BB9 General Discussion

[luscious_t]

I voted for josh - because he entertained me so much this winter! Besides, he needs money to buy his own dang Precious Moments Bible. teehee

[MamaBJ]

I voted for Sheila, because did you know, she's a 46 yr old single mom?

I also tried to vote for Sharon and James.

Biggie, I told you they wouldn't give the money to Ryan. Sure he won some comps, but Adam threw so many of them to him. He really only owned one HOH and that last POV. Some think Adam was giving him the answers to the final part of the HOH, too. As Evel Dick said, sure he won comps, but the were at the end and who was he up against? Sheila? Adam throwing it to him? Sharon was robbed by that lame GP question.

Well...another BB comes to an end and lots of people are upset about the outcome. some things never change...LOL

James was no bigger hypocrite than the Racist Ryan (oh yes he is), the con artist Adam (he said he wasn't gonna give as much as he claimed to that fake autistic foundation), Gnat ( bible thumping boom boom giver), the list goes on. They were all hypocrites on some level.

Honestly, I think Ryan saying he would do something nice for Jen was his downfall. Of course, he should be able to do something nice for his girlfriend, but they all hated her in the house.

BB10...So Happy Together...Reps vs Dems? Someone who auditioned thinks maybe due to the wording of some of the questions. We'll see.

[luscious_t]

I hope not - that is the lamest setup ever and we're all getting our fill of that battle this election season, already.

[Ana]

BB10 - forced pairs again? Ugh. Ms. Grodner, please don't. The love couples thing was ok for a bit, but it got old really fast and everyone inside AND outside the house was happier when it went back to singles.

[luscious_t]

More BB10 speculation, from the bbq

1. The question they asked at casting calls was “Who was your favourite Houseguest of all time?”

2. The commercial for BB10 aired after the finale last night had silhouette couples dancing to “Happy Together”. The words “Summer” and “Big Brother Together Again” flashed on screen.

Fans vs Favourites?
or Fans paired with Favourites?

2 months 2ish weeks and counting!

UGH! CBS - fire Grodner and get a producer that will cast 14 strangers with varied backgrounds! STAT! We don't need these trickss, the concept works on its own!

[kybella08]

I'm sick of twists..Why cant they just go back to how it first was..No twists an pick regular people for once.

[luscious_t]

More complaints~

6 critical changes needed to revive ‘Big Brother’
Despite all the drama and bad behavior, show has become unremarkable

COMMENTARY
By Andy Dehnart
MSNBC contributor
updated 11:57 p.m. ET, Sun., April. 27, 2008

"Big Brother 9" concluded Sunday night, and Adam walked away with the $500,000 prize. Runner-up Ryan received the $50,000. The most remarkable part about that conclusion was that it's pretty unremarkable.

Both have said terrible things in the house: Adam generated the most media attention this season by using a derogatory term for autistic children, and later used a disparaging term for gay people, while Ryan's girlfriend accused him of being a racist.

But while all of that is indefensible, it wasn't a non-stop onslaught of bad behavior, which we've seen nearly every other season. Somehow, the show has desensitized its viewers to terrible behavior by giving such extreme examples that the occasionally awful behavior witnessed this season seemed flat by comparison.

Around 6.5 million people watched the show's first non-summer edition, far fewer than watched last summer. But it was still a surprising number considering how boring "Big Brother 9" has been.

Exactly five months passed between the end of the eighth season and the start of the ninth, a much shorter period of time than the just under 10 months the show usually has to reset and prepare. Perhaps that affected the series, which normally is lightweight, forgettable summer trash TV, but this winter and spring became tiresome and monotonous.


Now, the show's producers have just two months to prepare for the new season, and that doesn't bode well at all considering what viewers just went through.

But these two months offer the perfect opportunity to make some critical changes to a show that's getting old and has some significant problems.

Stop casting people who know each other
For the past six seasons — every season starting with the fourth — there have been cast members in the house who know each other, from romantic partners to enemies.

The reason for this is obvious: It's an easy twist and guarantees immediate drama when everyone else finds out about the pre-existing relationship, or when someone finds out that a person they loathe is also there.

But it's also grown old and seems lazy now. More significant, when only a few people in the house know each other, as happened this season, that gives them both an unfair advantage and a severe handicap.

This season, the producers not only put pre-existing couples into the house, but they also forced everyone else to pair up with their alleged "soul mates." That twist was so lame and misguided that it was dropped after week three. (The show even changed its name from "Big Brother: 'Til Death Do You Part" to "Big Brother 9.")

It's time to finally start a season at that point, with everyone on an even playing field.

Start being fair
Similarly, the show needs to refocus and become a competition rather than a game of chance.

Some of the show's quizzes have unfair answers, like the final Head of Household competition that asks the players to answer questions to which they cannot have the answer, while the challenges often just go to the luckiest person. The competitions, while frequently elaborate in terms of construction, sometimes don't seem to have been tested, as they either don't work well or are just lame.

Sometimes, the unlucky — like Jameka, who was disqualified from a competition last season due to something entirely out of her control — suffer due to poor challenge design, and that's unacceptable.

In addition, the producers have been accused of trying to manipulate the show's outcome not just through editing, but through private conversations with the houseguests in the Diary Room, where they're interviewed. Also last summer, the houseguests even discussed those attempts to sway them before the live feeds were cut.

Some fairness is in order.

Let the live feeds be uncensored
Host Julie Chen constantly pitches the "live, 24/7 Internet feeds," which may be live but certainly aren't 24/7. The producers cut the feeds frequently, whether that's during a competition or when the houseguests talk about something deemed inappropriate. Protecting the outcome of challenges may seem like a reasonable goal, but it's pretty nonsensical considering that the outcome of competitions is almost always obvious from conversations the houseguests have after the feeds return.

Give people what they pay for and be as transparent as possible. Show the competitions, the Diary Room conversations and even the shower stalls. Whoever produces the live feeds screws up often enough that audio and/or video is often accidentally broadcast, so why bother trying to censor it?

The TV show, by its nature, has to be edited and condensed, and the presence of the live feeds will always make the producers' storytelling (and manipulation) obvious to those who follow the show.

End the slop-food punishment
Forcing some houseguests to consume "slop" food is a stupid, unnecessary punishment that does nothing for the show except kill time while cast members who lost the food competition offer identical complaints about it every week. Drop it.


Fire the casting directors
CBS has three marquee reality shows: "The Amazing Race," "Survivor" and "Big Brother." It's no surprise that the two Emmy-nominated shows are cast by the same person, while someone else casts "Big Brother."

Robyn Kass and her colleagues have cast every season of "Big Brother" since its second season, and have proven to be talented at gathering psychopathic extroverts with superiority complexes and not a lot of intelligence. The exceptions to this rule — perennial fan favorites Kaysar and Janelle from season six — prove that better cast members equal better television.

Perhaps it's possible that the people Kass casts are perfectly agreeable until they get locked up in the soundstage that serves as "Big Brother’s" house. Or maybe she's just directed to get crazy people. Either way, after nine seasons, it's time to try something new.

Be creative
For all of its alleged changes and twists, the show remains frustratingly similar. Unlike "Survivor" — a show that really doesn't deserve being compared to its sibling — "Big Brother" doesn't innovate. The same challenges are recycled, the music never changes, the open credits are the same and Chen's hosting is beyond robotic in its repetition.

Some consistency works well and actually improves the show, as "Survivor's" structure and host Jeff Probst's repetition of certain phrases prove. But on "Big Brother," it just comes off as cheap and lazy, and adds to those things that make the show increasingly unwatchable.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24343903/

[nickos11]

I AGREE WITH ALOT OF THAT IF NOT ALL OF IT!!!! THEY NEED NEW IDEAS

[kybella08]

I agree 100% it needs changed badly...Its getting boring an they don't need twists every season...every HOH or POV challenge shouldn't be like every other season..Stuff on there just needs a big change

[MamaBJ]

All I know is there are 70 days until BB10!!! That's only 10 weeks away!! We can only hope the CORRECT changes are made so that there isn't a repeat of BB9.