View Full Version : Big Brother to be axed
Channel 4 is expected to confirm today that it will axe Big Brother after the 11th series in 2010, according to The Sun.
The broadcaster will apparently announce that it will not extend its current contract with the show's producers Endemol at its autumn programming launch.
Craig Phillips, Jade Goody, Chantelle Houghton and Kate Lawler have all achieved fame and success off the back of the show, which first aired in 2000.
Another celebrity series in January and a final full run next summer are expected to go ahead as planned.
Big Brother attracted over 8 million viewers at its peak in 2002, but the figures have slipped continually and the current series is averaging around 2 million.
"The reality is people are bored with it," said a source. "Even at Channel 4 the vibe among staff is that if you like Big Brother you're not cool. If the people commissioning the show don't think it's cool, what hope is there?
"The truth is nobody's talking about Big Brother anymore."
However, the show's executive producer Sharon Powers defended the current series in a recent interview and claimed that plans were already under way for next year's show.
"We've already started thinking about BB11 and whether we should audition people in a different way," she told Broadcast.
"Channel 4 tells us it's happy and all we can do is make the programme as good as it possibly can be. There's a danger if you focus too much on who you think you’re making the programme for and you try to skew it."
Meanwhile, head of Endemol UK Tim Hincks hinted that they could work with another broadcaster if Channel 4 doesn't renew its contract with the show.
"Ever since series three, people have said the format’s about to die," Hincks told The Guardian. "Will Big Brother continue to be one of the prime youth-focused content brands? Yes, it will, both in the UK and around the world.
"The long-term health of Big Brother is strong. I really believe that. It's a famous brand, the format works, that's obvious.
"Will we be making it for C4 in two years' time?' I've honestly no idea. We have a brilliant relationship with C4. We are doing it for C4 next year, it's been 10 years and it's still C4's biggest show. One thing even its fiercest critics will accept is that we revolutionised TV with them. You may not think it's a good thing but it changed the way we make TV."
The current series of Big Brother is scheduled to end on September 4.
this is kind of inevitable. but at least theres a celeb one and a real one next year.
i do believe it will be back with a different channel in a few years, many other shows have made a come back over the years to great sucess, given a break. they would have to regig the format, but i dont believe Big Brother is gone for good.
Bad Wolf
26-08-2009, 11:12
bout time!!
cant say im surprised, its been on the slide for a while,
it will be resurected in a few years when the next big thing is on the slide and we are all bored with that
Ya hoo!
I haven't watched in years so it will be nice not havingall the cr*p about evictions on the teletext news pages!
Hooray :cheer: Absolute trash tv, about time it got the boot. Same applies to the so-called celebrity version as far as I am concerned.
Channel 4 confirmed today that it will axe Big Brother after a decade following next summer's 11th series.
The broadcaster announced this morning at its autumn programming launch that it would not renew Big Brother producer Endemol's deal for the reality show.
Another series of Celebrity Big Brother will be broadcast in January before Channel 4's association with the show comes to an end.
Channel 4 is locked into a £180m three-year deal with Endemol which means an 11th and final series will air next year before the curtain is drawn on the show, which made household names of housemates such as Jade Goody.
The broadcaster said today that it would use the axing of Big Brother for the "most fundamental creative overhaul" in its 27-year history, with measures including an extra £20m a year investment in more "event drama", such as the critically lauded Red Riding and The Devil's Whore.
Channel 4 will also be looking for more "quirky, returnable series aimed at younger audiences" for its main network and E4, in the mould of Shameless and Skins, with the axing of Big Brother freeing up 200 hours of airtime from 2011.
"Big Brother has been our most influential and popular programme over the last decade. Big Brother will leave a huge hole and filling it will involve the most fundamental creative overhaul in our history. We have 18 months to transform the schedule," said Julian Bellamy, head of Channel 4.
"It has been hugely innovative in its own right, has provoked a really astonishing level of public debate and has been an underappreciated showcase for social diversity and youth culture. Its success has also helped support an extraordinary range of creativity across Channel 4. Inevitably we're both excited and ever-so-slightly terrified by the prospect of getting by without it," Bellamy added.
Kevin Lygo, Channel 4 director of television and content, said the broadcaster was still making a profit from Big Brother despite its ratings decline in recent years and could have looked to renew a deal with producer Endemol beyond 2010.
Lygo said axing Big Brother would not solve Channel 4's funding problems, with the broadcaster having £125m less to spend on programming this year compared with 2007, but would give Channel 4 more flexibility in how the programming budget was spent, assuming the advertising recession relents.
At its peak in from 2002-2006, Big Brother was hauling in audiences, with up to eight million watching in 2002, the year Goody was a contestant and the show was won by Kate Lawler. In these four years, Big Brother generated £88m of revenue a year, of which about £68m was profit.
Channel 4 is understood to have struggled, however, to make as much money from the show since striking the £180m renewal deal with Endemol in 2006. Channel 4 had its hand forced to some extent in negotiations by the threat of ITV stepping in to snatch the show.
Big Brother also became a victim of its own success as far and away Channel 4's most commercially successful show, with critics using it to argue that the broadcaster was straying from its public service remit.
Audiences and advertising revenues have dropped off in recent years, particularly since the Shilpa Shetty race row that engulfed Celebrity Big Brother and Channel 4 in early 2007.
This summer's 10th series has been averaging around 2 million viewers, down a third year-on-year.
Big Brother is unlikely to disappear from UK TV screens, however, with another broadcaster expected to step in to pick up the rights from Endemol.
Big Brother was axed in Australia last year but has enjoyed something of a ratings renaissance in the US this summer, a market in which the format has not traditionally done well.
The current series of Channel 4 reality show Big Brother is the least watched of the 10 seasons so far, according to ratings figures.
Viewing figures up until the end of July show that Big Brother 10 averaged 2 million viewers and a 10.1% audience share on the main Channel 4 network. This is down 33% year-on-year, for the show's first 53 days on air, between 4 June and last Sunday, 26 July.
The average viewing figures for the key advertiser-friendly 16- to 34-year-old demographics for the series so far stand at 700,000 viewers and a 16.7% share.
my money is on us seeing it on ITV or Sky One within a few years.
Well it has got boring the past few years, well towards the end at least
I will still be sad to see it go, no matter how boring its got just because Ive watched it from the start and every summer so it would be werid without it
DaVeyWaVey
26-08-2009, 15:22
It's going to be weird when it's no longer on our screens over the summer but I guess it is time to move on. It will be interesting to see what programmes Channel 4 replaces it with and if it can enjoy the same success Big Brother has over the past decade.
Love it or hate it, Big Brother has played a massive part in television.
What can they put on that replace its? Big brother lasts for ages, there will be a big gap
DaVeyWaVey
26-08-2009, 15:34
What can they put on that replace its? Big brother lasts for ages, there will be a big gap
Exactly, so it's going to be tough for Channel 4 to fill the void that BB leaves. They will have to fill up an hour of primetime every night for 13 weeks over the summer. Will they try out a different reality show to air nightly to help fill the gap? or will we be seeing various shows of different genres on every night? Interesting times ahead.
I like the idea of them putting on more dramas such as 'Red Riding' but I am cynical over whether that can enjoy similar success that Big Brother was capable of.
tammyy2j
26-08-2009, 16:35
It cant come soon enough
LostVoodoo
26-08-2009, 17:30
What can they put on that replace its? Big brother lasts for ages, there will be a big gap
Exactly, so it's going to be tough for Channel 4 to fill the void that BB leaves. They will have to fill up an hour of primetime every night for 13 weeks over the summer. Will they try out a different reality show to air nightly to help fill the gap? or will we be seeing various shows of different genres on every night? Interesting times ahead.
I like the idea of them putting on more dramas such as 'Red Riding' but I am cynical over whether that can enjoy similar success that Big Brother was capable of.
i'm equally intrigiued about that. BB brings in a lot of ad revenue but also costs quite a bit as well.
does anyone think the last series might be a 'special' one of some sorts? like all those rumours of it being entirely made up of old housemates?
Hannelene
26-08-2009, 19:47
I am so surprised it lasted this long I wonder what will happen to the wanna-be celebs that go on this show? will they frequent clubs hoping to meet someone famous? or will they now look to be on shows like x factor and BGT?
Five, Sky1 and ITV2 have ruled out bidding for Big Brother when it becomes available in 2011, reports The Guardian.
The long-running reality series, which was axed by Channel 4 earlier today, is apparently yet to receive interest from any major UK TV channel.
Five's controller Richard Woolfe said that the format does not fit the "new direction" in which he is steering the broadcaster.
"Big Brother has been an amazing phenomenon but, in terms of the new direction Five is taking, we are looking for big original ideas. Big Brother now needs to be off our screens for a few years before anyone can consider reinventing it and bringing it back," he said.
Sky1 has also dismissed a potential pickup, with channel controller Stuart Murphy saying: "We talk to Endemol all the time but aren't discussing Big Brother with them."
ITV has reportedly previously expressed interest in the reality format.
DaVeyWaVey
26-08-2009, 19:52
I am so surprised it lasted this long I wonder what will happen to the wanna-be celebs that go on this show? will they frequent clubs hoping to meet someone famous? or will they now look to be on shows like x factor and BGT?
They'll actually need talent to get on X Factor and BGT :D unless they are just shown on the auditions...but that won't be much of a claim to fame..
Hannelene
26-08-2009, 20:28
Talent? Most that appear on there lack talent!
Chris_2k11
26-08-2009, 20:31
As good as the concept was to begin with, its now had its day.
RIP BB!
Hannelene
26-08-2009, 20:33
I stopped watching a long while ago when E4 started live coverage when I realised I was so sad watching someone sleep I thought it was time to stop watching BB!
What can they put on that replace its? Big brother lasts for ages, there will be a big gap
Exactly, so it's going to be tough for Channel 4 to fill the void that BB leaves. They will have to fill up an hour of primetime every night for 13 weeks over the summer. Will they try out a different reality show to air nightly to help fill the gap? or will we be seeing various shows of different genres on every night? Interesting times ahead.
I like the idea of them putting on more dramas such as 'Red Riding' but I am cynical over whether that can enjoy similar success that Big Brother was capable of.
i'm equally intrigiued about that. BB brings in a lot of ad revenue but also costs quite a bit as well.
does anyone think the last series might be a 'special' one of some sorts? like all those rumours of it being entirely made up of old housemates?
I hope so :D I would love that
parkerman
27-08-2009, 14:23
As good as the concept was to begin with, its now had its day.
RIP BB!
I think this has been the problem with BB. When it started it was an interesting programme, an interesting social experiment if you like. Putting a dozen or so people together in a house with no outside communication etc. and see how they got on. The first couple of series saw ordinary people in the House, but as the programme got more popular and gained more publicity, two things happened. The first was the people went on there who saw it as a stepping stone to stardom and started doing outlandish things to get themselves noticed and second Channel 4 and popular magazines and newspapers encouraged this sort of behaviour for their own ends. So it was no longer about ordinary people but in some cases the people who could be most objectionable.
Channel 4 have now made the right decision. It is time to put the programme out to grass.
Thats its true about them picking well not really ordinary people but I think that in this series they did pick more ordinary people it was just the clash of personalities that caused all these arguments
Chloe O'brien
29-08-2009, 00:19
The first three years of BB had a mixed bag of characters the eccentric housemates were unique whether you loved them or loathed them Brian Downling, Helen and Jade were something we had never seen on tv before. The public realised this and from then on any future housemate try to be more eccentric than the next. They created a monster having fame hugging wannabes jumping on the bandwagon, but the public have got fed up with dumb blondes who hook up with a guy two days and declare undying love so they can get their faces on heat magazine or pretend camp gay guys.
Me and my brother were talking about this today and he said it got boring cos they started putting more normal people in
angel_eyes87
29-08-2009, 17:29
It went boring after the 3rd Big Brother as the 4th one was such a failure, people started losing faith in the series after that.
I knew that next years Big Brother was going to be the last one, as they already said that there was one next year, as the contract ended next year and knew no-one else was willing to buy it out, as they are saving they're money.
The 4th was awful but I liked BB5 and some of the others as well
Chris_2k11
29-08-2009, 23:51
The fourth series was terrible, full of totally dull characters and Cameron has to be the most boring winner ever.
Chris_2k11
29-08-2009, 23:54
One thing I did like from that series though was the secret room which changed into a different theme every week. They should have kept doing that.
The only BB that I thought was good was the one with Makosi and that other creature in it
DaVeyWaVey
30-08-2009, 13:17
The only BB that I thought was good was the one with Makosi and that other creature in it
BB6. Probably my favourite ever series. Craig's unrequited love for Anthony, Maxwell's shock eviction - possibly my favourite eviction ever, his face was priceless! There were some great tasks too, such as the box task and the secret garden twist was executed so well. Makosi was a fantastic housemate and really made that series. Love her or hate her, she really made the series watchable, with her secret missions, her scheming and the whole pregnancy debacle which got everyone talking. I was really gripped by BB then. When she went in the house for the anniversary celebrations a few weeks ago, you could tell how brilliant a housemate she was compared to all the others who are in BB10 and it was obvious that something is now seriously lacking from BB. In the time she was there, she really made an impact by stirring it and making everyone paranoid. Brilliant TV :D
I quite liked BB4 as it still sustained the "innocence" of the show.
BB8 is my worst ever series. The all female start was one of the worst decisions ever. We had Carole who didn't live up to her VT and played the pushy mother hen :thumbsdow the Chanelle/Ziggy thing went on for what felt like forever, housemates were coming in and out of the house one by one making the series really messy, the twists were poorly executed and it felt like the producers just met up once a week to decide what would happen next - very sloppy with no real hints that they pre planned it all. Lesley was promising but she walked...:( Brian is the worst winner ever. He acted really thick and it was annoying. He didn't know who Shakespeare was... I mean, really? :rolleyes: and he kept going on about women pooing in the diary room...not what I'd call entertainment.
GossipGirl
30-08-2009, 13:20
The one with Makosi was awful :(
Makosi herself was pointless as the rest of the contestants on with her
The BB that was good was the one with Brian
GossipGirl
30-08-2009, 13:20
Brian Dowling I meant to say
The only BB that I thought was good was the one with Makosi and that other creature in it
Oo that was a good one, put crazy
Chloe O'brien
31-08-2009, 22:46
The best moment was in BB3 with the Rich/Poor divide that classic, Johnny weeing in the shower just to annoy Alex, and then watching Sandy jump the wall with Alext yelling Sandy be careful.
The best BB was the celeb one with Michael Barrymore in it.. (and the only one I watch all the way through).. I liked the one with Jade (got to see 2 weeks of that) and all other ones I didn't bother watching
Chris_2k11
01-09-2009, 17:22
lets not forget the celeb one with John Mcririck and Jackie Stallone, now that was hilarious :rotfl:
The best moment was in BB3 with the Rich/Poor divide that classic, Johnny weeing in the shower just to annoy Alex, and then watching Sandy jump the wall with Alext yelling Sandy be careful.
I think BB3 is my fav, I loved the divide!
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