You’d have to be a raging optimist to declare that this year’s Big Brother was a success, wouldn’t you?

Big Brother 7 has attracted more than the normal run of criticism – not just from people who hate Reality TV anyway – but from fans of the show itself. My opinion is that the Big Brother crew have made some grave errors this year and have alienated viewers.

Early Departures

There was the early departure of three contestants in the first week of the show: Shahbaz Chauhdary after being put on suicide watch, Dawn Blake after accusations of cheating and George Askew after deciding he wouldn’t be able to handle the fame. For me, the early departures destabilised the programme – losing one housemate in the first week is careless, but to lose three is a disaster!

Vetting Housemates

Secondly, there was the uproar over psychological vetting of housemates. This was first raised with me by Dawn Blake, one of the first contestants to leave the house. Dawn claims that the psychological vetting is no more involved than completing a questionnaire and having a ‘chat’ with the psychologist.

But it’s only a TV show, I hear you say. Light entertainment. What’s the big deal?

Well, watchers of the first week will have witnessed Shahbaz Chauhdary’s virtual breakdown. Shahbaz at first seemed a flamboyant, irritating creature, but quickly morphed into more sinister persona altogether, being put on suicide watch and quitting Big Brother after less than a week. That’s the big deal, and mental health organisations publicly took Endemol and Channel 4 to task for not properly screening contestants.

Predictable

Thirdly, it’s getting easier to guess the favourite contestants in Big Brother. This is the second series where there has been a clear favourite to win Big Brother in the first week of the show.

Look at Celebrity Big Brother. In the first week, you knew either Chantelle or Barrymore would win. And it was because they were the unknown in a housefull of celebs and the disgraced celeb seeking a comeback. The public love a rags-to-riches story, don’t they? And no-one else had a chance.

So, when a freaky, brighton-based Tourette’s sufferer wanders into the house, who was the tabloid favourite to take the prize? If someone other than Pete Bennett wins this Friday, I’ll eat my words!

Messing With Public Trust

Probably the biggest screw-up this year was that decision to return Nikki Grahame to the house in what appeared to be another stage managed episode in the series.

Viewers complained in their thousands to Ofcom about the incident – citing that they had paid money to evict Nikki, yet she (and other ex-housemates) were being returned – making a mockery of the show’s slogan “Who goes? You decide.” More a case of “You decide, but we’ll do whatever the hell we like anyway.”

In a less-than-inspired piece of crisis management, BB spun a line about proceeds going to charity. Not many people were amused – most people would gladly sacrifice their firstborn never to see Nikki on TV again, myself included.

Finally

If you remember the first series of Big Brother back in 2000, it was billed as a groundbreaking psychological/social experiment and the nation watched in fascination as a group of strangers were put under the microscope. Because it was new to our screens, the show needed no gimmicks to sell it.

However, over successive series’ (especially the last three), the Big Brother production team have relied more and more upon sensationalism to drive interest in the show. In the weeks leading up to the series, the tabloids speculated on the freakish array of characters about to enter the house and producer’s tactics “Double beds to encourage contestants to sleep together, more housemates in a smaller house, glass walls etc!!!“.

Big Brother was the groundbreaking reality TV show in the UK. Drop the gimmicks Big Brother, filter out the screwballs and reclaim the glory days.