u/Existing-Age-8463

I’ve always thought so many of their songs have a country twist. Graffiti my soul, love machine, wake me up, wild horses, no good advice, long hot summer, biology, whole lotta history. Full on square dancing harmonica lasso choreography.

By 2007 Big Brother was still huge in UK pop culture but there was a lot of ill will toward the program as it had slowly hardened from adult social experiment to a mean spirited, Z list glamour model factory / “freakshow”. It was still enjoyable but had become very negative. The CBB07 scandal was massive and was a new height for Big Brothers toxicity.

This was time for another pivot. After BB4 they had to pivot toward a more explosive, dramatic (albeit trashy) tone. This was correct for that time. BB5 was genuinely so exciting to watch, getting to experience the evil side for the first time, but it had worn thin after three years. CBB07 had been so uncomfortable and dark, there needed to be another rebrand - this time toward lightness. I actually think the producers tried to do this but confused lightness with immaturity. Instead of injecting childishness they needed to give the show a heart.

I think the new pivot should have been housemates playing for charities.
This would
a) have helped BB’s horrendous reputation in the public arena by actually being of service and softened the darkness of the show.
b) would have raised the stakes of winning if there was charity depending on them instead of just winning for yourself which most housemates didn’t seem that bothered about as long as they got to stay for a few weeks.
c) improved the general mood towards housemates taking part. Fame hungry weirdos lazing about a house waiting to get booed automatically become more likeable and human if they are genuinely trying to help a cause (even if they are also chasing fame).

Additionally - Announce that BB8 was to be the last one before a break. The fatigue had set in HARD after a 13 week summer series and a racism scandal. Many thought it should be axed altogether, I think people would have been more forgiving to the summer series going ahead knowing it was coming to an end. It would have given people a chance to miss it and helped it have future seasons as popular as the early years.

The BB7 producers meddled with nominations and messed up twice with losing Grace and Nikki. Producer meddling is usually for the benefit of keeping big character housemates in who would be vulnerable to being nominated and likely evicted, they knew as soon as Grace went up she would be out but within the house she seemed relatively popular and probably would’ve survived a few more weeks. Giving the golden housemate sole nomination responsibility was a bad idea. I think in week 8 they didn’t expect Nikki to get evicted so that was another mess up putting everyone up, they defo realised they dropped the ball this time - I remember there was an advert after she was evicted saying something like Nikki’s gone but there’s still loads to watch (it was so funny/obvious at the time they couldn’t just stick her back in so they came up with the whole bring housemates back twist as a way to facilitate that).

Do you think Javine and Aimee ever curse the Popstars: The Rivals producers for replacing Hazel and Nicola.