Big Brother 2010

[Emma Raducanu]

Okay, so I've just seen the first subliminal advert for this year's Big Brother (a tradition I won't miss), which got me asking questions. Does anyone know when it starts and have you heard any gossip with regards to who will be going in the house? Brand new housemates or a collection of the old reprobates?

Will anyone be sad to see it go and do you think it'll be reincarnated on another channel?

[Lee Van Cleef]

I'll be sad to see it go simply because it's a staple of the summer now. One of my friend I chat with over e-mail is an avid watcher and I love chatting with her about it. I suppose I'll miss it more for what surrounds it than the show itself.

That said, I thought last year's series was the strongest yet. Aside from some tinkering which pissed me off I thought it was a great collection of housemates that really were great entertainment throughout.

[Emma Raducanu]

I hadn't watched if for years but the last group managed to keep my interest, with the final five or so housemates running round backstage being my most prevailing memory. It's nice that I haven't seen any of them since the series because I prefer to forget they exist come September.

[social rhinoceros]

I was just thinking of starting this very same thread.  The reason: The end of the football season = start of the Big Brother 'summer'.  Think it starts in June, so a few weeks to go.  No doubt I will watch this and get grief for being sad.  Saying that, CBB was the funniest thing I've seen this year!!!

[Spiteface]

I voted no in the poll.  I suppose I should elaborate a bit more.

I will probably end up watching them all go in. Just to see what bunch of fucking morons Endemol have roped in this time.  Then not bother with the rest of the show.

I liked the first series of BB.  What started with 10 ordinary people (I do feel they were more genuine than later series) turned out to be fascinating viewing, especially when "Nasty" Nick was rumbled and booted out, and the build up to that moment with people wondering if he was a plant by Channel 4 to do shit.  I never got the feeling that the makers of the a show deliberately went out of their way to engineer a group of housemates to make certain things happen, or that the initial bunch quite knew the publicity the show would be getting.  Series 2 was kinda similar, but then the gimmicks started.  By the time Series 3 rolled around, I genuinely got the feeling that maybe people were going in because they knew they would get some kind of fame, however fleeting it may be.  I gave up halfway through.

By this time, you could comfortably not bother watching and still kinda know what was happening, such was the coverage of the show.  And it was evident that it was just the attention whores getting in by this point, even to someone like me who was now an outsider.  I just feel like it's too engineered now, the wrong type of housemates going in, and too many gimmicks.

Fuck, WWE is more "real" than what BB has become.  And I really do mean that.

[Big Jack McBastard]

Oh christ not again..

I'll watch them go in, dodge the next 6 weeks and somehow become drawn in to the whole sorry mess by the time there's been a significant cull.

[Ja'moke]

I'm hoping Endemol just go all out and throw as much shit at the wall as possible, without pandering to Channel 4. I was hoping for a sort of All Stars, filling the house with some of the most memorable, loved and hated housemates, and just watching the show implode in on itself, as the perfect way to bow out.

Unfortunately they've casted new housemates, and I use the word 'casted' with reason, because most of this years bunch have been recruited from various agencies and the like, not that that's totally new, but it seems to have been the main focus this year rather than open auditions.

As those that frequent this thread will already know, I prefer another Big Brother series these days over our own, but I'll still be watching BB11, I feel obligated, I've stuck with it for this long, I have to see it end.

[thomasina]

Oh christ not again..

I'll watch them go in, dodge the next 6 weeks and somehow become drawn in to the whole sorry mess by the time there's been a significant cull.

Yes, that's my usual pattern.

[Artemis]

I'll watch the start, for the same reason I have done since 2000 - to see if C4 manage to fulfil the potential of this potentially brilliant show. This year, I'll give it an extra shot this year out of respect for it's legacy, too. Big Brother has a massive legacy, and it changed the face of 'reality' television for good. It also bridged the gap between 'real people' and 'celebs' in a way that discredited both, but nevertheless had a huge cultural impact.

Back in 2000, I tuned in because it was intriguing and unlike anything that had come before. That first show remains the best, because it was fresh, innovative, and ultimately, the contestants had no idea whether they were taking part in a fly-by-night misadventure, a high-brow circle jerk, or the next big thing. Turns out it was the next big thing, but they didn't know that. Nasty Nick's eviction is still the best BB moment there's ever been. As time went on, so did the motivations of the producers, who quickly interpreted Nick's eviction as controversy=ratings. This was to spell the end of the show, right at the beginning, as producers spent nine years chasing their own tails over ever-increasing degrees of controversy and self-indulgent innovation, following their own noses and steadily losing their grip on what it was the public wanted. As ambition crumbled, so too did the agendas of those who volunteered to participate. Intrigued members of the public quickly turned to agency rent-a-talent as BB became less of an intriguing experiment and more of a platform to short-term, low-ranking celebsville.

And yet, despite it's rapid descension into inevitability, it's remained, by and large, a great show. Because no matter the poor creative decisions, or the woeful contestants, it's remained above and beyond, a show about humanity, warts and all. It's transformed from a show about real people to a show about far less real people, but it's about people nonetheless, it just happens that more recently, the people are far less interesting, That said, desperation can be a huge draw, and I find myself unable to buy into the notion that BB, as it's become, is anything more than a bunch of wannabes pretending to be something they're not for a shot at the small-time, but also find myself fascinated by the mentality of such people all the same.

So Big Brother will go down as one of television's most innovative and transformative shows. It will also go down as one of television's most unfulfilled promises. I will watch it this year, or at least try to (as I have since 2001) and hope, as ever, that it achieves more than self-regarding triumphalistic emptiness. 

[switchbitch]

Yes, of course. Gonna really miss it when it's gone.

[Ja'moke]

The advert is pretty good, I just wish this lot were all going back in the house together. Imagine Makosi, Grace and Charley together!

BB11 Funeral Advert

[Artemis]

Yeah that was pretty good. I forgot how much I hate Brian Dowling, though. He really is an obnoxious, self-important little twat.

[Big Jack McBastard]

Anyone else think Tickle ^ was Richard Whiteley with the Play button obscuring his face?

[Small Man Big Horse]

Aw, that is a pretty damn good trailer, and reminds me of happier times for the series. The last one which really gripped me was 5, though I've dipped in and out ever since, and will do so again this year in the hope that it's a good one.

Why the hatred for Brian Dowling though Artemis? I haven't followed his post BB career, but whilst he was in the house I found him really entertaining - though admittedly he was never quite the same after Bubble was evicted.

[chocky909]

Compared to the majority of housemates, Brian Dowling was lovely.

[Ja'moke]

Brian Dowling was the reason I got in to Big Brother. I never saw the first series, the first bit of BB I saw was live feed during BB2 and I remember Brian cracking me up, I was a fan ever since.

[confettiinmyhair]

Can anybody explain what the audition process is for this series. Are they still holding open auditions, or are they inviting people who are signed to 'talent ' agencies?

Artemis, I believe you auditioned for BB one year. Did you consider auditioning again?

[Artemis]

First off, I just find Brian Dowling intolerable. He was mildly amusing for a little while in the house, but as is the way things seem to be These Days, people seemed unable to say "yeah, he's quite good" or "he's quite funny, I suppose" and had to be extreme, so he became the "funniest housemate ever" and the latest person the Nation Has Taken To Heart. Quite aside from my impulsive reaction to hate anybody the nation takes to heart, Dowling then became horribly conceited. There were at least a couple of examples of him refusing to join in photoshoots with other BB contestants because he saw himself as a step up from them, but he wasn't really, was he. He had all the charm and charisma of a Butlin's red coat, and when that failed he switched on his 'cheeky gay' persona which was nauseating. Then it was Quizmania, and now?

Yes I did audition for BB a few years back. Someone else did on here too and got much further than I did. They wrote a really great account of it all too which I think I might have somewhere but I won't post it up since it's not mine to do so. I would have considered auditioning again this year if I could do so in the same way (I filled in a form which meant I didn't have to do any standard auditioning for the first stage - they picked the 100 best form-filler-inners). I would never audition normally because to not be picked because I have too much dignity to jump around and be whacky like some kind of cunt, or turn up in a mankini or whatever else you have to do to get noticed, would be horribly demeaning. I'd end up hating even more people than I already do, and I already hate far, far too many.

[Lee]

That was Almost 'Mr Reid' Yearly. IIRC he was a stand-in for one series, but obviously wasn't called upon.

[imitationleather]

That funeral advert is really good. :D

I'll probably watch this for the first time in years for old time's sake. If loads of people do the same as me is there a chance it won't be axed? That'd be a bit shit.

[switchbitch]

 http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/showbiz/big_brother/2983997/The-Big-Brother-bad-girls-take-part-in-Lady-GaGa-esque-photoshoot.html

Would have just put the picture up, as the story isn't that interesting, but News International wouldn't let me.

[Artemis]

Bloody hell, is that Nikki Graeme second from right? I knew she had some weight issues, but jesus.

[Ja'moke]

Who is that in between Aisleyne and Charley? And also, who's that between Grace and Kinga?

[switchbitch]

According to the text (you just wanked overlooked at the picture, didn't you?) -

The blasts from the past are, from left to right: Grace Adams-Short, Michelle Bass, Kinga Karolczak, Aisleyne Horgan-Wallace, Sophie Reade, Charley Uchea, Nikki Grahame and Nadia Almada.

[Ja'moke]

According to the text (you just wanked overlooked at the picture, didn't you?) -

The blasts from the past are, from left to right: Grace Adams-Short, Michelle Bass, Kinga Karolczak, Aisleyne Horgan-Wallace, Sophie Reade, Charley Uchea, Nikki Grahame and Nadia Almada.

Oh, the text was aligned funny on mine, didn't notice that when I was wanking over looking at the picture. :)

[The Cloud of Unknowing]

Would have just put the picture up, as the story isn't that interesting, but News International wouldn't let me.

Grace Adams-Short, Michelle Bass, Kinga Karolczak, Aisleyne Horgan-Wallace, Sophie Reade, Charley Uchea, Nikki Grahame and Nadia Almada

[Uncle TechTip]

If you wanked over that, I implore you to seek help. I've never seen such an unappealing series of pictures. Also, xpost to PS Disasters.

[Uncle TechTip]

gnnnh

[Lee Van Cleef]

gnnnh

Cranked one off over Nadia huh?

[Artemis]

gnnnh

Is that CaB's first ejacu-post?