Channel Ten cancels Big Brother Australia

[Andrew]

It finally happened: Ten confirms it's bye bye to Big Brother

AFTER eight series, 162 housemates and guests, and a viewer slide of almost 1.8 million, Channel 10 has admitted that not even Kyle Sandilands and Pamela Anderson could save Big Brother.

Last night the network announced that next Monday's show - during which the series winner will be announced at the Gold Coast compound - will be the ground-breaking reality show's last.

The series which attracted up to 2.8 million viewers back in 2001 is now averaging little more than one million viewers per episode.

Ten chose to forge ahead this year with the ageing format, spiced up with appearances by party boy Corey Worthington, gay style guru Carson Kressley and Anderson, a former Baywatch babe.

Producers Endemol Southern Star were then informed, but the news was kept secret over the weekend before the final seven episodes roll out from tonight. It follows last week's appearance by a skimpily-clad Anderson, who was reportedly paid $500,000 to appear on the flagging show.

The decision backfired when Anderson publicly voiced her protest at Big Brother major sponsor KFC's treatment of chickens.

When your plan to save the show's ratings involves Kyle Sandilands, that's pretty much the kiss of death. However, I've read that Channel Seven is in talks to pick it up which seems silly since the show is failing in the ratings because people don't want to watch it, not because it's on Channel Ten. Perhaps they might pick up some viewers by putting it on after Home & Away since that rates better than Neighbours but I don't think having it follow a more popular show is going to change the fact that people seem to have grown bored with it.

[Dan's Brain]

I wept. I can honestly say I wept. I quit drinking a few months ago, but I can tell you that I had a celebratory brewsky tonight. Big Brother is the worst thing to happen to Australian television since..... well ever. And cancelling it, no matter what comes on instead, is a move of pure awesomeness.

[Andrew]

Apparently they're going to have to replace it with a fair amount of local content so it remains to be seen how they'll fulfil that requirement. It could turn out to be similarly uninspired though I guess I'd just avoid that too. At least it opens up the door for something new.

[Dan's Brain]

More Biggest Loser, probably. I cant see it being replaced by anything other than reality shite. But at least it wont be completely, completely braindead reality shite.

[Andrew]

Biggest Loser isn't any better in my book. Ideally, I'd like them to develop a new comedy or drama series (or even a dramedy, for that matter) but you're right, it's likely more reality TV is on the way.

[Dan's Brain]

It's slightly better than BB. At least it encourages people to improve themselves, (albeit in a melodramatic and condescending way), instead of encouraging viewers to annihilate their own brain cells.

I wouldnt mind another drama either. Anything scripted, that could potentially get me a decent job for a change.

[Andrew]

I can't stand any reality TV these days so it's all the same to me but I see your point. It's a more constructive concept, hands down.

I'm more a fan of comedy than drama so I'd rather see them develop a new, "smart" sitcom, preferably nothing like other Australian comedies like Kath & Kim or older series like Mother & Son, Kingswood Country, Hey Dad! and the like. Those shows are all well and good and at least a couple of them could be considered Australian comedy classics but I'd like something more contemporary that speaks to our generation.

[Dan's Brain]

An animated sitcom, even?

[Andrew]

Sure, maybe. I could see it becoming a sad Simpsons ripoff and getting cancelled very quickly though so perhaps live action would be better.

[Dan's Brain]

The sad thing is, Australian shows NEVER get time to find their legs. Anything that comes on the screens, and isn't perfect right out of the gate is almost immediately axed.

It sucks.

[Andrew]

That's true, it would need to make an immediate impact or it would probably be gone within a couple of weeks. Avoiding making another police drama would be a good start; there have been too many are there are still too many shows of that genre.

Have you seen the British series "Skins"? They were showing it on SBS, I'm not sure if it's finished its run but I caught a couple of episodes of it. If they did something like that but with older characters, twenty-somethings - somewhere between Skins and Californication - that might be good for a drama series with some dark humour. It wouldn't make the 7 PM timeslot though. Otherwise, I still like the idea of a smart sitcom.

[[Q]]

they just started the 10th edition of BB here last night. somehow, they try some new gimmick every season to try to keep it fresh. they do a below average to average job at it... it's gotten them by to the 10th season already. they've done different things every year past 3 like coming into the house to be surprised your ex is there, one year they had twin sisters pretending to be one person, they had people with estranged family ties, and funny how this year their biggest selling point was "this is the first year since BB3 that no one in the house knows each other!"

[Fitzy]

i agree with what they have been saying how this season hasnt been as popular as others, and contestants arent as "worshiped" has they have been in the past. I never really watch big brother, but i thought last season was really really good.
We should just blame kyle and jackie-blow

[Andrew]

I'll never understand how some people find Kyle Sandilands entertaining. As far as I can tell, the only thing he's good at is being a talentless prick and winning RALPH Magazine's Wanker of the Year award...multiple times. I've seen some people praise him for not being afraid to "tell it like it is", so I guess simply being blunt and rude equates to comedic genius these days. Go figure.

they just started the 10th edition of BB here last night. somehow, they try some new gimmick every season to try to keep it fresh. they do a below average to average job at it... it's gotten them by to the 10th season already. they've done different things every year past 3 like coming into the house to be surprised your ex is there, one year they had twin sisters pretending to be one person, they had people with estranged family ties, and funny how this year their biggest selling point was "this is the first year since BB3 that no one in the house knows each other!"

They've tried similar stuff here too. At first the concept just got a bit stale after they'd done it a couple of times but then things started to get downright stupid with over-the-top gimmicks. Bringing in Corey Worthington of all people was really scraping the bottom of the barrel and bringing in Pamela Anderson reeked of desperation and fell apart spectacularly because of the KFC controversy. The one time they did Celebrity Big Brother Australia was even sadder, a mournful commentary on what constitutes "celebrity" in Australia.

[mitch820]

Yay, I'm so happy, finally that piece of s*** of a show is finally gone.

[Andrew]

Well, that makes three of us.

[AMenace]

I heard this a long time ago, but I would like to say that Big Brother was a load of crap as far as I am concerned! I am 15, so that means I am still living with my parents, and every f***ing night when this S*** is on I have to sit through it, their excuse is that they like watching it as a family, but I don't see the f***ing point of that.

Finally they can put something decent on, but that idea is down the drain with Taken Out, another load of crap that my parents are addicted to. It is good I get home at 6:40 every night, because I don't have to watch it.

Channel Ten: Don't put this f***ing s**t on again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Happy that its gone!

[Lamrock]

In case you feel like staying, "fuck" and "shit" are allowed. Did they actually force you to watch those sows, or do you not have anything better to do than watch TV?

[Dan's Brain]

Didnt Taken Out get cancelled already as well?

A guy i know was on an episode that never went to air. I laughed at him.

[Andrew]

Yeah it got canned, proving that television executives never learn from their mistakes. Big Brother, a reality show, gets the axe because it's doing poorly in the ratings so they replace it with another reality show. They're probably still sitting in a conference room scratching their heads and wondering why repeats of The Simpsons and Friends are faring better than their "exciting new shows".

[Fitzy]

Didnt Taken Out get cancelled already as well?

A guy i know was on an episode that never went to air. I laughed at him.

i knew a guy who was on it that actually got on tv. i was so pissed off when they took the simpsons from 6pm to put taken out on. i was patient enough watching the reruns of bloody friends waiting for the simpsons to come back

[Andrew]

Fortunately, scripted television won again.

[Fresh8]

It's not my type of show and I can bet a lot of the people on these forums wouldn't be in the target audience of Big Brother. However, I think that Channel 7 picked it up because they can see a market that it would still appeal to. It will be interesting to see what kind of plans they have for the show (Not that I would be paying much attention to it though )

[Andrew]

If they have picked it up, I think they'll wait before bringing it back. Idol is probably doing alright, I don't watch it myself but at least it does feature some talented people and has its roots in the old music/variety shows that successfully launched people's careers back in the day, so it's a more stable concept. The declining ratings were a sign that people were getting sick of Big Brother and losing interest so it wouldn't be wise to rush it back. TV executives being TV executives though, you never know.

[Fresh8]

Poor marketing and a poor product are a recipe for disaster and as you said Andrew, if you want Kyle to bring you up in ratings... you're in big trouble.

However, if I'm a TV exec, I would be confident that there's still a market out there for Big Brother. You're right though, there needs to be a bit of time before it is brought back in order to get people to forget about all the stereotype opinions of the show.