was there a gunging task based on viewer votes? Anyway, it was very nasty stuff.

# There was family and friend nominations. Remember Charlie's gobby friend slagging off Hazel and the trouble it caused?

# There was the playing back of VTs which gave Gina the green light to turn on Hazel

# There was the luxury den that saved Gina & Dexter, led to Daley-gate but when Sam & Sophie went in the rules changed and they were automatically up for eviction.

The meddling started early and didn't let up until the end. BB were vicious throughout. Yet despite that, this year's bunch seemingly learned nothing. They've happily bitched away when all evidence suggests that nothing is sacrosanct to BB, not their private conversations with each other, not the diary room, not the rules it creates, not the nominations process.

A few notes in my opinion;

- The best housemates left early on. There was so much potential in Toya and Matthew, I know they didn't do their best with their time in the show but I can't help but feel the show would have been a LOT more enjoyable if those two would have stayed and Ash/Winston/Steven/Kimberley left in their place. I know BB wants to keep in the two main sources of entertainment - conflict and romance, but some genuine entertainment is what has been missing this series and I feel that Winston could have gone without much notice - Ash really hasn't contributed all that much (aside from his dalliance with Helen at bedtime) and we all really could have done without Steven from the word go.

- Power trip being executed terribly. Oh, of course it was going to be "the biggest twist ever" and "the house has never seen anything like it" but in reality it's just been the standard excuse to fiddle with nominations when in fact, we've had very little actual nominations which is the best part of the show. It wouldn't actually be so bad if the goalposts weren't changed so often but Big Brother is literally making it up as they go along and it's lost my interest, truth be told.

- Awful new housemates. Pav who? Zoe is terrible - the only one who would have been moderately entertaining was Biancca and typically, she was booted out after two days. They came in, evicted somebody who was actually quite entertaining rather than Steven, which would have got them massively on side with the public and have now just either sat about doing nothing or crawled up Helen's ass. Being a new housemate, you would expect them to have some sort of awareness of their behaviour and public perception, but just like awful fat Becky from a few years back, they do the opposite of what you'd expect.

Usually, I find BB unmissable. This week alone I haven't watched an episode in full since Monday, and its been much the same for the previous weeks. I have no interest in BOTS and I won't vote because it doesnt seem to make a difference. The only housemate I genuinely like is Ashleigh.

I don't think, in terms of public perception, anything will be as bad as that year. Did they not have a task where the housemates had to guess who was the most popular according to the public vote?

If I remember right, that was the beginning of Gina's end - no matter what she did after that, she was always claimed to have gotten big headed because she knew she was the public favourite.

The loss of Mathew instead of Ash is where it really went off the rails IMHO. It would have changed the dynamic and power in the house if Ash had gone instead of Mathew. He brings nothing to the show.

Also the free pass to Helen. She rules the house by intimidation therefore we don't get natural interactions.

Also the issue if BB constantly undermining the position of certain HMs in the house and not others. There is no equality or fairness when it comes to the interfering. Add that to the blatant lying to both HMs and the public by the producers and you get lack if confidence in the whole process.

Ash and Kimberley gone in the early days would have made it better IMHO. As would the loss of Helen

A few things I've picked up on:

Too many domineering females. Helen + Toya + Pauline led to the first 2 weeks being utterly tiresome for me.

The pass was obviously a ridiculous idea but there should have been at least one mid-season chance for it to change hands. That kind of power means nothing if it can't be challenged. I would have set up some sort of extremely physically, mentally and emotionally demanding task to see who really wanted it enough.

ALL housemates need to be highlighted and challenged equally. If someone's turning into a bit of a wallflower, get them to lead a task which will put them on the spot. The Christmas task did that brilliantly, I thought, forcing Christopher to make decisions and exposing how childish Helen can be. But every alternate task seems to be led by Helen. Zoe was a full housemate for 2 days and lo and behold she got a singing task. Chris is a phenomenal artist but as yet he's never had the chance to show off his skills.

Pretty well all the shopping tasks and many of the mini tasks have just been there to stir up bad feeling. There needs to be a mix of physical, mental and psychological challenges plus the occasional bout of silliness.

For the most part, house dynamics should be left to develop organically. Friendships that spring up between unlikely people, trying to work out why person A doesn't like person B. former enemies burying the hatchet to live civilly, that's the kind of BB I like and still look for even in a series like this. Test those relationships out, by all means, but don't force matters by exposing some people and not others.

BOTS should be more reflective of what us fans are really saying, rather than pushing their own skewed agenda. It could do with a social media commentator telling each evictee exactly why they were voted out, instead of some cod-psychologists telling them it was the most baffling eviction ever in the history of the programme. Digital Spy is NOT BB's enemy, we're the ones keeping them in a job.

BB15's biggest crime though, by far, is not sticking to its own internal logic. It's like if you're watching Family Guy you know it's likely for a giant chicken to come on and bust up Peter for 5 minutes. You wouldn't expect to see that happen on Coronation Street. Halfway through this run, BBUK has suddenly decided it wants to be BBUSA. Well, no, that's not the programme we were expecting. I've never been interested in the internalised game playing of the American version, for me it's all about the public interaction. Take that away, deny us the right to evict housemates, overturn viewers' decisions on a whim, you've taken our experience away. If BB hadn't already jumped the shark, it finally did so over the Ashleigh nomination. The anger fans had at Nikki Grahame being voted back in pales in comparison to the disgust I've seen from loyal viewers this week. Even BBSpy have declared they're never going to publicise an eviction campaign again.

If there's to be a BB16 they need to realise that this is a fan-generated show. They need to be upfront with us regarding what's going on and what people are voting for. If they just want a BBUSA format fine, but just make that clear from the onset and don't dupe viewers into believing their expensive votes are going to decide the course of the series.

Can't argue with that.

Bravo!

The only two i like are ashleigh and christopher either of those to win would please me ..

Best post ever this series

If I knew how to do that clap hands smilie this is the time I'd use it

Watching this series is like being subjected to cruel & unusual punishment

Excellent post OP. Would have to agree with every word. I also agree the only worthy ones left to win are either Ashleigh, Christopher or Chris. The very maddening and saddening element about the whole thing is that the producers of the show seem to have very deliberately pressed the self destruct button when there was absolutely no need to, and in fact if handled professionally and expertly, there is no reason why Big Brother could not continue as brilliant and addictive as it was for years. There seems to be a strong element now of seeking out a TOWIE like audience and the show therefore had to be SUNK to extraordinary levels to match this requirement. In that respect they have succeeded with aplomb !!!

The days when members of the public queued up to audition are a thing of the past. It seems that 99% of housemates now are sourced through agencies.

People watching is fascinating... it has always been fascinating and especially when you bring an eclectic group of people together and just let it unfold naturally. I really do think in the hands of Channel 5 it will expire. It could be saved if another channel took it over and completely overhauled it. I really hope this happens.

As comparison for the first time I watched Big Brother Australia last year. It blew me away. It was brilliant viewing.. it had every element in place that makes for a fantastic series and the frustrating thing is the UK could do the same thing and revive the show to it's best if they simply chose to. The housemates were an incredible mix.. the tasks were the best I have ever seen, the voting system is amazing, they are all brought into the same room and one by one they step into a soundproof glass booth and have five points to allocate to two housemates... so someone will get 3 points and the other gets 2. They add up the points at the end and THATS who is up for eviction. There is minimal to NIL interference with the voting process which is as it should be. I dearly would love to get a series of producers to sit down and watch last year's BB AUS and its the template for how to produce this show and make it quality TV.

Meanwhile back in reality... we limp along for the final few weeks in the most contrived, fixed abymsal shell of a programme. Its a sorry state of affairs that it has come to this. FIX IT before its too late.

I agree this has been the worst series ever, they should be sued under the trades description act for calling it Big Brother.

I never got to day 3 - a cast list (that's what it was, not HMs) packed with 'models'/webcam girls, wannabe actors/ posers and Wayne Rooney's prossie - a sort of TOWIE with voting (although the voting was quickly turned into a farce as well).

Really there has been just the two hideous creations that have bollocked up this series...

1. Pauline
2. Helen