I don't think I've ever watched an episode of BB-USA (i was always away every summer and moved to UK 4 yrs ago). Anyway, I'm addicted to BB here because of a few reasons--

1- Audience participation...nothing feels better than knowing you have the power to vote someone out.

2- Pop culture...you know a majority of people at work the next day are going to be talking about BB at least a little bit.

3- Nightly show...does the US have 3 or 4? I'm not sure, but it's nice to get a nightly (ok slightly heavlily edited) uncensored review of the goings-on

4- Cast of characters...Nadia, Jade, Pete, Brian, the Twins, Princess Nikki, Eugene, Craig and his crush on anthony, i mean I could go on for hours. It just seems like BBUK has more of an accurate cross-section of society than the US version has. I browse thru the profiles on the CBS website and all i see is "Sales Rep", "Estate Agent", "Sales Rep", and everyone (except some geriatric this year) seems to be young, middle class and pretty (the typical american contestant i guess you could say). Basically-- where are the uglies? Where are the middle-aged? Where are the racists? Where are the layabouts and ex-cons?

It just seems that BBUSA has effed up a reality show the way USA producers tend to do. I could go off on a tangent here, but one needs to only look at Wife Swap and Kithcen Nightmares (anyone else catch the disclaimer that portions of both shows have been dramatized for american viewers?)

Can someone who is a fan of BBUSA please set me straight? I'm not trying to be a hater, I'm just trying to give my opinion.

Very different shows my friend. The US show is completely different in terms of (as you point out) the characters it presents, gameplay and audience participation. I think to say its 'effed up' a format is a nonsense, as its been running successfully for as long as ours. In fact, there's been some quite innovative interactions from the public, especially last year using 'America's player'. Who can also forget the tasks in competitions? Our looks like a tin-pot budget in comparison.

The UK voting people out - well it always seems to me the big characters are voted out soonest leaving drab and dull outcomes. Not in BBUS! All the house has responsibility for who goes out; alot more exciting IMHO. There are plenty of characters from all years of the show, and most are alot more interesting than blimin' Eugene!

I for one jumped ship from the UK version. Its there to whet my appetite before I get to see the secret alliances and gameplay in the US import. I am bored of characters that come out of the UK version only to bring out some crappy show or pop song.

In summary.. it doesn't suck; and you might want to watch more before saying so.

PS. Nightly shows doesn't equal quality

Frankly, both versions have the same name of "Big Brother", but aside from being in a house with cameras, they are two completely different shows. Although the contestants in the US version are often very generic, the format of the show, which involves a lot of strategy, means that it almost doesn't matter.

You don't really need much personality to be good on BBUSA. It's all about playing the game, being a schemer etc. Occasionally they'll have segments about a player's personality, but both the editors and the players treat the show as a strategic game. Obviously this is different from the UK, where an HM can be chastised if they even appear to want to win. Personality plays a big part in the UK version, hence why we get bigger "characters", from all different walks of life. That's not to say the US players don't have character to them - many of them do - but it's just not what gets focused on like over here.

Regarding the audience participation, the US version has tried this before - but it was the first series, and it turned into an epic fail. They removed the audience participation element for the second series, and it was much more successful. There is still, however, an "America's Choice", which allows the audience to vote for minor things, like which HM they want to have a letter from home, etc.

There are only three shows a week for BB USA, but with strategy being the main focus point, it seems to be more than adequate, really.

And I can't comment on pop culture, as I don't live in the states

So as an avid viewer of both versions of the show (I've seen all 9 series of UK BB, and the current BBUSA is my 6th), I don't class them as the same show. Fans of BB USA appreciate the show in different terms from how they appreciate BB UK.

BBUK use to be better, BBUSA is now.

BBUK still, usually has housemates who have everday jobs and are not already in the media like housemate in BBUK have been the past couple of years.

The public vote and format in BBUK is stale and tired. You may think you have the choice to vote who you want out, but you don't really, the producers choose who they want gone. Plus the public vote is predictable nowadays.

BBUSA is exciting and unpredicablte, you never know who is going to win, you never fully know who will be evicted, the game can change in seconds. It's brilliant to watch, if you like to watch a competitive game show rather than people on the hunt for Z-list fame then it is a fantastic show.

Also the tasks are frigin awesome in BBUSA and BBUK's task look weak in comparison.

It's a very different show and I want them to stay that way. US is more the gameplay aspect, UK is more the social aspect. They tried the original BB concept in the first season but the housemates were poo and so were the ratings, meaning they changed the whole format of the show to better suit the audience. Because Survivor had just been launched around the same time and was such a hit, they went for a more strategic game the 2nd time around.

True, I still believe if Big Brother would've launched at a different time in it's original format it would have been a hit.

Survivor launched a couple of months before BB1 and was such a huge success and I mean HUGE, I mean the whole of America was practically watching, and this meant that any other reality show that followed wasn't going to live up.

Survivor with the help of the devious and manipulative Richard Hatch brought game play reality TV to a huge scale and the people loved it.

So when Big Brother launched and it was all about popularity and getting the publics vote people didn't take to it as much because people were still itching for that Survivor style show and public votes just weren't in.

Now say if Big Brother had launched after American Idol were suddenly popularity phone vote shows became the in thing then I think it would have been more successful, not to the scale it was here but enough to keep that format the same.

And it works the opposite way around here in the UK, BB1 set the stone for reality TV, people loved the fact they could vote people out and vote for a winner. So when Survivor launched on ITV during BB2 it just didn't take as well because people weren't use to the game play aspect (although Survivor continually beat BB2 in the ratings, but media interest wasn't there like it was for BB). Now say if Survivor had launched before Big Brother it may have been the 9th season of Survivor we'd be watching now and Big Brother may have closed it's doors after series two.

And it shows now here in the UK people are tired of phone in reality shows, there are way too many nowadays, hence why a more competitive reality show like The Apprentice is going from strength to strength and doing big numbers in the ratings.

However I personally love the game play format of BBUSA and I'm glad it's like that and wouldn't want it to change.

I would go to work the next day and talk about it with my workmates. Definitely cooler talk LOL We had a pool for BB6, although I lost as I bet on Jedi Janie The difference in the players is that in the States you are playing for the game and the money, fame does not come into it. Here, they don't care as much for the win as they can make the money from the deals after the show as they are not playing to win, they are playing for fame or notoriety.
As for what the others say, they are definitely 2 different shows. Right now, BBUK has ticked me off as I feel they are going to do exactly the same thing with heaven and Hell this week as they did last week. The could have switched it around a bit and kept the surprise going. The best part of BBUS is expect the unexpected and I think BBUK could do with adopting that.

If only they'd given our HoH the power of sole nominations like in BB:USA.
Darnell would've stirred it right up and this weeks HoH comp would've still been going