Category: Blog

It is too early to say whether this series of Big Brother will be significantly different to years gone by. It certainly has features taken from other years:

– Mostly Anglo – Celtic housemates, though with more blondes than usual

– Friday Night Live still acts as a tribute to “It’s a Knockout”

– Many, many vacuous conversations about nothing

– Housemates being wary and “playing the game”

– The first week is the peacock week – as in “look at me, I’m beautiful” displays to HMs and voters.

– Some kind of “twist” involvement housemates’ lives before the show

– John Howard jumping and down, calling the show ridiculous.

Good New Stuff in 07

The White Room

This will toughen up the eventual winner, and ensure they don’t get swamped by the peacock weeks. It will also give the person a better chance of staying than the usual “intruders”, because they will be considered legends by both HMs and voters. It’s a great idea.

The Chill Out Room

Another excellent idea. This has already allowed Andrew and Hayley time to contribute to the “Love Triangle” plotline by having a conversation about it; it was where TJ showed her true colours to Thomas; it started to show the real Bodie (and his language!). It gives us a more intimate portrait of HMs in a small group setting.

The Green House

As a role modeling tool for people in the 15 – 29 year age group, this is an excellent idea. Hopefully when they build their own houses, they will insist on “things they saw in the Big Brother house”.

Early Housemate Roles and Positioning

One of the more interesting parts of the early days of BB is trying to pick how each HM will “position” themselves, so they can ensure their long term survival with other HMs and the voting public. Here are my observations, which will probably be proven completely wrong in time:

Hayley is not really able to settle into a role / pattern, considering she is the centrepiece of the first “twist”. ESS has spent a lot of money and effort in making her so. Watching for her interactions with Andrew and Billy has made sure she is observed in that plotline. However, it seems as though she is attempting to make herself liked by as many people as possible – Thomas is one example, TJ another.

Andrew could have been close to being the winner if he wasn’t a part of the initial “twist”. He seems to be largely friendly and laid back, with enough of an edge to make him appealing to an audience. He is a slow-burn character, like Ben in season 1 and Peter in season 2. Enough of a mate to men and a good friend to girls to make him a non-divisive character. However, if there is an Andrew/Hayley eviction choice, voters would probably choose Hayley, because she has more immediate appeal and there is the possibility she would fall for Billy’s charms once again.

Billy could have the stuff to go all the way as well – he seems to be easy-going, intelligent and tough. However, his fate is in the hands of others at this stage.

Thomas is another character who could have some long-term appeal. He would have a number of female fans, due to his looks and intelligence. Males wouldn’t mind his male bonding and the fact he is sporty. What is curious is why he is there at all. He appears to have many skills which would give him much wealth and success in the outside world, without BB. That means he doesn’t have an edge of desperation than many HMs have. This has led to the fact that he has been (mostly) successful in making friends in BB. However, TJ’s attempt to target him shows how unwilling he is to insult / argue with anyone. This may be perceived as a strength or weakness as the show goes on.

TJ is a crash through or crash type of character, who seems to have a steely purpose behind her life in BB. She uses a flirty tone to ingratiate herself with men – and its seems to work to an extent. As she indicated early on, she is not popular with women – probably because of her flirtiness. Her interaction with Thomas has been interesting, because it possibly reveals something about her long-term plan. She would know that she would never have a chance with a man like Thomas in the outside world – nor in BB. He’s a man successful in business and she’s a pub employee. That’s why her flirting / “heartache” is all for show. However, by targetting him and hoping he will crack, she is attempting to reduce him to being less of an opponent. It will be interesting to see her tactic against the female HMs.

Aleisha appears to be without a plan and without a mean bone in her body. That’s as good a tactic as any to ensure long-term survival. But not to win. She is, however, entertaining due to her energy and lack of scheming. This will be a little wearing as time goes on – but people will enjoy her as long as she remains fresh faced and happy.

Rebecca appears to have a mission, as a part of her life as a Mormon. As we all know, Mormons are required to do a certain amount of evangelising. Instead of just knocking on more unfriendly doors, Rebecca is taking her lifestyle and views to a wider audience. Perhaps, she hopes, she can show that Mormons are human, moral and not part of a weird cult. This makes her a definite outsider, and will continue to do so – to an extent. If, however, she makes Mormonism attractive / appear normal, then her mission will have been completed successfully.

Travis is a friendly ocker bloke, who appears to be just himself, having a good time – perhaps hoping that this experience may open some doors for him. It can’t be easy being a truck driver with a small family, considering the long periods of separation that occur. He will probably go far due to his friendliness and resemblance to Shane Warne. He may even win due to what is called the Reggie Principle. He may play some politics – but that will be somewhere down the track.

Bodie is a complex character – part bogan, part thinker. He is very grave and thoughtful in the diary room and at certain times with certain HMs. At other times, though, he is a house clown. That duality will suit him well with HMs. The clownishness will probably make him popular with audiences, especially when daily shows use his antics to lighten the tone. The thoughtfulness will also help, if only to surprise people that he can play both roles.

Susannah hasn’t done that much yet – she appears to have one ambition, to be a Chapel Street clothes horse, doing promotions for people. This makes her friendly to the boys, but not much else. She will probably disappear somewhere in the middle of series, after the early nutters/interesting/divisive characters leave, but before the HMs with dedicated fan bases go.

Joel is another who does the clown role, and can be entertaining in a cringe-inducing way. He will try to act like one of the “blokes”, but his background and political ambitions will probably act against him being embraces by HMs and the audience. He has not done enough yet to indicate how he will play the game – whether he takes his opportunities to make some political points will be interesting to see. His presence as a Young Liberal in the house puts John Howard’s comments in sharp relief.

Zoran is another bloke who is friendly, but has merged into the background. We won’t see his true personality for a little while yet. He will stay, because many female fans will like him and he doesn’t appear to be offending anyone.

Jamie will have the fan base of many BB devotees and BBBA forum members, because they finally have a role model. Some have drawn parallels to Tim from BB5, because he is an intelligent outsider. However, Jamie does not appear to have a political agenda and Tim eventually showed that he had much more personal magnetism than first appeared. He was also able to endear himself to other HMs over a time. Jamie has not been very visible in the first week – just like Tim – but has been observing people closely. This is probably a good idea, because the peacock weeks are all about outer beauty and power. Jamie could never compete with that.

Kate appears to regret going onto BB. This may be a tactic to milk sympathy or a genuine regret. She is a person who easily makes enemies – she doesn’t pride herself on diplomacy. She also appears to look down on others. This may be a self-esteem issue, as in – look down on others before they do the same to you. This will not serve her well with HMs or the public. She will probably be the first to go. This is a shame, because she is probably the only one (other than Travis and Aleisha) who has been their true selves in the first week. Kate also has a healthy, earthy sense of humour which would garner a number of friends in the real world.

Emma has realised early that one of her strengths is to make herself appear to be strong and decisive. This is why she has chosen to make an issue of Kate’s passing comment about energy drink hoarding. She can take the position of the wronged person and therefore her comments can be agreed with. By also commenting on “nerds” and other non-image centred people, she is making a decisive stand which may gain allies. Her idea to recruit Aleisha as an ally is smart – Aleisha has a friendliness and charm Emma could never possess. Any success Emma has over Kate, however, will be shortlived. Artificial, brittle characters like Emma rarely go to the end. She will probably go at the same time as Anna did in 06.

So, these coming months will probably act to prove me completely wrong. If they do or don’t, it will be another interesting year in the BB house.

Bonovoxpop

Censorship and a failure to communicate with their viewers – customers in the case of premium subscribers – on Tuesday once again resulted in another scandal brewing, this one all around Kate.

The speculation was inevitable and alot of people, including myself, had alot of things to say – though I never for one minute believed that the producers would have set that task if they knew of Kate’s situation, instead focusing my concerns on the failures of the audition process to identify the most traumatic experience in Kate’s life.

However, even though we’ve known for years they have no talent, it now appears that my faith the producers at least had some integrity was completely misguided – and the producers set the task knowing full well about Kate’s tragic loss.

INCOMPETENCE

Alot of the critics have come out saying this is Ten exploiting Kate for ratings gain – but they are giving the producers far too much credit. This is nothing short of incompetence – and for once there is nobody producers can blame other than themselves. Their excuse that Kate told them that she had “dealt with it fully” is pathetic – yes, you may move on – but anyone who has ever lost anyone knows that you can never deal with such a tragedy “fully”.

Someone made probably the biggest mistake in Australian Big Brother history this week – and someone needs to pay the price.

WHITE ROOM

Let’s be honest – I shouldn’t be surprised at their incompetence. As soon as the White Room was unveiled, we knew Big Brother would be the first to crack. However, I still seriously thought they’d have more patience than just nine days.

The first elimination from the White Room was inevitable after a week, and that itself was done well, though surely Cruz should have realised there was far more than $750 to be earned from Big Brother.

Let’s praise Big Brother for one minute for not covering up the threatened mass walkout that occured on Monday – but why did they stop it. It’s not as if they’re short of housemates, so if they were all willing to walk, Big Brother should have let them. It would have been a far more interesting conclusion than the scheduled one on Wednesday – and would probably have been one of the defining moments of the season.

However, the Wednesday night special we got instead has been widely branded the worst special in the show’s history though (considering some we had last year, that says alot). The White Room was supposed to be about endurance and willpower – but it’s conclusion came down to popularity, with the eventual winner decided in the same way as in virtually every other intruder special in the show’s history – though not without a pointless (recycled) showpiece task first to fill a bit of time.

The White Room had the potential to be one of the best ever twists in Australian Big Brother history – but once again the producers have screwed it up and it’ll be pretty much forgotten by the end of the series. The only thing it did do was prove to us once again that the producers really haven’t learned from their mistakes.

MR X

Can Big Brother just finally clear up the situation with Billy – is he a housemate or not, and if not, just boot him out now he’s served his purpose.   There really is no reason to keep it a mystery.

So at the start of the season I said I was trying to keep an optimistic view of Big Brother 2007. I’ve tried very hard over the last week or so to keep things that way!

After some annoyances in the first week (too much focus on the relationship, stupid idea of the relationship in the first place, and so forth), nominations on Monday interested me greatly. Not telling the housemates who’s nominated – GOLDEN! I’ve loved this idea every time it’s been used – and I don’t even mind that it’s been used before. Seeing housemates whinge and cry and moan because they’re nominated and no one likes them is not good viewing. Watching them all squirm, not knowing who is nominated, on the other hand is great viewing.

Apparently the housemates will be told just before the eviction who has been nominated… I don’t want this to happen! Just announce that xxx person is leaving the house, go and pack your bags. Cut to an ad break, show some video packages of that housemate, and then continue with the interview on stage. That’s how it’d happen if I was executive producer, at least.

Another great thing about nominations is the Chicken Treat Twist. The fact that whoever wins Friday Night Live cannot tell anyone who was up for nomination in the first place and who they’ve removed/added is brilliant. Gives them a huge advantage over the rest of the house and the public get to see what the person thinks of the other people who have been nominated. Not so interesting when you remove yourself… but this will change in coming weeks with other winners of FNL.

Ok I don’t want to ramble on too much because I won’t have anything to talk about in the podcast! New podcast should be out some time tomorrow (Friday). We’ve got heaps to talk about!

vid

Update 3/5: I take it all back ;)

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Today the producers decided to cancel a task. It involved the housemates randomly dividing up into male/female pairs, with each pair then being given custody of a fake baby that they had to take care of as if it were real. However, within a couple of hours of the HMs being given their task it was mysteriously cancelled. Live streaming was cut for some time and all references to the task (including forum discussion) on the OS were deleted.

When the feeds returned Kate was in tears, being consoled by the other HMs. The explanation that many of our forum users have agreed upon is that she once suffered a miscarriage or some other kind of severe pregnancy-related trauma, and so in the interests of her emotional wellbeing the task was called off.

I don’t have a problem with this – cancelling the task was clearly the right step. What I have an issue with is the cover-up they have immediately instigated. Why? Instead of acting like it never existed, why can’t they just explain to the public what the issue was? One of BB’s favourite nomination lines is “Be honest, what are you saying?” Well, perhaps BB could practice what he preaches and just tell us what happened.

I am a firm believer in the concept that you should treat the audience like it is an intelligent creature. That’s how you gain the viewer’s respect. Much of the criticism and cynicism seen on this very site comes from the fact that people simply don’t respect the BB producers. In this enlightened day and age the audience is very much aware of the workings of the TV industry. Even if BB’s target audience is the stereotypical teen girl who never sees anything wrong with the show, we all know that there are a large number of mature viewers who can’t be fooled as easily. Those are the ones that the producers need to show respect to if they have any hope of receiving it in return. Simply pressing the ‘delete’ button whenever something goes wrong is not the way to do this.

What I find most fascinating is that is was only 24 hours ago that the exact opposite thing was happening. Yesterday, the remaining white room housemates decided they would quit as a group by all pressing the red button at the same time. BB immediately intervened, and basically told them that they would be leaving within two days. But not only was this NOT covered, up, the OS actually wrote a news item about it! Perhaps they’ll eventually do the same for what has happened today, but as I write this it doesn’t look too likely.

I’m disappointed with this old-media cover up approach BB has adopted with today’s events. They had a chance to explain to viewers what happened and why the task was cancelled, but instead decided to edit history and pretend nothing happened.

Discuss the cancelled baby task in our forums here.

Jamie is the find of BB07 for me. While Bodie & Thomas have the looks, it’s Jamie’s mind that has me fascinated.

The task of finding the secret relationship did it for me. Who would have thought to look at the serial numbers on the photo papers of housemates photos. How insanely smart is that. How many of us would have thought to do that?

I know know, I’ve been reading the forums. Many of you think he’s boring, bland, no personality blah blah blah. Well who says, little Miss Emma, who has a big personality. Pity it’s not one I like. Who else in the house thinks Jamie is boring? Bodie who can’t stand not to be the centre of attention and Aliesha. Poor little Aleisha who already has succumbed to the evil clutches of the queen bitch Emma.

While the focus has been on Hayley and her love triangle we haven’t had an opportunity to see or hear much from Jamie and the others. We’ve had the watered down TJ incident, the Emma vs Kate, but not much else. We’ve hardly seen or heard from the others, I’d almost forgotten about Susanna & Zoran. Hopefully now the love triangle storyline is over, we can start to see some more of the other housemates. Personally I’ve seen enough of Hayley for quite a while.

I want to see more of Jamie’s conversations. I want to explore his mind more. But what I really want to see is BB give Jamie an insider type task. He would do this job justice, unlike Michael of last year. Jamie is smart enough to pull it off without alienating himself from the group. He could mix things up and make this year very interesting. So hopefully BB has taken note of Jamie’s investigating skills and will set him a new task very soon.

toiletducks response:  To be honest, I rather do like Jamie. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t like him that way, but I find that having a nerd in the house, well having anyone in the house, who doesn’t spend 5 hours in front of a camera putting make up on or waxing their chest, or whatever is rather refreshing. He may not have a personality according to forum users, but maybe that might be because they don’t understand the |_337 |-|4X0R skills that Jamie may possess. To me, and to lots of geeks maybe he does have a lot of personality, where Emma or Kate are as useful as a fried motherboard.

I also want to quickly mention something about BBAU copying from othere Big Brothers from around the world. araT mentioned to me in pm that she doesn’t really care if we copy, it’s not like we all watch the overseas versions of the show. Which made me think “hey araT is right. So why do so many people jump up and down about it being a copy? Those who care should only be the ones who watch the overseas versions. So regardless if it is a copy or not, its still relatively new to us.

The mods and admin here are all pretty used to being criticised for being critical of Big Brother Australia – and it’s something I at least have seen across the forums and in chat over the first week. I can only speak for myself but I agree with the view that’s it been a pretty decent first week of the show – but the problem is there are no signs that they can sustain it beyond that.

Both BB05 and BB06 got off to a pretty promising start – but within a few weeks began to fall apart – and I’ve seen no reason to believe BB07 will be any different – and actually, in the last couple of days we’ve learnt BB just hasn’t learned from their mistakes.

We begin with relationship twist #3. Although I agree with the view this is the best of the relationship twists, I can’t help but feel the show didn’t need it. Although they could still do better, the line up of housemates alone should be enough to sustain interest during the first week, but obviously producers feel we need to throw in the Hayley and Andrew storyline to keep things flowing – which ultimately causes two problems:

Firstly, week one isn’t Big Brother – it’s the Hayley and Andrew show and virtually every storyline is centered around them. Secondly, if it’s the focus of the show in week one, once the relationship is revealed, the show loses it’s focus – and we just end up with another couple in the house. Think JamKat, but with one year of practice!

The second main twist was voting in two housemates – a simple, but effective twist – though it would have been more effective if the launch had been live so the chosen HMs could have entered at the end of the evening.

However, what was the point in voting in Susannah and Zoran when they are little more than extras in the daily show. Really, we saw more of them in their opening VTs than we have in the last week.

The third twist is the good one – the White Room. It’s easily the best of the three twists – but apart from split-second glimpses, hasn’t even featured in the daily show.

Now, we bought it up when it was revealed that the twist had already been part of the Norway-Sweden version of Big Brother – but that in itself isn’t an issue as long as no one is claiming it’s a “World First”. However, it is an interesting comparison and with the challenge being “last man standing”, it was worthy to note that in the Scandinavian equivalent there were still three remaining after 30 days, resulting in Big Brother having to set a competition to determine the winner.

This is where we hold the producers to account – not only Gretel claiming BB had no idea that the housemates would last so long after just six days, but more importantly Big Brother giving up on probably their best twist of the series after just a week.

That is why I have a problem with Big Brother Australia “borrowing” ideas from other versions around the world – like the revenge room and the twins twist before it, they never follow through the idea to it’s full potential and instead rush them through to an unsatisfactory conclusion, rather than fully embracing them and adding their own twists to the twists to make something truly original.

Enough of the negative, time to say something positive – I love the twists to nominations this year.

At last there seems to be a real reward to winning FNL – allowing the winner and their chosen partner to discuss nominations gives them a tactical edge, though as it’s only two housemates, it’s unlikely it’ll ever seriously affect the nominations result.

I especially love though that they’ve finally dropped the three point twist in favour of something more substantial. Allowing the FNL winner to both save a nominee and name the relationship will not only cause friction amongst enemies when a new nominee is chosen, but ultimately will create friction amongst friends if one of them is chosen over another to be saved from facing eviction.

Finally, the BBUK rumour mill is beginning to swing into action at the moment, though we’re still at the stage where you can pretty much consider all rumours to be untrue – the only thing confirmed is that Russell Brand has left Big Mouth after three years, while psychological show Big Brain has been axed after just a year.

C4 are expected to release some information about BB8 within the next week or so, with at least the new logo and the start date, believed to be around 24th May, set to be confirmed. To keep up to date, check out the International Forum.