Made it to the end now - was a great first series and I'm a bit baffled I didn't watch it last year. The casting is as brilliant as the second, though some of the latecomers are obviously eviction fodder to protect the originals. Sian though should have owned her move more as though it wasn't mentioned she clearly made a move towards the end which ensured the final 4 was originals - had she gone with the obvious choice I don't think they would be.
Production wise there was a bit too much changing of how they blocked people, all announced after the ratings were done. That is something I think they improved on in the second series thanks to having a live show to announce such "twists". Also glad the changed it from 5 star ratings to a ranking system for the second series - not sure if it was confirmed subsequently but basically Dan chose the winner by being the only one not to rate tactically and give everyone 1/2 stars. They really should have stipulated that in the early rounds they to give each score (1-5) to at least one person, then for the final I think they should have said they had to award at least 7 stars to the three other finalists (so could score 5,1,1 or 3,2,2 for example).
Obviously we saw very little of the presenters in series 1 but I'm without doubt that either Alice or Maya should have been retained. Probably wasn't the need for both of them, but they worked well enough together for the final and IMO offered something different to Emma Willis, who though a safe pair of hands I just don't think they should have gone for someone so linked with Big Brother.
Production wise there was a bit too much changing of how they blocked people, all announced after the ratings were done. That is something I think they improved on in the second series thanks to having a live show to announce such "twists". Also glad the changed it from 5 star ratings to a ranking system for the second series - not sure if it was confirmed subsequently but basically Dan chose the winner by being the only one not to rate tactically and give everyone 1/2 stars. They really should have stipulated that in the early rounds they to give each score (1-5) to at least one person, then for the final I think they should have said they had to award at least 7 stars to the three other finalists (so could score 5,1,1 or 3,2,2 for example).
Obviously we saw very little of the presenters in series 1 but I'm without doubt that either Alice or Maya should have been retained. Probably wasn't the need for both of them, but they worked well enough together for the final and IMO offered something different to Emma Willis, who though a safe pair of hands I just don't think they should have gone for someone so linked with Big Brother.