Author: Brekkie

WARNING: This blog may contain BBUK spoilers you may wish to avoid. It also contains quoted language you may find offensive.

Continue reading “BBUK: The story so far…”

WARNING: This blog may contain spoilers for anyone not up to date on the first few days of Big Brother UK.

Let’s cast our minds back to the night of April 22nd 2007 (or a day earlier to be truthful) and the launch of the seventh season of Big Brother Australia.

First in is Hayley, followed by TJ and Rebecca. Kate then goes in and Gretel begins to make the point that so far they’re all female. Emma and Aleisha follow, and the point is made again about the possibility of it being all girls.

Then, they give up on that and send in six guys.

Now, there is the difference. BB Aus might tease viewers with the suggestion, but never actually do anything – while BBUK just go ahead and take the risk – no teasing required.

If you don’t know by now on Wednesday night BBUK launched by sending in 11 all female housemates (thought there are still many doubts about Tracey) . The twist wasn’t promoted at all beforehand, though had found it’s way into one newspaper on the morning of the launch.

The line up began with twins – and the warning signs began to flash. Then though, they went straight ahead and put them both in – and that seemed somewhat of a relief. Next in was something unexpected – a 60 year old housemate, followed by wannabee rockers, WAGs and embalmists – with the final housemate being a 53 year old political protester – who turns out to be by far the crowds favourite of the night.

The concept of it being an all-female house doesn’t even hit the girls till about the 8th or 9th housemate walks in, while Davina doesn’t make a big deal about it either, not quipping about it until the very end. The thought of mentioning it’s a world first doesn’t even cross their minds either!

And then the complaints come rolling in – where are all the men?

The promise of one – just one – on day three wasn’t enough to satisfy many, and initially too I had my doubts about the single sex line up. However, it also intrigues me – it’s very different to any launch I’ve seen of Big Brother, both in the UK and beyond, and it’s set up the first couple of weeks quite nicely. We all know the men will arrive, but we don’t know how – and we don’t know how this will affect the original line up.

On Friday night a former model / Z-list boy-band star who names himself Ziggy (why?) entered the house – and due to the show keeping even the launch date a secret prior to lock-down, Ziggy didn’t even know the show had already launched, never mind that he would be the only man in the company of 11 other women.

However, for one of the first times BBUK let itself down by having a widely predicted twist to the nominations – with Ziggy being the only man to choose who is nominated face the first public vote.

Almost everyone on various forums had suggested that type of scenario would be the case – and unusually for BBUK, their predictions turned out to be correct.

One thing very evident though is that the producers are fully committed to this twist and not scared of it’s critics. It would be very easy to rush in the additional men some people are demanding and try and balance out the sexes after just a few days – but the producers are seeing it through and sticking with it, with no more men entering until Friday at the earlier, after the first eviction.

That is where the genius of this twist is – because it’s a twist which is now beginning to play out. As each show passes it becomes less about the sex of the housemates and more about their characters and personalities – almost to the point where you barely notice the lack of testosterone.

The same applies to the older housemates too – overnight they turn from “old” housemates to interesting characters – possibly two of the most interesting characters in the house.

Most of all though, this is giving us a rare glimpse into the psyche of woman – and that’s why the first week of the eighth series of BBUK is unlike anything we’ve ever seen before.

At the start of our 2006 season I had only known the Australian version of big brother and had never experienced a single episode of Big Brother UK, not even on youtube. Our show started well enough with the revenge room and insider twists but the show wasn’t the same with a lot of younger, boring and just plain ordinary housemates. I soon got bored with the show after Anna and Michael my favourites were evicted the only ones I found interesting and entertaining.

When Big Brother started in the UK last year there were some threads appearing on the OS site about the show with links to youtube video’s and the url for the UK official website. There was this link to a video of Nikki’s Bottled water incident where she couldn’t drink tap water. I went to take a look at the video and thought OMG give her some bottled water for goodness sake. But I did laugh at the end when Big Brother told her “Big Brother has noted your request” and Nikki replied “fabulous”, I then looked at other videos and started following the series. I was hooked because its nothing like our Big Brother, the way HM’s are allowed to interact with Big Brother is actually fun to watch. So I have Nikki to thank for watching BBUK in the first place. I am now one of her biggest fans in Australia and have exchanged messages with her on MySpace.

I actually liked all the housemates in BBUK 7 because none of them were boring. Even Suzy the Golden Ticket winner who won her place in the house by finding a golden ticket in a bar of Kit Kats wasn’t that boring. Mainly due to the way the Golden Ticket Competition was carried out and the tasks and twists that followed her entering the house. Our poor attempt at copying the Golden Ticket with the Golden Key was a complete joke, the way the whole thing was conducted.

I have also watched the entire series of BB5UK and have noticed where the idea for the revenge room in BBAU6 came from and also when Constance (BBAU5) was elected to not receive her suit case was done to Kitten in BB5UK. In fact a lot of our tasks and twists are from previous versions of BBUK. There is a lot more thought that goes into creating tasks in the UK , there are a lot more tasks. In fact there can be several run during the week. In the final week in BBUK7 there was one every day and they were all fun to watch.

Housemate Selection

The producers in the UK do a far better job in finding a diverse bunch of housemates, last year they were absolute characters. You would never get a mix like that in Australia because our producers won’t take any risks with selectionLast year in the UK as Davina summed it up very well on opening night we had :-

• Bonnah, I mean Bonny the pink power ranger
• Perfect Pete the rock and roller
  
• Seriously posh George
• Glaswegian Glamourpuss Shabbaz
• 35,000 pound Leah
• Welsh beauty queen Imogen
• Hardcore but quite handsome Mikey
• Dawn the self confessed serial complainer
• Wales sexiest lifeguard Glyn
• Richard the sexual terrorist
• Chelsea champers loving Sloane Grace
• Northern firecracker Lisa
• City boy Sezer
• And Nikki the wannabe footballers wife

They all pretty well lived up to their label and introductory videos. So did the replacements in week two, we had Ghetto Queen Aisleyne and Sam a trans-sexual. Were very good choices as well. I have lost count of how many times our housemates don’t live up to the hype in their introductory videos like they do in the UK.

A lot of times HM’s in the UK wear a joke outfit into the house which makes the opening show a lot more fun. I like watching the HM’s go in and see the reception they get from the crowd, some housemates really know how to milk the crowd and some dont. In BBUK5 they had Jason enter in nothing but a loincloth Style G-String showing off his well developed and toned body, Kitten entered in a sailor suit. In BBUK6 they had Mary the witch complete with broomstick, her entrance was a classic, she was also good in the diary room. Last year Lifeguard Glyn wore only his swimmers holding a life savers float and Nikki in a playboy bunny outfit. I can’t wait to see what this years HM’s are like, and what they will wear and see the reaction from the crowd reaction I love it.

Tasks and Twists

I like the tasks and twists they have in the UK where producers are far more imaginative and inventive and really do have world firsts. It seems our producers can never think of anything new themselves and would rather copy ideas from the UK. I am also really sick and tired of yet another relationship twist this year in Aussie Big Brother.

A summary of tasks and twists I really enjoyed last year in BBUK7 and would love to see implemented here are listed below. You would never see any of our producers dream up anything like these tasks and twists. They wouldn’t implement them either because we have a rigid nomination system which never varies. And because of the FNL prize of the 3 point twist like last year or this years nomination power.

The Big Brotherhood: from opening night the housemates were told to send 2 of them to the diary room. Not knowing what to expect the 2 chosen went to the diary room where they received berets and were made the founding members of an exclusive club called the Big Brotherhood. They were the only 2 to receive their suitcases.

During the first week they would be told to select new members into the club where they would also get their suitcases and enjoy benifits. The housemates who didn’t get into the club would face the public vote.

Golden Ticket Winner: They did this so much better then our crummy Golden Key effort. 100 Golden Tickets were hidden inside Kit Kats, the competition being announced only after housemates went into lock down which is 2 weeks before the show. None of the housemates were aware of the competition so it would be complete surprise when the Golden Ticket Winner went in.

Around 60 Golden Tickets were found and after all the checks were performed there were 35 eligible contestants with an opportunity to be selected at random from a lottery machine setup in the garden of the house.

And when the Golden Ticket winner did go in it set off a chain of tasks and twists that made this one of the best weeks of the series. Only Suzy could nominate on the Monday which resulted in Nikki’s famous diary room rant “who is she, who is she, where did you find her”. There were other classic moments all week during that task. Our Golden Key didn’t result in much at all really.

Silent Dancers MP3 music task: The housemates were given MP3 players with 4 songs and had to dance on a small square blindfolded. The one that could out dance the rest was declared the winner and would receive a prize from the box of good things. I laughed my head off at Nikki “Big Brother I cant get my MP3 player to worrrkkkk!!!”.

Glyn after dancing non stop for 9 hours won the award and was let down when it wasn’t anything special just a small trophy engraved 2006 dance champion.

State of Suzy: Suzy is made president and the housemates had to recite a pledge of allegiance every time they heard the fanfair. Had to eat her favourite food and could only sing her favourite songs.

Best friends: this was great the housemates were told to divide into pairs. A series of tasks with the pairs followed including the classic prison shopping task. On Monday night the best friends had to nominate together and nominate just one housemate to be put up for eviction. What they didn’t know is the housemates that were up for eviction were to be joined by their best friend and they would be evicted together.
Prison Task: for the weeks shopping task the best friends couples had to choose being either prisoners or warders. The warders had to to do routine inspections of the prison as well as take it in turns to watch the prisoners on a monitor when it was turned on.

The Warders thought the prisoners were worse off being locked up but in fact the warders were worse off having basic food and had to take it in turns watching a boring monitor.

The prisoners had a secret tunnel to a secret garden where there was a roman spa , a bar and luxury food items as well as chocolate. The prisoners would get tipped off by BB when there was to be an inspection or the monitor in their cell would be on. It was so funny.

Automated Big Brother: Another great idea from the UK. Big Brother goes on holidays and leaves an automated Big Brother service. They had a keypad in the diary room where the housemates were met with a recorded voice.

“This is Big Brother, to enter a diary entry press 1, to enter a request press 2, to leave the diary room press 3, to hear these options again press the star key” HM presses 1 “ you have pressed 1, Big Brother values you as housemate please hold” music plays.

It was so funny. They even had automated nominations, Suzy was put on hold for 30 minutes it was funny.

House Next door: was used to enter intruders. They had a fake eviction where Aisleyne was evicted she just moved next door with 5 new housemates entering. During the week she had to evict 1 then 2 of them but they just went into the main house the last one she evicted was evicted for real.

Evicted Housemate voted back in: I know it was controversial over there but I liked it and would love to see it done here. Anyway it got Nikki back into the house.

Aussie Mean Big Brother

I am so sick of the mean Big Brother concept here especially with nominations. Where the housemates are put under pressure to nominate in 2 minutes for a live show. “Your not being clear, your not nominating for the group, your running out of time”, well shut up and give them a chance. I would rather them do the nomination show like Peter Abbott did in BBAU3 where the nominations are pre-recorded and housemates have time to explain their nomination properly. Actually I want the BBAU3 nomination show format back.

The mean Big Brother approach we have in Australia needs to be dumped. Diary room conversations in the UK where Big Brother is more lenient, tolerant, friendly and can even share a joke with housemates is far more enjoyable to watch. There are a lot more hilarious moments in the UK diary room last year especially with Nikki. The housemates here are too scared to open up like they do in the UK for fear of getting fines and punishments, its just boring.

The Shows and Presenters

I like the of format of the shows they have the daily show, diary room uncut, eviction show, live specials, Big Brothers Little Brother and Big Brothers Big Mouth. The shows are divided between 3 presenters. Last year there was Davina McCall, Dermot O’Leary and Russell Brand with Marcus Bentley narrating the show. In Australia we have just 2 presenters Gretel Killeen doing nominations, evictions and specials and Mike Goldman doing everything else. I am also getting a little tired of hearing Mike Goldmans voice on the streaming over and over again for sound dips. I think a new voice over at least on the website, or do what they do in the UK for sound dips bird whistles.

I like the Big Brother Little Brother show we should do that format here instead of uplate and have it start at 10.30pm. Its high time we trashed uplate for something a lot better. I would also like a new presenter for the show also leaving Mike Goldman free to narrate the daily show and have more time to do Friday Night Live a lot better.

Music in Big Brother

Hands up who is sick of the same 4 Potbelleez music played over and over at house parties? I know I am that’s another very good reason why the UK version is better then ours because they pipe real music into the house. Housemates can even buy a tune from their shopping budget. A party in the UK house is a real party with real music.

Well that just about wraps it up why I prefer to watch the UK version of Big Brother. I will definitely be watching it this year. The house this year has the kitchen distributed throughout the house, fridge at the end of the garden and oven in the bedroom. Also there is the bath in the lounge room. And I am dying to find out what they are going to do with the 2 giant rubber chicken halves.

It’s often said here on the forums that BB Aus should bring over producers from BBUK to help improve the show – but unbeknown to us it seems that a former BBUK executive producer has been working on the show for the last three years, though isn’t associated with the show this year – the lure of producing Ready, Steady, Cook drove her away.

Tim Brunero interviewed Marion Ferrely on his Oh, Brother podcast (Thu 10 May) and it’s quite a lengthy and interesting chat about the production side of the show – with a bit of talk about the comparisons between Big Brother in the UK and in Australia.

However, one thing really bugged me.

Talking about BBUK, Marion spoke about a task from BB6 in which the housemates had to stay in cardboard boxes for as long as possible. She commented that the task went on much longer than the producers expected (which it probably did), but claimed it “backfired” because the producers were left with no footage (as HMs were in cardboard boxes), and that is wasn’t considered a success.

WRONG! WRONG! WRONG!

The box task is considered to be one of the most successful tasks in BBUK history, and though the majority of the housemates were in cardboard boxes, some clever camera work provided one of the most surreal, yet entertaining, shows ever – and is still ranked as a highlight by the presenters, even mentioned in their interviews ahead of BB8, released earlier today.

Davina:

Which have been your favourite moments in past Big Brothers?

Nadia winning was a very emotional one for me. Brian winning – that was great. The bedsit where the girls were living, the box task, Pete Burns, George Galloway and Rula Lenska. There have been so many amazing, amazing moments. Big Brother is an ongoing joy, and I’m very, very lucky to be hosting it.

Dermot:

If you had one wish for Big Brother this summer, what would it be?

I want it to get its sense of humour back. I don’t think it deliberately left but I want to see people in boxes again. I want to see those wonderful tasks.

And if that’s not enough evidence, how about the original thread here on the BBBA forums.

Kind of ironic how this task was named “thinking inside the box” – sums up the Australian production team perfectly!

P.S. For the record, it appears Marion Ferrely joined Big Brother in Australia in 2004, working on BB04, BB05 and BB06. Prior to this she was an executive producer on Big Brother 4 in the UK back in 2003 – widely considered to be the worst of all UK series with major changes made for Big Brother 5. Unsurprisingly, the executive producers from BB4 did not return for BB5.

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BBUK UPDATE:

Alot of news and information about Big Brother 8, which begins next Wednesday (Thursday morning Australian time) has been released today, including pictures of the house, interviews with the presenters and details of exactly how many spin-offs there will be this year.

Information can be found in our International Forum and at our UK partner site Being Big Brother, plus a selection of caps can be found here.

I’m talking about flashing of course!

Break flashing to be exact.

On the day it was confirmed Big Brother UK would return for it’s eighth summer series on Wednesday 30th May, Channel 4 launched this years promo campaign.

No empty promises… no meaningless slogan… and definitely no staged press conferences…

Just a split-second glimpse of the Big Brother 8 logo, appearing randomly during the odd-commercial break throughout the evening.

It works though – BBUK forums were buzzing with excitement the second the logo appeared, though the race to get the video online first was won by Being Big Brother, the official UK partner of Behind Big Brother. I’ll be pointing you in that direction a number of times over the next three months.

The full promo campaign will be slowly unveiled over the next week or so with the housemates already in lockdown, but we can expect a 10-day countdown from Sunday and our first glimpse at the new house from next week – while it’s likely that as usual, there will be another strand to the promotion campaign – but what form that takes varies from year to year – so we’ll just have to wait and see.

More news soon, but meanwhile keep up to date with all the pre-season developments in the International Forum.

And finally, a quick word about Big Brother Australia…

“shit”

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UPDATE: The next stage of the promo campaign has begun with the “countdown” ads, with our UK sister-site Being Big Brother setting up a YouTube account with all the promos so far.

The eighth series of BBUK is just a few weeks away there is one rumour that just won’t go away – Big Brother: The Battle.

We’ve gone over the arguments regarding Big Brother Australia borrowing ideas from around the world many many times before – and I’ve made my feelings clear that it’s not so much that they steal the ideas, but that they don’t do them justice that is the issue – along with the lack of their own original ideas in recent years too.

However, I’ve no problem with BBUK taking up the Battle idea – firstly because I am confident the producers will do it justice and incorporate their own original interpretations, and secondly because with BBUK it’s not all take, take, take.

HISTORY LESSON

For most countries, beginning with the Netherlands, “The Battle” was the first major twist to the Big Brother format. To put it simple, the idea is the house is divided into Rich and Poor, with a weekly challenge determining who lives where. How it is done varies from country to country – BBUK implemented the rich-poor divide in BB3 – but with it being the shows first major twist they took a rather cautious approach and never took the opportunity to develop it further.

Although the idea may divide the viewers as much as the housemates, the ratings don’t lie – BB3 is by far the highest rated BBUK series, with an average of nearly 6m viewers compared to around 4.5m for other series – surely the credit for that can’t be solely down to Jade and co.

WE’RE READY FOR BATTLE

Five years on and Big Brother UK has changed dramatically – and now “The Battle” is a format we could do justice. The evil chapter has now more than reached it’s conclusion and after a few years of shows based on a series of themed (or not so themed) twists, Big Brother 8 needs a new approach – and part of that is making changes that affect the series as a whole, rather than just a few days every few weeks.

This time around it’s likely the twist would play a much bigger role, with bigger challenges, bigger extremes and bigger consequences – with perhaps nominations and even the prize fund affected by the outcome of the weekly “Battle”.

Overhead shots of the house clearly show the garden divided into two – and the rumours suggest the extremes will be greater, with more luxuries for the rich housemates – and less necessities for the poor housemates.

However, there is just one thing making it unlikely Big Brother: The Battle will ever be more than just a rumour here in the UK – the fact it’s rumoured in the first place!

More BBUK news and rumours in the International Forum, with a full round up of the main rumours so far here.

Thanks to Channel 4, Stewart249, Inside Big Brother and BBSpy.