I do wonder if reality TV as we know it today will ever start to decline. It was a little more tolerable in the early 00s in my opinion, partly because of its novelty and it was also more "insightful" in a way (what it's like having a bunch of strangers in a house together, what the Osbournes are like in real life etc) rather than the staged, glamorous, "look at how much better life is for us compared to yours" trend that's dominating nowadays.
Reality TV is very different now. The term is probably abused today as a lot of it is scripted or certain environments are manipulated or edited to be more dramatic.
The reality TV we have now isn't proper reality tv - it's as much reality tv as The Crystal Maze is. More like a gameshow.
Not sure if it's still the case but certainly a few years ago there were plenty if people that, when told the likes of TOWIE and Made In Chelsea were scripted, would look at you like you've just said the moon landings were fake or the Royal Family are lizards.
Admittedly not "scripted" in the traditional learn-every-line-on-a-page sense but not in any way a fly on the wall documentary featuring actual lives playing out in front of cameras.
EDIT: Also worth noting that reality TV evolved out of the popular "docusoap" format of the late 1990s (Driving School, Airport, The Cruise etc), which still wasn't completely genuine but a heck of a lot more 'reality' based than many similar shows in the last 15 years.
The reality TV we have now isn't proper reality tv - it's as much reality tv as The Crystal Maze is. More like a gameshow.
And that's why Big Brother has failed - because it is a game show but for most of it's run on C5 hasn't been. Indeed this is the first series which has used the traditional nomination rules (2 or 3 with most votes up) rather than seemingly using a different interpretation each week based on who may or may not be up for eviction - though even then they clearly threw in a task for a nominee to save themselves because they were unhappy with who was up for eviction.
Love Island is a different beast but it thrived because it just did it's own thing and didn't try to pretend to be something it wasn't. Big Brother on C5 has spent the last few years trying to be Ex on the Beach and other, less popular, MTV shows - and basically threw away their fanbase to do so.
One interesting development though since the weekend is they've signed up Paul Osborne to produce this summers series. He was one of the execs for BB7 and Celebrity Hijack and involved with the C4 show from the beginning in 2000 through to 2008. A good signing, but just like when C4 axed it Endemol seem to be willing to throw more at the show when it needs pitching to broadcasters in order to survive than they do year on year just to make decent television.
The reality TV we have now isn't proper reality tv - it's as much reality tv as The Crystal Maze is. More like a gameshow.
And that's why Big Brother has failed - because it is a game show but for most of it's run on C5 hasn't been. Indeed this is the first series which has used the traditional nomination rules (2 or 3 with most votes up) rather than seemingly using a different interpretation each week based on who may or may not be up for eviction - though even then they clearly threw in a task for a nominee to save themselves because they were unhappy with who was up for eviction.
Love Island is a different beast but it thrived because it just did it's own thing and didn't try to pretend to be something it wasn't. Big Brother on C5 has spent the last few years trying to be Ex on the Beach and other, less popular, MTV shows - and basically threw away their fanbase to do so.
One interesting development though since the weekend is they've signed up Paul Osborne to produce this summers series. He was one of the execs for BB7 and Celebrity Hijack and involved with the C4 show from the beginning in 2000 through to 2008. A good signing, but just like when C4 axed it Endemol seem to be willing to throw more at the show when it needs pitching to broadcasters in order to survive than they do year on year just to make decent television.
They are promising that it will go back to being an experiment.
- I hope they really focus on casting a range of different people
- Keep nominations in the diary room
- Stop making the house fancy and just keep it basic
- Think up useful tasks such as something like erm.... wood carving.... or something more creative than a task that makes them bitch about each other
I'd stumbled upon a (pretty extensive) compilation of the graphic elements of Big Brother 7. It really did remind me how different the show used to look on 4.
There have been too many little changes to the show since Channel 5 took it on and I think they have ruined the programme and if they are going back to "the original social experiment" then they should undo most if not all of the changes. Product placement aside, the constant shots of outside/above the house with pop music played over it are completely unnecessary, and almost feels like we don't get to see as much footage as we could because they would rather play part of a song over silent conversations and action from the house when viewers would by and large rather see the action andhear the conversations. Marcus's completely OTT commentary is grating on me these last few years too. It was much more subdued on Channel 4 and he didn't interfere but it seems like he has either been told to ramp it up to the Nth degree or he's just doing it and no-one is reigning him in. Also, the name flashes are unnecessary, I never needed them in the Channel 4 days and everyone got on perfectly fine without them, and I think they were introduced as a way of making the show seem more like a TOWIE sort of affair which was a massive mistake and hopefully is done away with for the summer series.
I'd stumbled upon a (pretty extensive) compilation of the graphic elements of Big Brother 7. It really did remind me how different the show used to look on 4.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMOdpRCupKc
This really was Big Brother in its prime. This series was the peak of the show really. The big problem I had with this series and the celebrity one was the amount of manipulation Big Brother had in the environment.
The worse example of this was when the public voted Nikki out... but then Big Brother thought it was a great idea to reverse it and get her back in.
Then the manipulation got worse, the people applying to be on the show got worse and to this day Channel 5 haven't yet understood that manipulation can do more harm than good.
People naturally either argue or they develop relationships and then people understand who they want to nominate. If this process is altered it usually means that the Big Brother production team get the result they want moreso than what the housemates or public want and that's not very appealing to watch.