So many people had eviction parties back then didn't they? I never had one but I heard of lots of people who did. Gawd, it was so exciting, before it all went pear shaped.

Yes they did, I'm also ashamed to admit that if I had to go out on a Friday night, family gathering or with friends (Non BB friends!) I used to get a fellow devotee to txt me what was happening and who had been evicted

Forgive me Barra thread hijacking again

Though its boring.....I was simply flicking through the channels

I began to get 'hooked' properly during BB2, if only I knew what I was getting myself into.

I'd have probably enjoyed the earlier series that much more if id have known that it would continue to nose dive in the latter years. We took it for granted didn't we, oh how I miss the earlier individualistic characters, a time when they weren't using bb as a mere platform for a zlist existence.

I was at the hairdressers and everyone was talking about this great new show. I felt so left out I decided to give it a go. It was a great talking point back in the day.

I was only 6 when the first BB aired. My parents have always watched it. My earliest memories are blinking Helen, and the chickens from BB2. I remember bits from BB3 - BB6. I remember wanting Nadia to win BB5. I started watching it properly during BB7 when I was 12. I also watched BBLB every weekday evening and Sunday morning. My favourite series is BB9. When I heard that Channel 4 were cancelling BB, I was disappointed like most (I'm assuming). I didn't watch the first two series on C5 as I'd watched the launch nights of both and thought the housemates seemed like boring wannabes, nothing like C4 era housemates. I was also disappointed by Brian Dowling's presenting skills. I started watching again in BB14 as I found Dexter interesting and Emma presenting was an improvement. There are a lot of things that I dislike about C5 BB but now I am hooked again, even though I don't like it. Hated BB15 because of vile Helen. BB16 was promising, but was ruined by the stupid, unfair 4in4out twist. I miss the old BB, I wish I was old enough to appreciate the older series more!

Yes, I watched from start - and it was a big topic of conversation at home and work. The excitement when Craig (until then he'd been dismissed as a bit of an irritant by many) took control and confronted Nick Bateman was electric, there had been nothing on TV like it until then.

I have watched BB since day one. I can't remember how I heard about it but as I don't read news papers it must have been something on the TV. I was fascinated by the concept of putting a bunch of strangers in a house with no outside contact and the idea that we could watch them 24/7 on my computer.

I was a lonely watcher for the first few years as I never watched the highlight shows I didnt see the point as they were only repeating things I have already watched on my putter. I didn't have a clue that forums existed I would go on the CH4 site sign up for the feed and never return to the site till the next year. I could never understand why viewers voted out the HM they did until the year ceaser was in a the house and I finally noticed the link to the forum. Imagine my shock when I discovered there were actually people who didn't bother with the live feed who only watched the highlights I had never bothered with

I started reading the forum on the CH4 site and it was a SCRARY place, no way would I have posted on the general forum. One day I clicked on this strange placed called the live update thread and I joined in and stayed there till the site closed and I started lurking here. I don't really watch the shows much since the live fee has gone but I can't stop reading the forum, so I gues I'm still hooked.

I did a stint working late shifts during BB7, and a girl I worked with back then loved BB as much as I did. The week that Grace was up for eviction (when Suzie nominated her) we were both so excited that she would probably be evicted that we phoned in sick because we didn't want to miss it

I miss those days

Forgive me too, Barracute

I missed the first episode but my brother watched it and taped it for me. so basically I watched it from the start but it was my brother that got me into it. I watched it all up until the switch to C5 and this was the first year of C5 BBs that I watched and I swear I'm as hooked as ever, I just wish it went on longer.

Can't remember now, all i do know is that i have been watching it since the beginning.

I read about the first series in the newspaper and was intrigued by the social element angle so was glued to the first series. I dipped in and out of the next couple of series, then missed a good few years only starting watching again obsessively in Josie's year (couldn't stand her.)

5 years ago i was house sitting for my brother as he was on holiday and i was bored out my mind every evening as i couldn't access his (password protected) internet. So i had to put the telly on every night. And BB was on and got me addicted.

My niece worked with Brian Dowling as an Air Flight Attendant and told us all the family, that he was on this show and was going to be brilliant as he was such a character.

I didn't know at that time that my daughter had watched the whole of the first episode and was ecstatic that I should watch the next series.

And the rest is history.

I can't remember for sure, but it was probably because it was mentioned on the Big Breakfast or RI:SE, whichever existed at the time (2000 / bb1).

The C4 forums at that time were not the ones that many of us used for most of the C4 years, until they were closed after BB whatever it was. They were a much simpler thing in which you didn't have to register or use a fixed user name.

From my POV, it was never true that everyone was talking about BB. Almost no one I know in real life ever watched it or had much interest in it, and the only "water cooler" conversations about I that I encountered were when someone who knew I watched it asked me about it. This happened maybe 2 or 3 times during a series, and it didn't happen at all after bb7.

I was flicking the channels when I came across it, sat and watched it for a few minutes then thought what was I doing watching people, as I felt it wasn't right, so changed channels but as nothing interesting was going on, went back to C4 and had another look, and got hooked, and rooted for Anna Didn't see the beginning of it, but saw everything else until the end After that I watched it religously online for 18 months day and night, until they scrapped that. Watched via Real Player who let me watch it for free. There was a right hullabaloo when LF was going to be replaced with the H/L show. Then I discovered how others watched it, and we went out and bought a new TV with the E4 button, and it was great watching it that way, until that was stopped, but there was the secret channel. Those were the days

I think I can remember hearing and reading about it before the first series, but I didn't watch it straight away. A friend of mine said that he'd been watching it and that it was really good and I can remember my brother and his family getting all worked up about Nasty Nick and his gameplaying ways. After hearing a lot about it, I decided to tune in round about the time of Caroline's eviction, and I was hooked.

It's such a shame that the BB of today isn't as good as it used to be. I wish they went back to basics.

I agree that watching old episodes is very different from watching it at the time, especially (but not only) if you watched BB live back then. And I think that BB was much better and more interesting during the C4 years than it is now.

However, I don't think the early C4 series would seem boring only to "today's impatient social media generation". I don't think they have stood the test of time at all well. I think they would be incredibly tedious viewing now, and most of the HMs would seem rubbish too. Whatever it was that made them interesting at the time doesn't work any more, at least not for me.

There wasn't anything like it though Veri. It was truly fly on the wall stuff.

It was pure voyeurism to watch these people living in a house.

Editing didn't even come into it then.

It was pure social experiment.

We'll never get that pure 'realism' back EVER.

Day one watcher

I was hooked on Nasty Nick and his blatant amusing lies. Having the house crying about his "dead wife", his feeble attempt at doing an assault course in the garden after claiming he had been in the army for years.

It's ironic that him and Craig were the biggest game players in there, those 2 used to plot nightly about nominations and Nick was actually plotting behind his back.

What amuses me now is the acclaim for Nasty Nick, when at the time, the poor guy wanted to leave the country.

That may me why the early BBs worked at the time, but if I try to watching anything from those years now, it's awful. Even things like the bb1 confrontation with Nick are tedious viewing. And the housemates! I can barely even stand to look at Craig now, he seems so unbearably smug.

Of course, watching it day by day at the time, with the live coverage and all, is bound to be very different from watching parts of those BBs now; BB I think that even if a BB like that happened now, with similar HMs and a live feed, it would still be boring. Things that used to seem spontaneous and genuine (like the bb1 body painting on the walls?) would now seem attention-seeking or for the cameras and fake. And so on. I don't think that finding it boring it's just a generation thing, and for me it's not about wanting constant arguments or 'drama' either.

Thanks for that clip, which I just watched in awe at how interactive the HMs were, and didn't hear any swearing like HMs do today! The weirdest part was how the House looked and its furnishings. Timebomb should have gone back to that time, when HMs had real fun.

In Australia BB started in 2001 with a lot promo's and news prior to starting so decided to watch and got hooked. Watched every season in of BBAU and the early seasons BB1 to BB5 were the best. After our BB6 got a little boring there was this young girl that attracted my attention in the UK right after her bottled water incident.

Started watching all the youtube clips that were going up about BB7 and started to download the show. After that I downloaded the UK BB3, BB5, BB6 series and watched those and continued to watch BBUK from then although I did miss 2012, 13 and a couple of CBB because BBAU had started up again in 2012 after 4 year break.

What I liked about the UK version of BB was that it is similar to ours, an authoritarian BB with a sense of humour, non discussion of nominations and normal nominations. Although I prefer the Aussie version about the nominations rule. Breaking the rules can get you a strike, BB can also issue nomination points or put you up. Getting 3 strikes from Aussie BB means you are out! Where the C5 version they seem to issue official warnings with no effect and interfere with nominations far too much these days.

Exactly the same as for you, I was intrigued, then hooked.......it was such a different programme to that which we were used to at that time. Now it would seem 'old hat', especially with Nasty Nick. Now he would be seen to be playing the game and not demonised like he was then. It is hard to believe that 15 years later I still watch the programme........although it has changed beyond belief from the original concept of it.

I just wish the times would be more simple again, nowadays the t.v. programmers are constantly wanting to script things to make events happen, instead of letting them go through their natural course, Now I suppose that would seem drab and dull to most of them. Maybe they are and I am getting older......oh well.....

Highlights show was on a Sunday I believe.