Big Brother back in 2025 on 10! AND LIVE!

[Brekkie]

1) Tweaks to channel 7 format (assume non launch or finale week, i will share more detailed plans for those another time):

Premise: six episodes per week, hour long in duration, airing from Sunday to Friday, all filmed the day or two before, housemate and viewer rest day is Saturday, no live feeds nor shows with live audience, no fake evictions or other silly twists, ten week max runtime with twenty housemates.

Sunday (filmed Thursday and Friday): Shopping (24 hour weekly shopping challenge intermingled with housemates being housemates).
Monday (filmed Sunday): Nominations (post eviction fallout, nominations challenge with winner immune from noms, nominations themselves).
Tuesday (filmed Monday): Eviction (pre eviction scramble, eviction ceremony, quick post eviction interview with Sonia at the front door).
Wednesday (filmed Tuesday): Nominations (post eviction fallout, nominations challenge with winner immune from noms, nominations themselves).
Thursday (filmed Wednesday): Eviction (pre eviction scramble, eviction ceremony, quick post eviction interview with Sonia at the front door).
Friday (filmed over the week): Up-late (Housemates talking about politics, religion, the global economy, and a few nip slips and d*ck pics too).

Pros: Cheaper to produce due to no live feeds nor shows with live audience, allows channel to air weekend sport without BB getting in the way, far less chance of producer manipulation due to 24 hour turnaround during filming yet allows inappropriate content to be edited out before it goes to air, strikes a balance between the rushed three evictions per week seasons and the long one eviction per week seasons.
Cons: Viewers do not interact with the program until the live grand finale.

They've already confirmed live evictions, live nominations and a 24/7 live feed so that plan is an utter nonsense. Your plan would guarantee the show is dead on arrival and lose all the supposed production benefits of pre-recording it too. Live TV is actually one of the more cost effective ways of producing TV - it's running content through the edit suite where the costs can begin to mount up.

 

[timmy]

1) Tweaks to channel 7 format (assume non launch or finale week, i will share more detailed plans for those another time):

Premise: six episodes per week, hour long in duration, airing from Sunday to Friday, all filmed the day or two before, housemate and viewer rest day is Saturday, no live feeds nor shows with live audience, no fake evictions or other silly twists, ten week max runtime with twenty housemates.

Sunday (filmed Thursday and Friday): Shopping (24 hour weekly shopping challenge intermingled with housemates being housemates).
Monday (filmed Sunday): Nominations (post eviction fallout, nominations challenge with winner immune from noms, nominations themselves).
Tuesday (filmed Monday): Eviction (pre eviction scramble, eviction ceremony, quick post eviction interview with Sonia at the front door).
Wednesday (filmed Tuesday): Nominations (post eviction fallout, nominations challenge with winner immune from noms, nominations themselves).
Thursday (filmed Wednesday): Eviction (pre eviction scramble, eviction ceremony, quick post eviction interview with Sonia at the front door).
Friday (filmed over the week): Up-late (Housemates talking about politics, religion, the global economy, and a few nip slips and d*ck pics too).

Pros: Cheaper to produce due to no live feeds nor shows with live audience, allows channel to air weekend sport without BB getting in the way, far less chance of producer manipulation due to 24 hour turnaround during filming yet allows inappropriate content to be edited out before it goes to air, strikes a balance between the rushed three evictions per week seasons and the long one eviction per week seasons.
Cons: Viewers do not interact with the program until the live grand finale.

Cons: Seven's entire format sucked. That's why 10 has dumped it. And Sonia????

 

[Isee]

I am sure there are some good ideas in that lot for the Channel Seven BB @Gayspie. However, Seven's format was not a winning formula not only for Australian audiences but even for International lovers of Big Brother. I am sure there were tweaks and improvements that could have been made to it, but the viewership loss was massive and no amount of tweaking would bring people back to that version of the show. I believe Channel 10 are doing the only thing that could be done - a radical about face back to a formula that was a proven success, but modernised for the 2020's.

 

[Zcsund1234]

I may be overthinking this, but one thing that is worrying me is there is no clarification from any of the announcements or discussions from TEN themselves that the viewers will be voting. All we know is that it’s going to be live.

There has been no mention of “who wins? You decide!” Or anything confirming that the audience is voting at all.

I may just be overanalysing nothing, but it’s something I’ve been thinking about over the last month. And tbh, I can’t even think of what other modern spin would be put into the show.

 

[Kingston]

I am sure there are some good ideas in that lot for the Channel Seven BB @Gayspie. However, Seven's format was not a winning formula not only for Australian audiences but even for International lovers of Big Brother. I am sure there were tweaks and improvements that could have been made to it, but the viewership loss was massive and no amount of tweaking would bring people back to that version of the show. I believe Channel 10 are doing the only thing that could be done - a radical about face back to a formula that was a proven success, but modernised for the 2020's.

But really is there a lot that really needs to be ”modernized”? If anything especially after the disastrous Seven era Ten really need to take a hands off approach and if it’s not broken don’t attempt to fix it. The focus of this new era should be on the fundamentals not reinventing the wheel.

 

[Kingston]

I may be overthinking this, but one thing that is worrying me is there is no clarification from any of the announcements or discussions from TEN themselves that the viewers will be voting. All we know is that it’s going to be live.

There has been no mention of “who wins? You decide!” Or anything confirming that the audience is voting at all.

I may just be overanalysing nothing, but it’s something I’ve been thinking about over the last month. And tbh, I can’t even think of what other modern spin would be put into the show.

I think public voting has been implied.

 

[Isee]

In my imagination I could see a website where you get to chose which cam you are watching to see what action/conversation you follow. The viewership from the website will probably help to determine what makes up the daily shows as it will be a good indication as to who people are enjoying watching.

 

[Zcsund1234]

I think public voting has been implied.

I did think that as well. Just a bit odd that after the whole seven era, they didn’t emphasise that it’s the audience voting like they did stating that’s it’s live. But more than likely nothing to overthink I guess.

 

[up_all_night]

In my imagination I could see a website where you get to chose which cam you are watching to see what action/conversation you follow. The viewership from the website will probably help to determine what makes up the daily shows as it will be a good indication as to who people are enjoying watching.

It would be cool to move around the house to any random cameras however they'd never give us that level of access. They'd always want some control to be able to cut the feed for any number of reasons. Such as things saved for the daily show, or censoring discussions and turkey slaps.

Even the basic consideration of someone deciding which audio feeds of housemates to include in the stream.

Although it would be cool and double down on the Big Brother theme if there was an interface away from the main live stream where we had access to all of those options.

Just thinking of that, it could actually be pretty simply solved with AI these days. I wonder is shows like BB use AI in logging the footage.

From what little I know, it wouldn't be that difficult to have software tracking all the housemates. So cameras not manually being controlled track people. Who is on screen or interacting with each other selects which microphones are on. They wouldn't do it, but it'd be cool if they did.

 

[timmy]

Just thinking of that, it could actually be pretty simply solved with AI these days. I wonder is shows like BB use AI in logging the footage.

I remember an article touching on this a while back. Using AI to monitor HM conversations and flag anything interesting for the editors, instead of them watching and logging everything manually. Would definitely save them a lot of man hours, but who defines "interesting"? Perhaps it logs entire conversations as a complete transcript, and then summarises them in bullet points? Producers could program a list of keywords that get flagged for attention whenever they come up as well.

For all I know they are doing this already. Would be good to ask the BB-bot what's happening and get an immediate update "Sam, Roger and Harry are by the pool discussing anal health care; Florence, Sarah and Rob are in the lounge chatting about their favourite movies; Viv and Helen are working out in the gym; and Millie is in the Diary Room." Maybe they could offer that via Twitter.

 

[Gayspie]

I am sure there are some good ideas in that lot for the Channel Seven BB @Gayspie. However, Seven's format was not a winning formula not only for Australian audiences but even for International lovers of Big Brother. I am sure there were tweaks and improvements that could have been made to it, but the viewership loss was massive and no amount of tweaking would bring people back to that version of the show. I believe Channel 10 are doing the only thing that could be done - a radical about face back to a formula that was a proven success, but modernised for the 2020's.

that list was conjured for the channel 7 version of BB, to make small improvements, and bring it in line with other similar reality tv shows (e.g. MasterChef).

 

[Zcsund1234]

that list was conjured for the channel 7 version of BB, to make small improvements, and bring it in line with other similar reality tv shows (e.g. MasterChef).

But why are we discussing development of the seven series when it’s dead and gone and the show is literally retuning to ten?

 

[kamui]

However, Seven's format was not a winning formula not only for Australian audiences but even for International lovers of Big Brother.

International fans can't thank Australian viewers enough for tanking the Seven version. I think Endemol themselves were quite happy with the show, at least the initial season. They used the on-air design and the house as a template for quite a few international versions and put some effort into selling this show internationally as well. And strangely enough, they were also able to sell the fist Australian season (and Big Brother VIP) to a couple of European broadcasters as well, but audiences here rejected the Seven version as well.

I did think that as well. Just a bit odd that after the whole seven era, they didn’t emphasise that it’s the audience voting like they did stating that’s it’s live. But more than likely nothing to overthink I guess.

The press release for their upfronts states the following: "Expect the authentic, OG show you fell in love with all those years ago". The Seven version is not the OG show you fell in love with all those years ago, it's the 10 version with housemates nominating and viewers evicting.

 

[JimJam]

Yay this is so exciting! I really hope they get the casting right. I think one concession to the modern world would be, as well as the audience voting to evict or save or whatever, that there’s another level of interactivity. With a live feed, they could have flash voting within an immediate time period, like within the next hour, just for the audience to control the narrative in the house in a small way. Vote for someone to perform a task, take a punishment, wear something ridiculous, etc. It would enliven the experience of watching the live feed, help create content for the daily show, plus give Ch 10 direct feedback re. audience engagement, and gauge HM popularity among the public (especially among the people avoiding nomination). They could monitise it by paywalling it, or members could buy credits to spend on votes, since 10 won’t be making their phone call voting moolah.

 

[Kingston]

International fans can't thank Australian viewers enough for tanking the Seven version.

Yes and no… Seven taking the reins of the show came at a time where Banijay was actively selling the format globally. As for the format itself it was clearly uniquely Australian.

 

[invisibleman]

I think if Channel 10 was smart they’d look at how people are currently consuming content. YouTube is super accessible considering the amount of people that already have a Google account. People despise geo-locked logins, paywalls, or yet another random streaming app.

If they’re smart they’d put it on YouTube for free both as a livestream as well as release full quality 4K50p episodes there alongside the 10play app. No geographic restrictions. This is the modern way and they’d make bank with advertisers and product placement (Did someone say KFC?), considering the Aussie Big Brother is so popular internationally. YouTube provides many avenues of monetisation. And then there’s still the avenue for the 10play app or the five people in Australia still watching via DTV antenna.

 

[up_all_night]

Has any BB ever done livestreams for free on YouTube though?

My expectations is that it'll be daily shows and evictions on Ten. Live streams, adults only and hopefully extra shows on Paramount+. I have always thought a modern proper BB would make sense to try and push people to paid streaming.

Then they should constantly be pushing content of what is currently happening on the socials. They should live blog the days again. Add clips to YouTubes, Twitter and the TikTok.

 

[Isee]

My thoughts sit somewhere between the two above comments. I love and agree with the ideas of @invisibleman regarding the use of You Tube. But they are facing an audience who have just had o deal with channel 7 trying something new that was a bad idea so if they are going to do something new they need to really be sure it is going to be a hit with the target audience. I would say keep it on Ten/Paramount Plus sites but make sure to work with podcasters and content providers (ie don't copyright strike if they are using it fairly to provide content) as the conversation they generate will bring more viewers, especially if they are overseas podcasters. (Especially people like Periidiam, RHAP, etc who are known on you tube for their content in this space)

 

[Zcsund1234]

It will be interesting to see how TEN utilise their other channels, since it’s going be across all platforms on TEN.

I feel like the 9 era wasted so much potential with GO at the time. It’s a shame their adults only directed show that was meant to be on GO never eventuated.

IMO companion shows are a must for viewers to feel engaged. The more content thats pushed out there the more likely lost fans will return.

 

[kamui]

Has any BB ever done livestreams for free on YouTube though?

Yes, there have been instances when live feeds were streamed on YouTube but it's rather rare. Big Brother Germany streamed 10 hours a day for free on YouTube (three in the evening, another 7 hours overnight and in the early morning) and that was done to promote the paid 24 hours streams.

And a couple of years Spain had a live stream for free on YouTube. Initially, it was only supposed to be there for a week or so to promote the free streams on the official website, but then they've kept the stream for the whole season. I think it was put on Youtube initially because they've cancelled live feeds for the previous civilian season, which then tanked in the ratings (and after a couple of weeks, they've reinstated it.. didn't help the show though). So I think they've tried to save the celebrity version of the show and made it as accessible as possible.

(Maybe also worth noting: Amazon in Spain revived Operación Triunfo in Spain last year, which is from the same production company and is basically a cross between Big Brother and Pop Idol. They've kept the live feeds on YouTube as well, probably expecting some marketing push from it as well.)