BB FANS

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A very interesting article.
Having watched Big Brother from 17 countries it really can be addictive dispite the language barriers. Most have one or two contestants that give the show that bit extra that makes you want to watch more.

The subtitle thing is a nice thought though apart from subtitling for the native language which can be done in near realtime for the delayed live feeds ,other languages would be a challenge. For highlights it would be alot easier ,in fact for a show of hightlights it would just mean suppling the show and letting the other broadcaster sort the subtitling.

I have said before that for that addict there could ,if demand was high enough ,be a channel just for Big Brother showing the shows around the world. After all there are at least one show running all year round and for this subtitles would come into their own. The only other problem could be identifing who is actually talking. The old method of assigning a colour to each person is fine in small numbers but in a large group you would run out of options. The other would be to prefix the text with the name of the contestant this in itself would need a key to identify that contestant though adding a bar to the picture with a small picture of the contestants and their name would still be less annoying than some of the SMS and games that currently seem popular in many countries.

One observation a while back was that Endemol removed their International website that used to contain the details of the show worldwide with start dates and links to the homepages. My thoughts on this action fall into two trains ,the first is that they don't want people to follow other series outside of their own country. The second is that Endemol have or are loosing interest in the format hence the lack of time being given to it on their website. Both are possible but as international interest grows and the number of countries buying the format increasing then surely it's in Endemols interests to promote the format even more rather than hide it's devolopement. One thing for certain is that in one form or another it's here to stay for some time to come.

Larry.....

From your knowledge of the BB world do you see any new trends emerging that might be applied to the UK version later on this year? For example has the rich/poor house idea been dropped or Head of House continued anywhere other than the States? Is there a trend towards including more contestants? Or has there been a move back to the original approach?

As for the Endemol BB site .... that is odd. It could just be that they were not getting the hits, with most fans preferring to use the unofficial sites.

The Portugease BB had a glass walled room where two contestants go to stay for a week. The room had a King Sized bed Plasma screen and DVD. But the nominations were done the normal way. This idea was first seen in last years Italian series.
The Portugease series ran for 4 monthes and during that time they had a drill instructor for a week who woke them at ever increasing early time and really put them through their paces.
The started off with a Pig then at one point they introduced I think it was two more ,though these were removed after a short period of time.
They also started like a normal series with 12 contestants then after I think it was 5-6 weeks another 9 were introduced. A lot of the new contestants were teens so producing a mixed format.
They also had visitors via a crane with a cage were a visitor could stand baring gifts. I saw this on a number of occasions ,but it was never a group thing but just for one contestant.

As for Rich/Poor the last series I saw with the format was the German one and they go from really rich to very poor along the lines of the Dutch. Actually on the subject of the Dutch I don't remember seeing any mention of a Dutch series in 2004. Any reference to the old URL takes you to the Endemol site plus I haven't had access to Dutch Satellite tv for about 5 monthes so couldn't if Yorin had a show running.

I know that the Italians are still auditioning for the next series and that the Turkish site has an application form for another series.

One thing I can say is the most countries have alot more tasks to prevent the contestants getting bored. In fact the Portugease went through a lot of the tasks that have been seen in the UK.

The one thing that I think works in the UK is seeing relationships develope ,Paul and Helen are the perfect example. But where sex features alot in other countries from the results of the teen BB it has the opposite effect over here. People like the 'will they ,won't they' rather than the 'they did'.

So in conclusion there doesn't appear to be any new trends ,with nominations remaining a group thing rather than HOH.

What we need is more things to keep the contestants busy so they forget where they are. They results are far better as they let their guard down. Also a few good parties but not booze all the time like BB3. Reduce the level of smoking in the house even if a lot are smokers when they enter the house. This would create the tention as they crave for the nicoteen then add some drink and you have a volatile situation which people like.
There are constant debates on what is needed if they decide to run a series 5. I think the delay in possibly Channel 4 after the reviews they got last year. If they do decide my video is waiting though totally normal after last years.

Thanks for your insights Larry. Much appreciated. I basically agree with you ... the BB5 Hms must be kept busy for precisely the reasons you give.

Yes, I think the housemates need to be kept more occupied. It makes better viewing as well, to see them doing things.

The Paul and Helen romance was very good and kept people watching, and that coupled with Brian's humour, I think, made BB2 a very good series to watch.

Looking again over my reply the comments for the Dutch series should read 2003 not 2004.

I should really proof read before submitting as I often think the words but some of the time I don't type or write the word. Or you'll see the odd wrong word creap in.

Happy new year to all.

I love the BBUS. I wish Endemol would allow the Head of house to become a part of the British show. I loved the way the housemates had to suck up to the head of house and forge alliances with people they dislike to remain in the house. I fear Endemol will never go with the same concept as the BBUS because they make their money from phone votes here, but they will definitely have to have some new ideas for this years show because if it remains the same it will be the end of BBUK.


Happy New Year Larry.

I while back I got the US BB3 DVD boxset which I've only found time to watch the first disk. It's certainly different but I need to watch more of it before drawing conclusions.
I have noted that there is somebody on Ebay from the US who keeps selling US BB2 on 30 VCD but they keep selling for too much. I seem to recall one set going for around $80 !

As you say Endemol rely of the income from the voting so I don't think they'd take the final decission away from the public. Even though they (Endemol) still manage to influence the outcome through misterious ways. After all didn't Ch4 publish on the BB4 homepage at least 2 hours before the final result that Cameron had one ? I do wonder what they would have done of Ray had gained even more votes on the last day and had managed to upset their (Endemol's) plans. While waiting for the gates to open for the final you could here the answers the researcher was being told as she asked people who they thought would win. Most I heard said that they knew Cameron was going to win but that they choice was different ,yet there were still around 1500 people standing for hours in the rain dispite the fact that they knew the final result.

The portugease program had annoying SMS games and SMS messaging in the lower part of the screen on the 24/7 satellite channel which would be enough for me to use the internet feed. I'm sure I read that they did something like that on the E4 feeds but not having E4 here I didn't have to put up with it. This also brings in a good amount and I guess mainly from the younger element.
Also of course we are one of the few countries that charge for the internet feeds. Most countries have at least two free feeds.

Happy new year to everybody

Larry, do you think Endemol didn't want Ray to win BB4?

Well I'm sure their prime candidate was Cameron as was well talked about on most forums from the point of his return from Africa.
I'm not sure they'd wanted someone with Ray's rebelious nature to represent them. But I'm sure given another hour and the results would have been even closer.
I'm not sure how far then would go to ensure their primary choice would be victorious but it did seem odd that they posted the result on the website I think I read it was around two hours early espically when the voting wasn't such a clear cut thing.

But it's happened in other shows where the least obvious contestant receives a surprise result to remove them. Or you find that the voting system doesn't acknowledge your vote when you would expect it to.
I've never had the BB text voting do this but I have with some of the pop programs.

But each to their own. I could be completely wrong.