It's over. Finally. For another year. Well, six months if you include Celebrity Big Brother. Actually, I've always had a fondness for Big Brother. I thought the first series was genuinely remarkable television: the concept of strangers cooped up together under 24-hr TV surveillance was something often proposed in the media (in fiction, The Truman Show took it to an extreme a few years earlier.)It was always assumed by British TV bosses that such a TV show would be fundamentally boring, however. Just watching people live together sounded like a recipe for the worst television viewing ever. But BB proved it could work. Of course, BB's premise itself meant the drama could be continually nudged along with tasks, etc, but the real highlight of BB1 came from "Nasty" Nick Bateman. I still consider him one of the greatest BB housemates -– a true "villain" caught cheating and exposed to the nation on live TV (well, webcam in those early days). Fantastic stuff.
BB2 was just as successful, helped no end by the fervour for the show's return. I think they cast the show much better in the second year, and the whole "BB overlord" aspect became more fun and interesting.
BB3 was a bit mixed bag looking back, but still a lot of fun thanks to the twists introduced (remember Rich House/Poor House?) Of course, BB3 is most notable for introducing the world to Jade Goody. Love her or hate her, she's perhaps the quintessential BB housemate and easily the most successful since leaving the house. I think this was also the series where BB became more skewed in favour of pure entertainment and the likes of BB spin-off show Big Brother's Little Brother capitalized on that fact.
Now, BB4... oh dear. What a shambles. Incredibly poor casting meant a house full of nice but boring people, typified by Scottish winner Cameron Stout. There were a few highlights (the BB crossover with Africa, Jon Tickle's witticisms), but that was about it.
Endemol must have gotten scared by the BB4 trashing, so BB5 seemed to have more outrageous characters. As with most BB's, the "outrageous" people soon calmed down quite a bit, and BB5 was quite enjoyable for Victor's faux tough guy act, and Michelle Bass' bunny-boiler routine.
BB6 was a bit weird, wasn't it? The Secret Housemates idea was interesting, but nothing much really stood out beyond Kinga's antics with a wine bottle! Gross. There were lots of absolutely bizarre people in the house, but their combined antics just deadened the "reality" for me.
And so to BB7. Pete won ("W*NKER") which is a result I was really against. He just annoyed the hell out of me for weeks on end, and now get £100,000. Humph. I don't want to come across as unsympathetic to those with Tourettes Syndrome, but it just irked me that whenever he was clearly on camera his "wild and crazy" routine would escalate. They say it was because of nerves, but it just came across as false to me.
Beyond Pete, BB7 was almost a car wreck on several occasions. We had multiple walk-outs very early on, meaning more housemates were brought in quite early in the run. Then a housemate was "evicted" to a House-Next-Door, where she met new housemates who would eventually enter into the main house (well, all but one...) Then a Golden Ticket winner moved into the house! Then a housemate, who was evicted weeks earlier, was voted back into the house!
It was all very, very contrived stuff. The producers were clearly scrambling to keep things interesting when faced with the diminishing housemates and long stretches of boredom (13 weeks is too long for BB!) Plus, the classic BB problem of the public voting out the INTERESTING housemates, and leaving us with the dregs raised its ugly head again (although, to be fair, this year's finalists -– all SIX of them – were a better mix than expected).
Anyway, we all know Celebrity Big Brother has been better than normal BB for a few years now anyway, so roll on January!
Now, onto X-Factor!
