Big Brother - axed

C4 have said they don't want to bring shows back from the dead - they want new original content. That said in recent years both Shipwrecked and Coach Trip have been revived.


I'm glad most of it is going on drama, but fear too much will go on little watched one-off pieces whilst what the channel needs most is the next Shameless and more series in the vein of Teachers etc. (and working my way through that on DVD at the moment, it seems so tame for something which was considered rather edgy a few years back!).

Outside of that - the easier way to fill multiple slots cheaply would be with a nightly chat show, which worked well for Graham Norton a few years back, and could work again. Needs to be scheduled though so drama isn't bumped out of the 10pm slot, but could be easily done by basically airing short runs in January and then any time from June to September, and then running US drama close to their original transmission, with UK content mixed in with it too.

Step forward jack Whitehall or Alan Carr.

Unknown models mainly then. "So and so blah blah famous for having an affair with Peter Stringfellow back in 1981" or Peter Stingfellow.

Strangely enough, I know a lot of people who like Edward Tudor-Pole as much as (or more than ) Richard O'Brien! Personally I think Richard O'Brien made the show his own... ETP was alright, but didn't quite have the same presence as Richard.

Perhaps I'm getting cynical in my old age [self-aware ], but I suspect the axing of BB may have something to do with C4 getting its begging bowl out for more public-funding-- so the emphasis on providing more drama is to justify this?

Well this is the thing, if C4 are already struggling as it is and are only freeing up £20million from BB... that ain't all that much, as it's from one single programme... try spending that on 200 hour of different programming, possibly 10 programmes or mini series. It just isn't going to work.

So money is going to HAVE to appear from somewhere... probably from the Beeb now that they've waited until the merger to announce all this.

They have a bit of a situation on their hands now, all but Lisa and David are threatening to walk out over Tuesdays eviction. It wouldn't be such a problem if the final wasn't on Friday

In my mind they should all be kicked out for refusing to nominate anyway.

Does it matter? They'll all be gone in less than a week!

In my opinion it'd be a good thing, as there'd be more time for interviews. Way too many people crammed into the final nowadays, we only get about 4 questions and their best bits and off they pop!

And knowing the producers too, they'll keep the stupid eviction panel too - but as it's the final have even more guests!

Yes but when you're stuck with just Lisa and David, and no build up to the announcement and 2 hours to fill, it wouldn't be the most exciting of finals, not that its going to be exciting anyway, its heading for the most boring final ever which is a shame because when this series has been on it, it has been vintage BB.

The plot thickens about the circumstances of its axing. C4 say it wasn't a commercial decision but after reading this article from Broadcast I'm not convinced.



I can't believe BB9 was only worth £47m when it had practically the same ratings as BB8. And its hard to imagine that BB9 only made £2m profit. In a three year deal spanning 4 series', they'll have gone from making £27m profit to making a loss of over £13m. BB11 needs to make £29m for the contract to pay for itself, perhaps a little less when you factor in the celebrity series.