GuardianIs it too late for Channel 4 to revive Big Brother's fortunes?What can the programme-makers do to reignite the spark that made previous series of Big Brother a success?There have been stories about Big Brother going off the boil before. But it seems that 2009 is the year when viewers fell out of love with the reality programme that kickstarted a genre. The programme may still have a strong core audience, but it is the first summer I've spent in an office where there hasn't been even a mutter of gossip about Big Brother since it launched. Mark Lawson has been arguing why that might be in today's G2, and crucially, he thinks, eight years is about as long as a successful entertainment format can expect to hold the public's attention.
Which leaves Channel 4 with something of a problem. Not only is this BB10 – but there will also be a BB11. This year's Big Brother might have failed to capture the imaginations of both television viewers and the press, but the broadcaster has a deal with the show's producer, Endemol, for another series next summer. In other situations, the broadcaster could quietly dump a series that wasn't performing. Here, Channel 4 will have to try and make the best of it.
Moving Big Brother off Channel 4 and onto E4 might be one solution – as happened with last year's Celebrity Big Brother - although that feels more like brushing the problem under the carpet, or at least slightly out of harm's way, rather than tackling the question of how to reinvigorate the format. But what are the other options? If people are choosing to avoid the housemates' antics this year, what can Channel 4 and Endemol do to tempt them back?
The show is no stranger to stunts and gimmicks. This year ex-housemates were sent back into the house to celebrate the show's 10th anniversary – and also, one presumes, to reignite the spark that had made previous series into ratings successes. But do the programme makers have a stunt big enough to save BB11? And how would you suggest Channel 4 went about making next summer's show less of a washout than this?
My starting point would be the housemates: anyone who had made any attempt to be famous before Big Brother would be instantly thrown out, and only those who failed a special Big Brother: the past 10 years quiz would be allowed in. That way, there would be the smallest chance that the housemates might be actual, interesting people rather than fame-seeking missiles that will stop at nothing to get some press coverage. And – this is maybe reflecting the fact I am no longer in my 20s, let alone my teens, here – I'd also make them a bit older.
But if Big Brother has failed to capture the attention of the nation's teenagers and students in the way it first did in 2000, then there are only two ways for Channel 4 to play it. Try to encourage a new audience to engage with what is now an old format, or try to win your original audience back. The return of the ex-housemates appeared to be a nod in the original-viewer direction. But that didn't really solve the problem that 2009's batch of housemates were still in evidence.
I may of course just have rosy-eyed nostalgia for the good old days when I didn't find screeching people locked in a house extremely irritating. Everything seems better in retrospect. But do you have any good ideas for reviving Big Brother? Share them – for a genre-defining programme, it would be fitting to see it go out on a high note next year. And at the moment, that seems a bit unlikely.
