Are we?

No the BB mob are for giving them booze to party up until it ran out too early, then left them to argue with boredom...

Says who?

For watching the train-wreck that is C/BB?

Probably.........................certainly feels like torture at times.

mmmm fudge....

In what way?

Perez, a few days ago. It has certainly made me think deeply about why I watch C/BB.

I'd prefer not to talk about my Sexual Preferences on the Big Brother Forum if you don't mind....

Bullying, confrontation, rejection, pain, etc. seem to be the main ingredients of C/BB.

So as viewers, why do we continue to watch?

What deep-seated need is viewing it fulfilling in us?

Was Perez right?

Only one finger mind....

well some people quite obviously get off on being aggressive and mean.....other people can't stand to see people being victimised and attacked whether they are HMs or Fms and some people like to observe it all with a metaphoric lab coat and clip board.

it's just enough

It's not very deep-seated for me. When I work I have to be highly focused for long periods. In downtime I like watching football and appalling telly like CBB.
I can get "just as involved" without taking it too seriously.

I'm the same Eva. I saw the clip and expected immediate threads about it.

I have asked myself this question many times for a few years now. I often feel like a rubber necker and that the show has become about torturing people (granted willing and in the case of CBB well rewarded participants) for our entertainment.

I watch or in the case of this series keep an eye on it, in the vain hope it will improve and some actual entertainment may break out.

I have a theory that for many viewers the pinnacle of BB was 'fight night' and the aim of the current production is to replicate that high water mark in one way or another.

The thing with 'fight night' is that for me it wasn't the fight that was the fascinating thing, it was how they got there. So to simply provoke fights for our entertainment really missed the point. Its like inventing an intoxication pill. Would you want to be instantly paralytic without the enjoyment of getting there?

It's a good point, and I think that may be the case for some viewers. I don't think I watch it in order to see people being abused, though.

It has become uncomfortable to watch and I think that's purely because of the kind of people they choose to put in there. It's ironic that the person who has accused the viewers of being sadistic is Perez Hilton. Takes one to know one, by all accounts. Is he self aware enough to know of the hurt he himself has inflicted on his victims in the past? He claims to have turned over a new leaf, but that seems to be very difficult for him.

I don't want the show to be boring but on the other hand don't enjoy watching people tearing chunks off each other. Perez might be an irritant, but I can't help thinking that if Hopkins hadn't been in there pointing the finger, getting the others onside against him and winding him up like a toy, it would have been a very different show and his behaviour would have been seen in a different light. As nothing more than fooling around, rather than deranged and damaging.

They are a toxic combination.

But as that is a constant nowadays, why do we continue to watch ?

If the show was all HMs completely being nice to each other throughout. Would we still find it 'entertaining'?

Oy you. Come over here and say that.

*passes latest test results for analysis*

I don't think that is necessarily what would happen thought Eva. I think it is probable if not a certainty that by putting a bunch of strangers in a house we are going to get conflict. They inevitably have to negotiate their way through each day, work towards tasks and there will always be jostling for position both in the pecking order and because there is a winner.

But conflict doesn't have to mean flaming row and fighting. Conflict can be played out in many more subtle and to my mind interesting ways. Even Victor et al were subtler than we have seen of late. (and certainly funnier!)

Fair enough JennaJ.

Shame planets cannot 'take a leaf out of your book'!

One of the main problems for me now is the extent to which the producers will deliberately create tasks that are designed to set them at each others throats, over and over again.

In the old days, they would have their conflicts, work out their differences and then things would settle down. Nowadays it all seems so contrived and no sooner to things calm down a bit than they will get them doing face to face nominations, or guess who's the favourites, or playing them clips from the diary room, anything to stick the knife in and twist it.

It's the producers that are sadistic, although to an extent they are doing it because that's what gets the viewers in.

Perez may be right, but he can't claim any moral high ground.

I don't enjoy seeing people feeling isolated, but Perez isn't bothered if the other housemates speak to him or not. I enjoy watching arguments in the highlights show. I don't think Perez has been bullied if that's what you're saying. For someone to be bullied, it has to bother that person. The negative treatment has to be affecting the person. Perez hasn't shown any negative impact at all.

Why do you think it has to be fulfilling some deep-seated need?

I watch it for entertainment. It doesn't always provide that but it usually provides enough to keep me watching to the end. Also, it's clear from the clips on the CBB website (that never get a showing on the HLs) that there's as much normal, nice, happy interaction as there is conflict so I don't agree at all that bullying, confrontation, rejection, pain etc is the order of the average CBB day.

you offered me a finger
(of fudge...it's just enough until it's time for tea)

As you know, all humans' innate primary fear is 'rejection' as it reduces his/her chances of survival.

The main premise of the show is two formal stages of rejection:

- nominations,

- eviction.

Added to the informal stage of rejection which is inevitable within the process of group dynamics when teams are formed.

Therefore the overriding emotion created and displayed in various guises is 'pain.'

So are we effectively being entertained by observing pain in others? And if yes, then why?