So farewell, Big Brother. You have been on British screens every year for the last decade, but 2010 will be your last, unless someone else can be persuaded to pay production company Endemol for a show that has seen i
ts ratings slump.
Channel 4 announced it is ditching the reality TV series, which in its prime enjoyed audiences as big as 10 million Britons but now is viewed by less than two million. Some pundits say it is tired and dull. Others say it never recovered from the 2007 race row when Jade Goody was accused of bullying Indian housemate Shilpa Shetty, prompting tens of thousands of complaints. Justice was seen to be done when Goody was evicted and Shetty went on to win.
Endemol, which makes Big Brother, has not given up just yet, and may seek another broadcaster to buy its ground-breaking show.
Whether the ratings slump is part of a broader disenchantment with reality TV remains to be seen. Certainly talent shows, from Strictly Come Dancing to Britain’s Got Talent, continue to thrive in. But as for Big Brother, will you miss it? Has it passed its sell-by date? Is Channel 4 right to ditch it?
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4 comments so far
I can safely say that I’m not Big Brother’s biggest fan - it’s always been seen as a very easy way for generally talentless people to get famous.
Also, it’s not representative of real life in any way. One could argue that if real life were to be represented in the house, it would get boring, but deliberately putting certain types of people in just to set up a potentially huge argument isn’t nice - it’s cruel, because people should be having a good time on TV.
It can show some of this country’s uglier sides as well - the race row sparked by the late Jade Goody underlines a general ignorance shown by this nation when it comes to accepting people of other cultures. Another thing regarding the poor state of the country is, really, all we’re doing by watching Big Brother, is just watching other people do the most day-to-day things - have conversations, eat, sunbathe when the weather’s nice, sleep - what’s so interesting about that?
I sincerely hope that Channel 4 comes up with a better idea than this in the future, especially since they show a lot of very good British programmes, such as The Inbetweeners, which, although only being half an hour a week, I can safely say that one episode of a show like the Inbetweeners is more entertaining than God knows how many weeks of Big Brother. They’re right to scrap it.
- Posted by Nick WilliamsWill I miss it, possibly the easiest question I’ve ever answered, NO NO NO, catagorically NO. Never has such a vacuous waste of time and energy been transmitted over the airwaves! Good riddence to bad rubbish!
- Posted by AndyThis statistic also proves that there are upto 10 million Brits with very a poor IQ(challenged!!) who have nothing better to do than watch what can be best described as Bubble gum for the brain. Truly sad!
- Posted by Andyhurry hurry they got rid of that rubbish at last i used to think channel 4 was great frontline new programme makers and see new shows. but after waching 2 nights in the first series and i never watched channel 4 again. if i ever meet the programme makers producers & the person who commissioned it will get bitch slapped in to next week.
- Posted by shauneyboy