Big Brother 10 ends on a not-so-high 2.4 million
This year’s fairly eventful and much-talked about (though for some of the wrong reasons) Big Brother series ended on a high of 2.4 million adult viewers on Friday night.
A peak audience of 2.4 million viewers wouldn’t sound so bad, especially on the basis that the series pulled in an average of less than 2 million viewers throughout its 13-week long stint. However, 2.4 million isn’t quite so high compared with last year’s grand finale, which attracted 4 million viewers, and falls well below par compared with the ratings for all the final episodes prior to that.
On the up side, this year’s live final clearly attracted more attention than the overall series… A series that started on a decent 4.3 million viewers, only slightly below last year’s 4.7 million, but soon slipped down to as low as 1.1 million average viewers. However, if nothing else, series 10 of the fly-on-the-wall reality show did secure a loyal and fairly consistent audience, albeit much lower than previous series.
An average of 1.7 million viewers tuned in on a daily basis to see what Big Brother had to offer, and while critics found it easy to slate this year’s format for being “boring” and “out-of-date”, the real fans (who no doubt make up the loyal audience share for Channel 4) say it was the best series yet.
Channel 4 bosses must not have been part of that loyal fan base having recently decided against renewing their contract with the show’s producer Endemol. Many will think it’s a good decision for the broadcaster, which has aired the show that made the likes of Jade Goody famous for more than nine years.
Even Julian Bellamy, Channel 4’s controller – who has spent much time praising Big Brother for being “ground-breaking” and “revolutionary” in its time (needless to say he was heavily involved with the programme during its heyday) – believes it’s time to move on.
Speaking at the recent Media Guardian Edinburgh International Television Festival, Bellamy claims the decision to end Big Brother is purely to free up airtime and money (200 hours and £50 million to be precise) – something that he says will create the most significant creative opportunity in Channel 4’s history. Nothing to do with falling ratings then …
Either way, Channel 4 has some serious creative planning to do for next year’s 11th and final series – unless, of course, it’s snapped up by a rival broadcaster and aired on another channel from 2011 onwards – which is always a possibility, and one that Endemol is no doubt hopeful about.
Rumours suggest that the broadcaster is already thinking up something wild and wonderful, such as bringing back all the previous series’ much-loved finalists.
As our weekly columnist Ray Snoddy recently said: “Whether they like it or not Channel 4 is committed to another series and that surely will turn into a wake unless somebody somewhere comes up with some bright new ideas.”
The prediction is, perhaps unsurprisingly, whatever Channel 4 throws at us next year, ratings will soar and Big Brother really will end on a high!