The BB Launch Show has come under fire for the last few years for not being live. Last year fans streamed audio and text messages from the audience of the show the night before being broadcast, causing producers to stop taping the show. Will this change this year? Does it really matter?
Sure, the live atmosphere makes it more interesting because you know you are meeting the housemates as everyone else does. However you lose the ability to then show clips of the first night in the house after the housemate introductions.
Plus we are fairly certain now the launch will be broadcast, whether live or not, on the Monday night after the SYTYCDA finale the previous night. How will this affect the ratings after so many Sunday night launch shows?
But here's an idea for the producers to use. Why not pre-record the show during the day on Monday? Show the live stream of the taping on the official website so fans who have paid for premium content can watch it live, and this will even prompt more fans to pay for the live feed. They're not exposing themselves to information being leaked in the press overnight because the show will be aired only hours later. The cut down version of the show from earlier in the day is shown on TV from 7:00pm. AND, between the housemates entering the house and the time of the broadcast, BB has asked the HMs to get into some "getting to know you" activities: a BBQ, some drinks, etc. So from say 8:30pm an edited down and censored version of this stuff is played to the TV audience as "Day 1's Daily Show".
Anyway, what should the Launch Show contain? Well, we need to go back to the hosts taking us through the House for the first time. Not the steadicam man running around. It's OK to pre-record this like Gretel and Tim Ferguson did in BB03, but with 2 hosts now, plus Mike Goldman available, why not do it "live". And there's no need to run around so we barely get to see anything. Maybe show us the house room by room throughout the show.
Also, I'm a fan of the awkward house entry where HMs meet each other one by one as they go into a holding room. But we have seen this for the last few years. BB07 tried a different approach with the all girls, then all guys, and watching each other's entrances. But maybe for something different we could have all the HMs meet each other and enter the house at the same time, like back in BB02. This also saves on meeting a HM, then watching the previous HM enter the holding room, then repeat over and over.
I like the HM introduction method they use, with the pre-recorded clip, followed by an interview with the host(s).
Finally, where should they stage this? A stage built outside the house has been done before but exposes them to the elements and it will surely rain if they do this. If they are rebuilding the stage in the amphitheatre from scratch and want to show it off as part of their fresh new look, then why not just stick to using the amphitheatre! It has a lot more audience capacity and facilities.
Sunday, March 23, 2008
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
How It Should Be: The Website
I'll start the What Should Be series with "The Website". Maybe it sounds like a strange place to start, but with a series like BB, the website is almost more important than the TV episodes. The series runs 24 hours a day, and the website provides a real-time portal to the latest information, so it has to be usable.
A lot of people have seen the leaked pictures of the website in development. What we see there is a fairly chunky website-- everything looks kind of big. Having built a lot of financial/banking-style websites myself, I am more used to a site that crams a lot into a small space. As screen resolution gets better, this is not as important though. The site definitely looks clean. The site for the last few years has been dark and drab, with terrible colour choices of greys mixed with a rainbow of menu options-- purple, red, yellow, orange. The new blue and white site is very refreshing.
We can also see, even from the development site, that one of their primary focuses is to find space for huge advertisements before they find a space for content. I understand that advertising revenue is important to the producers. Our BB series are structured around product placements. But the stand-in ads on the development site take up way too much screen space. A third of the page width is taken up by KFC ads. Hopefully these eyesores will be kept to a minimum so they don't take away from the site's usability.
The other thing that needs to be considered is a tie between the look and feel of the site, and the look and feel of the series. BB03 probably did this best with the little "sprite" characters, as they were used around the website and in the titles and logos of the series. BB05-07 tried to match the look of the show by making elements of the site resemble the "boxes" used in the logo and titles, but it didn't pay off. This year's site needs to use elements of what we see on TV to tie the two together.
As for content, I am hoping to see better housemate profiles. I don't want to know what their astrological profile says. I want to know more about the person's outside (and inside) life. The profile never has information like occupation, what their family life is like (are their parents together, separated, do they have siblings, how old, what are ther names, step-siblings?, do they have a husband/wife/partner/kids of their own?-- all important things to know as we watch the series). The diary entries were good and frequent last year, and hopefully this year's site keeps that up. The amount of free content doesn't bother me so much because I will pay for premium content no matter what. Hopefully for casual users' sake, and the general interest in the series by new viewers, plenty of free content is provided, just to keep interest up. I'll cover premium content in a later post.
A lot of people have seen the leaked pictures of the website in development. What we see there is a fairly chunky website-- everything looks kind of big. Having built a lot of financial/banking-style websites myself, I am more used to a site that crams a lot into a small space. As screen resolution gets better, this is not as important though. The site definitely looks clean. The site for the last few years has been dark and drab, with terrible colour choices of greys mixed with a rainbow of menu options-- purple, red, yellow, orange. The new blue and white site is very refreshing.
We can also see, even from the development site, that one of their primary focuses is to find space for huge advertisements before they find a space for content. I understand that advertising revenue is important to the producers. Our BB series are structured around product placements. But the stand-in ads on the development site take up way too much screen space. A third of the page width is taken up by KFC ads. Hopefully these eyesores will be kept to a minimum so they don't take away from the site's usability.
The other thing that needs to be considered is a tie between the look and feel of the site, and the look and feel of the series. BB03 probably did this best with the little "sprite" characters, as they were used around the website and in the titles and logos of the series. BB05-07 tried to match the look of the show by making elements of the site resemble the "boxes" used in the logo and titles, but it didn't pay off. This year's site needs to use elements of what we see on TV to tie the two together.
As for content, I am hoping to see better housemate profiles. I don't want to know what their astrological profile says. I want to know more about the person's outside (and inside) life. The profile never has information like occupation, what their family life is like (are their parents together, separated, do they have siblings, how old, what are ther names, step-siblings?, do they have a husband/wife/partner/kids of their own?-- all important things to know as we watch the series). The diary entries were good and frequent last year, and hopefully this year's site keeps that up. The amount of free content doesn't bother me so much because I will pay for premium content no matter what. Hopefully for casual users' sake, and the general interest in the series by new viewers, plenty of free content is provided, just to keep interest up. I'll cover premium content in a later post.
Monday, March 10, 2008
Recycling HMs
While I'm on the topic of auditions, I'll cover an issue I have with past HMs submitting videos to audition for this year's series. NOT ON! They've had their chance.
Videos were submitted by Paul (BB04), Vesna (BB05), and Cruz (BB07 White Room) to be housemates in BB08. How disappointing would it be to see a housemate return outisde of an All-Star series, or as some BB stunt.
Paul pointed out in his audition video that there was nothing in the contracts or terms & conditions stating a past housemate could not re-apply. Well, there should be! And if there isn't, producers should not even consider these applicants for another position in the show. What could an audience gain from having to vote out a housemate all over again? And it would give them an unfair advantage / disadvantage because audiences would already know a lot about them from Day 1, when we're trying to get to know all the others. And there are rules about discussions of past series of BB-- a rule that is important to prevent repetitiveness of series. This would be almost impossible to keep up if an ex-HM went in as a new housemate.
Let's hope this was just a cheap publicity stunt by BB to increase interest in the online voting process.
Videos were submitted by Paul (BB04), Vesna (BB05), and Cruz (BB07 White Room) to be housemates in BB08. How disappointing would it be to see a housemate return outisde of an All-Star series, or as some BB stunt.
Paul pointed out in his audition video that there was nothing in the contracts or terms & conditions stating a past housemate could not re-apply. Well, there should be! And if there isn't, producers should not even consider these applicants for another position in the show. What could an audience gain from having to vote out a housemate all over again? And it would give them an unfair advantage / disadvantage because audiences would already know a lot about them from Day 1, when we're trying to get to know all the others. And there are rules about discussions of past series of BB-- a rule that is important to prevent repetitiveness of series. This would be almost impossible to keep up if an ex-HM went in as a new housemate.
Let's hope this was just a cheap publicity stunt by BB to increase interest in the online voting process.
Auditions
Initially when the news came out that BB auditions would be changing I thought it would be great. Applicants submit a video and WE GET TO VOTE FOR THEM! It seemed like the perfect way to:
a) give the viewers a chance to have a say in the stars of the show;
b) give ESS a loophole when viewers complain about the HM choices!
A few issues arose however.
a) give the viewers a chance to have a say in the stars of the show;
b) give ESS a loophole when viewers complain about the HM choices!
A few issues arose however.
- Very few people actually submitted a video. Each year the producers say tens of thousands of people auditioned, however this year I believe under 1000 videos were put onto the website as contenders. Whether this shows the lack of interest in the show, or the laziness of HM-wannabes is unknown.
- The videos that were selected as contenders were BORING!!!! After all the information on how to make your video stand out, very few took the simple advice of just being open and honest. I wanted to see potential HMs talk about themselves and what makes them special. But most talked utter crap, in most cases with no shirt on. A 90 second video of you frollicking on a beach or playing your guitar does not sell you as interesting housemate material, given that the house neither has a beach nor a guitar!
For these reasons I ended up watching very few videos and voting for maybe only 6 or so. I say if that's the way it's going to be done, I'll let fate choose the HMs again, and I'll just watch the show for what it is with the HMs that are given to me.
One good thing to see was that there were older applicants, and I really think this year the show needs to include HMs from all age groups. And not 10 under 30s and 2 over-60s. They need a few teens, a few 20s, a few 30s, 40s, 50s, and overs! Really diversify it. It will help with the audience too. Older people (Channel 9 watchers) don't want to watch a bunch of 20 year olds.
It would seem the producers are not even happy with the way their audition process worked as it has been reported that people who did not submit videos or were not voted in the top 50 were still asked to come in for face to face auditions. And they left their definitions in the T&Cs wide open so that the "Top 2" that get a free pass into the house could be taken to mean several different things: highest rated, most number of votes in total, etc.
In the end, after what I believe to be a screw up in changing the audition process, I don't really care how the HMs are selected. I will either love them, or love to hate them. As long as they are not carbon copies of every other year.
Saturday, March 1, 2008
More Mike
Until just recently, this year of BB looked a little bleak for Mike Goldman. There are rumours of axing UpLate from the schedule altogether, and then the introduction of two new hosts. It looked as if he was going to only appear on FNL and voice overs on the Daily Shows.
But just this last week reports have come out saying due to Kyle & Jackie's radio commitments, they will only be available to host the Eviction shows, meaning Nominations and other mid-week specials may now be driven by Mike. He could even step in to host the adults only show in whatever format it may take. Of course with clips shows like Uncut or Adults Only have been, there is no reason Kyle and Jackie couldn't record segments from a Sydney studio, like Gretel did for the first 4 years of BB.
But Mike is a force BB can't stand to lose. He lives locally throughout the season, he appeals to the younger audiences, he is funny without a script, he is full of energy, and you can tell he really is interested in the show. He knows the housemates and what they have been saying and doing. He's not just an on-screen presenter, he is a fan.
Let's hope we get more Mike in 08!
But just this last week reports have come out saying due to Kyle & Jackie's radio commitments, they will only be available to host the Eviction shows, meaning Nominations and other mid-week specials may now be driven by Mike. He could even step in to host the adults only show in whatever format it may take. Of course with clips shows like Uncut or Adults Only have been, there is no reason Kyle and Jackie couldn't record segments from a Sydney studio, like Gretel did for the first 4 years of BB.
But Mike is a force BB can't stand to lose. He lives locally throughout the season, he appeals to the younger audiences, he is funny without a script, he is full of energy, and you can tell he really is interested in the show. He knows the housemates and what they have been saying and doing. He's not just an on-screen presenter, he is a fan.
Let's hope we get more Mike in 08!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)