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Channel 4 axes Big Brother

Daina McCall and the Big Brother logo
  • Posted at 12:02pm
  • 26 August 2009
  • by WilliamGallagher-RT
  • 15 comments

Channel 4 is to drop Big Brother after one more series next year - but it may be saved by another broadcaster.

The final series on Channel 4 comes a decade after the show's controversial and hugely successful launch in 2000. At its height in 2002 with Jade Goody's first appearance in the show, Big Brother regularly achieved audiences of around eight million. But the current tenth series is averaging just two million.

Channel 4's director of television Kevin Lygo said the series "had reached a natural end point on Channel 4 and it's time to move on".

Next year marks the end of Channel 4's contract with the show's maker, Endemol. The last time the contract came up for renewal in 2006, ITV bid to take it away from Channel 4. It's expected that another channel will buy the series and keep it on UK screens from 2011.

This is not the first Big Brother to be cancelled: the once-global hit was axed in Australia last year. Yet it's now doing much better than before in the US where its latest series has become a summer hit for the first time.

Will you miss Big Brother on Channel 4? What did you love - or loathe - about it? And do you think another broadcaster could improve the show - or make it worse? Post a comment below and let us know.

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Comments

  • Posted on 30 August 2009
  • at 12:28pm
  • by Linda

I used to love watching the live feed at tea time so I could tut at the silliness. I missed watching them cook this year. Sort of relaxing. :(

  • Posted on 29 August 2009
  • at 12:07am
  • by Michael

I do find it strange that so many people who haven't followed the show have such a violent hatred of it. It is not as if there aren't 100s of other channels they could be watching. I don't watch The Tudors but I don't go round saying I hate it.

  • Posted on 28 August 2009
  • at 7:04pm
  • by Jason

Although I still watch it, it has gone stale over the last few years so maybe if Endemol went back to the formula that made the first 2 series successful things might improve - as one of the other commenters said, bring back the chickens, give them back their books (which they took away because they were just sitting around reading and it was boring to watch on live feed - now they sit around doing nothing and there is no live feed to speak of, so what do they have to lose?). With so few viewers and just a year left, any brave move might *just* breathe some life into it.

Plus if it does go, what on earth will all those people who are apparently forced to watch it at gunpoint moan about instead? If you don't like it, turn over - it really is that simple. There are enough channels to choose from these days.

  • Posted on 28 August 2009
  • at 9:43am
  • by peebee

Absolute trash, one of the many reasons why this nation has developed the morals of the gutter, and the intelligence of a gnat. Good riddance

  • Posted on 28 August 2009
  • at 2:35am
  • by lastgang

There is a God!

  • Posted on 27 August 2009
  • at 9:44pm
  • by Mick

I'll miss it even though the last couple of years have been really bad. I think it was quite decent entertainment until about season 5. Hope whoever bids for it will do a bit better job with the relaunch. Next year's channel 4 season will probably be as bad as this year as the channel never listens to its viewers. Get some people in who actually have a bit of character rather than all these juvenile idiots they seem to favour. Get some older housemates in. All this lot seem to know is which nightclubs to frequent. Boring.

  • Posted on 27 August 2009
  • at 1:54pm
  • by Dorid M

The first two series were excellent, pretty normal people doing pretty normal things proved fascinating. Then came the freaks, attention seekers and fame hunters and it all got dorid. Apart from Jades Kebab the rest has been awful.

  • Posted on 26 August 2009
  • at 10:06pm
  • by sandijay

about time. the first series was a social experiment, the rest have been a showcase for untalented wannabes

  • Posted on 26 August 2009
  • at 8:48pm
  • by Mazzaa

About time they got rid of BB. I personally think its a pointless show. If I want to see people living in a house I'd look at my own. I want Scrubs back.

  • Posted on 26 August 2009
  • at 8:23pm
  • by SR

Thanks goodness its axed at long last.

  • Posted on 26 August 2009
  • at 8:06pm
  • by x

excellent!!!!! a move towards decency and good taste

  • Posted on 26 August 2009
  • at 8:02pm
  • by Fay

Actually very interesting in terms of human behaviour/psychology - think would be a real shame if not on telly anymore - yes other things may seem of more interest for obvious reasons - but I think if we look beyond the 'concept', hype and sensation of a reality t.v. show with all it's trimmings and experience the show as an experimental project about human experience it is absolutely fascinating. You put a group of people together over a long period of time you are going to witness group dynamics on a grand scale and no amount of 'game planning' or 'tactics' is going to sidestep that. It's fascinating, with or without the oil wrestling, shrimp paste tooth brushing or food rationing. Keep it I say!!

  • Posted on 26 August 2009
  • at 5:50pm
  • by Nanaman

Good riddance, maybe C4 will begin to show something decent in the summer.

  • Posted on 26 August 2009
  • at 3:22pm
  • by Jim

FINALLY it's going. The rubbish been allowed to take over TV for far too long.

  • Posted on 26 August 2009
  • at 1:21pm
  • by Michael

I think it is a shame that channel 4 still have one year of the show left. They have spent as little as possible this year with the most significant cut-back being the loss of the red button live feed. Full live feed and a better designed web-site would have helped generate genuine interest. Instead interest has waned. Being able to talk about the live feed was one of the major talking points between fans. The tasks have mainly been 'parrot the instructional DVD' tasks leaving little chance for house-mates to be creative or improvise. The others have just been 'dress up silly and 'strike a funny pose' affairs. I feel the show needed taking back to basics, reintroducing a proper garden and the chickens. Let them have a book again. If you put people in an empty box with no other stimuli but themselves, food and inane tasks, Channel 4 can hardly blame the housemates for sleeping lots, fighting over food again and again and again and having repetitive conversations. Big Brother needed an overhaul this year - not in two years time.

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