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BBAU Rewatch

jessy_girl said:
At least Kyle barely showed up so we weren’t subjected to him too frequently. This was definitely just a paycheque for him.

It’s hard to imagine Gretel hosting this season. She had definitely long lost the passion, but she would have surely had utter contempt for everything about this version. Could she have saved it?
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If Gretel were there it would at least still feel like big brother, whether or not it save the show is up for debate.

I think it’s a real shame that Gretel and BBAU in general had such a short run in comparison to the other English speaking versions. I feel like 2007 had the show pointing in a new direction but was obviously never going to uphold that given everything that had happened.

Having Corey Worthington in there was, something? I’m up to when he’s in the house and Terri has to be his guardian. Terri was given a decent amount of chances to assist production in giving them an excuse to reinstate her as a housemate.
 
Zcsund1234 said:
Terri was given a decent amount of chances to assist production in giving them an excuse to reinstate her as a housemate.
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I'm like 95% sure that prod wanted Terri as the winner, even from preseason.

A note on 2008, as I'm not sure if you would've been too young to remember. Casting ran a bit differently this season, where it was about the public "choosing" the HMs based on their audition videos online. Only it was used by Michael Crafter from I Killed the Prom Queen to get his fans to get him into the house so he could promote his bands upcoming tour lol.

Anyway, around this time Mike, Bree and Fitzy hosted a show called "Friday Night Download" (later "Download" after FNL took the timeslot) - and I vividly remember them talking about BB casting at one point and how strongly they wanted a "Nanna" in the cast. Lo and behold, a mere week later they had "found their nanna" and promos began for the show, with Terri one of the HMs featured in the sneak peeks of the cast.

So, yeah, when the first night twist spectacularly backfired on the producers, of course they needed a way to shoehorn Terri back in. You'll see come the finale that they use 07's voting fiasco to their advantage by showing the voting graph at the beginning of the night, asking over and over "ARE YOU SURE YOU WANT BEN AS YOUR WINNER????" and closing them just as they had enough votes for Terri to secure the victory.

The more I look back on it, the more I hate the blatant attempts at rigging by Big Brother's production team. It was really bad in the 9 era too.

ETA: Download was a relic of its time, it was basically just "haha look at this funny clip from the internet" that could only have existed at the dawn of Youtube when bandwidth was scarce and Youtube videos weren't clickbait.
 
Terri was possibly the first time the Aussie producers seemed to base things around a single housemates - and just like Keiran and Danny in the last couple of years, a housemate clearly not worth the effort to save. Perhaps things would have been quite different if she hadn't been put in the house, or at least not put back in the house.

One thing I will praise though was the Nobbi Van. A cruel twist but one I think they largely stuck too rather than abandoning at the first opportunity and if anything rather than isolating him it made him far more central to both the housemates and indeed the series.


Another thing I'll praise and criticise the series for is the Webmates. Pre-series having people audition online and so many of those auditions made viewable to the public was great. But then they largely ignored them, cast the show mainly from people auditioned in person and then when they did put three people supposedly chosen by viewers into the house they pretty much kicked them straight out.


P.S. Regarding Friday Night Download am I right in thinking for a period they had a non-BB related Friday Night Live style show outside the series too?
 
Yes the blatant favouritism of Terri was frustrating, I guess at least it was a different winner to usual. And Rory would have been a sucky winner to end on. I remember Jackie in the finale saying she wanted Terri to win, I can’t imagine Gretel saying that!
 
I really enjoyed the Kelis 'I DONT THINK SO' ad promos in the pre season TBH, I thought the one introducing Kyle & Jackie O was pretty cool using the lights that looked like they were out of Justin Timberlake's music video for 'My Love' haha. They even had one where they played the soundbite of John Howard being asked about the Turkey Slap 'Get the stupid program off the air' - I DONT THINK SO! lol.


Yeah it seemed like they were deliberately trying to cast extremes or gimmick/personality, Doing one of the Edgics for BB2008 would be interesting. Also on how they tried to flip the We nominate, Housemates Evict formula and that gimmicky 'Revolver' system in the first week, At least they were shaking it up a little bit, Did end up reverting halfway through or after like the first 4 or 5 weeks IIRC, with nominations played as part of the daily show.

Brekkie said:
One thing I will praise though was the Nobbi Van. A cruel twist but one I think they largely stuck too rather than abandoning at the first opportunity and if anything rather than isolating him it made him far more central to both the housemates and indeed the series.

P.S. Regarding Friday Night Download am I right in thinking for a period they had a non-BB related Friday Night Live style show outside the series too?
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At the time I thought Nobbi did get a bit of a harsh go with the Kombi thing (I'd want to be able to get a good share of time inside the house whilst on the show), but otoh it did make it a memorable thing for him on the show at the same time. Those Housemate Hand Grenades were an interesting addition.

Friday Night Games ran for about 3-4 months from about January/early Feb to Aprilish 2006 before BB06 started IIRC. I think that was the only time it went off season.

Ah yeah, I remember that Download show! Also in 2008, they had Big Mouth, which kinda brought back the Insider format kinda from 2003 along with a slice of more adult content (As I mentioned I plainly recall them talking about Rhianna and Rory's activities under that communal doona...LOL).
 
beardymac said:
I'm like 95% sure that prod wanted Terri as the winner, even from preseason.

A note on 2008, as I'm not sure if you would've been too young to remember. Casting ran a bit differently this season, where it was about the public "choosing" the HMs based on their audition videos online. Only it was used by Michael Crafter from I Killed the Prom Queen to get his fans to get him into the house so he could promote his bands upcoming tour lol.
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I am too young to remember any of that, everything you've listed I only know from reading about. But based on the points you've made I have no reason to disagree. She was told she would be evicted on Day 1 and there would be no twist. She was then brought back because Big Brother wasn't happy with the predictable ending. She was then told she had to take care of Corey to be a housemate, she failed at that. She then had the option to take Corey's mission in evicting two of the newbies to become a housemate. They really just forced the situation to occur where she could be made a housemate again.

The online auditioning is an interesting concept that could be used again in a better way. I don't like that two were evicted straight away despite being the most popular with the viewing audience, as I have said I hate twists that tease housemates going in/staying. But given Michael, I hate that people with platforms could easily do well on the basis of having a following.

Friday Night Download does ring a bell. but yes, I can see the favouritism for Terri. On FNL there is a lot of love directed to her by Bree and Mike. And then there is the finale which was just as stupid as the 2007 one. I understand Terri and Rory were within 0.2% of each other, but Terri was almost gifted the win. I don't remember if I preferred Rory or Terri but I'll see the longer I go in.
 
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beardymac said:
It's effectively a race to the bottom between a misogynist and a racist.
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Yeah Rory has been more politically incorrect than what I recall. He said to Travis that he thinks he's gay and he likes taking it up the ass because he was wearing heart shaped glasses. The Big Mouth show said this was acted so I am really confused. Either way, not a great thing to hear him say.

Speaking of Travis, the treatment towards him is horrible. I don't remember ANYTHING of this season at all so to see him be pretty much bullied is a bit shocking.

The only person I like is Brigitte.
 
timmy said:
Worst F2 in any season. @Zcsund1234 I look forward to your analysis on how it came to that.
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I pretty much agree. Every other final two had either likeable fan favourites or contestants who had an intriguing narrative at least. But when I think of Rory and Terri I am puzzled. I don't remember anything of Terri's storyline what so ever, and with Rory I remember him wearing a G string in an episode and hooking up with Rhianna. That is all.

I think I may have preferred Alice, Travis, Brigitte and even Bianca over them. I think I liked Nobbie but reading some stuff online it looks like he was universally hated. My memory of this is extremely faded. I can remember drunken nights out more than this season, which is very unlike me to not remember a season of Big Brother. But everything is just gone from my memory. My first watch did take my mum and I a whole year so maybe at this point I was burnt out and wasn't paying full attention.
 
timmy said:
Honey we were all burnt out by BB08.
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At this point I slightly am. I feel like I am watching this for the sake of completion. I have always looked at this season as underrated and that there were aspects I like, I just hate the stunt casting. Everyone is extremely over the top and cartoony with not much depth. Its far from boring, but when comparing this to 2001-2007, it truly is a human circus.
 
Zcsund1234 said:
At this point I slightly am. I feel like I am watching this for the sake of completion. I have always looked at this season as underrated and that there were aspects I like, I just hate the stunt casting. Everyone is extremely over the top and cartoony with not much depth. Its far from boring, but when comparing this to 2001-2007, it truly is a human circus.
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I remember it as exactly that at the time. I'm sure WP posts will concur.
 
I love the Leon Murray voice so much more than the 04-07 voice. It's so much better to hear him be sassy during nominations rather than putting them down. Finally, a housemate can just say "I nominate x because they are y" and it's accepted with minimal detail needed. Nominations can be boring, let it go as quick as possible. I don't need to hear "what are you trying to say" when I do understand what they're saying.
 
Afflllate said:
I really enjoyed the Kelis 'I DONT THINK SO' ad promos in the pre season TBH, I thought the one introducing Kyle & Jackie O was pretty cool using the lights that looked like they were out of Justin Timberlake's music video for 'My Love' haha. They even had one where they played the soundbite of John Howard being asked about the Turkey Slap 'Get the stupid program off the air' - I DONT THINK SO! lol.

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Ha! I do remember back then there was a member from the channel 10 BB forums that had slightly modified that original BB promo which was uploaded onto youtube back in those days where the forum member had added in some messages during that promo that said:

"Will I be pay for the live stream service again?" "I don't think so". LOL!

I do also remember paying for the live streaming back in 2008 and alot of other forum members were complaining that most of the time the live stream was down or turned off. It was dodgy as hell and a complete waste of money. So yes that advert reminded me of the dodgy live streaming from the house that year.
 
Zcsund1234 said:
At this point I slightly am. I feel like I am watching this for the sake of completion. I have always looked at this season as underrated and that there were aspects I like, I just hate the stunt casting. Everyone is extremely over the top and cartoony with not much depth. Its far from boring, but when comparing this to 2001-2007, it truly is a human circus.
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Yep most definitely, I remember the analogy of a zoo versus a circus and it is so bloody accurate for this season.
 
There was once a very in-depth, detailed breakdown of how Terri’s win was manufactured by the producers since pre-season posted on these forums by someone, with every example listed.

It’s a shame the thread/post has probably been archived because it was spot on.
 
Afflllate said:
I really enjoyed the Kelis 'I DONT THINK SO' ad promos in the pre season TBH, I thought the one introducing Kyle & Jackie O was pretty cool using the lights that looked like they were out of Justin Timberlake's music video for 'My Love' haha. They even had one where they played the soundbite of John Howard being asked about the Turkey Slap 'Get the stupid program off the air' - I DONT THINK SO! lol.


Yeah it seemed like they were deliberately trying to cast extremes or gimmick/personality, Doing one of the Edgics for BB2008 would be interesting. Also on how they tried to flip the We nominate, Housemates Evict formula and that gimmicky 'Revolver' system in the first week, At least they were shaking it up a little bit, Did end up reverting halfway through or after like the first 4 or 5 weeks IIRC, with nominations played as part of the daily show.
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I’m also a fan of the BB09 pre-season ad campaign. Probably one of the best BB pre-season campaigns IMO. It had a very simple message and they did a decent job at not over promising.

In terms of casting the best was to describe what they were going for is that it was an attempt to emulate BBUK. In fact I’d say a lot of what was done in this series was an attempt to give people what they’d been asking for. Despite the fact that BBUK fizzled out post CBB5 it was still the gold standard when it came to BB and BB09 was an attempt at translating the quirkiness of BBUK for an Australian audience.

I agree with Brekkie that Ten should have given this group of producers another shot.
 
the Theorist said:
There was once a very in-depth, detailed breakdown of how Terri’s win was manufactured by the producers since pre-season posted on these forums by someone, with every example listed.

It’s a shame the thread/post has probably been archived because it was spot on.
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I'd love to read that. I never once picked up on the slight pushing for audiences to like her until now. On Friday Night Live Bree and Mike were constantly telling the audience to root for Terri and they all booed when she didn't the games. On the eviction show both Kyle and Jackie emphasised that you can vote to SAVE Terri rather than simply saying she's eligible. They also asked the audience who will vote her and encouraged them to vote to save her. It's a lot of small things but when the voting audience are mostly teenagers wasting their phone credit, they'll likely listen.

Kingston said:
I agree with Brekkie that Ten should have given this group of producers another shot.
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I do think there was still potential for the show moving forward. The finale numbers were still decent and suggested that there were people who did actually care about the program. All though that could also be because it was announced the season was to be the last a week before hand.

There may have been a path forward but evidently TEN commissioning Masterchef ended up working for them long term. It is interesting to think what could have been had they not pulled the plug so early. It is a shame BBAU's initial run was so short.
 
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