How would you improve Big Brother?

[BIGNickT]

For 17 seasons we have watched 212 people (107 men, 105 women) play this game. A social experiment to see how 10-16 people work as a group to both survive 3 months locked away with limited resources and conflicting personalities, then see how they plot to take each other out of the game to make it to the end.

Well that's at least how it should be and as we have seen in the recent seasons it has devolved into a battle of boring predictability that even those of us that have watched all 17 seasons (and for some several seasons of canada, uk, australia and a few other versions both in english and not) start to loathe our annual tradition or drop the show altogether.

I have run our site prediction game for 7 years now which makes me the only person on the site that has to watch every episode just to do the scorekeeping. The was never more evident than it was on sunday august 23rd 2015. Several of the members of this site watch TV together on the chat room. We usually have our biggest crowd of friends on BB, Survivor and TAR nights. But on that night chat was almost empty and of those in the room only I watched BB as it aired. Even in the worst seasons (Racist season 15, Frankie show 16, Winter of Love 9) we still all watched together but on this night, the night we saw Austin win the track based hoh comp and put up John and Steve, some of the biggest fans of reality tv and Big Brother devotees just didn't care anymore.

This season has become so well known as a bad season that even CBS President Les Moonves has stated that this wasn't a great year, mostly pointing toward casting as the reason. Les is right a big part of the problem is the casting this year as most of the cast has no idea how to play the game or how the show works and have seen little to none of the past seasons. Those that do know the show/game have been so overrun by the non-fans that their potential has been drained.

So with all that said I wanted to see what everyone would do if they were running the show. I will provide my ideas in a response below. You can either reply after reading my and other members ideas or what could be more fun is to just hit reply below this post and type your ideas before reading others just to see how many of us come up with the same ideas. Start your reply post with a line that states if you read replies or not before posting.

Lets put together a better show...

[BIGNickT]

Since I'm the first to reply i have not read other responses before posting my ideas.

Lets start with what Les Moonves pointed out - Casting
*I'm ok with the larger 16 person cast so let's keep that number
*Cast members must submit to the full audition process from written form and video to medical and psychological testing and interviews with multiple CBS executives.
*Cast must have diversity with race, gender and age - the last few seasons have suffered from casting to stereotypes which a great cast can be made of but you need more than the token black/gay/asian that they usually go for, the show has been better when they cast based on people not roles. they also need to make a bigger age range. This year was way too young. There needs to be a few slightly cocky 20 year olds, some little more together 30 year olds, some established mentalities of 40 year olds, and a couple 50+ to keep the house functioning and use their years of knowledge to guide or misguide the youth.

Next up we have - Food
*no more have/have nots - no more slop/pb&j - no more cold showers and bad bedroom
*weekly food comp/task for a house food budget similar to other countries - they do well or win they get more money to buy food items for all, they do bad they may still get some extra funding but worst case they all have essentials only which would be slop/pb&j/left overs from last week - they would only get takeout if they win it in a comp or buy it with their food budget

Time
*remove the clocks - yes they could use the live shows to tell time but by disabling and removing clocks from the house they lose the ability to know when BBAD is on and when things will happen that tend to be scheduled.

Penalties
*if BB has to tell you something (no singing, stop that, put on mic, don't talk about...) 3 times in 24 hours you lose food privileges for 48 hours, the next warning in that 48 hours is automatic nomination (even if HOH - 1 nom if already on the block) if warned after the 48 hours you go back on reduced food and this process restarts. the 1 warning period is the 5 days after the 48 hours. this will reduce FISH time for feeds and make talking back and breaking rules have a meaning

Games/Tasks/Days/Shows
currently everyone in the house and watching knows that everything follows a set schedule. the show is so set we can predict almost everything that happens and some of that consistency will need to continue with my ideas
THURSDAY - eviction and HOH comp
FRIDAY & SATURDAY - Luxury/Food comp and Start Weekly Food Budget task
SUNDAY - Nominations
MONDAY - POV Comp
TUESDAY - POV ceremony
WEDNESDAY - Finish Weekly Food Budget Task and "shop"
*All will show on live feeds except the 3 comps unless HOH is endurance and continues after liveshow onto the live feeds as a bonus to paying fans

Live Feeds
*4 separate feeds from the house
*feed 4 except on endurance comp nights will switch to a jury house feed once 2 people in jury

Viewer Participation
*we choose the item they fight for in luxury comp - good meal - movie night - shopping - items for the house - sometimes they fight to keep stuff (oven use, grill, pool/hot tub, pool table/gym, inside/outside furniture, beds - would be replaced with cots or lawn chairs)
*HOH loses the tiebreaker vote - if noms end in a tie the results of a weekly poll on cbs.com of who should be evicted posted after POV comp determines final noms for the week will be used as the tie breaker.

So that's what i have, what is your ideas?

[Puddles]

I agree with most of what you said. The HG seem to feel entitled and have no respect for Production anymore. I agree the most on

No more Have Nots, but they must earn extra food and luxuries via competitions.

More competitions and tasks period.

No more Season of Twists that don't happen. If there are twists surprise us, so we don't get let down.

A more diverse age group. Tired of watching stereotype 20-30 yr olds. Jerry was fun to watch in his 70s

No more Battle of the Block. Can't stand it and neither can HG.

No, or at least less recruits who don't know the BB Game. I want to see people who want to win the game, not just make Jury and stipend. Thousands of Super fans try out and want to be there.

More penalty votes for breaking BB Rules. Seems Production favors certain HGs.

Quit bringing back past HGs everyone disliked (Jesse/Frankie)

Maybe time to replace AG?

I've been under the weather. Will be back soon and will add if I think of more. I cancelled my feeds after James left.

Thanks for the post and keeping the game going in such a boring Season

[Steve3]

Nick....I agree with all your points. I think that Grodner knows she can produce a sub quality show and it will get renewed. Robin Kass is horrible doing her job, yet she is still there. The last BB I really enjoyed was All Stars, which happened to be Shapiro's last year. Everyone would blame Shapiro for the crappy show, and when he left, it got worse. I have enjoyed certain people after All Stars....Dan and Zach Rance. The rest I am totally indifferent. This season was horrible casting. Audrey was a mess. Steve is socially awkward and unstable. Vanessa is not watchable. There was not one stand out on this season. James tried to keep it entertaining, and John's DRs were the only bright spot on the show. I truly can't wait for the season to be done. They have already renewed the show for next year.

Grodner just regurgitates competitions, twists, and bad ideas from one year to the next. The HGs knew how to get around the BOB, and ruined the season from the start. Grodner's production company has lost all creativity and the coasts along. CBS has to get rid of Grodner and Co, and get a production company that can freshen up a stale product that smells like week old fish. The experiment that Nick mentioned ended when Kass started her recruiting shit. The wannabe TV stars have ruined the game. I could go on, but, I made my point.

[Puddles]

Steve I read in a recent interview, Robin Kass said she will continue with recruiting house guests after getting complaints. Maybe BB has run it's course if it stays on the same path.

[Camlawnman]

What would be a good twist ,when the 4 jurors return to play,let the first 4 people who lose the game go to the jury house,mix it up hopefully.make them all try harder.

[Natyn]

Production should watch other BB shows from other countries, see what worked well, what didn't and incorporate the good parts into their show.

One thing I dislike is how the HGs have figured out what comes when. They plan what they will do next because everything is so predictable. Mess with the HGs. If this is supposed to be a life experiment............make it so no one knows what to expect. Julie's "Expect the unexpected" has lost all meaning. Both HGs and viewers know exactly what's coming. It doesn't have to be written in stone that a certain event has to happen in week 4 or week 6, or something always starts on week 5. If the house doesn't know when something will happen or even if it will happen, they will be more on their toes and play for the moment, instead of waiting because "it isn't time to get rid of so-and-so yet.

Also, if someone deliberately throws a competition, that person sits out the next competition as a penalty, or another form of punishment. For example: the first 4 people to drop get punished...the first 4 guessing way too low or way too high, get punished, the first 4 to take too long, get punished, etc.

And where are those hours-long endurance challenges that had viewers glued to their screens waiting?

Nick's suggestions are great, but will anyone listen and use them?

thank you.

[BIGNickT]

nat - no, no one will ever do any ideas we have cause they are good and thats not the BB way anymore.

camlawnman - that would really mess with their game plans so i love it.

puddles - ABSOLUTELY agree with no more returning hated peeps - i was amazed we made it to week 11 before jessie showed up being the 1st past person to enter this years house. i was actually ok with jessie this time since he and austin both being wrestlers you kinda knew austin wouldnt like having someone else who based on how their careers have gone has done better (jessie is i think 2 or 3 time TNA tag team champ - austin never got past a wwe development deal) - so could have done without ever seeing frankie again

steve - i just like you agreeing with my every word

to anyone reading my daily activites section - yes it would be cool to have those as daily shows but even if they did those tasks and still just did the sun/wed/thur eps i would just be happy as a feed buyer to have them not just sitting around all the time

[Puddles]

I thought of another big one you brought up.

Of course we want Villains to not like and stir things up , but please better Mental Health, psych evaluations. It seems the majority of this cast is on Mental Health Medications. Nothing wrong with people needing Anxiety or Medications for conditions, but don't cast them in a Pressure Cooker House like BB. Eventually, someone will flip hurt someone, get hurt, or hurt themselves after they see themselves on the show. It is disturbing to see Vanessa bully and be manic, Steve pace and worry until he's puking in the sink, and Audrey was not emotionally stable enough to be in the BB house. That is a huge casting error done for ratings.

Also what happened to penalties for HOH telling people they're going up before the ceremonies, and discussing whose getting voted out. Strategy is one thing, discussing noms and votes is rampant and against the rules

[nanoflower]

No one's going to use the suggestions because they either won't work or don't fit in with the vision that CBS has for BB. After the way BB1 bombed in the ratings there's no way they are going back to anything like that. As for a daily show, while I love the idea, it will never happen. CBS will not give up that much prime time for this show. They aren't like Fox and desperate for material to fill up air time so there's no way they give that much time to any show. We are lucky we get as much as we do and it only happens because the show airs in the summer time.

As for recruiting I don't have an issue with it if they cast people that know the game. I know they always want a few people that are not familiar with the game to serve as fodder, but this season there were too many. The cast doesn't need to be super fans but they need to be aware of how the game plays out so they aren't easily misled by someone that knows the game. As for the older contestants every post from Robin says they would love to have them but there's always going to be a problem with finding people that are a) over typical college age, b) willing to go on a TV show, c) willing to deal with the 24 hour Big Brother camera coverage and d) willing to be away from friends/family/job for up to 3 months. That last one is a killer for anyone that's working on some sort of a career which is why we see mostly young 20-somethings in the cast.

As for Have Nots, I don't see it going away as Grodner believes it encourages drama. Though that doesn't work when you have a group like this season that decided on a rotation of HN. Sure, some people griped when it was their turn but overall it went fairly smoothly and wasn't the source of drama. Which is the key thing to keep in mind. Grodner is a firm believer that what the show needs to attract viewers is drama so all of her decisions from the HN to casting rookies is designed to increase the potential for drama. While I'm sure Grodner wanted to see Audrey last longer she had to love the drama that Audrey's constant game playing created.

What they might try is to institute some form of punishment for each comp or at least for HoH. Have the first couple of people out of the competition serve some form of punishment that they won't want to undergo. That would help slow down the people deciding that they don't need to win and quitting the comp early.

[LittleHouse]

Aside from BoB - which needs to have died a permanent death, and twists that did not come to fruition, and twists that were LAME! This year the problem for me has been the group think of HG's. The utter fear of not voting with the cool kids has done this show in. (season? I don't know I'm a horrible person to ask because I went for some years there of only watching the show, or of not watching at all. This season has been a handful of watching feeds and mostly reading updates and seeing the broadcast) If the game is presently setup (I'm looking at you BoB) to make the group think prevalent then those things (still looking at you Bob) have got to go. And whole BoB does contribute (Highly) to that, it is as much a casting issue as anything else. They can all claim before going into the house they're going to be all this and all that and they get in there and fizzle.

Week long competitions, no matter how brilliant - are not going to happen. That would require someone keeping track of the whole thing and editing a story line around it. And we've seen how that goes.

I'd like to see the comp order/comp type order shaken up a bit since the HG's can predict even with only having seen the last 1-2 seasons what order things will be in. Seriously doubt it will happen though.

Nick - thank you for taking one for the team. And there were a 2-3 weeks in there where I honestly couldn't be bothered to watch anything other than the live show.

[Y-man]

How about simply investing a few bucks in a new house after all these years? Invest in new competition sets, instead of just re-painting the old ones. It shows us just how cheap Production is. If they don't care, why should we? The show would benefit from an entirely new production crew after all these years. Julie Chen can stay as Host, but, the rest all need to go.

[JoyceT]

All good suggestions!! BIG BROTHER are you listening?????