Big Brother USA

Let's talk about BB USA.
Anyone watching it on E4?
They seem to be spending all of today catching up on the day's we've missed before going into the daily show.
I watched a couple of episodes and must note the differences.
It's very similar formatwise to BB Africa. It's very very different from our Big Brother, which seems to be a bit of an outcast.
It makes heavy use of the diary room - interspersing practically every sentence with some commentary from one of the HMs inside the Diary Room. There is no voice-over apart from the beginning.
Also, it steers away from the taking you through the day like with us, and instead seems quite hard to follow TBH. It concentrates on the people's bitchiness towards each other which is quite funny (everyone whispers) and lots of music makes it seem more like a cheap soap rather than anything else.
A question - is E4 getting a stream then (I won't call it live because it wouldn't be)? The announcer mentioned that Dermot would be opening the coverage from 11pm tomorrow.

The Sky EPG states that E4 will be showing 'BB USA Direct', which I think is the stream, with a 16 hour delay.

I think I read that they are broadcasting a delayed feed from BB USA - delayed by whatever the time difference is so that they're not going to bed as we're waking up.

I've watched the first 2 episodes, and will watch the rest later. The show is good so far. It’s more of a faster pace than ours. Ours is sometimes slow at the beginning with them just talking where as on this USA show the presenter is talking to the house right away and setting the food challenge almost right away.

I think BB USA should be good. Anyone know the official American site for the series? Its a shame NONE of its on C4. It could do well and make everyone forget BIG Brother Boor UK, so than Big Bro UK 5 wont have a huge weight to pull off by trying to get rid of the Boor factor branded with the show right now.

E4 are showing the live stuff a lot but I guess the Key times to watch are:
Wed 9pm - Big bro USA
Thurs 9pm - Big Bro USA - The Eviction
Sat 9pm - Big bro USA Weekly Catch up show.

Everything else as far as I can gather is that live stuff.

CBS Big Brother 4

http://www.welovebigbrother.com is a very good fansite.

For those of you don't know, I'll outline the US format

Each week a Head of Household is elected in a live challenge (at the end of the eviction show). They also have a shopping challenge once a week.

The Head of Household nominates two people for eviction. This can be discussed with other housemates. The Veto Challenge allows the winner to save one nominee from possible eviction, with the HoH having to nominate a replacement.

There is no public vote. The non-nominees vote who they want out (this can be discussed), with the HoH only voting in event of a tie.

The winner is decided by a panel of the final 7 evictees.

Host Julie Chen has a much greater role than Davina, interviewing the HoH, nominees and the evictee, and fronting some of the challenge, such as the HoH challenge. There is no studio audience.


I'm quite surprised E4 is chopping up more of their schedule to screen BBUSA live. I presumed the streaming would be on E4 Interactive. I think it's weird that BBUSA Live can be watched on TV in the UK, but not the US.

Being allowed to discuss nominations is quite a change from the UK version.... wonder what that would do if they introduced that rule here?

well they did this year and BB ignored them. I was not impressed with BB regarding this.

The format seems lame in comparison to the UK version. How do they make money if the public have no vote in evictions?? UK BB seems much more like an experiment and also more humorous with BBLB for example.
I know UK BB4 was a bit boring but I blame the housemates rather than the format. UK BB seems more pure than other countries' BB which seem much more gimmicky in comparison. Focusing on the bitchiness of housemates shouldn't be the basis of the entire show.
Also, the USA BB4 stream on E4 is rubbish. If its delayed why isn't it edited properly, and why does the camera focus on areas where there are no people??!!

My personal opinion:

I find that I am unable to watch more than 2 minutes of Big Brother USA without being sick over my floor. And then I have to clean it up so I switch it over to something more interesting.

It is so melodramatic - the American Davina McCall presents the show as though it is an obituary. Throughout the programme there is unnecessary emotional music and we're never too far from a bit of atmospheric smoke. Unless I imagined that bit, although it feels like smoke should be there.

The programme looks upon itself as an intelligent analysis of the relationships formed between fellow human beings. The housemates (sorry, "houseguests") are nauseating. The whole thing shouts that it has been staged - the housemates (bugger, houseguests) know where to look, how to smile, how to react and when to speak. It's as though they are looking at the director for cues and a countdown.

In summary... ugh.

i think the reason why they use music is because they treat it as a soap opera.

I don't like BB USA. Unfortunately, my family probably think I do and I'm going to have to force myself to sit through the next seven weeks of this tedium. BB UK is far better. Actually, with the house-smashing on Jamie Kennedy after last night's BB USA, I now hate E4 (there must be something wrong with me if I hate E4). I don't mind JKX when he's doing the more surreal stuff (like the bit with the rapper) but smashing peoples houses up is why I (and many others) hate Beadle. Kennedy needs to play to his strengths, otherwise I might phone up about getting E4 removed from my Sky package.