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Land of confusion

The fallout from BB’s axing continues. What a land of confusion we find ourselves in. Take your pick who you want to believe on the show’s future.

Big Brother is either a) possibly going to Nine b) possibly going to Seven c) going to neither or d) bound to return sooner or later.

According to the Courier Mail: Representatives of Channel 7, Channel 9 and Foxtel scuttled suggestions that they might take on the Big Brother franchise after Ten dropped the rights this week.

The Herald Sun reckons: A Nine source said the network was looking at a possible revival but wanted a very different format.

Channel 7 and Foxtel rejected suggestions they might take on the franchise.

On Sydney Morning Herald: Seven and Nine declined to comment on whether they would bid for the program.

Sources said Nine might look into whether the show could be resuscitated. “But it’s tough, the current format as it stands has been done to death,” one TV executive said.

“We don’t believe the concept is dead in Australia,” a spokesman for its production company, Endemol Southern Star, said yesterday.

“Maybe not tomorrow.

“But in 12 or 18 months down the track (it’ll be back).”

Elsewhere Behindbigbrother.com has learnt that executives at Network Seven have been busy this morning holding internal discussions into the possibility of taking on the show.

While on TEN’s own Late News last night SMH critic Michael Idato said one unnamed rival network executive refused to rule out picking up the show, saying “never say never.”

Even the Morning Show speculated on Seven rumours.

Meanwhile news.com.au says Queensland Premier Anna Bligh weighed into the debate: “It’s been very good for the Queensland film and television industry,” she told reporters.

“The program may not be everybody’s cup of tea, I understand that, but this is an industry that employs thousands of Queenslanders.

“If we don’t keep them here, frankly, it’s a very mobile, competitive industry, and we lose our best people to interstate and overseas.”

Confused? Who isn’t. The only position everyone seemed agreed upon was the lack of interest from Foxtel:

“We are thrilled with the huge success of our local reality productions such as Australia’s Next Top Model and the recently launched Project Runway Australia and have no interest in an ailing format such as Big Brother,” Mr Walsh said yesterday.

For the record my money is on option D. The format still has life if it can return to its original premise of social experiment. Casting is the key.

10 Responses

  1. It’s a done format!
    The original selling point of the show was “people in a house isolated from society, not having a clue whats going on”
    Now after eight seasons, the housemates know EXACTLY what is going on, they know how they are going to be treated on the outside, 15 minutes of club crawls and being spotted in the McDonald’s line (and dole line).
    You cant go back to the OLD big brother, you cant freeze time, things change, things move FORWARD.

  2. Casting is definately the key. Gimmicks are what destroyed the show this year. From the hosts, to throwing in celebrity guests in an obvious ploy to boost ailing ratings.

    Perhaps we are all just sick of seeing a group of people living together in a HOUSE. That is the concept that has been done to death. We need to see how a group of people react to something they have never done or experienced before. Put them all in a completely different country or culture from what they are used to. Dump them in an unknown country and have them fend for themselves (controlled of course), from earning money, buying necessities, living conditions etc… that is the social experiment to see how people would cope, not by putting them in a house and have them perform banal tasks and take away their makeup as punishment….

  3. I am sick of listen to people comment on how bad BB is… if you don’t like it don’t watch it (yes I am speaking to you, guest-bitch on channel 7’s Morning Show… she was a cow).

    I think the show is great to watch… a way to catch up with people you know without having to talk to them.

    I think this years BB could have either been really successful, or just failed full stop. It failed. The reason was the constant contact with the outside world. All the guess and no isolation. It should go back to the ORIGINAL format, after all, wasn’t that what they were going to do? They always say they are doing something new… we don’t want new, we want OLD! We want it when BB was about housemates in a house… not housemates with corey, carson, pammy, housemates leaving and re-entering, housemates going on trips to a fake bali, all that crap is useless… and it could have worked if done correctly… because I admit, it was great seeing corey in the house… it gave some people different opinions on the other housemates or the kid himself… Pammy was good because we got to see a Celeb acting normal… but it also failed the concept of the show.

    Bring back the 1mil, but loose the young housemates, the modern house and constant contact… THATS a BB season…

    (ends rant)

  4. While I would love nothing more than to see BB gone for good, I think its return is inevitable.
    Better contestants are the key for the survival of the concept in Australia. Most people are sick of watching idiots on tv, unless it’s comical. It has just been sad in the past few years.
    Also, what idiot at channel ten thought Kyle and Jackie O would revive the show? No body outside of Sydney likes them, every tv project Jackie O has done has flopped, Kyle is nothing but a professional man bitch. The show needs a proper host.

  5. In the US at least, lost, it almost always happens. This allows the writers on scripted shows to somehow give the show some closure, although there are a few exceptions. With reality shows, i don’t really know, but with BB its prob to gain more viewers for the final episode ever (or is it..)

  6. Thankyou David,

    You’ve said exactly what I was thinking. I’m glad that i’m not insane in thinking it. Here’s hoping someone important realises that…

  7. Ideas in this nation are slim, as evidenced by the neverending factual series clones like the fact there’s a factual series on lifeguards on all 3 of the commercial networks. Its not surprising people are interested in resurrecting this tired format – how many times has Wheel been reincarnated over the years. Either way I won’t be watching.

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