Instead of the "Strike" rule being thee strikes and you're out, how about making it so that strikes affect how much prize money the winner gets? For every strike a HM gets, it takes £20,000 off their prize money if they become the winner.

How does that sound?

or every time a HM gets a strike, money gets taken off the prize money for whoever wins. That way, strikes dont only affect them. It would be interesting to see how people reacted

hmm... that would proove difficult... else they're may come a point where there is no money, so everyone would just walk.

esp. at £20,000 a strike !!

£2000 maybe !

What would they do if someone really was kicked out for strikes? If they replaced them at this late date it just wouldn't work. Look at Tim, he's soooo boring, & Sophie still has not settled in even though she only joined a week in. I don't see if someone was on two strikes that they would be so keen on giving a third, no matter how far a HM went.

maybe if a hm left cos of getting 3 strikes they'd replace them with an evictee? Lynne?

Trouble is, the £70k prize money isn't a tempting enough goal. Otherwise Sunita and Sandy would have stayed to fight for it rather than chickening out after a matter of days.

There's enough money generated by BB to make the prize fund one million pounds, in which case losing £250,000 per strike would be a definite disincentive to breaking the rules.

And perhaps some might calculate that even after two strikes, half a million isn't a bad result if they won it.

Mind you, I accept that upping the prize money to a million would change the complexion of the show entirely. For example, (and this is perhaps one of the least significant possible changes) it could lead to clandestine alliances among HMs who would support each other and split the winnings.

More importantly, it would switch the emphasis to outright greed and determination, rather than the present reliance on contestants who see the show as a stepping stone to a TV career rather than an end in itself.

much better to take a 'deposit' off each HM before the show of say . .£5,000 at the start of the show and deduct from that for strikes - rule breaking etc. There's only going to be one winner remember so deducting potential winnings is no real disincentive. Either that or wire the Diary Room chair and/or the central bars up to the electricity so they get a big shock if they try to pass anything!

am trying not to laugh Dogsbollocks at your idea .. but failing miserably