There is a distinct rhythm to my role as viewers’ editor, which is largely dictated by the enormous amount of comments that Big Brother and Celebrity Big Brother attract when either show is on air. As our Rated/Slated blog posts show, it consistently attracts the biggest electronic postbag, heading the charts for both compliments and complaints. In the calmer waters of February, I have been following up on two of the issues raised by viewers during the most recent series of Celebrity Big Brother: surprise and disbelief at the identity of the final winner and a continuing desire for a live stream to be broadcast during the time the show is on air.
I started my discussions with the person responsible for all telephone voting, who was keen to reassure me that the voting to win in the final week had been perfectly legitimate. After all the shenanigans with premium rate services in 2007, you can imagine it is something that all broadcasters are now very sensitive to, and she reminded me that Channel 4 has used Electoral Reform Services for a number of years now to oversee the voting process for all Big Brother votes. A representative attends each vote night and confirms that the viewers vote as reported by Channel 4’s telephony suppliers is the result that Davina announces on air. Interestingly, Ulrika was ahead in the voting from the moment that the vote to win opened following the final Monday eviction, and it may be that, because she was up against four men, the male vote was split giving her a comparative advantage?
On the thorny issue of the live feed, the commissioning editor confirmed that this decision was primarily a financial one although also in response to less viewers choosing to watch this. The team needed to ensure that the live feed is fit for broadcasting (that’s what all the sound dipping is about, when housemates say things that the Broadcasting Code prevents us from broadcasting) is a large one, and running it 24 hours a day is a very costly exercise. I asked him a question that had been raised by viewers and discussed in forums – if money is the issue, why not reinstate the live feed and drop one of the satellite shows? This took us into some tricky (and confidential!) territory relating to the contractual position with the production company, but he did understand from that question how important the live feed is to some viewers and reassured me (or rather viewers) that no decision had yet been taken over live feed for the summer show of Big Brother, and he had got the message!
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Why not admit the show is broken, kaput, defunct.
I’ve never seen a programme be so at odds with the viewers who loved the programme.
Be it the return of a housemate in BB7, A show that resulted in a housemate being allowed to leave after they had talked of death.
The introduction of someone to CBB5 many regarded as a bully, who later raised the spector of racism.
A show where after one series one female housemate fled the country, another checked into a mental hospital and a third reportedly contemplated suicide.
A record of which Channel 4 and all its staff must be proud.
Isn’t the truth Big Brother continues just for contractual reasons, the same as the satellite shows?
If the live feed costs so much, where did the money saved show itself in that dull as ditchwater CBB6?
The fact the show has the same sponsor as ‘The Alan Titmarsh Show’ indicates this show is way past its bedtime.
Without the live feed the show is nothing more than a glorified soap opera that is edited and made into what you want us to see….there is no more reality. I do not want YOU to make my mind up or be told by YOU who is funny or who is mean …i am very capable of liking whom i want to.
If it is cost then bring in the subscription fee you have had before…but at the same time put some effort into the feed as in the time where you could pick which room / camera to watch.
Put more effort into task stop the manipulation and favouritisim…have more articulate hm’s that will give a bit more rather than flashing what is so not needed…..stop the fawning over showmances that non of us have the slightest intrest in unless your a hormonal 17yrs old…..
Punishments …by god do something about rule breaking and stick with it and that silly prison is such a non starter of a idea.
There are so many good ideas out there use one of your strongest pro’s the fans ask them to submit ideas…lets face it you need some fresh ones!
Theres a whole world of BB out there look thru them see whats good and chery pick!
Put it this way. If there is no 24/7 live feed. We all start talking about Big Brother 11 USA
Live Feed… we were all assured that it was dropped purely because there was no demand and what we all wanted was lots of video clips. Rubbish. We were lied to. Plain and simple. So where is the apology?
last summer we lost the net feed and freeview feed resulting in the bb fans in my household watching less, cbb6 killed the live feed altogether the result of that was we watched the launch show, this is my first visit to the ch4 website since as i like most others had no intrest in the advert laden out of date micro clips.
the idiots who killed the live feed failed to take into account the fact that its the live feed that generates the buzz around the show, no fan of the show has any trust in the selectively edited highlights show so without the buzz there is no discussion and no discussion = no intrest, the attempts to coerce viewers into viewing certain clips still resulted in the highest rated clips getting less views that the live feed yet you still persist with the fallacy that the clips are popular and wanted.
you also make claim about reading the forums, i would hope that doesnt include the joke that you call the ch4 community, because its no community when any valid complaint is deleted along with most of the other perfectly valid threads.
put simply, without live feed there is no big brother, i made a personal decision to completely boycott channel 4 because of the constant lies the fans have been told, i will continue to do so until the live feed returns because if ch4 wish to show such utter contempt towards their viewers and forum posters i dont see why i should help line their pockets in any way, i’m very glad to see online that my decision was not unique as it seems that by killing the live feed many other former fans of the show were put off too and of course without it there was nothing to bring in new viewers either.
“…and running it 24 hours a day is a very costly exercise.”
What utter rubbish. The cameras are already recording 24/7, regardless of whether C4 decide to broadcast it. What’s so “costly” about getting a member of the production team to turn the sound down and cue the tweety birds every time a housemate says something naughty?
Dropping the live feed was a very obvious ploy to try to boost revenue by getting us all to watch the website clips and accompanying adverts. Please stop lying by trying to pretend otherwise – we’re really not that stupid!
I think you mean dull as dishwater.. and the show is still enjoyed by some; namely myself. If you don’t like it, don’t watch it– don’t pretend to bother yourselves with human right infringements and what not, how false.
Look, it’s not rocket science. The whole point of ‘Big Brother’ is that the inmates are being watched round the clock. We know that even with live feed it is edited and manipulated, but at least we have the opportunity to pick up on ordinary conversation and nuances of personality which are all called into play when we are making our decisions of who we like and dislike. Without live feed, no-one cares. Simple as.
The true BB fan wants to see a warts and all programme and we want to see rules being adhered to. Nobody I have ever spoken to about BB is the slightest bit interested in any romance and certainly not in the prospect of any sexual activity, but all like to see rule breaking being punished.
The way in which recent contestants, both ordinary and celebs, have been pandered to, is definitely what is contributing to the loss of interest in the show.
I won’t use the expression back to basics, because it can never be the original experiment that it was, but it can still be riveting TV, if only the powers that be would listen to the fans.
The format for the forum was a disaster this year. The so called Hot Topics was a big mistake. What exactly was the criteria for a “HOT TOPIC” because to me there wasn’t any. Some nights no topics at all went there, other times stuff like http://community.channel4.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/62900202701/m/84200429211 ended up in there. This was a question not a discussion/debate. I personally started a deabte on game plans and despite no other similar topic being on HT this was deleted in the night time dustdown.
90% of over 1000 hardcore BB fans want the 24/7 live feed back:
http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=963023
WE are the people who generate the buzz, and also the people most likely to get most passionate and vote multiple times to try save our favourites.
No live feed means no passion, no buzz, less interest, less viewers, less voters, the end…
So now the truth comes out.
It was bad enough that you axed the 24 hour live feed in the first place, but now you have admitted that the actual reasons that it was axed were related to finance and ratings.
Yet, you tried to fob viewers off with the excuse that clips on the official Big Brother website were more popular than the live feed.
What utter BS. This is a slap across the face to Big Brother fans across the country. Is it any wonder that ratings for the show are falling and falling when you treat the audience like this?
Nevertheless, Big Brother is not Big Brother without the ability to watch it twenty four seven. Whilst it is unreasonable to suggest that fans will be glued to the live feed for hours on end, without a twenty four hour live broadcast it becomes a soap rather than a reality show. The format is built around this.
It NEEDS to be brought back for Big Brother 10 – be it via the red button or online – otherwise you will lose a lot more viewers.
On to the show itself, I cannot stress enough how much a major revamp (in the same style that BB was overhauled for BB5) NEEDS to be done to Big Brother this year. All aspects of the show need a complete overhaul.
The tasks are getting more and more boring – I’d like to see the housemates being faced with trickier tasks again, such as when the BB5 housemates had to hang over a patch of nettles.
The advertising needs a drastic update – there is nothing in the BB adverts to entice new viewers to watch anymore. A sequence of graphics does not sell the show.
And please, please, PLEASE stop coming up with new ideas and then completely ignore them. I was excited to see that the jail had been expanded and improved for CBB6 – but it was only used once, and it was for a dare, not a punishment. What a cop-out.
As Ms Golightly said, Big Brother can be great again – but C4/Endemol needs to put a lot more effort in.
My view remains that the moderation of the forums is inconsistent and overbearing. Tempero do a dire job and nobody at C4 has the nerve to stand up and tell them so. You cannot get a straight answer out of enybody in eithe C4 ot the Moderators. They treat us with contempt and we hold them in contempt. What basis is that for a dialogue. Get them to behave rationally and we might have something to talk about.
All we ask for is honesty, consistency and objectivity. We do not need some power mad button presser hidden away, safe in their lair, above all requests for fairness and impartiality. I do not need some to answer my emails with pointless quotes about reading the rules and poor spelling. I have read the rules, I probably read them when the Mods where languishing at school.
Stop patronising us Paula and we may move forward.
Very good points above. I want to add my voice to the call for the reinstatement of live feed. It’s just so necessary. The journo’s and blog writers all watch live feed and they then help to generate the excitement around the prog. Plus the point made about coming up with new ideas that get ignored – well said! Whatever was that target thing for? And the jail is rubbish. BB acts like they have no control – that’s where serious mistakes have been made – You Are in control – not the housemates! Show them that!
And I cannot ignore the absolute DIRE performance of the forum this year. Who thought up that hot-topics idea? If they haven’t already been demoted to the post-room, do it now! I have never come across a supposedly adult forum that is so patronising! Breathtaking really. I suppose you have to acknowledge whether you actually care about viewer input or not. If these points are not addressed I guess we have our answer …
We all want 24 hour live feed
The decline of BB started with BB7, the manipulation of the audience,culminating in the return of Nikki, having already been voted out,left a nasty tatse in the mouth for many viewers, not to mention a distrust and cynicism of what they were watching on the highlights shows.
All through BB7 Nikki and Pete were given huge amounts of airtime and other HM’s,Aisleyene for example were either ignored or pilloried on the mainstream C4 programmes,it came as little or no surprise to many of us,although it seemed to come as a major surprise to C4 that Aisleyene became the highest placed female that series.
Part of the reason she was so highly placed has to be a reaction by the audience to the manipulation they felt.
I don’t think BB has ever recovered from that misjudgement ,the audience has never shaken off the feeling that C4 will try to manipulate us,lie to us and simply believe that they know best.
The lack of live fed is seen as another manipulation,we only get to see what you choose to show us,well that’s not going to wash, and you will lose audience as a result.
The format of the C4 BB forum has to viewed with same, by now, jaundiced eye.
The only debates that survive the nightly cull are the ones C4 want us to discuss,which we don’t,of course. we just start over each morning with discussions we want to be engaged with.
The nightly cleaning of the forum and the closing time of 12 midnight, leaves very little scope for any discussion at all, some times the highlight show ends at 11pm, some of the spin off shows even later,so all fired up with enthusiasm we rush to the C4 forum, to partake in 15- 30 minutes of talk ,after which the place is closed and sanitised.
You are better than this C4, or at least you used to be.
Sad to report but the lack of genuine communication with the C4 Mods remains an issue.
There was a brief moment a week ago when I thought it might be moving forward but it is back to the old standard – read the T&Cs.
We need a accessible complaints procedure where our comments are not reviewed by the people that are not communicating with us in the first place.
The current system is not independent – we are complaining (about decisions taken) to the people who made the decisions – hardly a credible solution.
Can we either have some proper dialogue – or access to a grievance procedure please?
Thank you
I have to endorse and amplify every point raised by Oggbad in the post above. The situation with the forum moderators has gone beyond ridiculous. Ch4’s BB forum is a thriving, intelligent and humorous community but it is constantly stifled by a form of moderation that is nothing less than contemptuous of all posters.
We all understand, appreciate and welcome the need for moderation that keeps the forum free of libel, ‘…ism’s’ and out-and-out trolling, but what we are faced with are arbitrary deletions and bannings. The majority of the regular posters here are adults with wit and sensitivity in equal measure, yet they are constantly treated with disdain.
It is demoralising in the extreme to be regularly met with such unfair reactions.
I am sure I speak for more than myself when I say, is there any chance of a reaction to the comments that people have taken the time to consider and post?
Thanks to you for your feedback on the format of the Big Brother forums this year. We are having a review of forums more generally, so rest assured that your comments will be taken into account as part of that process.
So a “REVIEW” means closure!
Now that BB10 is haemorrhaging fans daily, (aspredicted), could you now have the courtesy to tell us the real reason for the ridiculous decision to only allow live streaming when the housemates are asleep?
No wonder channel 4 has financial problems, with such short sighted decisions being made such as this.
Do you really think that re-runs of re-runs of Friends will bring in the viewers and advertising revenue?
No LIVE feed NO show iam afraid…..the viewers like to watch and make their own mind up about h/ms and a one hour h/l show is not giving us anything but a show we cannot become involved in and vote. A waste of time for the viewers or h/ms
disappointed.
With so many viewers leaving the show,surely the time has come to admit things are not working.A website to replace 24/7 feed which only updates from 11am-7pm most days is not a replacement for live feed.There is no press or publicity this year no papers are interested because there is no coverage to talk about,same as the viewers we have nothing to talk about to spread the BB word which we have done for 9 loyal years >big Brother is not a website for 5 year ols it is a tv show about watching people interacting in a house.How are they interacting with stories and 1 minute clips,Please dont ignore us anymore we are trying to save the show.Live feed is on at midnight,why?,when they are in bed or are going.Why cant you keep the midnight slot but show us what has happened in the house between 6pm to midnight instead.This option would not cost you any more and we could feel that we were part of the show againg.At the moment we feel very excluded and cannot vote or take part because we just cant connect to what is called Big Brother not a pre recorded soap ,we need the highlights and the live feed to make sense of the house.
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