Big Brother will be shorter next year

Big Brother will be limited to shorter runs on Channel 4 in future, director of programmes Kevin Lygo admitted today.

Big Brother will never repeat its recent run of 13 weeks, said Lygo today. The first series in 2000 ran to a mere 9 weeks, with last year's running to 11.

But while this was probably the channel's first public admission that some aspects of the recent run were failures, Mr Lygo staunchly defended the latest series against criticism that it was over produced, confusing and that the format was undermined by bringing back evicted contestants.

"If you didn't do different things people would be wondering why you are making the same show," he said. "It would be boring and nobody would watch."

He added that the show could survive on British television indefinitely.

"It is an established summer event, a bit like Wimbledon," he said. "And like Wimbledon some years are a bit **** and you can't remember who won and some years it's brilliant."

http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/organgrinder/2006/08/post_14.html#more

They say that now - but the length of the series is never really confirmed until the show airs!

11 weeks was about right - 13 weeks just means you need too many housemates and is a bigger risk, though strangely I found that this year it could have gone on a couple more weeks, while despite preferring BB6, I felt that extra week compared to BB5 seemed a week too many!

13 weeks was way too long - I think about 10 to 11 weeks is about right.

I agree, 11 weeks next year!

Actually from the quote he didn't say it would get shorter - he just doesn't think it'll get any longer!


(Digital Spy)


So it's a good bet it's stick at 13 weeks - and I think with them only being a week away, one year they'll push for the full 100 Days.

For that though they need a major twist to the format - the basic format over 100 Days wouldn't be a good idea!

What, there's going to be yet another BB next year? When will C4 learn?

I dont think they should go to 100 days - thats over 3 months. Its the quality not the quantity they need to look at!

...that consistently getting 4+ million viewers and being the highest rating reality show on any channel during that period is a bad thing? I appreciate the complaints about BB but for C4, it has worked extremely well for them - as (I'm guessing) have the spin off shows too.