In your opinion, is BB a popularity contest or and entertainment contest?

I'm old school through and through, I detest the 'entertainment' when it's fake, nasty, vicious and I will never EVER want people who value that to win BB.

I like BB when it's about people comunicating and getting on, supporting eachother and working as a team, like the old days, and I still believe BB is essentially a popularity contest and that the person who is most liked should win [and least liked should lose].

These 2 alternative views are, IMHO, opposing.
Where are you on this?
And who do/would you 'vote' for? (metaphorically if you don't actually vote.) The 'entertainer' of the 'nice guy'.

If its both then great EG Brian Dowling was both.

Think there is a voting element who think "nice" behaviour should be rewarded with bb being a lesson in morality .

This is completely at odds with those producers view though,

I suppose it depends what is deemed as "entertainment".

If Bear is this years "entertainment" value then I'd go for the Nice Guy all day long.

I found James extremely entertaining, the little we saw of him.

By contrast, I like drama, fun and rivalry. Entertainment every time, but surely the entertainers will be popular?

It's both

There have been plenty of winners and high placed HMs that were both good, popular people as well as entertaining. Nothing wrong with conflict, or even stirring up a little conflict; some of my favourite HMs are what would be considered 'villains', but there are plenty of kind friendly HMs who were also witty, fun and game for a laugh.

I find this idea that being a good person and being an entertaining HM are directly opposed to one another quite a toxic belief that doesn't bode well for the future IMO. You don't have to hurt people to entertain me, in fact, I much prefer a good laugh to seeing people upset.

I like it when BB take responsibility for the entertainment with decent tasks and don't leave it to a goon to provide what passes for entertainment these days. In the end I go for different people depending on the series. I voted Jack Dee and Julian Clarey in CBB. Also voted Lady Sovereign because I thought the older ones were too harsh that year. I've voted for Rex because he really was funny. So nice, naughty, quiet or a pest makes no difference to me as long as they're not a nasty piece of work.

This is my view. Just being nasty or nice doesn't mean one is entertaining and the other is boring.

I'm for both I just don't like toxicity rewarded or at least what I think toxic to society be supported, enabled or celebrated

When a Helen Wood wins we tell the nation that being irrational and argumentative are good qualities, when we cheer a Ryan or a Marrrrc we celebrate the deliberately oblivious, selfish and delusional, not qualities we should want around us

There's a difference between being 'your own person' and being 'up your own ar*e

My winner is the former

I agree. I'm more old school in that I like to see relationships, good and bad, evolve naturally. I'm not a fan of conflict for conflict sake and hate the sh*t stirring and poking to deliberately get them on the edge of a scrap that BB seems to favour these days.

I think some of the most entertaining HMs in BB history have been rather nice people and others have had a naughty streak but without being vicious - Rex for example I adored.

I do hate to see nasty, spiteful, vicious HMs rewarded though as that then vindicates their bad behaviour. Mischief - yes, spite - no

Bear's "entertainment" is so contrived.

Those 2 were so booooring, who'd have thought comedians would be so dull? Same when Joe Pasquale won IAC, all he did was feed the emus.

Still, it's entertainment for some people, I suppose.

Yes, I'm a traditionalist. I think drama should happen organically, not in a contrived fashion like we are seeing this series.

People living in a small studio/house together will, eventually, form bonds and have their fair share of antagonistic moments, there's no need to falsely create them.

I like to see the relationships that develop (all of them) and the funny little things that happen. I don't find somebody like Bear entertaining because he's trying to hard, it's forced, it's spiteful and malicious rather than from a place of fun.

The fun used to be in watching the housemates and seeing things evolve naturally.

If I wanted to watch performing monkeys I'd watch a circus show, or Ex on the Beach

I guess I am old school but I don't see it as a choice between popularity and entertainment. I see it as the difference between a show about seeing people we know of appearing as themselves verses people we may or may not know performing for the cameras.

I am entertained by listening to real people being their real selves. Some will be likable and popular and some not so much. I am not entertained by the caricutures we have been getting in recent years. If I want to see people act the part of made up characters I will watch a play, film or drama where the character is better constructed and better played.

The point of reality TV for me is lost when the people who appear are not being themselves.

I agree.

Hear, hear.


Yes, when someone like Helen Wood wins, that type of person effectively gets rewarded for behaving so atrociously. It gives off the impression that it's okay to behave like this, like that's the way you should behave in the house and in this world, and that nicer, friendlier people don't deserve to go far.

How each show goes is only ever going to be as good (or as bad) as the characters you put in there.

If BB insists on sticking loads of these reality types in the house then we're never again going to see things unfold in a natural manner.

They're chosen because of their particular schtick (annoying, acting dumb, atagonistic, loud, sexually uninhibited etc) so there's little chance of any of them ever going in there to be who they really are.

Maybe BBs been on for too long now.

Maybe our expectations are unrealistic.

Maybe people just know too well how the show works and what the 'winning formula' is.

And TBF, they're on a hiding to nothing anyway.

We complain if they're playing the game and we complain when they refuse to.

I would have preferred that the show hadn't deviated as much as it has from the original, so I guess that I'm naturally more of a traditionalist. But what's the point? The show has altered beyond recognition. Traditionalists should no longer be watching.

They tend to watch and moan - to me that is two negatives. Where's the pleasure in that?

This CBB I have embraced the new style (after not watching for a few series) and have surprisingly enjoyed it. It's all about the entertainment!

It is sad that BB has become more and more revolved around being as toxic as possible and winding everyone up for the sake of being "entertaining". I mean I'm all for drama, but watching the housemates driven to complete misery and to the point where they feel drained has never been the be all and end all for me. BB has always been at its best when its been a mixture of the drama and the fun.

I am currently rewatching BB5 and I know people remember it for being rather explosive and evil thanks to a handful of infamous moments, but I think that really does a disservice to the fact that for the most part the housemates actually got on (or at least tolerated eachother and coexisted well) and most nights they were having fun and laughing and making us the audience laugh.

Its a far cry from BB now, where the balance is really off and they think the only fun is in seeing the housemates at eachothers throats and revolving each subsequent series around the person that makes everyone elses lives the most difficult under the guise of being entertaining. We've had to sit through Speidi, Helen, Perez, Marc / Helen and just when I thought we were past that era now it's Bear and it gets more draining each time.

What is even worse is that the audience has become more and more conditioned to viewing this as entertainment and valuing nasty behaviour over normal nice and potentially interesting people who get branded boring because they don't get any focus. It's sad the the balance is pushed further and further in favour of drama and misery neglecting the fun and leaving us with this to the point where its likely each series will see a toxic winner if it continues.

The point is BB has always been at its best when it's an ensemble effort. A cast full of big characters who all make their mark and provide a great mixture of laughs and drama. Not a series dominated by one or two characters where the others can't get a word in edgeways and it's all about how the newest knobhead can wind everyone up next.