Category: Blog

There are a couple of recurring issues many viewers have with nominations, including the crappy reasons Housemates often give, and BB’s constant interruptions as they try to get their point across. Many viewers think they could do better at nominations, so I decided to create an imaginary scenario just to see how I would go.

Will, who do you nominate for two points and why?

Big Brother I’d like to nominate Rebecca for two points. I’m finding her more and more annoying and it’s just really difficult being stuck here in a house with her 24 hours a day.

Will, be honest. What is it about Rebecca that you don’t like?

She’s just an irritating person to be around! Sometimes she’s just too happy, and other times she’s crying and getting upset about something. I know it sounds mean, but I think everyone’s getting sick of having to comfort–

Will, you’re not nominating for the group, you’re nominating for yourself.

Yes, but I’m part of the group! So when I say ‘everyone’ I’m also referring to myself!

Get to the point. You’re running out of time.

If you weren’t constantly interrupting me I would have gotten to the point by now! Let me finish! I’m just sick and tired of being around Rebecca–

Have you tried discussing this with her? Be specific.

Discussing what? The fact that I can’t stand her?

How does this affect you? You’re running out of time.

It affects me because I’m sick of her! She’s irritating and ruining my time in the house!

That’s a cop out. What are you actually saying about Rebecca?

I just told you!!! Are you even listening?! I don’t want to be around her any more!

Will, you have someone’s future in your hands. What is it about her personality that you don’t like?

Listen to me!!! I just told you!!!

Get to the point.

SHUT UP!!! SHUT UP!!! SHUT UP!!!

You’re not being honest.

Big Brother, I’d like to change my nominations. For two points I want to nominate Big Brother. The reason is he makes me want to shoot myself, which affects my time in the house because I don’t want to die…

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.

Ello. Squishy here. About time I got on my damn podium and have a bitch.

This was the intruder show, eh? How much screen time did the intruders get? 5 minutes? maybe 6?

There were two other events circulating this. Hayley’s eviction and Aleshia’s birthday. Hayley knew that her eviction was coming soon after yanking Andrew’s doodle and saying I’ll go, you stay here, so naturally, Andrew being Blandrew, he accepted.

Something about a rumour where she had a sister’s wedding in Spain, but knowing Hayley… who knows what her domination over Andrew’s really wanting to go meant.

Now – BB evicting Hayley during Aleshia’s 21st was downright cruel. Most of the people would be floundering about Andrew and hugging him instead of wishing Aleshia a happy birthday. Being 21 only happens once, and it’s a really big event, you don’t want to see your new friends hugging someone else.
Not only that they decided to make this ‘Intruder special’ the “Hayley show” with at least 20-30 minutes about Hayley’s time in the house, then Gretel thankfully reminding us -not- that Hayley would be walking down the eviction plank properly, in a proper frock, and gaining adoration from the audience.

Like LOL. We don’t need to see any more of Hayley. She already stole the Intruder limelight.

You know when BB decided to put the intruders in? He dressed ’em up as ninjas delivering drinks to the HM’s. Then, two seconds until the show ended, BB revealed them. We didn’t see how they get to interact. No, we’d have to watch Uplate for that.

Yet another boycotting reason for BB to get viewers.

Pathetic. Come on BB, if it’s a damn intruder special, why the hell did you make it the Hayley show?

It was only a few weeks ago that I was writing my first blog for BBBA. I was still excited, thinking that maybe this year would be a great year. I was buoyed by Rilly’s fist blog and decided that, rather than support Brekkie Boy’s negative outlook on the new season I’d trust in Rilly. Even going so far as to make that my new sig on the forums.

I remember talking to them both in the chat room about those blogs. Rilly insisted that it was going to be the best ever, and I wanted to believe him. I decided that Rilly was going to be right and that this was definitely going to be the one that rocked. Brekkie tried to convince me that it would be great in its first couple of weeks, but it would slide into it’s boring predictable self. I didn’t want to believe Brekkie. I thought, no this year he’s got to be wrong. Rilly is going to prevail. He will be right; this one will be the best ever.

And I have to admit that as the show started he seemed to be right. I was pleased to have my Trust in Rilly sig. I put my faith in him and I wasn’t going to be disappointed. Then the Haydrew show began to rear its ugly head, but that was saved by the Haydrew/Bodie conflict. The White Room was a disaster. BB could’ve used that situation so much better.

That seems to be the problem with BBAU’s production team. They have some fantastic ideas (most borrowed from overseas, but they do try to add their own twist), but they just don’t seem to be able to execute them fully. They panic, as they seemed to do with the White Room, and rather than leave them in their and begin some torturous routine to make them break, BB offered them $750 and one hapless near housemate took it. Then as we launched into another BB specialty (the special) we witnessed the White Room housemate chosen through the good old ball dropping into a cylinder system. There was no other way for the housemate to be decided? We couldn’t keep them in a week longer? The special had to be then and there. And it’s not like BB has used the room since. I thought that perhaps there was a use for the room and they needed to get the WR housemates out but no such wonder has yet occurred.

And then we come to yet another special and I fear that this is where BB jumped that proverbial shark and began to leap a dolphin and whale simultaneously. The oh so anticipated Golden Key contestants. SO far the only highlight to this debacle has been Rilly’s avatar which keeps on amusing me every time I look at it. The whole episode was a set up from start to finish. How can these four, out of the countless others we saw represent the Australian public? And to be chosen by searching through a container of lollies? My mind has been boggling so much it’s beginning to spin itself out of existence.
I often wonder whether Gretel sees the idiocy in the things that BB does and whether she has any say at all. I’ve often thought her to be an intelligent woman but feel that her voice just doesn’t get heard. She can’t seriously be happy with the wasted chances and opportunities that seem to slip through the production teams fingers.

And now we have a new set of intruder’s set to enter on Tuesday night. Puhleaze!! We have only had three evictees so far and they are going for another ratings grab by bringing in new people. Nick has only just begun to feel comfortable in the house and we still haven’t seen enough of Jamie, Rebecca, Joel etc thanks to the Haydrew show. We don’t know the housemates at all. My first blog asked BB to concentrate on the housemates, give us ones we loved to hate and plain and simply loved. I actually believe that BB has done that this year. This more than any other year has given us some truly interesting situations. We have seen arguments come on at the drop of a hat, conflict like never before and some really side splitting moments like Bodies ninja act. Yet BB is pushing the specials and seems to believe that just watching people interact is not enough. It is BB it is! The housemates provide us with the entertainment. We will watch them on the couches, bitching in the chill out room, cooking the dinner. The basic pared back BB is what we all seem to be longing for. The days of yore seem to be talked about more and more these days. The first BB where we watched them doing nothing and then the third series where we watched housemates enter alone and deal with the fallout from joining houses together.

It’s time for a change. Time for a complete overhaul of the production team. Time to say goodbye to Kris Noble and his entourage forever. I unfortunately have lost my faith in Rilly, as he seems to have done with himself. I have now jumped on the Brekkie Boy bandwagon as I had an inkling I should’ve done from the beginning. I wish I could say that I believe that the show will be able to redeem itself but I really don’t hold out much hope sadly.

It only took you TWENTY NINE DAYS to use the punishment room, going by this rate on Day 58 we might even see the phone being used. Even though I’m happy that you have used a feature of the Big Brother house that you hyped up on “Launch Night.” However you disappoint me by using the same punishment methods. We have seen people sort hair by color before. we have also seen pins and needles sorted. as well as wool.

But what really gets me, is that you see two people talking about nominations punishable, but 3 or more people talking about forming an alliance and nominations, just get a verbal warning in front of all housemates and are not even named.

Please, I think it is great you are finally using the punishment room, but how about punishments we have never seen before?

Here, let me give you a few ideas:

1. Since you just love product placement, and vibes hates it,  How about you make housemates unwrap starburst chews and they they have to re-wrap yellow ones into orange papers, pink into red, orange into pink and so on.  I’m sure that would be enough product placement for Starburst.
2. Or since you still have KFC as a sponsor, god damn twists, make the housemate who is being punished stand there and say a tongue twister 100 times. maybe something such as “KFC Twisters are shit that if you twist and twist and twist some more maybe they might become small enough to shove up the production teams arse since they are too cheap to spend money every year in making the house interesting and actually entertaining to WATCH and therefore I might get a spot on say ROVE instead of just being a new neighbour in Ramsey Street”
3. Or how about Pin the saying on Gretel. Blindfold them before they go into the room and they can only leave once they have pinned  EEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWWWWW into the speech bubble next to Gretel’s mouth?

Surely it wouldn’t be that hard to come up with new punishment idea’s? Or do you also have sponsorship with the maker of glass jars?