Duty of Care Failure? Concerns Over BB Management of Housemate Conflict & Discrimination and Authority.

matts bb

matts bb

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I did post this in the live stream thread but it’s increasingly concerning to me the way that the house is being managed from a welfare perspective and then the portrayal each night on the episodes.

Allana today had said there are conversations happening outside that don’t make her feel safe.

We are not even a week in and literally almost EVERY day there has been considerable things said or done to members in the house, notably to people who either are from a multicultural background, have a disability, sexism or sexuality.

Notably just now I have just witnessed it again from Holly saying to Connor that he would have a “super human child”.

In all of these situations NONE of them have featured in the daily show, they are hidden and the people making these comments are actually edited in a better light so most viewers are none the wiser.

Whilst this is bad from a people management, welfare and wouldn’t be tolerated in a work environment, the solution seems to be for BB to just call the essential victims of this into the Diary Room and tell them how “proud or how much he cares for them” …
There’s no accountability for those who are making or doing these actions and again it’s NOT FEATURED in the actual show.

Again we are only 1 week into this too - there’s no excuse for this. Why is this ok?

Notably it does seem this time around there are rules that aren’t being followed too, especially when it comes to the respect of others. What happened to housemate code of conduct?

If anything I thought production would be overboard this time round, but it seems producers aren’t doing jack shit in a lot of circumstances. People can call people everything under the sun or put people in situations where they are in tears and feel like crap and there are no consequences for it. Peoples experiences are demeaned and there is no understanding from the opposition.

I’m kinda just finding BB is a lightweight and just letting people do whatever. He comes across as weak with absolutely NO authority.

This is no personal attack or disrespect for Pete Cunningham at all, but the character he is playing needs to step it up and pull all housemates into line and be an actual authority.

That aside overall house rules aren’t being followed or BB isn’t stepping in at all in some circumstances or keeping on the housemates about it. I did a very short list today of a few other issues I’ve noticed.
  • The talking over BB - its an awful viewer experience let alone just frustrating.
  • Making people feel like shit and intimidating people with no recourse.
  • Yelling at the riders from the backyard (contact with the outside world)
  • Allowing housemates to take showers anytime of the day with hot water? Why is this a hotel situation? Crack down and shut it off!
  • General hygiene issues in the house. Eg leaving wet towels around the house. You have 12 housemates and not enough hooks to actually hang the towels up? Peoples hair all over the house - I won’t even mention the state of the toilets… and the discussion of pooing in the shower and waffle stomping
  • Intimidating a diminishment of people’s feelings and points of view - eventually comes to the point of bullying.

I apologise for the length of this post. I just think it’s a really critical list and situation that I have noticed and I think production need to step it up. It’s not a prison, but at the moment the episodes are not showcasing majority of the offenders of this behaviour, and from a duty of care, those offending need to be warned and it needs to be transparently shown on the actual tv broadcasts . I don’t know if it’s a lack of welfare officers being actually part of the production due to budgets, or lack of experience, but regardless they need to do better.
 
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Might cop some heat for this, but Pete Cunningham sucks as BB. Like he’s actually terrible. Not all his fault I’m sure. The producers would sign off on his method/approach to the role, if not design it themselves. It is a shambles
 
Remember that even in the live feeds, you're only seeing a limited scope of what is actually happening. We're not privy to all conversations - or any conversations in the diary room - therefore we're not privy to how matters might be resolves. Discretion and tact is an important part of dealing with sensitive matters.

It's also easy to misinterpret the very limited scope of what we're seeing as bigger or more meaningful than they might actually be in full context.

Big Brother as the public-facing figure - which is primarily for entertainment - should not be confused for what we don't see behind the scenes.
 
imsocold said:
Remember that even in the live feeds, you're only seeing a limited scope of what is actually happening. We're not privy to all conversations - or any conversations in the diary room - therefore we're not privy to how matters might be resolves. Discretion and tact is an important part of dealing with sensitive matters.

It's also easy to misinterpret the very limited scope of what we're seeing as bigger or more meaningful than they might actually be in full context.

Big Brother as the public-facing figure - which is primarily for entertainment - should not be confused for what we don't see behind the scenes.
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So essentially what you are saying is that if people bully it’s fine to cover that up and then never actually be transparent about people’s behaviour unlike OG BB?
I disagree about hiding sensitive topics? So someone can shut someone down because of their experience and send them into tears, or call Connors ability to have a super human, essentially implying his disability isn’t hard despite him previously saying that he doesn’t want to burden his kids with it and therefore we shouldn’t see that in the episode? That’s like saying David spat with Perry in 06, the Paul and Merlin incident shouldn’t have ever been aired?
Should they have also ignored Travis bullying in 2008 where Nobbi was told to STOP IT.
Because that’s “sensitive”?

And yeah BB is a public facing figure but this season has no backbone or authority and it shows based on the state of the house from a hygiene perspective for one.

Allowing certain behaviours to be seen with no context on consequence also sets a bad example to today’s generation or society IMO. Yes it’s an entertainment show but I feel like today people have a lack of respect and some of the behaviour being shown almost glorifies that behaviour and sends the wrong message .
 
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Conflict is normal in this kind of environment, and not every "issue" needs to be platformed or resolved through authority. What you deem as major might be ultimately be minor for the people involved after the moment as passed. Your lens is no nearer to objective than the daily show edit.

I'm not suggesting there haven't been behaviours that need to be addressed. What I am suggesting is that a) you don't have all the context to judge them objectively, and b) you don't know they haven't been addressed in the diary room.

The reality is, not everything can or should make it to air. The show always has been narratively edited - all the way back to its first days in 2001. What you're crying about is that the final cut doesn't meet your editorial preferences. What I'm reading is a lot of "I'm not getting what I what" vs any kind of failure to meet duty of care obligations.
 
matts bb said:
So essentially what you are saying is that if people bully it’s fine to cover that up and then never actually be transparent about people’s behaviour unlike OG BB?
I disagree about hiding sensitive topics? So someone can shut someone down because of their experience and send them into tears, or call Connors ability to have a super human, essentially implying his disability isn’t hard despite him previously saying that he doesn’t want to burden his kids with it and therefore we shouldn’t see that in the episode? That’s like saying David spat with Perry in 06, the Paul and Merlin incident shouldn’t have ever been aired?
Should they have also ignored Travis bullying in 2008 where Nobbi was told to STOP IT.
Because that’s “sensitive”?

And yeah BB is a public facing figure but this season has no backbone or authority and it shows based on the state of the house from a hygiene perspective for one.

Allowing certain behaviours to be seen with no context on consequence also sets a bad example to today’s generation IMO. Yes it’s an entertainment show but I feel like today people have a lack of respect and some of the behaviour being shown almost glorify that behaviour
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I'm sure Holly didn't mean to make that comment in a negative way. She said something along the lines of "you bringing kids into the world would be a nice thing."

And I think Connor was over exaggerating with that reaction or misunderstood her comment.
 
There's a few things bothering me this early on, I agree with much of what you are saying.... BB just appears to be a little bit of a push over.

The few things I'm seeing are:
- Talking directly to the camera, I recognise this is difficult because most cams are exposed this series but some warnings and punishments to the house would be really quite simple.
- Colin consistently calling Big Brother - Big Broski. This should be immediately called out, reminded who the authority figure is.
- Calling out to riders - I get this is also somewhat unavoidable but should be strongly discouraged
- Make Big Brother mean again..... many, many series had a punishment room for a reason.

The talking over the top of BB is insane, live feeds seem to have BB asking housemates to gather and taking literal minutes for BB to settle them down. Idk if they are getting back to the rhythm but the therapist BB is bothering me.... let them vent and whinge without the validation or the "I think you're special" crap.

It's confusing why some of the major conflicts are being edited out or missed, there's been some full on drama the last few days on live that has been very eye opening for much of the characters but again, not being able to see all the other conversations can make it difficult to get the full picture.

Colin seems to be continuously getting too drunk, emotional and angry but this is missing from DS.
 
imsocold said:
Conflict is normal in this kind of environment, and not every "issue" needs to be platformed or resolved through authority. What you deem as major might be ultimately be minor for the people involved after the moment as passed. Your lens is no nearer to objective than the daily show edit.

I'm not suggesting there haven't been behaviours that need to be addressed. What I am suggesting is that a) you don't have all the context to judge them objectively, and b) you don't know they haven't been addressed in the diary room.

The reality is, not everything can or should make it to air. The show always has been narratively edited - all the way back to its first days in 2001. What you're crying about is that the final cut doesn't meet your editorial preferences. What I'm reading is a lot of "I'm not getting what I what" vs "They're not doing what they need to".
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Not at all. I’m not crying at all and I really don’t appreciate that you’re now being condescending about it? Personal jabs don’t aid your argument.

I don’t know if you think I’m naive to the format or what, but I’m well aware not everything can be covered in the daily show.
However today’s episode there was quite a lot of good content that we saw on the streams yesterday that wasn’t utilised or shown and the whole back half of the episode was about Colin and Holly kissing. I’m not saying that shouldn’t have been in the episodes what I’m saying is what’s being portrayed is against what the show of “OG” is about. And manipulating situations without giving context or the severity of the impact of people’s comments that we have seen.

Simple things like Ed was given a strike and that hasn’t been mentioned in the daily show. Only on the live stream. Why?
It’s fine you disagree with me I’ll give you that opinion without saying you’re being emotional or “crying about it” but from my standpoint what I am seeing is that there seems to be a lack of authority in the house and that’s the overarching issue I have
 
Zao Yang said:
I'm sure Holly didn't mean to make that comment in a negative way. She said something along the lines of "you bringing kids into the world would be a nice thing."

And I think Connor was over exaggerating with that reaction or misunderstood her comment.
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I get that Holly may not have meant anything negative, but I think it’s important to recognise that commenting on whether someone should or shouldn’t have kids is deeply personal, and often inappropriate. There are countless reasons someone might choose not to become a parent, and it’s not our place to judge or speculate. In Connor’s case, living with Tourette’s has shaped how he thinks about parenting. He’s made a thoughtful decision not to pass on something that’s been incredibly hard for him, and that deserves respect, not commentary. But beyond that, people might be facing infertility, loss, or simply making a personal choice that’s right for them. So even if a comment sounds kind on the surface, it can land in a painful or loaded way. It’s always better to let people lead those conversations themselves, rather than assuming or projecting. Everyone’s journey is different, and Holly needs to mind her own business.
 
Absolutely @matts bb, and I am pleased that somebody has finally articulated this properly.

The live stream has been a long-awaited, much-needed and incredible addition to BBAU this year. However, it is both a blessing and a curse - watching the stream gives us the luxury of a front row seat to these people interacting 24/7 (mostly) unfiltered, but it also pulls back the curtain on production in a way we have never seen before, even during the original Ten days. There has been far more revealing producer interference in the day-to-day running of this house (i.e directing the HMs where to stand/sit, asking them to repeat things, etc) than should be taking place. I guess that’s just the nature of reality TV today. Though, it’s also showing when producers are not interfering.

The stream is revealing just how much the show is letting HMs get away with things (or at least were… admittedly I’ve noticed them getting a little stricter and reprimanding HMs in the last 24 hours or so, but I’ll come back to this) and also protecting certain HMs in the broadcast episodes. (FYI, for those unaware, the Daily Shows vs Live Stream are like watching two completely different shows.)

The thing I’m finding most frustrating at the moment is just how much the broadcast episodes are protecting certain HMs who have behaved incredibly poorly and treated others in the house badly. (We have receipts!!)

So many interactions on the Daily Shows are being heavily edited or completely cutting out important details and context that shed light on HMs who just shouldn’t have their negative ideals protected on the show - this is Big Brother for a reason.

What happened to leaning into the controversies, showing “real people with real stories” and making “iconic moments” that was so heavily promoted pre-season?

I understand editing happens (Gretel, don’t @ me) but what makes this hard to watch is that they’re completely re-editing some characters in an entirely different way for casual viewers. In reality, Bruce and Michael have shared very dangerous beliefs and opinions (even calling a HM “a shit person” behind their back just for disagreeing with the boys) but only the surface of this has been shown on TV. Someone like Vinnie is far more calculating and playing the game way more than how he’s being portrayed. And I think almost everybody who watches the streams can attest to Colin being an absolute liability (especially when he’s drunk) and one of the most obnoxious famewhores to ever go on the show, he is simply horrible to watch… and let’s just say, Colin got away VERY lightly in the edit of the family dinner argument that happened the other night. But hey, he’s clearly a producer favourite so is naturally being edited far more favourably than he deserves.

To play devil’s advocate, we do know (thanks to the streams), based on people being called to the Diary Room and conversations that occurred afterward, that some HMs have been told off and reprimanded due to their behaviour. (As mentioned above, I believe Edward got given a strike, which oddly hasn’t been aired - and we also know Colin had a series of warnings handed to him, and tonight he made a comment that he’d been told to stop speaking directly to the cameras, so some of this is taking place.) Therefore, I will say that I’m sure a lot more chaos is going on behind-the-scenes that we haven’t seen as well, but it doesn’t change the fact that we are definitely seeing horrible people continue to get away with rule-breaking, belittling and making others feel like shit. This will only intensify if nothing is done about it, or if these people aren’t called out on it and left remaining in the house because they don’t get voted out by an unaware public (read: protected).

I could go on and bring up more examples (I mean they’re all noted in the Fan Diary anyway) but I think my point is made for now.
 
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Yeah I have to second the OP, it seems that the approach from BB is to let them run riot and if some one is hurt enough they're called to the diary room and love bombed to make it all better.

I've been watching the live feeds heavily over the past few days and there is downright nasty behaviour happening all the time. It's so blatant at times that it can't be excused as simply misinterpreting the feeds. Some examples:
  • Today the underwear boys did another one of their cosplay podcasts (thankfully these haven't made it to the daily show). The podcast was focused on making fun of Mia. They "interviewed" Michael about his interactions with Mia and Colin spoke at length about how he found it funny when Michael makes fun of her.

  • Bruce has previously said that Mia is a "shit person" to the other boys. In a related conversation Vinnie rallied the boys to not trust Mia and said "when I saw her in that pink double breasted suit (on launch night) I knew I couldn't trust her".

  • You can audibly hear the underwear boys snicker when Mia speaks to the group. I don't know if Mia realises it or not, if she does she is pretending it's not happening.

  • Today when Allana explained she has Aboriginal heritage, Vinnie and Edward got angry at her for bringing it up. This is what led to Allana saying she doesn't feel safe that is mentioned by OP. They tried to tell her that racism against Aboriginal Australians is overblown and her bringing racism up made them feel attacked (seriously).
The bad behaviour is primarily coming from Colin, Bruce and Vinnie, but occasionally Edward is dragged in and Michael eggs them on from behind the scenes.

This is ultimately a failure in casting - too many blokey blokes were brought in and they're dominating the direction of the house. But also a failure of the producers to enforce a code of conduct. There's some comments above about this being just house "conflict". I reject this - I've seen enough of the feed already to see that the seeds of bullying are there - mostly of Mia right now, but another housemate will be targeted once she's gone. This looks like trivial conflict now, but after a few weeks it will become truly foul in there. Allana can see it coming.

A side note about HMs talking over Big Brother - to give you an indication of how it's going... tonight was a bunch of games that will be broadcast on Friday night. Big Brother was so bad at controlling the housemates he had to assign Conor as his "2IC" to herd the housemates and get them to shut up. Otherwise they were simply not listening to anything BB was saying.
 
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