How I'd improve Ch7's Big Brother

[freddy]

I also agree that we’ve lost the essence of what big brother is - chucking a bunch of strangers into a house, being a representation of society, and watching their social interaction and bonds form. Learning about the housemate’s lives and vulnerabilities. In the early era, we got to know the housemates so well and that’s why those housemates have left such an impression and why the “OGs” concept works. People feel connected to those housemates because we really got to know them. So many interesting people have come and gone in the new era and we haven’t really gotten to know them.

Agree with the sentiments above, that even if we need to have this new game format to keep people interested, we need a platform to actually get to know the people, their stories and lives and normal interactions in the house, that isn’t the 10 min highly edited piece. Whether that’s on an app/website or 7plus or whoever picks this up next. The essence of big brother has been lost, which is why I fell in love with big brother brother the first place. Heck, these days Love Island is more like Big Brother than actual Big Brother. Watching the UK version at the moment and you have daily shows, voting and live interaction and a hand in what happens in the villa/house. Not sure why we can’t have that in Big Brother anymore.

Reggie will win because we actually feel like we know her and love her. She was a part of our lives for 3 months and we laughed and cried with her. We want the best for her. She is “our Reggie”. I can’t say that for any of the new housemates that we’ve had in the 7 era unfortunately. I don’t have any emotional connection with them. Some have “played a great game” which is all they can be judged on because we don’t really know them.

Bringing back a live component with live event television on Sundays is also needed imo.

If this is to return, hopefully more elements from the OG era return. Give the people what they want… the OGs are popular for a reason and that’s because they’re associated with the OG version of BB! The show (especially the 10 era) has always been a big part of my life, enjoying the social interactions and experiment and seeing how these people would form natural relationships in that amplified bubble. The event television and having a say in the outcome of the game week to week.

Hopefully the introduction of OGs this season is the start of introducing OG format in more ways that just nominations.

We need daily content, we need live, we need interaction with the house, we need event television. We can only hope.

I could not have said it any better.

 

[Sleepysonic]

Do any of you also see an angle where we need a LIVE format, from a mental-health perspective?

With more isolated living, whether from our technology, or the world happenings, people are spending less time together than before, and witnessing less of other people spending time together.
That's kind of important to us, as tribal humans. We learn through human expression, mostly, don't we?

Now with isolation, more people are turning to tiktoks, instagram, and the trashiest-of-"reality"-tv as their influence of what is normal and "real" for witnessing other humans interacting...
I feel it's corrupting us and...
Just having a LIVE house, with real people, having real conversations, detached from the noise of the world, would be a lovely thing to see.

And games are fun, but to the core of it, Big Brother was a "psychological experiment", wasn't it?
I think there's room for both. I hope so. I don't care what we name it, I don't care how it's attached, but I really think it's a bit of "reality" that could help to heal the world rather than the opposite, if done right.

 

[up_all_night]

Just having a LIVE house, with real people, having real conversations, detached from the noise of the world, would be a lovely thing to see.

It really would. There was a whole experience to following along in real time which is lost.

I also really think they'd kill it with the live stream if they brought that back. Although it probably wouldn't quite work with the current format of the show.

As much as they are worried about turkey slaps, I think they're more concerned about social media spoiling everything but it honestly doesn't matter. Knowing Taras would win last night didn't ruin the episode.

A shift to a more online, real time format would only help regain attention. People checking their Instagrams, Twitters, Facebooks, Tiktoks or whatever and seeing constant updates would work well to keep people engaged.

I used to see things on live streams then look forward to seeing them in the daily shows.

 

[Sleepysonic]

I used to see things on live streams then look forward to seeing them in the daily shows.

Yeah I feel the same. It felt so cool to be kind of the first to know as well. I remember the website would have a chronological kind of diary of moments happening in BBAU.
Something amazing about watching Tim's Big Brother Canada season was that a fan created an Adobe Air app that basically had access to weeks and weeks of live footage, and you could rewind so much.
Fans would go through and bookmark all the key moments of strategy that happened in the game... You could almost watch a whole 'daily show' by simply watching the community bookmarks...
Imagine that, your whole daily show being basically edited by the fans in real-time lol.

I've worked on a 24/7 live "online streaming community" project that was semi-inspired by the live aspect of Big Brother, but there's no substitute for actually filming people who are interacting TOGETHER...
I mean everyone is addicted to swiping on their phones... $20 a month, and swipe all you like through live cams of a big brother-like house... How would that not take off? I can pirate everything else on the other streaming platforms, but I wouldn't be able to pirate live video very easily 'live'.

 

[Isee]

Yeah I feel the same. It felt so cool to be kind of the first to know as well. I remember the website would have a chronological kind of diary of moments happening in BBAU.
Something amazing about watching Tim's Big Brother Canada season was that a fan created an Adobe Air app that basically had access to weeks and weeks of live footage, and you could rewind so much.
Fans would go through and bookmark all the key moments of strategy that happened in the game... You could almost watch a whole 'daily show' by simply watching the community bookmarks...
Imagine that, your whole daily show being basically edited by the fans in real-time lol.

I've worked on a 24/7 live "online streaming community" project that was semi-inspired by the live aspect of Big Brother, but there's no substitute for actually filming people who are interacting TOGETHER...
I mean everyone is addicted to swiping on their phones... $20 a month, and swipe all you like through live cams of a big brother-like house... How would that not take off? I can pirate everything else on the other streaming platforms, but I wouldn't be able to pirate live video very easily 'live'.

This is "event TV" that would get me excited to be watching again. Interactive watching of things happening in real time.

 

[Sleepysonic]

This is "event TV" that would get me excited to be watching again. Interactive watching of things happening in real time.

And like, even whatever talk show styles you could put on the side...
They WOULD be watched as well, and there's opportunity to add tons of outside flavour and opinions with that, and get conversations going.
So much of Russell Brand's centeredness comes from his interest in the psychology of people, and thus, that's why he worked so well as the host of Big Mouth on the UK version, and why he's so big now with the same kind of angle on YouTube.

I just hope that whoever inevitably catches on to how valuable such a thing could be, will actually do it RIGHT... Not bastardised away from live streams, not unless it was a stepping stone to getting there in the end. I don't understand how in the world I can see the most outrageous stuff live streamed over tiktok, for free, and we can't just get a house filmed 24/7 with some ritualistic rules to it all. Endemol must be run by such a bunch of stupid people honestly. /endrant

 

[Isee]

And like, even whatever talk show styles you could put on the side...
They WOULD be watched as well, and there's opportunity to add tons of outside flavour and opinions with that, and get conversations going.
So much of Russell Brand's centeredness comes from his interest in the psychology of people, and thus, that's why he worked so well as the host of Big Mouth on the UK version, and why he's so big now with the same kind of angle on YouTube.

I just hope that whoever inevitably catches on to how valuable such a thing could be, will actually do it RIGHT... Not bastardised away from live streams, not unless it was a stepping stone to getting there in the end. I don't understand how in the world I can see the most outrageous stuff live streamed over tiktok, for free, and we can't just get a house filmed 24/7 with some ritualistic rules to it all. Endemol must be run by such a bunch of stupid people honestly. /endrant

through the depp/heard trial there were lawyers, body language experts, psychologists etc all doing reaction videos to the trial. So you could have the same kind of thing - people with different expertise weighing in to any occurances alng with ex housemates and superfans.

 

[Sleepysonic]

through the depp/heard trial there were lawyers, body language experts, psychologists etc all doing reaction videos to the trial. So you could have the same kind of thing - people with different expertise weighing in to any occurances alng with ex housemates and superfans.

I did see a bit of that popping up everywhere! It was cool.
You wouldn't think it at first, but there are literally fans of following 'court cases' , who treat it like a reality gameshow... lol yeah!
Even relates with the people inside *supposedly* not watching the case or aware of the outside perspective.
And that meshes it into this beast of attention, with lots of emotional attachment with the audience, and an amount of depth each viewer can kind of CHOOSE to go down.
I mostly just watched the funny moments on youtube, and omg that crazy psychologist guy...

idk how the world can turn this far away from the core big brother format after "david's dead!" happened on bbuk.
So iconic.
It's like people don't want money lol.

 

[Bertrendo]

The series airs similar to the runtime of filming so if they wanted they could keep the main 3 episode game on seven and then a 30 minute daily shows exclusive to 7plus. That way they can keep the two things separate enough that casual viewers who don’t want to keep up with daily content can just watch the main broadcast. It also would boost visits to seven plus if they exclusively have daily episodes there.

Similar to how Love Island Australia was in the first season with 9Go and 9Now being heavily used. And we can see with current streaming numbers watching Love Island UK in Australia, it would be successful

 

[Brekkie]

Trying to work out how you improve things knowing it'll still be pre-recorded next year. Honesty and integrity is a major issue with the show, and there is something about being live which adds a level of authenticity you just don't get in this pre-recorded format. They need to eliminate all fake evictions for starters to eliminate most questions about the authenticitiy of what we're seeing.

Also having two different formats each week was ridiculous, something which suggests the producers weren't really sure what to do. However the house nominations kind of did add something, though the Head of House was a completely redundant role.

I think based on what they've done this year I'd evolve it to a two-episode cycle for every eviction (there really wasn't much stopping them airing Sundays this year) and kind of pick the best elements of the two formats to create one consistent eviction format:

Episode 1
- Nominations Challenge. Winner nominates two people.
- House Nominations. House vote to choose a third nominee. Ties broken by winner of Challenge.

Episode 2
- Save Challenge. Nominees compete, winner is saved.
- Eviction vote. Housemates vote between the two nominees. Nomination Challenge winner has the casting vote if tied.


Add the shopping challenges and KFC challenges where they fit best. Have no fake evictions at all - but if they do need to up numbers they can have a "Battle Back" between say the first 4 evictees. If they want another non-eviction cycle repeat a simple BBUSA twist of a few years back where everyone in the house gets an envelope, one of which contains a "Return ticket". These are only opened after the eviction, and the holder of the "return ticket" gets to return to the house.


I think that's about the best they can do to rescue something from what they have, plus vastly improving the variety of challenges too. I've only seen a couple this year but they are generally good set pieces when viewed individually, but so repetitive when viewed collectively across the season.

 

[freddy]

Here's another question from me out of left field ...

What if they keep the existing format, exactly as it is ... pre-recorded, with challenges, house nominations, strat chat, housemates vote to evict, everything ...

... but they add one additional day to the viewing schedule (so, we would get Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday night). The extra viewing night has no nominations, no strat chat, no challenges ... none of that ... it is a "get to know the housemates better" night. This extra viewing night is purely to show housemate conversations, spa interactions, chats while sunbathing, and anything else that allows us to get to know the housemates better. In other words, it takes a leaf out of the original BB format's book.

With this idea, Ch 7 still gets their "Survivor in a house" show, but we also get to understand the housemates more, get to know their habits, get to see if they are thoughtful or selfish, get to know their personalities and what makes them tick. One nightly episode (Thursday) may not be enough for us to really get to know them well. But it would be a darn sight better than not knowing them at all. And this, especially considering the public votes at the end.

 

[rj90]

Here's another question from me out of left field ...

What if they keep the existing format, exactly as it is ... pre-recorded, with challenges, house nominations, strat chat, housemates vote to evict, everything ...

... but they add one additional day to the viewing schedule (so, we would get Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday night). The extra viewing night has no nominations, no strat chat, no challenges ... none of that ... it is a "get to know the housemates better" night. This extra viewing night is purely to show housemate conversations, spa interactions, chats while sunbathing, and anything else that allows us to get to know the housemates better.

With this idea, Ch 7 still gets their "Survivor in a house" show, but we also get to understand the housemates more, get to know their habits, get to see if they are thoughtful or selfish, get to know their personalities. One show may not be enough for us to really get to know them well. But it would be a darn sight better than not knowing them at all. And this, especially considering the public votes at the end.

Nup, still a big no from me.
Just an additional day of suffering.

The whole formal needs a shake up.

 

[freddy]

Just an additional day of suffering.

Yeah, that's a fair call. I don't necessarily disagree. Still, I wonder if it might attract some viewers. Heck, people might decide to tune in on that night only; it could turn out to be a kind of nostalgic way to view the Ch 7 format.

The whole formal needs a shake up.

Yes, I do agree. But in lieu of the fact that I cannot see that happening, it was an idea that popped in to my head for discussion.

 

[Afflllate]

through the depp/heard trial there were lawyers, body language experts, psychologists etc all doing reaction videos to the trial. So you could have the same kind of thing - people with different expertise weighing in to any occurances alng with ex housemates and superfans.

This used to be a thing in the early seasons with Carmen Hill. @CarmelHill IS A THEXY THYCHOLOGIST lol.

 

[rj90]

Yeah, that's a fair call. I don't necessarily disagree. Still, I wonder if it might attract some viewers. Heck, people might decide to tune in on that night only; it could turn out to be a kind of nostalgic way to view the Ch 7 format.

Yes, I do agree. But in lieu of the fact that I cannot see that happening, it was an idea that popped in to my head for discussion.

I think @marquisite had a good suggestion:

Seven, if you're reading...:
If you're still sticking to pre-recording despite the ongoing cries from BB fans, then next time at a minimum please pick an hour out of each day in the house to film for later online distribution, unedited (aside from any required censorship bleeps). These would be released for streaming at the conclusion of each TV episode. They will be a chance for the fans to see past the sketchy editing and actually get some clue about who the housemates are. Without a doubt live is best, though.

Rather than an additional ep, roll out something on 7Plus for viewers to watch. Or even throw a show onto one of the multi channels.

The problem is 7 wants to control the narrative and manipulate the show so much, we will never get what we want or truly deserve.

 

[freddy]

Trying to work out how you improve things knowing it'll still be pre-recorded next year. Honesty and integrity is a major issue with the show, and there is something about being live which adds a level of authenticity you just don't get in this pre-recorded format. They need to eliminate all fake evictions for starters to eliminate most questions about the authenticitiy of what we're seeing.

I agree with Brekkie's whole post, but I've deleted the bottom of it and left only the top bit in the quote above because I think this is the most valid point of all ...

"They need to eliminate .... questions about the authenticitiy of what we're seeing."

... whether they do that by removing fake evictions or not, I am not sure ... but they do need to 100% eliminate any and all suspicions and perceptions that the show is rigged.

 

[freddy]

Seven, if you're reading...:
If you're still sticking to pre-recording despite the ongoing cries from BB fans, then next time at a minimum please pick an hour out of each day in the house to film for later online distribution, unedited (aside from any required censorship bleeps). These would be released for streaming at the conclusion of each TV episode. They will be a chance for the fans to see past the sketchy editing and actually get some clue about who the housemates are. Without a doubt live is best, though.

Rather than an additional ep, roll out something on 7Plus for viewers to watch. Or even throw a show onto one of the multi channels.

The problem is 7 wants to control the narrative and manipulate the show so much, we will never get what we want or truly deserve.

. We simply need "something" to get to know the HMs better. I suggested that could air on an additional day ... but, yes, I'd also be happy with that being released for streaming or put on 7Plus.

And, you're right, the problem is indeed that 7 seems to want to control the narrative and manipulate the show so much that we will never get what we want or deserve.

 

[Isee]

Here's another question from me out of left field ...

What if they keep the existing format, exactly as it is ... pre-recorded, with challenges, house nominations, strat chat, housemates vote to evict, everything ...

... but they add one additional day to the viewing schedule (so, we would get Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday night). The extra viewing night has no nominations, no strat chat, no challenges ... none of that ... it is a "get to know the housemates better" night. This extra viewing night is purely to show housemate conversations, spa interactions, chats while sunbathing, and anything else that allows us to get to know the housemates better. In other words, it takes a leaf out of the original BB format's book.

With this idea, Ch 7 still gets their "Survivor in a house" show, but we also get to understand the housemates more, get to know their habits, get to see if they are thoughtful or selfish, get to know their personalities and what makes them tick. One nightly episode (Thursday) may not be enough for us to really get to know them well. But it would be a darn sight better than not knowing them at all. And this, especially considering the public votes at the end.

I think what could be confusing, as it was in rhe channel nine error when they had recap show, but this show moves even quicker, is that you will probably end up with things in the getting to know you show that is sequentially out of order with the rest of the show, and you could be showing evicted people still there etc. It could be done but would have to be clearly communicated so casual viewers don't get totally lost.

 

[Bertrendo]

A daily show exclusive to 7Plus would be a huge home run for the show. It’s a relatively cheap show to produce so squeeze as much content out of it as you possibly can!

 

[freddy]

I think what could be confusing, as it was in rhe channel nine error when they had recap show, but this show moves even quicker, is that you will probably end up with things in the getting to know you show that is sequentially out of order with the rest of the show, and you could be showing evicted people still there etc. It could be done but would have to be clearly communicated so casual viewers don't get totally lost.

Yeah, I did think of this too. I don't have an answer for it either. It would definitely be hard to cut and edit it all together in the right order. So perhaps a "recap" kind of show, on the Thursday might the the order of the day. Maybe bring back Mike Goldman. But, again, you're right, even a recap show could end up being confusing. Perhaps, as per marquisite's post, the HM interactions footage would be better released for streaming or put on 7Plus (ala Bertrendo's post above). I don't care how they do it, I (we) need a way to get to know the HMs better.