Elizabeth July 31st, 2007

In what I hope will be my final Big Brother post, I want to draw attention to the huge mess made of the voting process during last night’s Finale. From everything I’ve read tonight (at Behind Big Brother, the Ten forums and various blogs) I am of the opinion that the $450,000 was quite possibly awarded to the wrong person.

I was first suspicious of technical issues when I was woken by an SMS at 1:22am, telling me that voting had ended (and therefore, that my vote hadn’t been counted). My very last vote was sent at 8:15, half an hour before the voting lines closed, so the error wasn’t mine. As replies are only sent once per day (rather than once per vote) I have no way of knowing which of my votes contributed to the final outcome, only that I was charged for them.

Only 500 votes separated Zach and Aleisha when the lines closed, and at one point there was a difference of only 64 votes. Considering how many angry people are blogging and commenting about this screw-up, it’s not much of a stretch to suggest that Zach could have been the true winner last night. This scenario is further supported by the fact that rabid Zach fans were frantically trying to help him catch up to Aleisha, once their identities were revealed on the graphs.

I left a comment on Ten’s forums myself, which I’ll re-post here for the sake of the search engines. I’m happy to add to the pressure being directed towards Big Brother producers on this issue.

I am just another dissatisfied voter and viewer who is waiting for an appropriate response from Channel 10, Southern Star Endemol and Legion about the technical issues that resulted during last night’s Big Brother Finale.

I sent save and evict votes well in advance of the advertised closing time, as listed below:

“Aleisha” to 19927283 at 7:03pm
“Aleisha” to 19927283 at 7:04pm
“Aleisha” to 19927283 at 7:36pm
“Aleisha” to 19927283 at 7:36pm
“Aleisha” to 19927283 at 8:13pm
“Aleisha” to 19927283 at 8:13pm
“Aleisha” to 19927283 at 8:13pm
“Aleisha” to 19927283 at 8:14pm
“Zach” to 19938428 at 8:14pm
“Zach” to 19938428 at 8:15pm
“Zach” to 19938428 at 8:15pm
“Zach” to 19938428 at 8:15pm

At 7:14pm, 10 minutes after my first two votes, I received the following SMS from Big Brother:

BB: Thanks for your vote! U won’t receive any further replies. For all the BB action and goss watch TEN weeknights at 7:00 or go 2 bigbrother.3mobile.com.au

It is interesting to note that my successful vote/s were sent before the graphs were revealed to viewers, complete with the names of the housemates that belonged to each value.

Thinking that everything was fine, I continued to send save and evict votes until 8:15pm, noting that the lines closed at 8:45pm. Although I was frustrated by the length of time taken to announce the winner, I accepted that recounting was necessary to ensure that the right person was evicted. I was satisfied that, if nothing else, at least my votes were being counted and would contribute meaningfully to the outcome.

At 1:22am this morning I received the following SMS from Big Brother:

BB: The voting period is now offline! For all the BB action and goss watch TEN weeknights at 7:00 or go 2 bigbrother.3mobile.com.au

I have no way of knowing which of my votes were counted, and which fell victim to the clogged lines. All I know for sure is that I have been charged for all of these votes, and that at least one of them (but realistically, probably several of them) did not contribute to the outcome of the Big Brother Finale.

Considering that only 500 votes separated the winner from the runner up, and that at one point during the show only 64 votes separated them, it is safe to say that the technical issues have potentially affected the outcome of Big Brother 2007. I believe that there is a strong possibility that $450,000 has been awarded to the wrong person.

I acknowledge that technical issues can happen, but I believe that they were completely preventable in the case of last night’s finale. I was disgusted at the blatant money-grabbing tactics of the producers in deciding to name the final 2 housemates on the voting graphs throughout the show, and believe that this decision altered the outcome significantly. If the number of complaints on this forum (and others) are anything to go by, the revenue raised by last-minute voters was astronomical and I have no faith that the money I spent resulted in meaningful votes.

I only hope that the extra revenue raised by greedy Big Brother producers compensates for the lack of faith that I now have in the integrity of the process.

And my response to another poster, shortly after:

fireit wrote: I think the underlying thing out of all of this is that it affected _everyone_. It’s not just one person’s evict / save votes were lost.

I understand your point, fireit, but I think your comment oversimplifies things. I don’t think we can ignore the impact that the graphs had on the type of votes received during those last couple of hours, as Zach fans tried to frantically catch him up to Aleisha.

For what it’s worth, I was voting to save Aleisha and evict Zach and therefore got the outcome that I wanted. However, I strongly suspect that Zach would have won the series had the votes been tallied correctly and that the $450,000 has been awarded to the wrong person.

If the possibility of this exists, I think we have a responsibility to apply pressure to those responsible and make sure that Zach receives an equal prize.

So there, that’s what I think. Considering the way that Big Brother producers have treated its viewers like complete idiots this year, I’m more than happy to make some noise about this.

On a lighter note…

If my site stats are anything to go by, the 2007 version of the Big Brother Turkey Slap is the “Chicken Slap”. Google is a beautiful thing.

boadie throwing the chicken at gretel
big brother final bodie throwing chicken
gretel big brother chicken
gretel bodie chicken
bodie gretel head rubber chicken
gretel bodie chicken slap
Bodie Big Brother chicken Gretel
Gretel Rubber Chicken

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Elizabeth July 31st, 2007

I’m really glad that I discovered The Fishbowl tonight, before writing my autopsy of last night’s Big Brother Finale. Not only has Charles saved me the time and energy of putting the disaster into words myself, but he summed it up with more humour than I could have mustered. My spirit is officially broken, but his post said it all:

You know how the English version of The Office was funny, the way it made you cringe so much that it was stomach-churningly painful even while you were laughing your ass off? That’s how it felt watching Gretel more and more desperately trying to find ways to vamp out that last hour, her already artificial smile getting thinner and thinner as she played for time interviewing whoever stood closest to her, as they successively showed all the video packages they had prepared for the night, while the show fell apart around her.

It was frustrating. It was comical. It was an exercise in just how wrong live TV can go if you’re performing without a net. The least-watched series in the show’s history was capped by an unwatchable finale. Bravo.

Next year, I say, take another hour. Take two. Have the DJ do a whole set. Interview all the housemates again, plus every past-season housemate you can get on a last-minute hospital pass satellite hook-up. Replay every single highlight you can find in the archives. Announce who won UK Big Brother, and see if anyone notices the difference. Make the audience form conga-lines to spell out their favourite housemates. Hold an impromptu game of charades. Interview everyone again but make the entire cast and crew do a tequila shot every time someone says it was “just a great experience”, or that it “changed their life”. Show a montage of Gretel’s less fortunate wardrobe choices over Green Day’s Time of your life. Bus strippers up from the Gold Coast. Dancing bears. Contortionists. Elephants.

Read his full post at The Fishbowl, or watch the following video to see Bodie throwing a rubber chicken at Gretel’s head. Either way, it’s better than watching the show.

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Elizabeth July 27th, 2007

A few months ago (in a password-protected part of the web far, far away) I wrote the following post.

Some people disappear into their TVs during soccer season. Other people live and breathe cricket (although that condition is very serious and probably has a very long name ending in “-chosis”). Football season is understandable when it’s AFL, because of those tight little shorts and sleeveless jerseys (put an AFL player next to an American footballer and then tell me which is the better spectator sport).

Such pursuits are very noble and all, but they’re just not my thing. Big Brother is my season. And before you Americans rush off to delete me from your bookmarks, remember that our show is approximately 9472658x better than the disaster that gets served up in your country.

Big Brother is the thinking man’s television. It’s poetry; it’s culture. Big Brother is art for the masses, perhaps more Jackson Pollock than Renoir, but nevertheless speaking wisdom through our TV screens. Its cast members go on to become productive, benevolent members of Australian society – humanitarians and defenders of the downtrodden who work tirelessly without recognition. Before dismissing the importance of this institution, ask yourself what contributions you have made to the betterment of our nation in the past year.

More reasons to watch:

* Gretel has a new stylist. That should be reason enough.
* Big Brother is routinely discussed in Parliament, so you’ll be better informed come election time
* You won’t be left out of lunchtime discussions at work

And so, I am saying farewell for the next few months. I don’t wish to be the sort of un-Australian viewer who fits Big Brother around their existing priorities – Big Brother is a lifestyle and a commitment I intend to see through to the end. We have a responsibility as viewers to watch all 19-20 hours of weekly broadcasts, and anything less is simply a slap in the face to the mission of these brave crusaders.

But this is not goodbye, just “see you soon”. Probably sooner than you think, with plenty of discussion about the show! Please feel free to share your support and excitement in the comments.

Too much? Probably. But I was genuinely looking forward to this season of Big Brother and indulging my voyeuristic side. I have fond memories of earlier seasons, where the cast was made up of normal people who sat around and talked about normal stuff. It was uncomplicated, it was addictive, and it worked.

The person who knew that best of all was the show’s original Executive Producer and voice of Big Brother, Peter Abbott. In an interview with ABC’s Media Report on Radio National in 2002, he said the following:

Peter Abbott: There’s a lot of temptation to produce, but you’ve got to resist it. The whole process is one of creating an environment and then seeing what happens, and the nice thing is that it sometimes rewards you with something that’s far better than you could have ever imagined.

Back in the days of Peter Abbott the show was simple and transparent, and they were rewarded with great ratings and a loyal following. Most of all, the concept of the show was pure: Put 15-20 strangers in a house, cut off their contact to the outside world, let them interact and film them while they do it. And most importantly, guide them with weekly tasks but interfere as little as possible.

What resulted was a beautiful little social experiment, and viewers had front row seats. As viewers we could consider and discuss the relationships and events in the house with our friends, confident that what we had seen was unabridged and unproduced. In those early days the show was very transparent, and they weren’t trying so hard to make it into something it was not. It seemed easier to connect to the cast members, and identify with them.

With Kris Noble as EP, the true meaning of Big Brother has slowly been eroded. Over the past few years there have been fewer natural cast members, and too many famewhores. Simple tasks have been replaced with complicated themes, usually with no tangible end product and very little pay-off for the viewers. It seems that producers are only interested in creating enough content for their 22-minute daily shows, and are relying on SMS games and repetitive montages to fill in the remaining airtime.

Remember when housemates would auction off one of their belongings after their eviction for charity? When people cared enough to own the rug from the knitting task, or somebody’s guitar? I can’t imagine anybody bidding on stuff belonging to this year’s housemates, because we simply don’t care about them. Except for medical science, who are probably interested in the functioning portions of Michelle’s brain.

Speaking of Michelle…

Never before have I wished for a ratings box, purely so that I could protest with my remote control. None of my BB-watching friends could bring themselves to turn on the TV for her final 2 weeks in the house, despite being interested in how the others were going.

I wanted to like this year’s show, but with just a few days to go I don’t care. Not about the housemates, the outcome, or next year’s show.

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Elizabeth June 16th, 2007

You have got to watch this video of Connie Talbot, who is 6 years old, singing “Somewhere Over The Rainbow” on Britain’s Got Talent. This kid has such a refreshingly soft and expressive voice, and the cutest smile you ever saw.

If you can watch this without getting tears in your eyes, see a specialist and schedule a heart transplant.

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