Plank
14-08-2007, 12:56 PM
Daily Mirror
http://www.mirror.co.uk/showbiz/tv/s...9520-19622387/ (http://www.mirror.co.uk/showbiz/tv/shelleyvision/2007/08/14/big-brother-s-on-its-death-bbed-89520-19622387/)
It's pretty clear we are watching (or, if the ratings are anything to go by, not watching) the death throes of Big Brother.
As someone who happily tuned in to most of the previous seven outings and all 76 days of this one, this series has become unwatchable. So much so that I'm taking a stand and switching it off.
So it's goodbye to the Shelley-ometer and good riddance to Big Brother. And here's why I believe it's time to board up the Big Brother house and throw away the keys for good...
1. The chattering classes might regard BB as a byword for everything that is inane about television but the original idea was brilliant.
Big Brother was a human zoo, a show about people-watching, which is something we all do whether we admit it or not, be it on the beach, in the office or spying on the neighbours' back garden.
That whole concept has gone. No one on the show is capable of acting natural any more.
Viewers are not interested in fakes. From calculated males such as Ziggy and Liam to game-plan girls like Chanelle and Amy, everything is aimed at finding favour with the audience. And the prize is fame - not the poxy 100 grand, which is an irrelevance.
2. The way Ziggy and Chanelle paired up was obviously intended to maximise their celebrity.
"My boyfriend's a pop star," she cooed, as the embarrassing ex-boyband bozo re-enacted his one-hit wonder, and dreamed of the scenes as they went shopping and were treated as the new David and Victoria. Fatally, they've finished the idea of spontaneous relationships for good.
3. Even Chanelle and Charley, two of BB's best-ever characters, only illustrate its malaise.
Girls like these, Amy and even the beatific twins have brazenly used the show as their personal audition for life outside as a D-list celebrity - constantly performing pop songs, doing dance routines and acting as wannabe TV presenters.
The likes of Gerry, Tracey, David and Seany - who could do BB as their specialist subject on Mastermind - turned themselves into tiresome "colourful characters", designed to attract publicity.
4. Thanks to Jade, her wretched mother and revolting boyfriend, Big Brother has gone from being a show that existed purely to be talked about to a production running scared of controversy. Like Wife Swap, this has made it totally redundant.
5. The housemate about to be voted out has become so obvious that what was meant to be the highlight of the week's shows (eviction night) has now become the most pointless programme of the week. After Pete, Nadia and now Brian, even the winner has become completely predictable.
6. The face of the show, Davina McCall, has become a twitching, gurning, modernday version of Mrs Overall. Too old to be getting so excited and desperate to prove she can be "amusing", she is like some embarrassing auntie trying to bond with her teenage niece.
She has never recovered from the show's decision to "go evil" on the housemates, which left her rubbing her hands with glee one minute and then trying to be a shoulder for them to cry on the next.
7. The cheapskate tasks and japes in this series have been utterly tedious - as appealing as a 5th Form end-of-term party.
8. The calibre of contestants is so unimaginative it's pitiful - consisting of "glamour models" (yawn), shameless chavs like Shanessa and professionally "zany" fruitcakes like Jonty.
When a charmless, conniving, sexless, spineless opportunist like Ziggy is one of the more acceptable specimens in the show, then it's time to give up.
9. The final nail in the coffin was C4's decision to tamper with the formula - rigging the nominations to protect Charley, putting contestants who had been voted out back in and randomly moving housemates in and out of the halfway house.
The show wants to exploit and humiliate what it sees as working-class pond-life like Shanessa and Charley, and laugh at thick kids like Brian and the twins, get them drunk and let them loose on each other. But, after Jade, it's lost its bottle.
Big Brother has effectively committed television suicide
I agree with everything that has been said in there. All the housemates go on there for is fame and the way that big brother has manipulated things this year has gone to far. Big Brother basically decides who is evicted by manipulating the editing to only show good sides (or only bad) of people.
And the viewing figures this year have been very bad. The tasks are lame and it's boring. Is this the end of BB?
http://www.mirror.co.uk/showbiz/tv/s...9520-19622387/ (http://www.mirror.co.uk/showbiz/tv/shelleyvision/2007/08/14/big-brother-s-on-its-death-bbed-89520-19622387/)
It's pretty clear we are watching (or, if the ratings are anything to go by, not watching) the death throes of Big Brother.
As someone who happily tuned in to most of the previous seven outings and all 76 days of this one, this series has become unwatchable. So much so that I'm taking a stand and switching it off.
So it's goodbye to the Shelley-ometer and good riddance to Big Brother. And here's why I believe it's time to board up the Big Brother house and throw away the keys for good...
1. The chattering classes might regard BB as a byword for everything that is inane about television but the original idea was brilliant.
Big Brother was a human zoo, a show about people-watching, which is something we all do whether we admit it or not, be it on the beach, in the office or spying on the neighbours' back garden.
That whole concept has gone. No one on the show is capable of acting natural any more.
Viewers are not interested in fakes. From calculated males such as Ziggy and Liam to game-plan girls like Chanelle and Amy, everything is aimed at finding favour with the audience. And the prize is fame - not the poxy 100 grand, which is an irrelevance.
2. The way Ziggy and Chanelle paired up was obviously intended to maximise their celebrity.
"My boyfriend's a pop star," she cooed, as the embarrassing ex-boyband bozo re-enacted his one-hit wonder, and dreamed of the scenes as they went shopping and were treated as the new David and Victoria. Fatally, they've finished the idea of spontaneous relationships for good.
3. Even Chanelle and Charley, two of BB's best-ever characters, only illustrate its malaise.
Girls like these, Amy and even the beatific twins have brazenly used the show as their personal audition for life outside as a D-list celebrity - constantly performing pop songs, doing dance routines and acting as wannabe TV presenters.
The likes of Gerry, Tracey, David and Seany - who could do BB as their specialist subject on Mastermind - turned themselves into tiresome "colourful characters", designed to attract publicity.
4. Thanks to Jade, her wretched mother and revolting boyfriend, Big Brother has gone from being a show that existed purely to be talked about to a production running scared of controversy. Like Wife Swap, this has made it totally redundant.
5. The housemate about to be voted out has become so obvious that what was meant to be the highlight of the week's shows (eviction night) has now become the most pointless programme of the week. After Pete, Nadia and now Brian, even the winner has become completely predictable.
6. The face of the show, Davina McCall, has become a twitching, gurning, modernday version of Mrs Overall. Too old to be getting so excited and desperate to prove she can be "amusing", she is like some embarrassing auntie trying to bond with her teenage niece.
She has never recovered from the show's decision to "go evil" on the housemates, which left her rubbing her hands with glee one minute and then trying to be a shoulder for them to cry on the next.
7. The cheapskate tasks and japes in this series have been utterly tedious - as appealing as a 5th Form end-of-term party.
8. The calibre of contestants is so unimaginative it's pitiful - consisting of "glamour models" (yawn), shameless chavs like Shanessa and professionally "zany" fruitcakes like Jonty.
When a charmless, conniving, sexless, spineless opportunist like Ziggy is one of the more acceptable specimens in the show, then it's time to give up.
9. The final nail in the coffin was C4's decision to tamper with the formula - rigging the nominations to protect Charley, putting contestants who had been voted out back in and randomly moving housemates in and out of the halfway house.
The show wants to exploit and humiliate what it sees as working-class pond-life like Shanessa and Charley, and laugh at thick kids like Brian and the twins, get them drunk and let them loose on each other. But, after Jade, it's lost its bottle.
Big Brother has effectively committed television suicide
I agree with everything that has been said in there. All the housemates go on there for is fame and the way that big brother has manipulated things this year has gone to far. Big Brother basically decides who is evicted by manipulating the editing to only show good sides (or only bad) of people.
And the viewing figures this year have been very bad. The tasks are lame and it's boring. Is this the end of BB?