LONDON (AP) — Britain doesn't love Big Brother the way it used to.Television station Channel 4 says it is canceling the show that sparked a national obsession with reality TV and next year's 11th season will be the last.
Big Brother made its British debut in 2000 and quickly became a national talking point. The show confines a group of people to a house under the constant gaze of cameras and lets viewers vote to evict them one by one.
Big Brother canceled in the UK
Categories: TV Ratings
Whoa that’s a bit surprising – a few months ago, the UK network was harping on and on about how BB was performing “well”.
the problem with Big Brother (and this is apparently why no UK network will pick it up) is that the formula is out-dated and boring now. I’m sad for Davina but at £50million a year costs, Channel 4 could do alot more. Plus for £50million, a show that pulls in only 2.0 million is no good.
Plus Big Brother has always played a part in hurting Channel 4 shows by pushing them around the schedule to help itself.
finally, but i bet it will be back eventually
Sky will pick this up…..the rest of the media (mags, redtops, TV website etc….) all rely on it too much for the traditionally news dead summer.
Craig Sky won’t pick it up they have no interest in it and never really have, Big Brother doesn’t fit their desired programming model going forward, they want to move more into original UK drama and are investing primarily in that (and the usual US imports) for the foreseeable future. And for the record the mainstream media outlets that have relied on Big Brother in the past would have little desire to see the show go to Sky, where it would likely be seen by a few hundred thousand people at best. Its also worth pointing out that the tabloid media have relied less and less on Big Brother in recent years, which is part of the reason the shows being axed.
In terms of the future of the show I wouldn’t hold your breath on anyone else picking it up yet but if anyone does it’ll be ITV or Five but I’d be surprised if either channel decided to, despite the fact that ITV have been talking about how much they want Big Brother for nearly a decade there’s no upside to them picking it up now. Having said that give it five+ years and I can see Channel 4 and ITV giving serious thought to bringing the show back. The same can be said for Australia where its died a death.
When it comes to Big Brother’s performance in the UK its all relative. In terms of its past performances its not doing well but it remains the most watched show on Channel 4, so axing it won’t have been an easy decision. The problem is Channel 4 have been selling ads at rates for what the show was attracting in previous years and obviously the viewing figures haven’t reached that. What I find most startling about the decision to axe Big Brother is the hole it leads in the schedule there’s a a big number of 200 hours of content a year being banded around for the show and its hard to see how Channel 4 are ever going to fill that void.
Oh and on the subject of Channel 4 replacing this with drama, don’t hold your breath. They’re investing a further £20 million (if that) into drama and that’s a small drop in a very large ocean that won’t go especially far. I think its much more likely that new reality concepts will be used along with various other unscripted content and maybe more US imports.
Hopefully the U.S. version is cancelled soon too. I can’t stand the show.
US version won’t be cancelled anytime soon.
It’s been growing in viewers all season, and CBS is the laziest network of all when it comes to coming up with new things.
Big Brother is one of my favorite reality shows (actually BB, Idol and AGT are the only ones I watch.)
I really liked the UK version but BB10 has been an utter flop, I doubt BB USA will end this year. As long as it continues to make gains or break even I doubt it will be canceled since it is the main summer reality show and takes up three slots in primetime.
Many people in the industry believe this decision was made for political reasons.
Channel 4 is a publicly owned channel (although it is commercially funded and covers its own costs) but is under threat of being sold off or forced to merge with a commercial partner. The channel was set up with a remit to produce “alternative” programming for viewers not well served by the other networks – Big Brother, being a big, brash reality show, doesn’t really fit in with that remit.
If Channel 4 are to prove to the politicians that they shouldn’t be sold off, Big Brother had to go. The £50m saved will no doubt be spent on classy dramas and documentaries in an effort to prove that they are still “distinctive”.