Happy Birthday Big Bro!!!

Monday 13th July:

BB1’s “Nasty” Nick Bateman [LATEST UPDATE: Rumour has it that Nick has decided not to take part. Source Daily Star twitter 13/07/09] will return and once again take on his former nemesis – the assault course – and pit his fitness against a current Housemate. Later that day, Dean from BB2 will re-enact a classic task from this series – the record breaking challenge. Finally on Monday, a group of 3 ex-Housemates from BB3 will take part in an egg & spoon race – a current Housemate must predict the winner to succeed in this task.

Update: How did it go? Well Craig Phillips stood in for Nasty Nick - brief footage on BBLB of him beating Half-wit. Dean took part in the sugar lump tower building challenge against Lisa - he beat her, but knocked his over just before the end so that she'd win (again snip shown on BBLB), the egg & spoon race was held in the car park but I was so transfixed by Alex that I stopped listening to George Lamb's voice - he (alex!) looked as great as ever. The highlights show featured none of the tasks from Monday, tho at least we got to see the nominations in full. I stayed up for live feed, hoping to find out what hm's reactions where to the day's events - but guess what? @ 1.10 am only Marcus was up, he was quietly reading through the rule book, he went to the DR briefly, went to the BR, spent a little time annoying the camera crew by looking through the mirror, got told off by BB and went to bed. It appeared that siavash and freddy were both still settling down so if LF had started at midnight we might have had a bit of convo. So far, its like the fans haven't been invited to the party.

Tuesday 14th July:
This day will see BB4, BB5 & BB6 revisited. The highlight of the day will be the infamous “Living in a box” task. Could the BB6 housemate returning be Makosi? You’ll have to wait and see!

UPDATE: Federico Martone (BB4) took on Noirin in the gymkhana task. Michelle Bass (BB5) and Sophie sang Pie Jesu from the wedding task. No news to report on the box task as yet. For once hm's were still awake when we joined them (prior to midnight - BB you spoil us) - but hm's were obviously unsettled by the contact with the outside world. Following an earlier pool session with siavash and rodders, noirin and marcus has an extremely long :yawn: discussion with markus berating noirin about her behaviour. Sophie was upset by Michelle's questions about romances in the house. What this show needs is new housemates to break up the groups and ofc LIVE FEED during the day.

Wednesday 15th July:
BB7’s Nikki and BB8’s Brian Belo will take part in a memorable task from their series. Insider sources say that Nikki’s task will be the “silent disco” task, and Brian will undergo the “word association” challenge.

Thursday 16th July:
Flamboyant BB9 chef Rex will return to take part in the “electric shock” task from last year, which was well received by viewers.

And that’s probably not all, as Channel 4 guarantee that there will be “surprises aplenty” during the week.

Friday 17th July:
To cap off the anniversary week, Davina McCall will reveal what further surprises Big Brother has in store to bring festivities to a climax live on Channel 4.

from Inside Big Brother site

Shame really - some of that sounds quite good - but how are they going to be able to do it all justice with a mere 1 hr (minus advert breaks) a day being broadcast? I guess we'll see (or rather - not see)

The Truman Show

Don't get me wrong - I loved the movie! It's just that I don't want to be see products being promoted when I switch on my TV. Time was when Big Brother contestants had to abide by certain rules:

PERSONAL BELONGINGS

• Big Brother reserves the right to enter and search the House and confiscate personal items at any time. These will be returned once the relevant Housemate(s) have left the House.
• While living in the House you may not: wear clothes with prominent commercial logos, branding or copyrighted images; or clothes that are intended to send a message to friends or colleagues in the outside world. If you take an item of clothing into the House that is later deemed to have too prominent a logo, Big Brother may decide to remove the item for the duration of your stay in the House. In addition Housemates may not wear items of clothing that have thin stripes on them as they can interfere with the cameras causing a strobing effect.
• Please note that although you are allowed to take sunglasses into the House, Big Brother requests that you do not wear them inside the House, unless they are medically required and pre-arranged with Big Brother before entering the House. Any Housemate or Housemates who disregard this rule and continue to wear sunglasses indoors, may be punished.
• If Housemates break or ruin any personal belongings, Big Brother will not replace or mend them – the Housemates are responsible for repair & upkeep of their personal belongings in the house. Big Brother will not look after any personal possessions that Housemates decide that they no longer want or need whilst they are staying in the House.

Oh, wait a minute - those are still the rules!! :confused: Here's a short clip that shows why I'm so confused -

Fluffy bunnies?

Subtitled: I'm hopping mad!

Well overnight saw a 2 hour long falling out over Noirin being told that she was 'hopping around groups like a bunny' - I did see it and was fascinated.

However, it was all rather spoiled because I hadn't seen the earlier conversation and therefore couldn't work out if Siavash was telling the truth or even try to determine what his real motives were.

Then, this morning, I wanted to be able to see what happened next.

Has Siavash been taken into Team Dumb's bosum (after all they have enough to accommodate a few)?

Was he punished for open discussion of nominations? (made to wear a bunny suit perhaps?)

Has Marcus realised that Noirin didn't listen to much of the advice he dished out last night?

Has Noirin formed a 'gang of 3' with rodders and sophie?

It made me realise, yet again, that this show NEEDS LIVEFEED!

Shudoo - fancy footwork

Well here's an interesting article to 'keep you on your toes'

And a statement from Andy Burnham, Culture Sec 1st March 09 about product placement to put this into perspective:

He said: "My priority has always been to make sure we maintain levels of trust between audiences and broadcasters, and protect the standards of broadcasting for which Britain is known worldwide.

"I have listened carefully to the arguments on both sides around product placement, and concluded that it should not be permitted in programmes made for this country. There is a lack of evidence of economic benefits, along with very serious concerns about blurring the boundaries between advertising and editorial.

"Britain is known around the world for the high quality of its broadcasting output. We need to continue to preserve editorial integrity as technology advances.

"I am well aware that a number of commercial broadcasters are facing difficult economic times and I will continue to work with the industry to explore ways we can support them, but my preference is to consider all other avenues before allowing product placement."

Are Channel 4/Endemol on a slipper-y slope? Are they stamping on thin ice? What do you think?

If you think that this represents product placement and want to complain, use this link to Ofcom

Footwear for hot weather - the pisces influence continues

The current spell of hot weather must surely indicate even less viewers for BB10? Do you do what I do in hot weather, kick of your shoes and walk barefoot as much as possible? Which got me to wondering, I wonder why the housemates aren't doing so? I was sent the following clip, certainly if I was outside near a pool there is no way I would be wearing shoes in this weather, at the most I may wear sandals or flipflops. And why, I wonder, are there so many close ups of the footwear?

Letters Have it C4

There are man people who support the need for Live Feed, one of its biggest champions is oathy who posts at DSBB. When oathy started the following thread: We really need youre help Get in touch with C4 please with it's link to the C4 Viewer Enquiry page I thought it would be worthwhile to take action and see what response I got from C4.

Here is what I sent them

Dear C4 can you explain to me why you show constant repeats of Friends
during the daytime on E4 whilst BB10 is on? Surely we should be seeing Live
Feed from the house as we usually do? Regards Fay

I got the usual auro reply saying that someone would get back to me, they did with the following:

Dear Ms Kinnet,

Thank you for your email regarding FRIENDS.

We appreciate your feedback regarding our scheduling and have noted and
logged your suggestions. However there are no plans to screen the live feed
during the day at this time.

FRIENDS is a consistently popular programme and continues to be an important
part of our daytime schedules.

Thank you again for taking the time to contact us here at Channel 4 and for
your interest in our programming.

Regards,

Noah Sinclair
Channel 4 Viewer Enquiries

I responded with the following:

Hi Noah
If Friends is so popular why does almost everyone I know complain that E4 are showing yet more repeats of friends? (I wonder what the viewing figures are for them?) By the same token almost everyone I know is complaining about the lack of Live Feed during the day
Regards
Fay

Note that I have not mentioned a Red Button at any point in the above correspondence, which is why I was so appalled to recieve the following:

Dear Ms Kinnet,

Thank you for contacting Channel 4 Viewer Enquiries regarding BIG BROTHER
10.

We were sorry to read that you are unhappy with our previous responses to
your comments concerning the red button 24-hour streaming facility.

We do feel that we have clearly stated Channel 4's position and that we have
done our best to assist you. Therefore, we regret that we are unable to
enter into any further correspondence on this subject.

Again, we do thank you for taking the time to write to us.

Thank you again for taking the time to contact us.

Regards,

Jane Morgan
Channel 4 Viewer Enquiries

So far I haven't had a response to my follow up email:

Dear Ms Morgan
I'm sorry I do not understand this response. Where and when did I mention a red button? You could at least have the courtesy to read my correspondance before deciding that you no longer wish to respond to me. If this is how Channel 4 treat their viewers then I am truly appalled!

I won't hold my breath for a reply! Do please leave a comment if you get better customer service from C4 than I got.

Channel 4 defend live feed axing

And it confirms nothing except Channel 4's determined and stubborn attitude against listening to the fans of the show:

'Day 24: Channel 4 has defended their decision to axe the live feed, insisting that the removal of the service has not affected the curent series.
The 24 hour live feed service was removed by Channel 4 earlier this year, sparking many complaints from fans of the show. Despite viewing figures falling to just 1.6 million for last night’s eviction, Channel 4 insist that the change has not affected the show’s popularity.'

Full article from Inside Big Brother website

As the final comment on Channel 4's statement that they have received a small number of complaints on this issue - 2 petitions were created by fans, one had over 3K sigs when it was defaced by a 'troll' and had to be removed, the second was building towards 1.5K sigs and has suddenly become unavailable. I will say no more.........