Leon Murray (old voice of BB) fired at last minute

I was never a fan of Leon's voice.
Poona said:
Thanks for posting. I'd been wondering about more to the story. What a mess! Although I wouldnt be thinking this at all if they hadn't got Leon for the promos! You'd think they had their things in order to get that far. Like we thought Mike Goldman was back because of his involvement in some promos too.

Anyway I dont think Pete Cunningham is really doing it for me. I just look at him as a standin whereas Peter Abbott, Nick Colquhoun and Leon Murray as the main bbs. I dont think Pete can do a big enough voice.
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Pete Cunningham sounds just like a clone of Leon. He even jokes like him. I don't like it at all.

Bring back Nick!
 
Shackles said:
I was never a fan of Leon's voice.

Pete Cunningham sounds just like a clone of Leon. He even jokes like him. I don't like it at all.

Bring back Nick!
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Nick is about as OG as you can get. I wonder where he is these days? I don't dislike Pete even though I think he should've tried to push for his own sound. I'm still waiting to hear a "deputy" this season.

I guess we'll never know if Peter Abbott has anything to do with this reboot since we aren't getting credits. His voice in the background of that influencers video sounded promising.
 
BB101 said:

Don’t forget that back in 2012 Nine did let Leon use the house to film a (mildly funny) promo for his VA work, selling himself as the voice of Big Brother. I don’t inherently see any issue with this
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Lmao I was today years old when I found out that these commercials were voiced by Leon. His voice is completely different 🤣
 
timmy said:
At least technology is cheaper. They'd never have dreamed of HD remote-operated cameras throughout the house in 2001, when 40" plasma screens sold for $14k.
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Every time I watch the 2001 season right now when Gretel talks about the fan prize for best dressed and I hear the price of that tv I’m like do tvs even sell for that much anymore 🤣
 
DigitalCorp said:
AU$800 per line is pretty steep. Is that industry standard?
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Don't believe every single production insight/"I have connections" shit you read on the internet. Some might be true, some might be educated guesses and some is probably just bullshit.

I highly doubt that any of the main voices are getting paid per line, especially not if they involved creatively in the show. Just asking 13 people "Who do you nominate for 2 points", "Who do you nominate for 1 point" and "Return to the lounge." would amount to more than $30,000 if they'd pay their voice by lines.
 
There might be some truth to the being paid per line thing.

I noticed during the YouTube marathons, especially towards the end, the way certain lines were being delivered, they sounded EXACTLY the same week after week. Same pitch, tone, tempo etc. I suspect that they make the bulk of their money at the start as an archive of recordings is built up, but they are in the booth ready to go if a line that isn't already recorded is required deeper into the season. There was one eviction where they used the Rewards Room as the exit room and Big Brother addressed the last housemate who was still in the room after the eviction as "Housemate in the Rewards Room" rather than just saying their name when telling them to return to the house.

Could justify the high price tag at face value so that overall they get paid a certain amount.
 
Rison said:
There was one eviction where they used the Rewards Room as the exit room and Big Brother addressed the last housemate who was still in the room after the eviction as "Housemate in the Rewards Room" rather than just saying their name when telling them to return to the house.
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No, that was because they didn't want to spoil who the surviving HM was to the rest of the house.

I agree about the rest though, the announcements did start to sound suspiciously like recordings.
 
Rison said:
There might be some truth to the being paid per line thing.
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I think the truth would be that any pre-recorded line might be charged per line.

But I don't see them paying anyone per line when they are on set anyways.. when I first read the claim, I had various BB voices from around the world on my mind throwing in some random remarks and thinking: Would they want to pay a voice that's been on set for a couple of hours a couple of hundred bucks just to say things like "immediately means instantaneously". Also, Colin's therapy sessions with BB would have probably been too expensive for 10, if they had to pay per line.

Add to that the claim that Leon wanted to have creative control.. that's when they would have to negotiate a flat fee anyways.
 
dasnico said:
They’ve already been playing up to them. They were speaking directly to them in some podcast game on the live feed yesterday.
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With Colin especially, I think we'd even see him playing up to camera mirrors. He might miss the correct mirror, but he'd certainly look out for cues. Big Brother just needs to tell him off.
 
I think in regards to Leon, I think 10 made the right call in switching things up. Leon was fine, and I respect what he did as Big Brother in 08, and the three Nine seasons, but asking for a huge check and creative control was definitely a step too far.

I'm starting to warm up to Pete Cunningham, but I would still prefer to listen to Nick (if for no other reason than the fact that he was the first Big Brother I remember hearing when I first watched the show back in 2005).

I'll miss Leon and the quirks he brought to the voice of Big Brother, but at the end of the day, a switch up was the right move.
 
kamui said:
I think the truth would be that any pre-recorded line might be charged per line.

But I don't see them paying anyone per line when they are on set anyways.. when I first read the claim, I had various BB voices from around the world on my mind throwing in some random remarks and thinking: Would they want to pay a voice that's been on set for a couple of hours a couple of hundred bucks just to say things like "immediately means instantaneously". Also, Colin's therapy sessions with BB would have probably been too expensive for 10, if they had to pay per line.

Add to that the claim that Leon wanted to have creative control.. that's when they would have to negotiate a flat fee anyways.
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To be fair, Big Brother is the boss. If Leon wanted more creative control of the game, he should have applied to be a producer, or an Alex Mavroidakis figure. You know, attend all the production meetings and so on.
 
Utter disgrace, most disappointing move they could have made is not including Leon!
Although Pete is great he is not Leon, they should have been working side by side.

As well as creative control - he knows what is up for the OG brand.

He is capable of getting more out of housemates than anyone else!
 
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Estelle.Landy said:
Utter disgrace, most disappointing move they could have made is not including Leon!
Although Pete is great he is not Leon, they should have been working side by side.

As well as creative control - he knows what is up for the OG brand.

He is capable of getting more out of housemates than anyone else!
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Good to see you back here again Estelle and being able to give some further insight with things.

I wasn't sure if Leon or anyone known of previously would be doing Big Brother again for the new series but when they actually got Leon backed to do some promos I was so psyched! They were bringing back a previous main Big Brother voice as well as Mike Goldman it seemed as he was involved in the promos too. So it's almost like channel 7 period was being deleted (well apart from when you, Tully, Dave, drew, tim and such came back for one of the series, which i appreciated).

Yet when the show actually started Leon is nowhere to be heard! Just so surprising they pulled him in for the promos where I saw a lot of excitement at his return on instagram, facebook and such and then when the show starts, it's like hes nowhere to be found?
 
It's absolutely ridiculous how much attention who the voice is has got this year. Big Brother should be known only as the voice of Big Brother, not who plays him, and feels like a mistake using voice over artists rather who build their part rather than a producer who would more likely respect the role Big Brother is there to play.
 
Brekkie said:
It's absolutely ridiculous how much attention who the voice is has got this year. Big Brother should be known only as the voice of Big Brother, not who plays him, and feels like a mistake using voice over artists rather who build their part rather than a producer who would more likely respect the role Big Brother is there to play.
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You do have a point but given the direction they’ve taken with the role I’m not certain a producer would do any better. The “personality” aspect of BB is definitely a direction coming from up the chain.
 
Brekkie said:
It's absolutely ridiculous how much attention who the voice is has got this year. Big Brother should be known only as the voice of Big Brother, not who plays him, and feels like a mistake using voice over artists rather who build their part rather than a producer who would more likely respect the role Big Brother is there to play.
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That mistake was made years ago when Australia specifically created a much more in-depth BB character that’s become synonymous with the show. Back then producers were doing the voice (Nick, for example, was a producer and his deputies were control room producers) and I assume in an effort to keep building on it we got Leon starting in 08 specifically because he was an up and coming voice over artist.

As Kingston said, it’s all coming up the chain. I’m sure Pete has an idea about how he personally would play the role but is ultimately out ranked. It’s still better than the creepy HAL9000 voice used in the previous iteration.
 
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