I think it started to go down hill from. Speidi being in a secret room listening to what housemates were saying.

Too many tasks to cause trouble. I used to love the fun tasks and endurance tasks.

Too easy for housemates if they break the rules. Basic rations should be used more.

Too much outside interference all though not in this CBB series so far.

Too many reality people from Towie, Geordie Shore etc. This series although ratings are doing well the reality stars have ruined it in my opinion only.

No-one decent will want to be in CBB.

There have been some well known people in the house before. If anyone wants to raise their profile it is career suicide and will avoid it like the plague.

I have watched from series 1 but really would like no-more Reality Stars in CBB in the future.

My opinion only and know probably get shot

I said it before on another thread......the irony is BB Producers have shot themselves in the foot & destroyed the series. They were that content on causing controversy & arguments that now they can only attract trash to even go in the house! That same trash has no respect for the show let alone other housemates & the Producers have completely lost control! Nobody 'fears' BB any more. Both series this summer have proven it, housemates breaking out, housemates damaging BB property & STILL Producers do nothing! BB & Channel 5 promote vile behaviour by the youth of today......just look at some their other programming!!!

I agree with everything you say. I do not think there is no going back now.

I agree... BB has been an interesting show to watch, but the central premis - the power and omniscience of Big Brother- has been destroyed. Personally I think they should shut up shop and send everyone home

There is some hope for the civilian version if they audition wisely and get some good, honest, interesting people to apply. Reality TV shows attract only egos of little substance.

BB has no power any more. They are scared of the housemates & what they will do if they issue real punishment! What happened to putting EVERYONE up for eviction if they talked about noms? Punishment today is turn the hot water off or take away their appliances & guess what - we only have their word they have done that anyway!! As for warnings for rule breaking.....how many warnings do you get these days? BB Producers are more scared of the houisemates than the housemates scared of BB because too many housemates these days don't want to play the game they want to ruin the game!!!!

Totally agree

I'm loving it

it hasn't been BB for years

BB hasn't been "as you remember it" since the first year or 2...

BB5 was fight night ** 12 years ago**
BB6 had rumours of agency supplied cast

BB has always been about manipulation, it is not just cctv being watched but a totalitarian state...

early BB shows had 24 hour tasks... they not only helped feed the near all day live feed but they created divisions in the house, they were fueled by sleep deprivation... they were there from the start...

what has changed is there is far less coverage of the "nothing hours" - and the live feed was normally of people not connected to the tasks or the action... that gave a diluted feel to the tensions and arguments... and the appetite for tv in the early days was for softer tv edits... but

tv has changed... c4 used BB to launch 4music & its multichannel offer.
since then bbc, itv & c5 have grown the number of channels they offer... freeview means even basic tv people have up to 60 channels... 10x more than when BB started... and the competition has lots of tv (especially itv2, bbc3 & mtv) aimed squarely at BB target demographics... and so BB has had to tune it's output to compete with them in making the show more appealing to the new trends... as every tv show does including the 6 o'clock news.

so BB is not as you remember... it has been from the very start a show where a "cast" of people were chosen, tasks were planned that would trigger reactions... the cast has always been manipulated - arguably less painfully now sleep deprivation has been removed from the tasks... little is "ad hoc" on tv - it may just have become more obvious to people that ALL tv does that and BB (17 years of it) familiar enough to see it with the undiluted concentrated time it is now given on air...

do you think the X-factor is left to the chance of the voting public?
do you think big boob 7 of 9 replaced boring kes on star trek voyager for any other reason than to attract viewers in a new season style shuffle?
do you think top gear was actually ad hoc and not completely scripted and planned in the office by the production team long before the cast got to location to act it all out?
have you never noticed that even long running shows have a new gimmick each new season? (some work some dont but it is never the same show each year, they all have to add bits from the new fashion and cut bits going out of fashion)

TV is never left to chance.. it is always planned... sometimes those plans wont work out, but 99% of the time they run to expectations



Under it all you can still see the basic mechanics of people getting along and talking to each other as people would at work or in the pub.... what there is no time for at all on a commercial channel is the "live footage from the commuter bus of people going to work" or "sitting in the library" - that would entertain viewers one year but it would never be something they would tune into another year of... so the show has had to edit the highlights to the "bling" not the mundane... and this also goes for the cutting back of task footage... when BB started people still had a taste for "it's a knockout" and kids gunge shows... but that too has changed... you want gunge shows? watch any of the dozen or so kids tv channels... BB is not going to try and compete with them especially since losing the all day coverage it has also tried to leave the kids tv and concentrate on mtv's young adults up....


BB is great...

It is obvious that BB has changed to follow trends, but just like the other examples you have given (x-factor, top gear...) it is gradually killing off what made people watch it in the first place. Even X-factor has 'gone back to basics' because they realised that they were on the wrong path, dwindling viewing figures forced them to reevaluate how their changes had affected the process and why viewers were turning off.

I agree that the producers of BB are chasing the reality TV crowd, but as you state, there is already a lot of competition in that area. There is no need to jump on trends, they need to stick with what doesn't change, which is that people interacting is entertaining. Whether it is them having fun, or them arguing, what we want to see is genuine people reacting to different situations, having their relationships change as they get to know each other.

There is no journey anymore, with the reality TV types you are already at the destination as soon as you start. One dimensional people, instantly jumping into 'love' or conflict. There is no development over a series, it is just the same day in day out. Viewers don't get to follow a story any longer, it is all about getting a quick fix of drama, then moving on to the next drama.

this latest round is like a microcosm of the current education system....

BB supposedly in charge, but it's the kids who actually run things. In education funding units are king, in BB it's ratings... so matter how bad things get, as long as those funding units/ratings keep rolling in the kids will be given a largely free rein.

Supposed punishments (24 removal from the main house) are seen as badges of honour and instead of acting as deterrents are actively sought out to increase a hm's standing with their peer group.


Long serving members of staff (James, Biggins etc) are just killing time until their pension is due. They reminisce about how things "used to be" but now fully realise - and accept - that the liberal elite have put the kids in charge and both sides know it. Certain kids (Ricky, Frankie) have good hearts but even they are scared of the mean kids, and while not actively supporting them... will do almost anything to avoid a confrontation.

This ^^^^

Not just your opinion - I totally agree,

I totally agree and this is why they are scraping the bottom of the barrel for people to go in , it has got a bad reputation now for bad housemates that argue and are almost " ladys of the night " i am trying to be polite to them , but just look at the lineup we have , i rest my case .

I think it is time to have an all stars series or better another ultimate BB series. A mix of real celebrity BB HM's and BB HM's. It would be far better then this current crop of reality TV idiots!

What has happened? Idiot producers whose only concern is causing controversy at the expense of anything else. BB has eaten itself. No credible celebrity with any semblance of a career would go near it - it's now the dregs from TOWIE, Loose Women et al. I stopped watching with the farce that was Tila Tequila - a production team so criminally stupid that they don't even check the history of their contestants and then when uit becomes apparent that one of them is a bat sh*t loony Nazi sympathiser they chuck her out.

BB has become an embarrassing, farcical pile of twaddle where zelebrities go to die.

Hmm...I dunno, there's been some cracking CBB's on CH5.