Wednesday, August 22, 2012
Official Site Runs Ads For Seven
I just caught the official BB mobile site advertising The X Factor-- a Seven Network show. Surely they'd be all about Nine's shows, given that the domain used to redirect to a NineMSN page before the series started.
Tuesday, August 21, 2012
A Slice of Ego for Ryan
Playing right up to Ryan's massive ego, BB is throwing Ryan a party for his 22nd birthday this week-- the icing on the birthday cake, a photo of the birthday boy himself. BB has posted two photos on Facebook and asked the fans to decide which photo to use. "Like" for topless Ryan, or "Post" for clothed Ryan.
At this time, 33 minutes in, the photo has attracted 4,714 Likes and only 673 Posts. Looks like topless Ryan it will be!
At this time, 33 minutes in, the photo has attracted 4,714 Likes and only 673 Posts. Looks like topless Ryan it will be!
Nom Noms, Week 1
Last night was the first Nominations night of BB9, and it was hilarious.
The serious look of the new Nominations Room was overshadowed by the HMs struggles with the soundproof Nominations Chamber, and the ridiculous ways they ensured no one could read their lips while nominating. Most awkwardly censored their own mouths with their hands. And Benjamin not closing the door properly and getting all sweaty and flustered had me in hysterics. BB: "Benjamin, take a breath."
Due to failing the Secrets Task, only female HMs could be nominated this week.
Big Brother's surprise new way to Nominate gave each HM 5 points to allocate any way they wish to any two other HMs. This allowed for more strategising, and higher score differences, as well as huge changes to the leaderboard throughout the live show.
It's not surprising that the three biggest female personalities are up for Eviction-- it's always been the downfall of the Nominations process. Charne scored 22 points, Estelle 14, and Layla 12.
This year the public Vote to Save their favourite Nominee, as is the way with most reality shows these days. Hopefully this means the biggest personality gets a reprieve.
But who will it be? Charne is fun and crazy. Estelle is forming close "friendships". While Layla stands out with her accent and strange take on things, perhaps she is offering the least to the dynamic, and should be the first to leave. After all, she is basically a plant by BB, plucked from the BB UK auditions.
The serious look of the new Nominations Room was overshadowed by the HMs struggles with the soundproof Nominations Chamber, and the ridiculous ways they ensured no one could read their lips while nominating. Most awkwardly censored their own mouths with their hands. And Benjamin not closing the door properly and getting all sweaty and flustered had me in hysterics. BB: "Benjamin, take a breath."
Due to failing the Secrets Task, only female HMs could be nominated this week.
Big Brother's surprise new way to Nominate gave each HM 5 points to allocate any way they wish to any two other HMs. This allowed for more strategising, and higher score differences, as well as huge changes to the leaderboard throughout the live show.
It's not surprising that the three biggest female personalities are up for Eviction-- it's always been the downfall of the Nominations process. Charne scored 22 points, Estelle 14, and Layla 12.
This year the public Vote to Save their favourite Nominee, as is the way with most reality shows these days. Hopefully this means the biggest personality gets a reprieve.
But who will it be? Charne is fun and crazy. Estelle is forming close "friendships". While Layla stands out with her accent and strange take on things, perhaps she is offering the least to the dynamic, and should be the first to leave. After all, she is basically a plant by BB, plucked from the BB UK auditions.
Saturday, August 18, 2012
GO! Repeats on Weekends
On Sunday, GO! will replay Tuesday-Friday's BB installments from 2:30pm before the new Daily Show at 6:00pm and Live Secrets Revealed show at 6:30 on Nine.
Next weekend, GO! will play repeats on Saturday of the first half of the week from 3:00pm to 6:30pm.
So many replays, and no additional content.
Next weekend, GO! will play repeats on Saturday of the first half of the week from 3:00pm to 6:30pm.
So many replays, and no additional content.
Mike Goldman Up For UpLate
Mike Goldman has been regularly retweeting his fans' pleas for him to return to host UpLate or Friday Night Live in 2012. He even replied to me:
@andrewm79
Keep your evenings free@mikeygold. Not long now til BB caves to pressure & puts u back in front of cameras on#UpLate.#BBAU@bbau9
Meanwhile on Twitter, Executive Producer Alex Mavroidakis tweeted:
To which he got my reply:
How long til they cave in to fan pressure? How low do the ratings need to go?@AlexMavroidakis Experiment successful. Now how about adding live stream or#UpLate with@mikeygold and make#BBAU fans happy too.
Thursday, August 16, 2012
Ratings Update
The "Live Special" on Tuesday drew 1.327m viewers and was the second highest rating show of the night. It was against H&A (1.02m, 9th) and MasterChef Allstars (788,000, 13th).
The "Special" 1 hour Daily Show on Wednesday which saw the final two HMs enter the House late Tuesday night after the crowd had gone home, attracted 1.13m viewers, up against H&A (996,000) and MasterChef Allstars (751,000).
The "Special" 1 hour Daily Show on Wednesday which saw the final two HMs enter the House late Tuesday night after the crowd had gone home, attracted 1.13m viewers, up against H&A (996,000) and MasterChef Allstars (751,000).
One More Secret's Out
Ryan let slip pretty quickly after entering the House that he is afraid of birds after being prompted by the girls.
This takes us to two secrets now disclosed for sure, one on the inside of the House and one on the outside. Of course the magazine article about George having millions of dollars in property investments was spread around the internet before he'd even walked into the House.
Of course I have to wonder what if that's just a coincidence? What if several HMs share one or more of the secrets and the girls do guess correctly, but they are not THE secret of that HM? Did BB check that all the secrets chosen are unique to a single male HM?
This takes us to two secrets now disclosed for sure, one on the inside of the House and one on the outside. Of course the magazine article about George having millions of dollars in property investments was spread around the internet before he'd even walked into the House.
Of course I have to wonder what if that's just a coincidence? What if several HMs share one or more of the secrets and the girls do guess correctly, but they are not THE secret of that HM? Did BB check that all the secrets chosen are unique to a single male HM?
BB vs Diversity
We have now met the 14 HMs, but have we been delivered the cast we were promised?
15 years separates the youngest and oldest HMs, aged 18 and 33. That seems very undiverse. But, ignoring for now the rumor some of them were hired from talent agencies, they can only cast from those who audition, and I'm sure it would have been something like 19,000 auditionees between 18 and 33, and 1,000 older. So if they cast solely on personality, it's likely 14 were chosen from the younger age range.
Speaking of personality, while they might all have different jobs, beliefs and lifestyles, they are definitely all loud outgoing personalities. Even Bradley who would appear meek is very loud and bubbly. Charne is already complaining everyone talks over each other. I think it's a battle to be heard at the moment.
As far as diversity goes BB08 probably hit the mark more than any other season, with the grandma, the litte person, the UFO nut, Corey Worthington, and others, but then they were accused of stunt casting, and their band of HMs were labelled "freaks" by the media in the first week.
You just can't win!
15 years separates the youngest and oldest HMs, aged 18 and 33. That seems very undiverse. But, ignoring for now the rumor some of them were hired from talent agencies, they can only cast from those who audition, and I'm sure it would have been something like 19,000 auditionees between 18 and 33, and 1,000 older. So if they cast solely on personality, it's likely 14 were chosen from the younger age range.
Speaking of personality, while they might all have different jobs, beliefs and lifestyles, they are definitely all loud outgoing personalities. Even Bradley who would appear meek is very loud and bubbly. Charne is already complaining everyone talks over each other. I think it's a battle to be heard at the moment.
As far as diversity goes BB08 probably hit the mark more than any other season, with the grandma, the litte person, the UFO nut, Corey Worthington, and others, but then they were accused of stunt casting, and their band of HMs were labelled "freaks" by the media in the first week.
You just can't win!
Wednesday, August 15, 2012
Secrets Update
The girls' secret task to avoid nomination this week is to guess the male HMs' secrets. It's a fun play-along-at-home task, so here goes my guesses at this stage:
1. I have the IQ of a genius
Ray - he's a vet, might be smart enough
2. I have ornithophobia as the result of an emu attack
Bradley - he seems pretty easy to frighten
3. I have been fired from every job I have ever had
Josh - seems likely! ;)
4. I haven't had a girlfriend since I was 11
Benjamin - he is gay, so likely
5. I am a juvenile offender
Michael - there are rumours going around about him "entertaining" middle eastern men, who knows what else he's been up to
6. I have dated over 100 women
Ryan - he's a model, and full of himself enough to make this his secret
7. I am a multi-millionaire
George - this has been revealed, proven by a magazine article
Let's see how I go.
1. I have the IQ of a genius
Ray - he's a vet, might be smart enough
2. I have ornithophobia as the result of an emu attack
Bradley - he seems pretty easy to frighten
3. I have been fired from every job I have ever had
Josh - seems likely! ;)
4. I haven't had a girlfriend since I was 11
Benjamin - he is gay, so likely
5. I am a juvenile offender
Michael - there are rumours going around about him "entertaining" middle eastern men, who knows what else he's been up to
6. I have dated over 100 women
Ryan - he's a model, and full of himself enough to make this his secret
7. I am a multi-millionaire
George - this has been revealed, proven by a magazine article
Let's see how I go.
BB Hears Fans' Cries
2 days in and social media has already provided BB with enough outcries to make some fast changes.
Diary entries have gotten more detailed and more frequent now. About every 15 mins today to match their twitter updates.
Hourly video entries, labelled "live video", still run at about the 1 min 10 second mark. From 120 mins of footage (2 streams times 60 minutes) that's not much.
They have also launched a mobile friendly version of their site catered to the smaller touch screen. Excellent work on turning that around within a couple of days. Makes it much easier to do quick catch ups during the day.
Vast improvement in content today BB. How about longer video segments tomorrow? Thanks!
Diary entries have gotten more detailed and more frequent now. About every 15 mins today to match their twitter updates.
Hourly video entries, labelled "live video", still run at about the 1 min 10 second mark. From 120 mins of footage (2 streams times 60 minutes) that's not much.
They have also launched a mobile friendly version of their site catered to the smaller touch screen. Excellent work on turning that around within a couple of days. Makes it much easier to do quick catch ups during the day.
Vast improvement in content today BB. How about longer video segments tomorrow? Thanks!
HMs Get a Dance Task
I was sure after the Launch show we'd never hear of the Big Brother Shuffle again. Unfortunately, Task #1 for the HMs is "Dance like nobody is watching". I guess with a professional dancer as the host what could we expect?
Tuesday, August 14, 2012
Launch Ratings
Four years ago Big Brother was cancelled (or not renewed) by Network Ten in favour of launching a new cooking show, MasterChef, in its timeslot seven nights a week in 2009. This blogger will admit that he thought the show destined to fail. Who knew it would go on to draw some of the biggest TV audiences of the years, run for at least four more years and spawn spin-offs of the Celebrity, Junior, and Allstars varieties? And who knew that four years later, MasterChef and Big Brother would run against each other in the same timeslot on different networks?
The Big Brother 2012 Launch show peaked at 2.1 million viewers last night-- an excellent figure in today's multi-channel world. The average for the 90 minute show was 1.61 million viewers. How those figures level out across tonight's first live special, regular Daily Shows and Evictions and Nominations is yet to be seen. Given Everybody Dance Now's dismal launch and follow-up show, I'd say BB has jumped the first ratings hurdle-- people are interested. Now to keep them that way.
More interestingly, MasterChef Allstars, which premiered right before the crazy ratings fortnight of The Olympics, only managed 702,000 viewers last night. That was down on Sunday night's figures against the final Olympic events of 779,000.
With MasterChef wrapping up this Sunday night, let's see how things shake out.
The Big Brother 2012 Launch show peaked at 2.1 million viewers last night-- an excellent figure in today's multi-channel world. The average for the 90 minute show was 1.61 million viewers. How those figures level out across tonight's first live special, regular Daily Shows and Evictions and Nominations is yet to be seen. Given Everybody Dance Now's dismal launch and follow-up show, I'd say BB has jumped the first ratings hurdle-- people are interested. Now to keep them that way.
More interestingly, MasterChef Allstars, which premiered right before the crazy ratings fortnight of The Olympics, only managed 702,000 viewers last night. That was down on Sunday night's figures against the final Olympic events of 779,000.
With MasterChef wrapping up this Sunday night, let's see how things shake out.
Monday, August 13, 2012
Launch Recap
The Launch show has now gone to air. Prerecording allowed it to be a very tightly edited fast paced show without waiting for the HMs to travel from the stage to the house. You could even tell during on stage interviews a lot of audience reaction was edited out too. Why have the audience there at all? Laughs were obviously shortened and some whole questions seemed to be chopped right out.
Yes, so they shuffled, but just a quick shuffle. Hopefully that will be the last of it. Sonia came out and threw straight to opening titles.
The theme music is yet another remix of the classic Aussie BB theme. The titles are the first in history to not feature a Dreamworld ride, because they have finally learned that it is filmed at a theme park but that is the extent of its connection to roller coasters (unless you count metaphorical ones). It's just animated circles and text eventually making up the BB logo. Pretty average really.
The house tour was prerecorded and very fast with Sonia barely able to get her commentary out before the vision moved on.
Housemates started flowing quickly and as mentioned the long trip between stage and house was edited out. I feel sory for the people in the live audience having to wait that out. As usual the first HM into the house felt he had to talk to himself as he wandered around. At this stage I'm sure the feeling of being filmed would be intense. As soon as they have company it seems to subside a bit and they start acting a bit more normally.
All the HMs seem very loud and outgoing.
BB's first twist was to let the 3 males into the house proper while keeping females in the Utility Room, currently know as the Palour. I can see this room being redecorated throughout the series to serve many different purposes as required. This plan seemed very similar to BB07 where females were allowed to watch the male HMs from the Diary Room. But the reasoning later became clear when BB gave the females the list of males' secrets and tasked them with matching the secret to the HM. If the girls win the task, only males can be nominated for the first eviction. If they fail, only females can be nominated. A great twist on the getting to know you task. I wonder though when the female secrets will come out.
After all the HMs were secured away we even got 3 segments of daily show with Mikey's narration. There were some funny and awkward moments as the HMs got to know each other. Some early visits to the Diary Room to bent their feelings to BB. And 2 of the girls even started figuring out the hidden door between the bedroom and secret bathroom. I wonder if they actually saw the leaked houseplans.
Housemates finally headed to bed after 1am. Sonia promised 2 new male HMs would enter the house tomorrow night, and this one will be LIVE!
Diary updates have been going on all day with names blanked out, so hopefully now the secrecy will be lifted and we can follow what's going on all day tomorrow.
Yes, so they shuffled, but just a quick shuffle. Hopefully that will be the last of it. Sonia came out and threw straight to opening titles.
The theme music is yet another remix of the classic Aussie BB theme. The titles are the first in history to not feature a Dreamworld ride, because they have finally learned that it is filmed at a theme park but that is the extent of its connection to roller coasters (unless you count metaphorical ones). It's just animated circles and text eventually making up the BB logo. Pretty average really.
The house tour was prerecorded and very fast with Sonia barely able to get her commentary out before the vision moved on.
Housemates started flowing quickly and as mentioned the long trip between stage and house was edited out. I feel sory for the people in the live audience having to wait that out. As usual the first HM into the house felt he had to talk to himself as he wandered around. At this stage I'm sure the feeling of being filmed would be intense. As soon as they have company it seems to subside a bit and they start acting a bit more normally.
All the HMs seem very loud and outgoing.
BB's first twist was to let the 3 males into the house proper while keeping females in the Utility Room, currently know as the Palour. I can see this room being redecorated throughout the series to serve many different purposes as required. This plan seemed very similar to BB07 where females were allowed to watch the male HMs from the Diary Room. But the reasoning later became clear when BB gave the females the list of males' secrets and tasked them with matching the secret to the HM. If the girls win the task, only males can be nominated for the first eviction. If they fail, only females can be nominated. A great twist on the getting to know you task. I wonder though when the female secrets will come out.
After all the HMs were secured away we even got 3 segments of daily show with Mikey's narration. There were some funny and awkward moments as the HMs got to know each other. Some early visits to the Diary Room to bent their feelings to BB. And 2 of the girls even started figuring out the hidden door between the bedroom and secret bathroom. I wonder if they actually saw the leaked houseplans.
Housemates finally headed to bed after 1am. Sonia promised 2 new male HMs would enter the house tomorrow night, and this one will be LIVE!
Diary updates have been going on all day with names blanked out, so hopefully now the secrecy will be lifted and we can follow what's going on all day tomorrow.
Cartoon HMs Nominated?
BB seems to be doing some live testing on the Official Site. I just grabbed this screen cap that shows a couple of cartoon characters up for Nomination!
Sunday, August 12, 2012
Secret Men's Business
The female HMs have been given the task of matching male HMs to their secrets. They are only allowed to discuss this task when BB let's them use a secret room called The Parlour. (Probably the Utility Room from the house plans.)
The only thing is, they have only met 3 male HMs. The other 4 will enter the House live on Tuesday night.
The secrets are:
Has the IQ of a genius
Scared of birds after being attacked by an emu
Fired from every job he's had
Has not had a girlfriend since he was 11
Was a juvenile offender
Has dated over 100 women
Is a multi-millionaire
The only thing is, they have only met 3 male HMs. The other 4 will enter the House live on Tuesday night.
The secrets are:
Has the IQ of a genius
Scared of birds after being attacked by an emu
Fired from every job he's had
Has not had a girlfriend since he was 11
Was a juvenile offender
Has dated over 100 women
Is a multi-millionaire
The First Ten
The first ten HMs have now been introduced to the live audience.
Michael
Sarah
Angie
Zoe
Laia
Josh
Charne
Estelle
Stacey
Bradley
The males entered the House via a new giant eye door in the backyard where the FNL doors used to be. Females were placed in a Secret Room and allowed to watch the males wander the House on a screen. (Bit of a giveaway of camera angles and such.) This seems like a bit of a copy of BB07 where HMs were separated and allowed to watch each other before being mixed.
Those in the Secret Room were also given a task regarding the HM secrets before being allowed into the actual House.
With 7 females and 3 males now in the House could we be seeing 4 new males enter on Tuesday night?
Michael
Sarah
Angie
Zoe
Laia
Josh
Charne
Estelle
Stacey
Bradley
The males entered the House via a new giant eye door in the backyard where the FNL doors used to be. Females were placed in a Secret Room and allowed to watch the males wander the House on a screen. (Bit of a giveaway of camera angles and such.) This seems like a bit of a copy of BB07 where HMs were separated and allowed to watch each other before being mixed.
Those in the Secret Room were also given a task regarding the HM secrets before being allowed into the actual House.
With 7 females and 3 males now in the House could we be seeing 4 new males enter on Tuesday night?
The New Stage
Thanks to BBBA forum members, here's an early snap of the new BB stage at the Dreamworld Amphitheatre.
Cracks in the Official Site Already
The Official Site has just started its Live Updates from the House and I'm already seeing issues. Refreshing the page several times shows me different "versions" of the page each time. It looks as if stories aren't copying across to all servers in any hurry. Since they have taken away live video streams this year, the live updates are the only way to keep up with what's happening in the House so if this latency continues it could be a big fail for fans.
It Begins!
Taping of the Launch show has begun at Dreamworld Studios.
Photos out of the stage show a stripped back look with one huge screen to the left, and a giant neon eye on a black backdrop that opens up with a staircase coming down from the iris to the stage.
Photos out of the stage show a stripped back look with one huge screen to the left, and a giant neon eye on a black backdrop that opens up with a staircase coming down from the iris to the stage.
Prize Money
First reports from the live launch show say the prize money will be $50,000 this year. Surely this is a starting off point that HMs will be able to increase throughout the series. Possibly by guessing each others' secrets.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)