Channel 4 dither as Big Brother sinks

Channel 4 aren't known for their good judgement. They destroyed one of their most successful shows (Brookside) with a string of ill conceived decisions and now they're doing the same to Big Brother. Once the king of reality TV, it is now a fourth rate soap opera with a rapidly dwindling audience.

There are a number of reasons why BB has slumped in recent years. Sticking with the overpaid, under-talented Davina, for one. Channel 4 have constantly complained about their lack of funds - after all, that's why we have almost no live feed this year, according to them. And yet they can still find hundreds of thousands of pounds to pay Davina. Funny that.

BBLB - once a vital pre-watershed bit of fun presented by the effervescent Dermot O'Leary, now utterly pointless nonsense fronted by George 'frozen' Lamb, a man who clearly hates the show, its contestants, its fans and maybe even himself. They could have axed BBLB and used the money saved to keep the live feed going. Viewing figures of Little Brother are pitiful. Channel 4 claim they couldn't get rid of BBLB because its production was part of the contract they signed with Endemol - but I can't believe the latter wouldn't have been open to discussion if it meant saving BBUK from its current fate.

Big Mouth - unexpectedly became a huge hit when presented by Russell Brand, this show is now appalling bilge and an excuse for every Equity chasing wannabe to air their 'talent'. Also presented by Davina, as if having to suffer her during live shows wasn't quite bad enough. This show now only airs once a week, but any money saved looks to have been squandered paying Davina a reported extra £100,000 for presenting duties. Good move, C4!

The excellent Big Ears radio show has gone. Diary Room Uncut has gone. The psych show (Big Brain/On The Couch) has gone. The live feed and ultimately the buzz has gone. Seems the only thing Channel 4 have kept is the things most of us aren't bothered about anyway. Good move, C4!

As an added bonus, even the eviction interview has been radically altered now. Evictees face a three person panel - Davina and two guests - guests who presumably are earning a good fee...and there goes a bit more money that could have been used to keep the live feed on air. The new panel format is largely unpopular with fans. The evictee isn't shown who nominated them. Suddenly you find there is almost no part of this show left worth watching any longer...

The Channel 4 forum, home to many thousands of dedicated fans, has also gone. Allegedly because it cost a huge amount of money to upkeep (er...OK). Nothing whatsoever to do with the numerous and constant complaints over the loss of daytime live feed posted there during the woeful CBB6, of course. Good move, C4!

But don't worry, although we have very little live feed now, Channel 4 promised us a great website for BB10. Plenty of up to date info and clips to assuage our live feed withdrawal. Except the website is worse than its ever been. The clips are a shabby attempt by C4 to boost their dwindling ad revenue, along with their partnership with YouTube. The site is clearly unmanned for more than half of the day. Updates are haphazard at best. And more and more people seem bored of it now, if the decreasing number of comments are anything to go by. Good move, C4!

Viewing figures have fallen below the 2 million mark several times already this series and we're not even 3 weeks into the 14 week run. Such pitiful ratings would have seemed unthinkable even as recently as BB9. Clearly the loss of the live feed has caused a huge number of fans to switch off, either on principle, through boredom, or both. The live feed isn't an optional extra, it's absolutely essential to the premise of Big Brother.

So, the obvious thing to do is to bring back the live feed, because clearly any savings C4 are making by not having the feed are being offset but the massive loss of viewers, not to mention credibility. Right? Wrong! Despite that fact that BB10 is looking increasingly like a decent series capable of drawing in large audiences with the right handling, Channel 4 are still adamant that they'd rather the show die than backtrack and admit they were wrong.

To add insult to injury, C4 won't even consider airing the daily quota of around six hours of live feed at times when people are actually likely to be watching (say 10am-midday, 6-8pm and for two hours immediately following the highlights show). Clearly there is something going on that they aren't telling us. But what?

Now, a swathe of twists and gimmicks are planned 'to boost ratings'. More money squandered pointlessly, more like. I wouldn't trust C4 with my petty cash, let alone tens of millions of pounds from the public purse - but that's what they're chasing. They refuse to listen to the GBP but want their money. They claim to be desperate to save their flagship show but refuse to do the one thing that might halt the alarming slide we've seen this year.

Will they see sense? Is it too late anyway?