Big Brother 8 News Thread

[Debs]

Lauren has been rumoured for the last few years on celeb version, its about time they put her in

Ive been loooking round today on other sites and the all female thing is being talked about a lot! I'm now thinking it may happen ( i really hope not!

Not long to go now

[Jojo]

Big Brother has released some tantalising clues about the housemates scheduled to move into the BB house.

Among the housemates, one is a member of the women’s institute, one is a political protester and one is a former lap-dancer. This series also has the oldest housemate yet, a nanny and a relative of a premiership footballer. Two have children, nine are single and three of the housemates have never been on a plane.

One of the housemates was a child prodigy - she could read by the age of two, and one of the housemates is a cleaner, meaning there should be no dirt lying around the house this time round.



Rumour has it that this child prodigy is Z list celebrity, and i loose the term loosely Lauren Harries. The welsh transexaual who found fame as a "child prodigy" on Terry Wogan's show, then had a sex change. Apparantly she's auditioned for every Big Brother so far. Also on the sun site, the shilouette of this child prodigy is an identical match of a picture of Lauren, so who knows?

How many times has this Lauren been rumoured to be entering though? Either through Celeb BB or the normal one.

I'm going to watch the one show, as always, on Fri to see who the desperados for fame are - then, thats it for me... (no offence to any BB enjoyers out there, but not my cup of tea, especially when they enjoy messing with people and doing everything they can to cause upset between housemates)

[Bryan]

The return of Big Brother drew an impressive audience for Channel 4 last night, with an average 6.2 million tuning in to watch at 9pm.

The climax of the show saw the audience peak at 8 million - a 35% share of the audience - which equaled the previous highest peak of viewers for a Big Brother launch programme. Nearly half of all 16-34 year-old viewers watching television at the time were tuned into the show.

The all-female housemates, including 18-year-old twins and a 53-year-old peace protester, gave the channel an average 26% share of the audience over the hour, beating off BBC One's The Apprentice, which managed an average 4.8 million viewers between 9-10pm.

ITV1's British Soap Awards coverage pulled an average 6.2 million over a two-hour period from 8pm.

Channel 4 commissioning editor for Big Brother and head of E4, Angela Jain said, "This heralds a fantastic start to Big Brother. We remain as committed as ever to making this year's series the most entertaining yet."

Big Brother's Big Mouth scored 1.2 million on Channel 4 at 11:15pm, making it the second most watched programme at the time.

[Abi]

Does anyone else not find that overall impressive? It probably wont even get into the top 20 of the week with that..

On the w/e 20 May, Casualty came 20th with 6.42m. The highest was Corrie with 10.54m. I mean, i know its different weeks, and they'll change with the final ratings, but it just seems like they're trying to big themselves up a bit too much. Its not that "Impressive", its quite average for a TV show actually. And as its the launch show, im sure they would have wanted it much higher than average, as it will probably lose ratings from now on, untill the final and eviction nights...

[Jojo]

An average of 6.2 million viewers tuned in to watch the launch of the eighth series of Channel 4's Big Brother, according to overnight figures.

Audience numbers were down by 800,000 compared with 7 million viewers for the start of the seventh series in 2006.

Following the end of ITV's British Soap Awards and BBC One's The Apprentice, the audience peaked at 8 million.

It is the first time an all-female house has launched the show, but a male housemate will join them shortly.

Viewing figures were well above average for the C4 time slot, with the reality show drawing 26 per cent of available viewers.

Channel 4's commissioning editor for Big Brother, Angela Jain, said: "This heralds a fantastic start to Big Brother."

The show opened with an official apology, ordered by Ofcom, over C4's handling of the race row involving celebrity contestants Jade Goody, Danielle Lloyd and Jo O'Meara and their treatment of Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty.

House rules for this series have been updated to warn against bullying and to make clear that offensive remarks on the grounds of race, religion or sexuality are unacceptable.

The 11 contestants include the first set of twins ever to enter the house, a member of the Women's Institute and a Victoria Beckham wannabe.

Charley, an unemployed former lap dancer, was greeted with boos and chants of "get a job" by the crowd as she arrived at the house, at Elstree Studios in Hertfordshire.

Political protester Carole received the loudest cheer of the night.

A single man is expected to enter the house on Friday to join the contest for the £100,000 prize.

It is rumoured that the female contestants will choose from three possible contenders.

[Abi]

As i thought, it hardly trned out to be "Impressive"

Top 30 TV programmes from Monday-Sunday, based on overnights;
1..10.3m..(48%)..Coronation Street (Mon)
2..9.7m..(39%)..Coronation Street (Mon)
3..9.7m..(48%)..Coronation Street (Wed)
4..9.2m..(39%)..EastEnders (Mon)
5..8.4m..(41%)..Match of the Day Live (Fri)
6..8.4m..(43%)..Coronation Street (Sun)
7..8.2m..(33%)..New Tricks (Mon)
8..8.0m..(42%)..EastEnders (Thu)
9..7.7m..(37%)..Emmerdale (Mon)
10..7.5m..(43%)..Coronation Street (Fri)
11..7.1m..(40%)..Emmerdale (Wed)
12..7.0m..(35%)..EastEnders (Tue)
13..6.9m..(33%)..Midsomer Murders (Sun)
14..6.8m..(30%)..Heartbeat (Sun)
15..6.6m..(39%)..Doctor Who (Sat)
16..6.5m..(39%)..Emmerdale (Thu)
17..6.5m..(32%)..Any Dream Will Do (Sat)
18..6.3m..(34%)..Emmerdale (Tue)
19..6.2m..(27%)..The British Soap Awards (Wed)
20..6.2m..(33%)..Any Dream Will Do (Sat)
21..6.2m..(26%)..Big Brother: Live Launch (Wed)
22..5.9m..(29%)..BBC Ten O'Clock News (Fri)
23..5.9m..(29%)..Casualty (Sat)
24..5.9m..(34%)..The National Lottery Draws (Sat)
25..5.7m..(36%)..Emmerdale (Fri)
26..5.5m..(26%)..BBC Ten O'Clock News (Mon)
27..5.0m..(26%)..Have I Got News for You (Sat)
28..5.0m..(23%)..Ocean's Eleven (Mon)
29..4.8m..(19%)..The Apprentice (Wed)
30..4.7m..(21%)..Hustle (Thu)

How can they call it impressive?

[DaVeyWaVey]

Well i think the 6.2 million figure is pretty impressive for Channel 4..

[Bryan]

Well i think the 6.2 million figure is pretty impressive for Channel 4..

I agree Dave, with the multi channel age and stiff competiton from the soap awards and Apprentice 6.2 is very impressive. Plus the average channel 4 show gets about 2/3 million viewers - as the barb site shows, so this is good, dont care what anyone says.

[Abi]

I just would have expected it to get nearer the 7 million mark, like BB7 did, as Ems pointed out. Channel 4 or not, its a major show thats always in the newspapers and in the public eye.

The average of 2/3 million you said Bry, is that generally, or in Peak Times? I would have expected the peak times to be nearer 4 million?

[Bryan]

I just would have expected it to get nearer the 7 million mark, like BB7 did, as Ems pointed out. Channel 4 or not, its a major show thats always in the newspapers and in the public eye.

The average of 2/3 million you said Bry, is that generally, or in Peak Times? I would have expected the peak times to be nearer 4 million?

1 GRAND DESIGNS (WED 2101) 3.76
2 GORDON RAMSEY'S F WORD (TUE 2101) 3.55
3 PROPERTY LADDER (WED 1959) 3.21
4 HOW TO LOOK GOOD NAKED (TUE 2000) 3.19
5 EMBARRASSING ILLNESSES (THU 2032) 2.85
6 WIFE SWAP (SUN 1959) 2.83
7 DEAL OR NO DEAL (WED 1614) 2.80
8 DEAL OR NO DEAL (MON 1614) 2.70
9 DEAL OR NO DEAL (TUE 1614) 2.67
10 UGLY BETTY (FRI 2101) 2.63
11 HOW CLEAN IS YOUR HOUSE? (THU 1959) 2.56
12 VIRGIN SCHOOL (TUE 2204) 2.49
13 DEAL OR NO DEAL (THU 1614) 2.47
14 DEAL OR NO DEAL (SUN 1701) 2.47
15 DEAL OR NO DEAL (FRI 1614) 2.27
16 PAUL O'GRADY (MON 1701) 2.24
17 PAUL O'GRADY (WED 1701) 2.22
18 PAUL O'GRADY (FRI 1702) 2.19
19 THE SIMPSONS (MON 1759) 2.14
20 PAUL O'GRADY (THU 1701) 2.13
21 DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES (WED 2204) 2.08
22 THE SIMPSONS (THU 1801) 2.06
23 PAUL O'GRADY (TUE 1701) 2.06
24 THE SIMPSONS (WED 1801) 2.01
25 HOLLYOAKS (WED 1829) 1.91
26 DERREN BROWN: TRICK OR TREAT (FRI 2159) 1.90
27 THE SIMPSONS (TUE 1801) 1.83
28 HOLLYOAKS (MON 1829) 1.82
29 ER (MON 2204) 1.77
30 THE SIMPSONS (FRI 1801) 1.76

For the week ending 20th may 2007, the top ones are in peak time, so Big Brother is about 2-3 million higher than their best rated show.