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Sep. 5th, 2006 10:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eiffel_71On one of the Aisleyne fans' forums, I've just been alerted to ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
mickmercer's excellent articles on BB7. Well said, sir. Over the last few days I've been learning a few unpleasant truths about BB...
Right from BB1 I've absolutely loved BB. I thought the concept of the programme was perfect, and as an avid people-watcher I'd get hooked year in year out. It helped that there was nearly always at least one housemate I really liked - I'm still in love with Anna Nolan and Kate Lawler, and, likelittlemissalien, I was a massive fan of the Ticklemeister - an absolute star in a mediocre BB4.
I was such a devoted Big Brotherite that nearly 3 years ago, in the wake of the disappointing BB4, I became convinced that one dear friend of mine would make an absolutely superb housemate and would help save the show, and it became my fondest dream to get her in that house. Somehow, though, I never got round to suggesting it to her whenever the auditions were announced :(
In an internet cafe in Leytonstone, where I was living at the time, during BB4's last week a young girl saw me typing an entry to my D1aryland diary about my disappointment with BB that year. She commented on it - she was also a Tickle fan and told me she was applying for BB5. I wished her good luck and said I'd vote for her to win. That charming little scene has always stuck in my memory.
I already knew before this year that the show wasn't perfect. I'd seen the tampering with the eviction system to keep the vile Jade in BB3 because she made good telly, when she would have been booted in week 7 and would never then have attained the massive success that she has. (Food for thought next time you see her all over the gossip mag or tabloid covers or on your TV screen.) I'd seen some selective editing and alleged irregularities with the vote lines keep Cameron (with his media connections) in BB4 over the legend Jon, then Cameron JUST happening to be the one picked to go to Africa and gain a two-week holiday from being nommed (yet still allowed to nom himself). I'd read the lovely Michelle from BB5 telling Hello how she'd been edited in her last week to look like this nightmare bunny boiler and how the BB in the diary room had been saying things to her to put her in a bad mood - thus contributing to her being evicted that week, setting up a whole week of 'did-they-didn't-they' gossip, and costing her her deserved spot in the final.
I'd read BB2 Dean's book, with his tales of how the editing painted a totally different picture to what was going on in the house, and how it seemed to him, when viewing the C4 shows, that they'd all been cast in roles and were being edited to suit that casting. It's fascinating and every BB fan should read it. Buy it here:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Living-Box-Adventure-Reality-TV/dp/0954803000
But up until the end of BB7 I'd somehow overlooked all those as little faults I could forgive - just as you do with a person you love. I loved BB so much that I clung to a romanticised ideal of it.
This year changed all that. We had the scam of voting a housemate back in, just so C4 and Endemol could have their beloved Nikki, for whom they had post-BB plans, in the final. We had BBLB made into the Glyn To Win Show. (Presumably Glyn was chosen as top-two material to harvest many votes from adoring girls and from patriotic Welsh viewers - on one forum it's been revealed that during the final week, S4C broadcast only his voteline number.) We had Davina showing overt bias on the Friday night shows. During and after the closing weeks, there were a couple of leaks from BB insiders about how C4 and Endemol were doing their damnedest to nobble Aisleyne - they didn't want her in the top three as they had no use for her post-BB and wanted their future employee Nikki to get a medal. (They were also irritated with Aisleyne for getting to the final and for having a fan base - they'd intended her to be a pantomime villain and have a boo-laden eviction night.) Shamefully, that nobbling went beyond selective editing and extended to things such as the audition tapes, designed to deliberately send Ais into emotional meltdown. Then there's the allegation that Susie told people 2 weeks before the golden ticket draw that she was definitely going on...and so on. It has been pointed out that all the balls in the blower had different numbers. To that I say 1) when running through all the Golden Ticket contenders before the draw, Davina said more about Susie than any of the others, and 2) even if the draw was fair, if someone else had been drawn they could just have put Susie in the House Next Door when that started. So it's quite possible she knew she would be going in at some point.
And the thing is, I bought much of it. I picked up on Davina's bias, and twigged that the editing during the final week didn't look kosher (making me cast yet more votes for Ais in a bid to help offset the damage), but not watching many BBLBs I didn't spot how it was being used to promote Glyn, and I've only realised the full extent of the foul play that was going on by reading various online sources over the last few days.
To realise that this programme I'd come to be devoted to was being manipulated to such an extent by those gutless cheating bastards at C4/Endemol was shattering. I can only compare it with when you're little and you find out there's no Santa.
I really don't know yet if I'll watch BB8. I might still tune in for the people-watching, to participate in the discussions on my e-group and at my workplace, and because the shows, skewed though they are, every year do deliver me some priceless moments of top entertainment.
But I will never vote again. The gutless cheating bastards will not get another penny out of me.
What is heartbreaking is that the concept of the programme is absolutely perfect. If you just ran BB fairly and didn't introduce bias or interfere with it in any way, you would have a TV show that I and thousands of others would unconditionally love, and that would be genuinely worthwhile for both participants and viewers. Endemol created a wonderful idea, then they and C4 ripped it apart and ruined it.
Vive Aisleyne and good luck to her for the future. C4 and Endemol, especially Sharon Powers, just fuck off and die.
mickmercer's excellent articles on BB7. Well said, sir. Over the last few days I've been learning a few unpleasant truths about BB...Right from BB1 I've absolutely loved BB. I thought the concept of the programme was perfect, and as an avid people-watcher I'd get hooked year in year out. It helped that there was nearly always at least one housemate I really liked - I'm still in love with Anna Nolan and Kate Lawler, and, like
littlemissalien, I was a massive fan of the Ticklemeister - an absolute star in a mediocre BB4.I was such a devoted Big Brotherite that nearly 3 years ago, in the wake of the disappointing BB4, I became convinced that one dear friend of mine would make an absolutely superb housemate and would help save the show, and it became my fondest dream to get her in that house. Somehow, though, I never got round to suggesting it to her whenever the auditions were announced :(
In an internet cafe in Leytonstone, where I was living at the time, during BB4's last week a young girl saw me typing an entry to my D1aryland diary about my disappointment with BB that year. She commented on it - she was also a Tickle fan and told me she was applying for BB5. I wished her good luck and said I'd vote for her to win. That charming little scene has always stuck in my memory.
I already knew before this year that the show wasn't perfect. I'd seen the tampering with the eviction system to keep the vile Jade in BB3 because she made good telly, when she would have been booted in week 7 and would never then have attained the massive success that she has. (Food for thought next time you see her all over the gossip mag or tabloid covers or on your TV screen.) I'd seen some selective editing and alleged irregularities with the vote lines keep Cameron (with his media connections) in BB4 over the legend Jon, then Cameron JUST happening to be the one picked to go to Africa and gain a two-week holiday from being nommed (yet still allowed to nom himself). I'd read the lovely Michelle from BB5 telling Hello how she'd been edited in her last week to look like this nightmare bunny boiler and how the BB in the diary room had been saying things to her to put her in a bad mood - thus contributing to her being evicted that week, setting up a whole week of 'did-they-didn't-they' gossip, and costing her her deserved spot in the final.
I'd read BB2 Dean's book, with his tales of how the editing painted a totally different picture to what was going on in the house, and how it seemed to him, when viewing the C4 shows, that they'd all been cast in roles and were being edited to suit that casting. It's fascinating and every BB fan should read it. Buy it here:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Living-Box-Adventure-Reality-TV/dp/0954803000
But up until the end of BB7 I'd somehow overlooked all those as little faults I could forgive - just as you do with a person you love. I loved BB so much that I clung to a romanticised ideal of it.
This year changed all that. We had the scam of voting a housemate back in, just so C4 and Endemol could have their beloved Nikki, for whom they had post-BB plans, in the final. We had BBLB made into the Glyn To Win Show. (Presumably Glyn was chosen as top-two material to harvest many votes from adoring girls and from patriotic Welsh viewers - on one forum it's been revealed that during the final week, S4C broadcast only his voteline number.) We had Davina showing overt bias on the Friday night shows. During and after the closing weeks, there were a couple of leaks from BB insiders about how C4 and Endemol were doing their damnedest to nobble Aisleyne - they didn't want her in the top three as they had no use for her post-BB and wanted their future employee Nikki to get a medal. (They were also irritated with Aisleyne for getting to the final and for having a fan base - they'd intended her to be a pantomime villain and have a boo-laden eviction night.) Shamefully, that nobbling went beyond selective editing and extended to things such as the audition tapes, designed to deliberately send Ais into emotional meltdown. Then there's the allegation that Susie told people 2 weeks before the golden ticket draw that she was definitely going on...and so on. It has been pointed out that all the balls in the blower had different numbers. To that I say 1) when running through all the Golden Ticket contenders before the draw, Davina said more about Susie than any of the others, and 2) even if the draw was fair, if someone else had been drawn they could just have put Susie in the House Next Door when that started. So it's quite possible she knew she would be going in at some point.
And the thing is, I bought much of it. I picked up on Davina's bias, and twigged that the editing during the final week didn't look kosher (making me cast yet more votes for Ais in a bid to help offset the damage), but not watching many BBLBs I didn't spot how it was being used to promote Glyn, and I've only realised the full extent of the foul play that was going on by reading various online sources over the last few days.
To realise that this programme I'd come to be devoted to was being manipulated to such an extent by those gutless cheating bastards at C4/Endemol was shattering. I can only compare it with when you're little and you find out there's no Santa.
I really don't know yet if I'll watch BB8. I might still tune in for the people-watching, to participate in the discussions on my e-group and at my workplace, and because the shows, skewed though they are, every year do deliver me some priceless moments of top entertainment.
But I will never vote again. The gutless cheating bastards will not get another penny out of me.
What is heartbreaking is that the concept of the programme is absolutely perfect. If you just ran BB fairly and didn't introduce bias or interfere with it in any way, you would have a TV show that I and thousands of others would unconditionally love, and that would be genuinely worthwhile for both participants and viewers. Endemol created a wonderful idea, then they and C4 ripped it apart and ruined it.
Vive Aisleyne and good luck to her for the future. C4 and Endemol, especially Sharon Powers, just fuck off and die.
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Date: 2010-05-02 02:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-05-02 06:09 pm (UTC)http://moonhot97.livejournal.com/64431.html