Wow..talk about chalk and cheese. The entire production on Channel 4 was SO much better. We actually got quality time with the final 2. Runner up Jason had a goo 10 mins with Davina, the set was bigger, the event was much larger and it just felt more special.

Then when you get to Nadias interview, it feels so much more "big". They aren't rushed off, Davina asks lots of differnet questions regarding all elements of the house. It is so much more professional than C5's lacklustre effort the other night.

I remember back in the day Davina getting flak, but the whole composition of C4 BB was so mucyh more entertaining and well thought out than C5

I think the VTs during the interviews were also very good around that time, like some housemates would get multiple ones to cover the various storylines they had in the house.

Can't really have those now though because the housemates are supposed to be one-dimensional caricatures, they aren't supposed to be multi-faceted people with different sides to their personalities.

I remember Michelle from BB5 got quite a few during her interview - one for getting her 'baps' out alot of the time, another about the number of times she said the word chicken, another about her and Stuart, and (unless I've forgotten any) then the usual sum up of her best bits.

Now you can see where the die-hard fans from the beginning are coming from. In the beginning we had 24 hr live t.v. with 4 seperate screens to choose from, going back 1 hr, or 24 I believe, anyway there were 4 time choices. More fun and laughter, and Nadia going into the DR to demand her ciggie fix was a classic, she nearly went ballistic through lack of nicotine. Oh those days. Time does not always improve things.

That's so true all houemates seem to have cast for one reason now

Chloe normal,

Sarah showmance

Cristian looks but dull

Danny housewives

Harry nudity etc

If you are not doing these things you are either edited out or get a bad edit photos to get you ok particularly if you are female

You don't see to be allowed to be shown any more than what you cast for these days.

Since Harry left for example she seems a good laugh but we never saw any of that

But its not solely a c5 issue. Watch BB11 final too. That was terrible, no tension nothing!

I've enjoyed a few finals on 5. Well all of them were among CBB and BB12 when my fave hm ever won! That was tense, the last few weren't

I didnt watch the BB with Nadia but talking just about the final compared to other BBs i have watched this one seemed a total damp squib. Non of the finalists engendered any real empathy of likeability, they all just seemed to be occupying space in the BB "process" waiting to reach the final.
Some people seem to yearn for the days of a house filled with 15 dullards talking about everyday inanities and thats great if it generates its own real drama , however with todays media-savy housemates they arnt going to deliver anything so thats why BB needs to get the cast right and inject some incendiary housemates like Helen and Mark and others from distant BBs to shake things up so it isnt just a tedious parade to the final.
Plus if the castings better then there might be less need for heavy handed intervention.
Yes so the final seemed like a complete non-event , almost like the show finished a couple of weeks ago.

I'm watching BB5 at the moment, only up to Vanessa's eviction so far. I find watching them a second time so many years later, my opinions on certain HM's are different to when I watched as they were happening. For instance, I liked Dan the first time around, yet watching again I find him boring and quite irritating.

You are very right in what you are saying. Everything about BB seemed so much better in the C4 days.

I agree with your whole post
BIB This is what amazes me the set and the crowd are smaller on C5 BBs yet the crowd noise is much much louder it's rent a mob at evictions ( I know that empty vessels make the loudest noises!) but it doesn't add up

I remember a time on here when posters were all excited because they had managed to get eviction tickets and what placards they had made, and some used to report live from the eviction crowd

Agreed about Dan. I am on day 47 and I am finding myself irritated by Dan despite quite liking him the first time around.

Not a very fair comparison. 10 years ago, Big Brother was in its glory days. They had millions of viewers every night, had daily newspaper coverage and the final was a big event in the TV calendar, where millions of votes were cast for the winner. It went downhill after the Shilpa Shetty CBB series and has never recovered, nor is it likely to. TV has moved on, audiences have moved on and the idea of watching Big Brother seems a bit outdated and stale to most of the public nowadays.

You can't blame channel 5 for that, but you can blame them for taking the show down the TOWIE route. Instead, they should follow the American version and cut the public out completely, allowing the housemates to actually play the game.

The whole show needs to be re branded and reigned in. The problem I find with the current format is that it's too manipulated as in bb interject to much info into the house. And I hate that nominations aren't the classic way because it's just not how the game should be played. Also because they do a twist every week the 'twist/secret mission' just becomes over done to the point where it's not exciting anymore. Sometimes they just need to leave it to the house dynamics/houseguests instead of fueling arguments all the time.

I really want the BBUSA format!! That's the only way we're going to get more diverse/interesting houseguests.

Noone really cared about BB11 or the final, it was just the warm up act for UBB eoseiclaly as they were on the same night.

I find one of the biggest issues with C5 finals is visual. They have the tent stage and platform up for the whole series, where on C4 it was just the final. It meant the finals felt a lot bigger and more of an event. The event feel was just helped by the fact that people actually watched BB a few years ago and spoke about it so everyone was backing someone. These days the final is just a mass eviction to round the series off.

BB5 was great, apart from Nadia winning.

BBusa is very addictive, but americans really know how to make heavily produced slightly scripted reality TV, even the housemates all know what the public want.

I really hated her back then, her nicotine withdrawals was funny but annoying, but i understood the significance of her wnning.

On a similar note, I rewatched BB2 last year, and I have to say that the final night was really uplifting. It really felt like a celebration of the series and it was really lovely to watch.

What do you mean by it's not a fair comparison?
You think people should look for something more similar to highlight the difference between two things?

I don't think we had 4 screens to choose from during bb5.

I think bb5 is overrated anyway,

I found Nadia going into the DR to demand her ciggie fix was irritating, rather than classic. That BB made it so easy for her to get nicotine shows how biased BB was even back then. (Nadia should have been thrown out for the way she behaved during 'fight night'.)

There was also a lot of twisting and interference. The HMs nominated only 5 times in total, out of 10 weeks.

RE the bb5 final, Jason was treated very poorly by Davina for a HM who came 2nd.

I don't think we need to look as far back as BB5 - even the final of BB15 had more about it than last night.

I agree wholly however there are some things that need to be noted..
in that series, there was internet for sure, and basic mobile connections .. but no massive online trolling AKA twitter, android activity, etc etc.. it is this that has totally shifted the whole dynamics of any 'reality' contest.. and p*ssed all over it

Also, the 'respect' for anyone in the media has gone, because of the above

To be fair to Davina, she pretty much had to carry the interview as Jason would barely look at her. It's a good thing the VTs (like the one with Jason always in the mirror) were so entertaining or else it may have fallen apart. She even encouraged the crowd to cheer him.

I don't know why but you saying that just made me think... Big Brother 5 is the last series not to have stairs leading up to the House.

I have all the old BB episodes - from season 1 - and stopped collecting them in the past few years because of how utterly pointless and produced they were. Really sad when you think about it.

Being in the US, I loved BBUK because it was really people-watching - normal people doing things in a normal way. Now, it's all about what some fool hopes to get when they get out.

I watched BB13 and that was C5. Iirc that was pretty good with the likeable black guy and his charming freindship with the flexible little blonde girl and luke and the chavy girl and connor grabbing £50k. I was never a fan of sex-change Luke so the final outcome was less than ideal.
Thats only 2 years ago.