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It’s time to go digital, Big Brother.

We've had the reunion and the UK is already reviving the format. Big Brother is the perfect format to create buzz on a digital channel.

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Is it time to revive Big Brother yet?

Last week’s reunion of the infamous reality series on A Current Affair reminded us how ground-breaking the series was.

We laughed with Sara-Marie, we fell in love with Marty & Jess, we cheered as Chrissie stood up to Ben, we were spell-bound with the trickery of the Logan twins and awe-struck by Merlin’s “Free the Refugee” protest. Nothing else has come close to replicating unscripted television.

Now Channel Five in the UK is reviving the series as a low-cost to create some buzz for the low-rating channel.

Could Big Brother work on a digital channel in Australia: ELEVEN, GO! or 7mate?

Made properly, the show has the ability to revolutionise digital channels with a youthful audience hooked on the characters that populate the house. In an early evening timeslot it could be dynamite.

“The strength of the show was it’s guarantee of huge quantities of content. It both guarantees interest in itself and fuels interest in itself because there are so many points of entry into so many different stories,” an industry source told TV Tonight.

“This is also its weakness. Small issues and stories can consume the public and the main stories can become lost in the noise. Turkey slaps were 2 seconds of behaviour and barely worthy of a second thought in the bigger picture.”

Central to reviving Big Brother is the issue of cost. Revenue for digital channels is still growing from its low launch base.

In the UK eviction shows were staged on premium channels with the Daily show on the less-profile multichannels. Eviction shows that bear a high cost per hour, could be complemented by the bulk of the show on a secondary channel at a low cost per hour.

“I don’t think it can be made on much less than $15m. That’s still less than the rumoured cost of The X Factor but with far more content,” said the source.

TV Tonight understands commercial networks have previously toyed with the idea of reviving BB, but the idea is yet to become serious. Readers regularly express their desire to see the Southern Star show return -but what form might it take?

In the fourteen years since the show first began in the Netherlands it has undergone numerous twists and turns in territories across the world: fake evictions, Power of Veto, all-female house, artificial village, housemates with best friends, housemates with mothers, Big Brother family, Vote to Evict / Vote to Save, Celebrity Hijack, the house in a Bubble in a shopping centre -and more…

In France it has morphed into Secret Story (logo pictured), a series in which each contestant enters the house with a personal secret. Housemates are compelled to interact with one another to try and discover each secret and win cash prizes. Result: no more flying under the radar.

But has there been enough time between Sunday night evictions for the Australian public to wipe the slate clean and revisit this bold social experiment?

“Within the next few years there’ll be a generation of potential housemates and audiences for whom the show will be fresh,” says an insider.

“Rather than having to change the show to bring it back, there needs to be a re-set on audience expectations and a fresh set of housemates who don’t all speak in reality show soundbites. The later series had a lexicon based on a repetition of previous series by the housemates.”

Which brings us to the question of where the show might best fit.

“Nine needs it right now. A show of its size could transform their schedule and ratings. That said, it’s probably premature in a timing sense for them to buy it – the show hasn’t rested long enough. But it could work on Nine + GO!

“Seven doesn’t need it. It would be a big change to their screen culture were they to buy it. It could work on TEN + ELEVEN but the same factors preventing Nine doing it now, probably prevent TEN.”

It may still be too soon to bring the format back, but Big Brother‘s power to create buzz to an audience now linked by social networking, can’t be denied.

“The show can be made as a zoo or as a circus. It can reflect and illuminate aspects of society or not.”

77 Responses

  4. I think BB is great – both from the UK & Oz (not so much US). I think it’s amazing that the people who hate it know so much about it. If I don’t like a programme I won’t watch it.

    I agree with Jason, one of the best things (in the early series anyway) was the opportunity to watch ‘live’, for free (through the ‘red button’ on E4 in the UK and on the net in the UK & Oz). You could see how the housemates interacted without the editing.

  5. Yes.

    Eleven – The Daily Show, The Late Show.
    Ten – Nominations, Evictions.
    Simulcast – Opening Night, Closing Night.

    Or put it on Nine if need be. Just bring it back to its former glory days. Of course, Nine has already hinted at its interest in the show with its recent ACA special.

  7. I think Ryan hits the nail on the head here – once Analogue TV gets switched off in the metro areas we’ll see the multichannel ratings go up and up, at that point it will be economical to virtually have your station on BB almost the entire day (obviously you’d have other shows to be able to promote while BB is your tentpole, but huge amounts of Daytime and Late Night could be filled by this show.

  8. I think the big thing with “Summer” — is how long are you going to run it for over Summer??

    There is No way that they would keep the contestants in the house during Christmas/New Years, or be able to get enough staff to man the house for filming purposes.

    The “Northern Summer” is lasts effectively 3 months from the end of May until late August, the “Southern Summer” doesn’t last anywhere near that long.

  9. To those suggesting this could run over Summer: are you living in fairyland? With the cost involved the networks are hesitant to run it in peak ratings season let alone in non-ratings Summer…

  10. It would be great to see one of channels relaunch BB. Sure-it’s had its fair share of controversaries but is a worldwide hit in many countries. No one bothers to air UK/US BB here.

  11. I would love to see it back in 2012. Same format (don’t let Shine take interest) and have Gretel back! Hopefully it would air on its original network, Ten, although I wouldn’t be surprised if 9 picked it up considering their terrible ratings so far. Im sure the first season would rate well but I wouldn’t bet on keeping it after that. Please bring it back!!!

  12. Channel Nine should bring back Big Brother next year. They need something desperately at 7pm and there is no reality at 7pm anymore so the stage is clear for this format at 7pm.

  13. I wouldn’t mind a return of Big Brother to be honest, just needs to have colourful characters and if they look good then that’s a plus, and well the uncut shows late night were fun to watch.

  17. Big Brother would be a perfect show for Channel 9 + GO!, it’s true it needs more content in it’s programming. Although keeping orginal format with host gretel killen, mike goldman, friday night games, eviction stage and runway, eviction night sunday, theme song from 2005. In 2012… Dreamworld the home for Big Brother, Big Brother’s new home on Nine, Welcome Home to Channel Nine and GO! – this would ideal

  18. I agree totally that Australia hasn’t seen the last of Big Brother – or the format at least. Once analogue television is switched off in the final market, a configuration of major shows (Launch, Evictions, Finale) on a primary channel and minor shows (Daily Shows, Nominations) on a secondary channel could work very well – either between 7/7Two (my original thoughts before Eleven was announced), 9/Go! or 10/Eleven.

    Could a shift in compound add to the success of a revival – e.g. somewhere in Sydney? Though the uniqueness of having BB within a themepark was a great idea.

    If BB is not revived I’m sure the format will carry over to a new reality show.

  19. @ CatFan
    I agree, a summer series would be great. TEN never has anything to run during Summer, especially at 9:30. I think a show like BB could really boost their shares over summer and help them to launch better at the start of the year.

    It could run from the week before the end of ratings. eg.

    7:30 Junior MasterChef Final
    9:30 Big Brother Launch

    Then run…
    Daily Show 9:30 week nights (1hr)
    Uplate 10:45 week nights (only have 15min Late News Update at 10:30 while BB is on)
    Eviction 8:30 Sunday
    Uncut 10:30 Sunday
    FNL 7:30 Friday

    Then have the Finale 8:30 on the first day of ratings the following year.

    Tell Coles if they want to sponsor MasterChef, they also have to sponsor BB’s Supermarket. 😛

  22. @ Courtney,
    Very good point.
    Though I don’t really think that we really need another ‘male-oriented’ channel, unless they’re willing to show Boston Legal that 7mate have stopped showing. Or The West Wing.

  23. If they want to put it on their main channels it’d be fine. I just won’t watch. But I really hope no-one ruins their multi-channels with it. Especially Eleven because they are already behind and need to catch-up still with many shows. To me when they put Big Brother on the rest of the channel (Ten ) just became unreliable. That includes other reality shows as it causes them to be extremely late. I think that’s why some people gave up watching their scripted content. Why wait 20 or more minutes when something else is on right now? Ugh.

  24. Let us all pray that they never let that piece of brain-dead trash back on any channel. It was the worst of the worst, catering to the lowest of the low bogan idiot demographic.

    Compared to BB, Conviction Kitchen et al are Shakespeare and Dickens combined. Our obsession with shows about renovating, backyards, cooking and the rest are embarrassing, but BB was positively harmful to our sense of self-respect and basic human decency.

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