When BB started out it was about strangers getting on in an unfamiliar environment and the challenges that brought.

It then developed with BB introducing hardships and tasks, mostly centered around the food they ate. Starved of other stimuli the food was a big deal so this caused animosity.

Then HMs got savvy to the setup and how things worked after the show, book deals, PAs etc so we got more exaggerated characters.

BB then ramped up the pressure on these exaggerated characters to create arguments and 'entertainment'

Now it's a mental torture test, can you survive the experience with out losing your mind? The diary room was a sacred place, the one part of the house they could feel safe and express their true emotions and even this was used against them routinely.

There was a task, 'the one thing that still annoys you' and all the housemates just went 'nah, no thanks, there's been enough bad feeling'. As producers you know you've pushed it too far when people are saying 'no, we don't want to play this game anymore'.

It's come a long way since the beginning, is it progress? I don't know but the game has definitely changed.

good post

for me got too over the top with fake romances ,and money driven people
the fun has gone out of it now

task are not as good .or fun as they was ....

bring back the big bb we all loved

I would love them to take it right back to the original format, even if only for one series. Back to the chickens, back to making their own bread, back to normal everyday people who have never stepped in front of a tv camera in their life, back to no contact with the outside world, back to the good old days!

That would require them to think up imaginative tasks instead of most being based on viewer polls or diary room snippets. The current production team don't seem to have the skill set to run a full series with proper tasks.

I've watched every series, yes it has changed, let's face it, it needed to change to survive, the two most important things are casting and the tasks.. You get those right, people will watch. On the whole, the tasks this year were pretty poor though.

I'm sure I had a point..

I would think i agree with the original post. As much as i loved the series this year they took it to a dangerous level mentally. The housemates could never feel safe even talking in the diary room as a lot of what they said was made public in the house.

For some housemates this year it was mental torture. I dont agree with bringing in ex boyfriends or girlfriends to the house as like in real life ex's are ex;s for a reason and many keep away from their ex's, not want to go into a house that goes out on tv to have a showdown.

Housemates should naturally gravitate towards each other and likewise fall out. Big Brother nowadays has a helping hand in them falling out rather than let it happen naturally.

I think that it is impossible to go back to the original BB format. Most people that apply to go on the show are fame seeking whores who will do anything for a magazine deal. If the producers tried to weed these out then they would have a downbeat and boring BB. The other thing to consider is that now we have seen fights, sex and plotting on BB, could we go back to watching a guy making funny noises with his mouth at chickens?

BB has definitely changed, but so has the audience - The original show would just not work today.

Good way to get BB cancelled.

In the 'good old days', reality TV was a new concept, watching people for 3 months was something new and interesting. You can't EVER get back to that. The world has moved on. It's like hoping that digging into your childhood toy box and playing with your old toys will magically make you feel happy and full of wonder again. You're chasing ghosts.

They're going the right way about having it cancelled with the way they're running it these days.

I said I would love them to do that, not that I ever think they will. All these fame hungry, celebrity wannabees are ruining it for many many people. You don't ever get to see the real person because of their life depending hunger for the cameras.

Good post.
For me the main change is that they dont pluck people from obscurity anymore , they choose from a pool of media savvy Z listers.
So you get a media savvy production - they are not acting normally.
Probably BB dosnt want them to behave normally / boringly , but wants conflict , but BB cant risk having any loose cannons (regular people0 in there and having real punch ups so enrols media savvy wannabees who will perform the drama in a controlled way but without any real danger.
Its pantomime - its no longer real.

Excellent post.

BB's fundemental philosophy is now beyond warped.

They might was well get rid of the DR for the next BB, because it'spointless.

Nearly everything that say is broadcast to the others & if that wasn't bad enough, there is far too much information about the outside world.

They might as well send a copy of the Daily Star into the house every day & a copy of New magazine every week!

I started watching a TV series called UnReal a few weeks ago. It is a fictional story about a reality TV dating show but the scoop is it is more non-fiction and based on the real way things are run behind the series The Bachelor / Bachelorette . I have seen The Bachelor many many years ago but it's one of those reality shows I never got into because I couldn't buy into it and didn't believe anything they were selling. I know two couples apparently came of it and are still together but even a stopped clock is right twice a day.

The show UnReal, if you accept it as a true depiction, is quite the eye opener and I though of it last night when Emma was going on about how they didn't have a villain this year. In UnReal they pick during casting who is the villain, who is the wifey, who is the joke etc., and the producers really manipulate the cast with leading questions, alcohol and if they still don't get the soundbite they want edit bits and pieces together to create it.

That's how I view today's Big Brother UK version. It's just so manipulated and production is so lazy that they only attract the type of characters you see today. Thinking back to the time Lateysha couldn't be arsed to get out of bed to do a task or when a HM (can't remember who) said out loud they had given them (BB) enough to use so wouldn't be doing any more that day. Showmances, villains, journeys, sexy female fodder for eviction #1, everyone has a role to play and the script is : wake them up, have them sit in fish guts and vomit into a sick bucket, fail them, punish them, then give one of them a secret task they will pass as an excuse to give them alcohol so they either have sex or fight some more. And if you don't get enough minutes or arguments to fill the show that night then play a DR rant to the house.

It really just doesn't work anymore in this format and I think the producers even know it as they can't wait for them to be done to get on with another celebrity series. C4 Big Brother was more "Survivor", C5´s Big Brother is "The Bachelor" all the way.

This has been going on since the first season. It's a TV programme - a trashy entertainment show. Producers cast people not because they're nice or ordinary, but because they think they will make good TV.

Survivor has also evolved dramatically since its first season. If Survivor were to go back to the way things were in season 1, it would be cancelled straight away.

I was flicking through some random episodes from old series out of interest. The early series were charming in their naivety, then they hit their stride around BB7 (Pete, Nikki, Sezer, Shahbaz, Ashleyne etc). They had interesting characters who were being themselves and there was natural conflict caused by people living together.

I guess it's been gradually going downhill since some time after that. The current state of affairs is a reflection of how society is now, appealing to the lowest common denominator. BB has become ugly in the last few years, whether the format fits any more in the MIC/TOWIE era is questionable because it's not what BB is/was about.

I dread to think what is coming in the next few weeks.

Going slightly ''off topic'' here, but we are discussing reality TV, so I may get away with it!
Used to watch a show called ''Shipwrecked'', which at first I enjoyed - until it went the way of several other reality shows and became a bit nasty. Any of you folk out there know if it has been consigned to the garbage bucket of reality shows, or will it maybe appear again?
Would appreciate any info....

I think it happens with a lot of shows. They have a good concept that works and is popular then people try to 'improve' it and ultimately destroy what it was that made it good in the first place.

nobody would watch it though.
face it the majority of audience love all the drama. though i still think you can have a dramatic series without all this intervention from production stirring up trouble.

I think the solution is the middle ground where it thrived. BB5 changed the game for the positive (by amping up the negative) but it was full of fun at the same time with the LGBs vs JCs, silly tasks that made it almost like a Carry On film. BB6 and BB7 were similar but I feel that after CBB in Jan '07 (Jade's) Big Brother became afraid to be Big Brother. BB8 shows the start of the decline.

If the producers just looked at BB5-7 as their inspiration board I think the majority of fans and viewers would be happy. Fun but fiery housemates, themed tasks that last the week, straightforward noms and evictions (most HMs think "Oh they've gone somewhere else" so a cut and dry booting out shocks as much as a twist these days) and let the housemates interact with each other without outside interference.

I know social media impact means more than viewership these days (as shown with online polls in tasks etc.) but hashtags still work well. Viral videos/gifs/memes could be the focus of the social media impact instead of polls and voting.

So true.
I do wonder if it is the producers who 'destroy' the concept, or the contestants become too media savvy? The ideal contestant would have to be interesting, watchable and yet not someone who has appeared on numerous reality shows . I suppose each year it would become increasingly difficult to find 'fresh' faces.

Where's the like button?

I said something similar a few posts up

I would love to see this. Pure people watching, with LF. People always say, nobody would watch it, everyone loves the drama and arguments, we need the larger than life characters, like Ryan. I don't, I hate all that. I loved the original concept of BB, just watching a cross section of society, interesting, normal people, enduring an isolation/survival experiment. It was far more entertaining than the dross they churn out now.

Really loved that show but i doubt they would bring that show back in it's original format now. I am sure on this forum someone mentioned that a constant from that show made it over to Big Brother a couple of seasons back....think one of the guys from Liverpool...Mark maybe?

Its like Bear Gryls "The Island" first series its all new , people get hungry , people get irritable and people get slightly injured but everything ends well. The next series they have to make sure they get the euqally or better footage so they import non indigenous allegators just to have dramatic footage of them catching an allegator that was tied up anyway - And they get tired and hungry and the fishing party almost gets swept away and drowns - cobblers.

Change is inevitable, you have to change with the times for sure, but change for the sake of change is not right. The basics - complete isolation, no visitors/calls/video's/letters from home should be sacrosanct, i ideally once the last hm has entered on launch no one else should ever enter the house, the hms should not see anyone but each other for the duration to enforce the sense of isolation. They should respect the privacy of the DR and noms, no playing back or revealing anything said in the dr -ever. No face-to-face noms or anyone else but hms to nom. Everyone noms and no one immune - No pass to the final at any time, though an occasional immunity task is fine, but the final round of noms should be proper with no one immune and all nomming. Tasks should be innovative, fair, dramatic, enthralling and suprising - BB at its absolute zenith is capable of the week in BB7 that started with the best friends task and led into the legendary prison task - one entire week that had far more laughs, drama, shocks, twists, excitement and genuine tear jerking emotion then the entire C5 years added together. That the series that once produced that is now reduced to who said what or what the public thinks type tasks on a regular basis is what we have come to now.

The other thing that BB consistently fails at is letting the hms get away with murder due to not having the courage to introduce real consequences for rule breaking, it is always the same thing, hair straighteners/water off for 10 mins is no deterent at all. The only way to get back control of the house is to crack down HARD - simple - first rule break, banned from noms, second, automatically up for next vote, third instant removal - i guarantee should anyone be foolish enough to do something 3 times they will be the first and last as once the others see that someone is really removed for a third offence they will be scared to death and in fact most would be deterred at the thought of being up after a second offence!

Whilst in an ideal world you would only have hms that have never been on tv or in the press before, in this day and age unfortunately that will never happen, but at the least they should not be related or have met before ! They should all be strangers on day one

Sadly BB's terminal decline shows no sign of ending anytime soon due to C5's blind ignorance of all of the above.

Endemol needs to get you on the production team.