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How I'd improve Ch7's Big Brother

LegendLenny

Member
I'm pretty every single person to watch Ch7 BB has complained about it's format for 1 reason or another and yes I'd like it to be live but this post is about how to improve a pre-recorded BB.
I want to try and tweak the format, not change many things about it and see how much you think it would improve the show.

Challenge Variety
When there's challenge variety, it increases the odds of different people winning which is more fun than the same people winning again and again and again.
One example is have a challenge about how well the HMs know each other. It's trivia, viewers learn about the HMs, rewards social game and could cause drama depending on what answers people give. Production know how to do this. Just look at the panic room tasks, make 1 of those a nominations challenge.
Less House Tasks
Up until this last week every episode had either a shopping task, house task, secret mission or panic room. What I suggest is having the first episode of the week (except maybe the first week) be a shopping task and have a secret mission every couple of weeks. If there were less tasks it would open up 20+ minutes of airtime that can be used to learn about the HMs.
Challenge Variety can also apply to House Tasks
If you wanted to have more house tasks than I'm suggesting than you could but I think it works best if the reward is something viewers can connect with. Does anyone care when they win a feast?
Let the viewers get to know the HMs
It's ridiculous to have a season where you show an intro package for everyone except 1 person. It happened last year with Christina and this year with Gabbie. How many of you could name 3 personal facts about each of the HMs from only watching the show? Less House Tasks helps accomplish this.
Alternative to Less House Tasks
Have the same amount but put some on 7plus as deleted scenes. The amount of tasks would be the same in the house but on the show there would be more time to learn about HMs AND more people might watch the bonus content on 7plus.

I don't think I've changed the format all that much. I've kept it pre-recorded, I've kept HMs evicting each other and I think the viewers enjoyment of the show would rise dramatically. What do you think?

Q: We've seen live BB/public evicts with intruders, we've seen pre-recorded BB/HMs evicts with intruders, how would you feel about a live BB with HMs evicting each other having intruders?
 
  • None of this pre-recorded shit. :bang:
  • Daily shows
  • Housemates nominate normally and NEVER discuss nominations
  • Only one challenge per week (winners can have a nomination superpower, but they shouldn't be exempt from nomination)
  • Live up-late shows
  • NO BACKGROUND MUSIC!
 
I said this at the end of last season, but the show really needs to cut out the fake evictions. It ruins the momentum of episodes and disrupts the natural narrative of events. It’s also a really blatant manipulation of the show by producers, with it being obvious that they are favouring/protecting some people. And it’s especially bad when people get saved multiple times. SJ getting evicted twice and then being saved and coming close to winning last year was particularly bad.
 
I see what you have tried to do @LegendLenny , but you're pushing a bit of a wheelbarrow uphill here. The majority of folks do not want pre-recorded. They want live. What these folks fail to realise is that live TV will mean long periods of absolute boredom (people sunbathing and lounging around is not fun to watch). That simply will not work in a modern world where sponsers (ads) want to be sure they are going to get return for their money. Live TV worked back in the day because BB was new, which made it intriguing, and people didn't have access to all the other forms of entertainment that they can now turn to if they get bored. Imagine tuning in to a live BB feed, on free to air TV, and seeing people sunbathing outside and barely sharing any discussion. It wouldn't be long before viewers jumped ship and changed channel to a paid streaming service to watch a movie or jumped on the Internet ... anything but watching the boring sunbathers. Live won't work anymore. The world has moved on, it's too fast-paced, and there are too many other things that one can go off and do when they get bored with it.

So, you must have some form of pre-recorded show. The trick would be to pre-record it, but show it as soon as possible (ie, the next day or the next two days). This way it is "essentially" live, and the producers can leave out large, long, boring sunbathing all day bits. Also, having a one or two day pre-recording buffer gives TV execs security in knowing they can avoid showing another "Turkey Slap" incident. By pre-recording, one or two days ahead, the producers can pick and choose what they show ... as long as they show interactive HM conversations, cooking in the kitchen, discussing challenge wins, or whatever ... all the stuff where interesting interactions and conversations are taking place which allows us to get to know the HMs better. Sure, you can still have house tasks (shopping tasks etc) which will give the producers additional content to put on instead of only having hours and hours of pre-recorded, boring sunbathing footage. But don't overdo the tasks ... we don't want to see the same panic room every damn week, for example. As for challenges; you'd still have those too. But, they need to have variety and need to encourage HM interaction with each other (it's another way for them to get to know each other, and for viewers to get to know them). But, like the tasks, don't overdo the challenges. The challenges also need to be fair, along the lines of what you have suggested with trivia challenges, balance challenges, strength challenges, puzzles, etc ... enough so that any and all HM have a chance to win regardless of their physical abilities, level of education, or any handicaps they may have. I personally think Friday Night games worked well ... something along those lines could be good.

Show nominations in their entirity. Let the viewers hear every single one. It gives us more insight in to how the HMs are thinking. You could even actually show these live without the one or two day pre-recording buffer.

Avoid promos which show evicted HMs before the eviction show has been aired. Avoid making the same mistake in episode guides. The promos and episode guides should simply say "Big Brother Continues" so they don't give anything away. Remember, it's pre-recorded, but only with a one or two day buffer (ie, it is essentially "live"), so the chance of promos or EPGs giving anything way is almost negated anyway. With that one or two day pre-recording buffer, and no way to give anything away to viewers, you encourage viewer interest and water cooler conversations at work. A key thing that made original BB popular back in the day.

I could go on and make this quite a long post. I have plenty of other ideas. But, in summary, showing this live just won't work any more; it would be too boring for viewers in these modern times. But, I think a one day ahead pre-recorded show where the producers can eliminate the risk of "Turkey Slap" moments, and can leave out boring content, should work well. If the tasks and challenges are varied to give any HM a chance of winning, and if nominations were live, then we could be on a winner.

Finally, viewers must vote. Not HMs. And, yes, I agree with Engine, no fake evictions. Strategy chat and alliances should still be allowed ... as this would take on a different light because the public are doing the voting. Not to mention the strat chat would help to give viewers even more insight in to how HMs are thinking and how they might be perceiving what the voting public are thinking. Again, I could go on, but I'll leave it there. There's plenty of ways to spice this thing up. I can only hope that TV execs can see the potential of what they have here.
 
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Freddy, when people say ‘live’, I presume they don’t mean literally just showing live footage of the house, but that the show should go to air as close as possible to when things actually happen, and so the public can exercise influence via the voting system.

Your point about a 2-3 delay so the producers can decide what to show is kind of what classic BB was. The Daily Shows would consist of the highlights/main moments of what happened in the house in the last 24 hours, with the Sunday show being used to catch up on the weekend events. Obviously with a format like that, the producers would pick and choose what to show, and omit anything that they didn’t think would make interesting viewing.
 
Freddy, when people say ‘live’, I presume they don’t mean literally just showing live footage of the house, but that the show should go to air as close as possible to when things actually happen, and so the public can exercise influence via the voting system.

Your point about a 2-3 delay so the producers can decide what to show is kind of what classic BB was. The Daily Shows would consist of the highlights/main moments of what happened in the house in the last 24 hours, with the Sunday show being used to catch up on the weekend events. Obviously with a format like that, the producers would pick and choose what to show, and omit anything that they didn’t think would make interesting viewing.

Exactly. You've summarised my long post perfectly. The old "Daily Shows" do closely resemble what I am suggesting above. And, yes, by showing content so close to when it was recorded, the public can form proper opinions on HMs and exercise influence via the voting system.

This would be win for the viewers, and also a win for producers who, as you correctly point out, can still omit anything that they didn’t think would make interesting viewing. Not only that, but a 1-2 day pre-recording buffer also has an added advantage that it takes away the producers ability to push a particular narrative and guide the show in a particular direction. Instead, it is the public (by voting) and the HMs by forming alliances, doing strat chats, winning challenges, etc, that move the show along. And, any omitted stuff can still be put on 7Plus or the social media or wherever, so that the public can still watch it and use it to gather even more insight and information about HMs.

Geez, in essence, I suppose it is pretty close to (but not exactly) old-style BB. It has strat chat and alliances, fairer tasks and challenges, and is just pre-recorded 1-2 days ahead to ensure entertaining content is shown and avoids potentially risky situations which may crop up if live. I dunno, it all seems like a no-brainer to me.
 
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Freddy, you just literally described how BB was back on 10. It was never 100% live except for the evictions and nominations and what we saw was always pre recorded 24 hours in advance. And if the USA of all places where there is so much choice in entertainment can do online live feeds there is no reason why it can't be done in Australia again, other than producers being complete control freaks.
 
What I would be moving towards is marketing the live streams with a chat function so that people could be watching the the live feeds whenever they wanted and chatting about what is happening and if its not that interesting chatting to each other.

Have a daily show that is just the highlights of the day. I think there could be a challenge to decide HoH - They would have an extra power in noms. No strat talk around Noms. - Maybe Both Australia and Household have a part to play in the voting each week? - We save someone and and then they have to decide how to vote off from there - strat talk is allowed regarding that - strat talk done live on the eviction show.
 
What I would be moving towards is marketing the live streams with a chat function so that people could be watching the the live feeds whenever they wanted and chatting about what is happening and if its not that interesting chatting to each other.
Don't forget Ten shut down their forums after the Belinda incident. Having an unmoderated chat room is a potential risk to the network. But that's why we have our special home here. We did have an IRC chat room before so there's no reason why we couldn't have it again.
 
Don't forget Ten shut down their forums after the Belinda incident. Having an unmoderated chat room is a potential risk to the network. But that's why we have our special home here. We did have an IRC chat room before so there's no reason why we couldn't have it again.
Oh it would have to be moderated but there are plenty of people willing to be mods out there. and live feeds on a slight time delay I would assume just to ensure there is nothing they need to check. But people sit through hours of live streams on you tube doing exactly this - watching and chatting(often paying good money to the content creators to do so) so as a model I think it could work.
 
The show has to be live etc

Have a former HM as host, as they know what to expect etc.

No more strategy talk., no more win challenges to be safe & nominate crap. Have challenges to be HOH etc.
 
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