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BBUSA: Over the Top - online series on CBS All Access

Also I think people are over-estimating the power of live feeds.
Sure it was very interesting and engaging in the past. we wanted to see how
people live 24/7 together, people woke up, ate, slept with BB on live feed.
I dont think this is the case any longer.
unless theres some amazing new ideas people already know "what life is in the BB
house" and will tune in only if "something big happens".
The live feed becomes less and less important to draw viewers with every season of BB.

Wrong! I've been reading LFU's on RBBQ and a lot of fans are enjoying the raw live feeds... Especially getting to see things that traditionally haven't been shown like the first several days of life in the house ect.

The live feed has never really been what brings viewers to BB... It is however what keeps people watching year after year... The ONLY reason we are seeing BB:OTT in the first place is due to popularity of the live feeds...

I'm not sure where you're getting your information from but I suggest you get your facts straight before you post...
 
great lets base our assessment of the success of a BB edition of subscription live feeds
on a rbbq forum with a few die-hard fans of the show that literally glued their eyeballs
to the screen as live feed began and experience heavy anxiety issues if they havent
checked the live feed 10 times daily.

A truly interactive BB based on live feeds and viewers control over the house, is a great
idea, one which has never really been done and probably never will be because it is too
risky to do. American reality tv is scripted and always will be scripted. They cannot take
any "risks" of public actually manuevering the outcomes. "America you voted" will only
be on minor twists. Even the public voting on the winner - is a huge risk in USA RTV
terms. they like jury that they can mold into extra drama.
 
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BB USA is produced in such a way that live feeds offer almost nothing. The shows dont
focus on personalities and knowing the housemates as individuals, only on them inside
alliances and strategic game talk.
its a BB gameshow competition. they are there to play these games, to produce HOH
or POV etc. If these live feeds are now meant to produce a BB game more similar to
that of other countries format where the public decides, so what matters are tasks
and personalities, then its a huge shift for CBS and then live feeds will matter.
But thats not really the case. they cant risk it.
 
BB USA is produced in such a way that live feeds offer almost nothing. The shows dont focus on personalities and knowing the housemates as individuals, only on them inside alliances and strategic game talk.
Quite the contrary - with the show being so game play and storyline focused the live feeds offer so much more - not only the day to day interaction assocaited with Big Brother, which often doesn't make it into the show, but also feeders can often pick up on things long before the broadcast shows do. They are absolutely fundamental to the show and although I suspect this will be a one series thing BB:OTT is showing that Big Brother can work without the TV show, whilst BBUK and BBAus have shown that the format just doesn't work without the live feeds. They are Big Brother, whether producers like to admit it or not.
 
The cast of BBOTT was ok, in the usual american formula for the summer BB's.
I dont see big changes other than "America votes in the end".
If viewers get to vote off people and not the players - as in other countries -
thats a complete format change, and will make it worthwhile, but Im guessing
production probably wont do that more than a couple times as twists of
"this week the public votes" here and there..

Many will have BB fatigue as the last season just ended..
so overall Im not sure this format will be such a success, but if it is,
it could mean the end of regular BB and moving other reality tv into "private access"
channels and thats a shame.

You're a complete idiot... While BB:OTT has not been a complete departure from the broadcast version there have been several significant changes from the broadcast version... The first being that the show has aired live from the first moment HG's set foot in the house... The next being in the form of audience participation which really is unprecedented when it comes to the American format offering multiple avenues for viewers to make a direct impact... I can't comment on the casting but from what I've read it's actually been pretty decent and at least in the early days of the show were a pretty likeable group in comparison to the broadcast version... While I do expect there to be some minor twists along the way it does seem that the format for this series will remain consistent throughout... In terms of viewer fatigue it's likely but most viewers are extremely excited to see where this series goes and traditionally the live feeds drop off a bit towards the end of the series as the numbers in the house dwindle and game-play becomes more predictable... I think most fans are "rested" enough for another series even if it is airing within a shorter time period than I would have liked... There is also no indication anywhere than CBS has any plans to drop the broadcast version... In fact they been VERY vocal about keeping the two versions a distinct and separate entities and in reality BB:OTT wouldn't even exist if BB on CBS wasn't popular...[DOUBLEPOST=1475524093][/DOUBLEPOST]
great lets base our assessment of the success of a BB edition of subscription live feeds
on a rbbq forum with a few die-hard fans of the show that literally glued their eyeballs
to the screen as live feed began and experience heavy anxiety issues if they havent
checked the live feed 10 times daily.

A truly interactive BB based on live feeds and viewers control over the house, is a great
idea, one which has never really been done and probably never will be because it is too
risky to do. American reality tv is scripted and always will be scripted. They cannot take
any "risks" of public actually manuevering the outcomes. "America you voted" will only
be on minor twists. Even the public voting on the winner - is a huge risk in USA RTV
terms. they like jury that they can mold into extra drama.

You're a fucking retard... Get lost!
 
BBOTT is CBS trying to see if they can take RTV and make money when it
is completely done in live feed subscription. They can sugar-coat it as "interactive"
This is an experiment to see if they can get viewers to pay more (for live feed)
and for them to spend less (on the shows). probably on the basis that soon
commercial ad-based tv will be gone and everything will be "netflixed" through mutli-layered pay-per-view.
If it succeeds we may gradually see more reality tv shows move to subscription-only
based formats, using the excuse of "interactive".
Otherwise, they could have had the live-feed completely open on Youtube live etc.
 
BBOTT is CBS trying to see if they can take RTV and make money when it
is completely done in live feed subscription. They can sugar-coat it as "interactive"
This is an experiment to see if they can get viewers to pay more (for live feed)
and for them to spend less (on the shows). probably on the basis that soon
commercial ad-based tv will be gone and everything will be "netflixed" through mutli-layered pay-per-view.
If it succeeds we may gradually see more reality tv shows move to subscription-only
based formats, using the excuse of "interactive".
Otherwise, they could have had the live-feed completely open on Youtube live etc.

Traditional broadcasting is still the heart and soul of CBS... If you honestly believe otherwise you're dumber than I originally thought...

Online ad revenue is still peanuts compared to what can charge on broadcast television...

The only reason CBS has even attempted to bring BB to All Acess is the fact that it comes with an established online following and it helps to hold on to subscribers that would normally dump the service after BB ends...

It's also requires very little actual work to produce as BB:OTT is pretty much 100% live content... It's also much cheaper than any other reality or scripted programming...

At this time there are zero indications anywhere that CBS has any plans to transition BB to an online only format... For fuck sakes they just renewed the broadcast version for another two series before the last series had even ended...
 
There were a couple of posts from Kingston yesterday which were so considered and insightful I was worried his account had been attacked. Try not to get aggressive Kingston because on the whole on this matter you've been 100% right.


This series is being seen by the BBUSA community as something they are doing for the fans - they're loving the almost behind the scenes aspect of live competitions and ceremonies playing out and it's the first time viewers have been able to watch the HGs since day 1 (usually feeds begin after the TV premiere, which is usually a week after the HGs move in). For once Big Brother is making a show for people who actually watch Big Brother - so often shows are far more concerned about attracting the viewers they don't have.
 
Eps are central to the show live feeds or not so

Ep 1 (first eviction)
wtf why would they vote Cornbread out, he had no chance of winning if the audience didn't like him? How stupid. And nearly unanimous so I guess all but Cornbread knew, which is kind of boring, the way it was announced at least had tension.

Wish Danielle had gone, a live update showed her helping Jason idiotically at the veto, and it would have killed a showmance.

The first ep was ok, good to see them all enter singly (how it should be done), and I liked the announcement for eviction rather than seeing the votes (we find out with them). Maybe it's more dramatic having the presenter do it, but still it's again an improvement on what is normally done.

The only think I didn't like was there was nothing of the strategy talk before the vote. I didn't want it giving away what the result was in advance but as least some talk should be done. Should have put something in to replace the unfortunately kept pleas, which I skipped in case it gave it away.

Idiots keeping the showmance though.
 
Cornbread is a classic week one boot - the older guy almost always goes first as he doesn't quite fit in with the boys and doesn't fit in with the girls either. He may not have a chance of winning but he was a number for the boys alliance.
 
Just continuous strategy talk on live feed is tiring, and it's not really Big Brother to me. Live feed is more about knowing people in more general mode. Episodes are the best way for a strategy storyline I think, because much of the strategy stuff on live feed will just be a load of hot air (through boring paranoia or just to deflect and confuse) and will be repetitive as people just repeat the same stuff to different people.
 
The last few hours have been the live feeds at their best - and no need to worry about whether CBS will cover it up by not including it in their broadcast. More chatter generated too than any over produced TV only episode can ever generate.

Also love how the US fan community is treating their power - they are using it really tactically rather than just going for the obvious choices, and the HGs are playing on that too, asking viewers not to vote in certain ways so they can make the moves themselves. It's not a straight forward vote for who you want out - people are really discussing how they'll vote and the potential effects of that votes.
 
I'm actually disappointed I'm not able to watch this as I'm loving what I've been reading... I've been saying for years now that the best way to implement public voting in the American format is to do it in a way that makes the public an active player and it seems to be working... Ideally this is not the format I would have gone for but most of the feedback I've read has been extremely positive... Especially amongst American fans who tend to turn their noses up when it comes to viewer participation in any way, shape, or form... That said I'm not so sure if these types of changes would be as embraced if this was the broadcast version...
 
Hopefully at least the show will learn a lot from it - I suspect how many changes make it to the broadcast version depends partly on whether OTT returns next year too. They've also learned from previous attempts at viewer interaction by blocking back to back votes for the same nominee or have nots, so that hopefully makes it slightly less predictable.

Catching up on the first week this afternoon and liking what I'm seeing - the daily updates do the job just fine and the weekly episode, clocking in at over an hour without ads, is as much airtime as the main show, while they benefit from being slightly less produced too. Really getting an old school BB vibe from it and liking it a lot.
 
So the public vote is basically just saving Jason and the showmance, not looking good at all. Would be better without Jason and Shane, but the public seems to love them.
 
Not really - last week was more about America hating Monte than anything else. Danielle isn't all too popular and is a Have Not this week and things do move quickly, and worth noting Scott went from being voted a Have Not one week to getting a care package the next, so opinion does shift quite quickly. Also the show has clearly fallen into the mould of having two opposing groups now and naturally viewers will be split along similar lines too so I don't think their input will be as predictable as you might think.


It remains to be seen how popular Jason is in the long term - an obvious early favourite due to being a known quantity and voted in by the public, but although I've not followed any polls from Twitter chatter I'd say Justin and Krissie are more popular than him now.
 
So three weeks in and three men evicted, leaving just three in the house and 7 women - and what's remarkable is the women are split into two clear oppposing alliances. A very good chance a 4th bloke could go next week.
 
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