Channel 4

They definitely extended the ads on E4.

I've always appreciated the way Channel 4 handles any faults by pretty much coming clean about what's happened. The CA had explained that there was a power cut 'at Elstree' and shook off any conspiracy theories.

Condensed video:

[media:b65b919ef6]http://up.metropol247.co.uk/Jonny/C4BBbreakdown.flv[/media:b65b919ef6]

When i was there last year they start recording the eviction show at 10.20pm, not sure if its changed for this year.

Just to confirm, the break down was repeated on Channel 4+1. I know that sounds obvious, but Channel 4+1 and E4+1 have made edits to shows in the past, especially Big Brother shows.

The CA during the breakdown was subtitled which seems to be the norm for Channel 4 programmes with live subtitles.

It was a long old breakdown, wasn't it? The CA went at least a minute without speaking at one point so Channel 4 were broadcasting silence. I wonder if that set any alarms off anywhere along the broadcast chain.

The eviction shows have been on a 15-minute delay since they moved to 10.35pm as the crowd has to be cleared by 11pm.

Poorly handled though for what was a lengthy drop in transmission - music and an animation really helps cover such periods, and though it can be annoying when the announcers repeats themselves every few seconds, there was far too much dead air between announcements tonight.

Probably none on a TV station, where it's not unusual for one to broadcast silence for a while (especially during something like Big Brother). If there was a loss of vision or audio or both (i.e. a loss of digits rather than a black screen or silence) then lots of red lights would start flashing!

Radio stations do have silence detectors of course, some with a shorter tolerance than others (for example 20 seconds of silence isn't unusual on Radio 3, 4 or Classic FM... but indicates a big problem on a local chart station

They occasionally make light of it on The Chris Moyles Show playing the Emergency Tape Game to see how long it takes for whatever silence detector they have to kick in - often playing a tape themselves to scare one of the presenters.

The thing that I don't get is when she talks to the house and says "your live on channel4" and the show has been
recorded.

It's not recorded, it's delayed.

The 'You're live on channel 4' is a catchphrase, that's why it's said

If it's less than a 15 minute delay it technically is still live. On the occasions when the delay is more than that it is often tweaked to "You are on C4".

Really really hate that catchphrase though - being told not to sweat at 10.30pm at night after an hour of swearing in the highlights is ridiculous. Indeed strictly speaking the catchphrase has never really been applicable as if they're post-watershed swearing isn't a problem, and if they're pre-watershed the show isn't live anyway.

Was applicable for the earliest series' though wasn't it? The live show began at 8.30 and I think it wasn't even on a delay back then?