Channel 7 considering live Big Brother for 2024 season

[bleachy_dude]

Red Bull.

Virtually all the HMs have stayed up till 2am nightly on the UK stream. The day just seems to be structured in a way that encourages that with late wake up calls and late meal times.

Isn’t this a bit of a cultural difference?
I remember my friend who lived in London for a while was so surprised at how late people stayed up and even like made plans to meet people late at night.
With the exception of young people who are in peak party / club mode, Australians generally go to bed earlier and get up earlier.

 

[Brekkie]

The TV schedules show that - people saying BB starting at 8.30pm will be too late for them whilst in the UK the big shows air at 9pm and BB traditionally aired at 10pm. It actually started out at 11pm - though it's unlikely now such a show would launch that late.

I think also a fixed late night window encourages HMs to stay up for it.

 

[Zcsund1234]

That was something I was struggling with whist watching it overseas. Also since the UK is an hour behind central Europe. I'd have to wait until 11pm for it to finish and then wait further for it to be uploaded. If I watched it on ITVX there were far too many ads so either way I'd be up way past midnight trying to watch it. Way too hard when I had to be up early for tours and stuff, so I found myself watching it in the morning during my morning routine.

It is werid being home now and watching it the next morning again. It brings me back to my high school days where I'd watch the eviction show on Saturday afternoons after my 6am shifts at McDonalds.

 

[Kingston]

The TV schedules show that - people saying BB starting at 8.30pm will be too late for them whilst in the UK the big shows air at 9pm and BB traditionally aired at 10pm. It actually started out at 11pm - though it's unlikely now such a show would launch that late.

I think also a fixed late night window encourages HMs to stay up for it.

We’re getting to the point where “prime time” is any time. In 2023 there’s absolutely no need for BB to fit in to the “family friendly” niche when most of BB’s democratic aren’t going to be watching the show at 7:30 anyways.

ETA: I also think there’s a lot to be said for a show like MFAS airing in a 7:30 time slot with no worries about being family friendly. As was the case with early Channel 10 era series you can definitely produce a the show that is acceptable for 7:30 without it needing to be watered down.

 

[Gayspie]

It is werid being home now and watching it the next morning again. It brings me back to my high school days where I'd watch the eviction show on Saturday afternoons after my 6am shifts at McDonalds.

Oh gosh, it feels like it was only yesterday and we were chatting in here, as two stressed out year ten students struggling under endless McDonalds shifts to work (you) and footy games to umpire (me), back in 2014!

 

[Zcsund1234]

We’re getting to the point where “prime time” is any time. In 2023 there’s absolutely no need for BB to fit in to the “family friendly” niche when most of BB’s democratic aren’t going to be watching the show at 7:30 anyways.

100% truth. 5-8 years ago my friends and I would have conversations during whatever show was on at 7:30. Ever since covid we all just watch shows on catch-up whenever it suits us.

I myself haven’t watched free to Air TV for well over a year, unless it’s survivor with my grandmother.

 

[Brekkie]

Yes, BBUK about the only thing I'm watching live at the moment. Still prefer to record content myself to watch later than rely on on demand but watching less and less on linear.

 

[Zcsund1234]

To me the concept of prime time and in some ways age appropriate time slots are very much outdated. Everything is so accessible online whenever we please.

It’s not like this hasn’t been gradually developing for a while now. Binge culture has always been a thing, especially in the 2010s. Covid just sped up the inevitable quicker than what we expected.

All the more reason for BB to capitalise on the live aspect. Get the tiktok generation involved too lol. There’s so much there at fingertips. Utilise it.

 

[Brekkie]

That is why a show which will bring viewers in to watching live, or at least the same night, is even more valuable now.

Now with Seven pushing the show back an hour the smart thing to do would be to release it on 7+ at 7.30pm or earlier. Can't see them doing that though as they'll be too paranoid about how that would hit the TV ratings further.

 

[Isee]

I do remember in the early 2000's the Amazing Race was on at about 10pm on Australian TV and the tv channel it was on (I can't remember which one) was trying to sell it as being "prime time". I had just come from NZ, and thought that was really weird time to be prime time, and seemed inaccurate for either side of the ditch. Maybe it was someone who had just come back from the UK trying to make fetch happen in Australia?

 

[Kingston]

To me the concept of prime time and in some ways age appropriate time slots are very much outdated. Everything is so accessible online whenever we please.

It’s not like this hasn’t been gradually developing for a while now. Binge culture has always been a thing, especially in the 2010s. Covid just sped up the inevitable quicker than what we expected.

All the more reason for BB to capitalise on the live aspect. Get the tiktok generation involved too lol. There’s so much there at fingertips. Utilise it.

We’re quickly approaching the 20 year anniversary of the turkey slap incident. Most of BB’s target demographic likely have no idea what it is or have only heard it. Not only continuing to allow it to taint the shows legacy and to hold it back is just ridiculous.

 

[Zcsund1234]

We’re quickly approaching the 20 year anniversary of the turkey slap incident. Most of BB’s target demographic likely have no idea what it is or have only heard it. Not only continuing to allow it to taint the shows legacy and to hold it back is just ridiculous.

Can confirm the only reason people in my school knew about the Turkey slap was because I was there to tell them. There are people who watch big brother now who don’t even remember a time where Friday Night Live wasn’t part of it.

 

[Kingston]

Can confirm the only reason people in my school knew about the Turkey slap was because I was there to tell them. There are people who watch big brother now who don’t even remember a time where Friday Night Live wasn’t part of it.

It’s also not as if we haven’t had an entire societal movement around sexual assault and consent in the mean time. The likelihood of anything even remotely similar happening again is extremely slim.

The other side of the turkey slap incident was how morally objectionable it was for the show tempt the teenage audience with adult content. Given that in 2020 WAP was a #1 song I think we’ve also moved beyond that.

The fact is BBAU is more likely to attract controversy by casting someone trans than they are anything else.

It does seem with the new season they’ve made strides in moving away from the show needing to be “family friendly”. Where they got it wrong was by having the show compete with trash TV by imitating trash TV shows instead of being an alternative.

 

[up_all_night]

I've said it many times before, but watching a live BB was an experience for the viewer. Maybe only the more hardcore ones. Seeing live updates during the day. Watching live streams. It was an experience you were in on. Now just a show.

Which is silly because all the ways to take the viewer on the experience are so much more developed now.

 

[Isee]

in a world where we consume a lot in streaming and not all together on tv, live tv events are rare and are usually just sports or news related.
If a channel could make BB event tv, it would be a ratings winner because it would be a novelty.

edit to add - if they do it well and not this love island in a house crap!

 

[andrew_08]

For Big Brother to have any future in Australia they need to look at what ITV has done with BBUK - THAT is what we want.
I watched 5 mins of the new series and turned off. This show is simply not Big Brother! I'm so disappointed with what 7 have turned it into.

 

[Kingston]

I've said it many times before, but watching a live BB was an experience for the viewer. Maybe only the more hardcore ones. Seeing live updates during the day. Watching live streams. It was an experience as well. Now just a show.

Which is silly because all the ways to take the viewer on the experience are so much more developed now.

While there's so much more variety in the space that the BB live feed's had a monopoly on back in the day I definitely think reviving them would pull in a ton of new/younger viewers.

in a world where we consume a lot in streaming and not all together on tv, live tv events are rare and are usually just sports or news related.
If a channel could make BB event tv, it would be a ratings winner because it would be a novelty.

edit to add - if they do it well and not this love island in a house crap!

100%. There's definitely a space BB could occupy that's not currently being filled by other shows.

 

[Bertrendo]

There is really no need to rest the show between a return of the live format, the marketing strategy is so simple and clear to draw people back in. 'The original social experiment is back', 'the greatest reality show returns' blah blah blah. Fill those adverts with old footage from previous seasons, have the nostalgic theme tune playing. The hype from fans and general audience would be the biggest in years just by the news of the revival of old school Big Brother. Seven even has a scape-goat with covid to "blame" for the seasons being pre-recorded.

The idea that the young demographic wouldn't care about the old format is rubbish. that 18-25 year old demographic grew up with the channel nine series and that's their version of nostalgic, they remember those seasons well. And the notion that the old format wouldn't work nowadays, yet Big Brother is being revived successfully in so many countries the past few years (The Netherlands, UK, Portugal, Italy, etc...), make it a shorter run like the UK and it would be rating more than double of what this travesty is bringing in this year.