Big Brother Series 7 Overview
Throughout the summer Big Brother was the talk of schools and workplaces around the country, with millions tuning in to see what devious tasks the contestants would have to complete on their way to winning the £100,000 grand prize.
The opening show of the series kicked off to a cracking start as the new housemates took their turns clambering up the famous metallic staircase, with an average of 6.2 million adult viewers getting their first glimpse of the lucky few.
The first big eviction was that of Sezer, which brought in an average of 4.1 million viewers across the two eviction night programmes and the same number of viewers for the actual eviction show.
Even when up against the World Cup Big Brother managed to pull in sizeable audiences, almost always bringing in more than 3.5 million viewers for the duration of the biggest sporting extravaganza in the world.
When ITV wheeled out its own reality offering, in the shape of Love Island, it was perhaps the biggest test so far of Big Brother’s mettle. Of course the show, now in its seventh series, did not disappoint, managing to beat the bikini clad c-list celeb fest every time the two went head-to-head and adding more woe to the shoulders of the beleaguered broadcaster (see Big Brother Beats Love Island).
Perhaps the biggest talking point of the entire series was the eviction of Nikki, who did so much to spice up the other contestant’s time in the house with her tears and tantrums. Nikki’s eviction night programme was the most watched eviction show, and only trumped by the first night and finale viewing figures, with 5.3 million adults watching her leave the house and face the obligatory Davina grilling.
However, following Nikki’s departure, there was a general feeling among critics and the general public that the show had lost one of its main attractions and this was seemingly reflected in the slight drop off in viewing figures which saw the programme reach a low of 2 million adults on July 23.
Never one to miss an opportunity though, Channel 4 soon realised that Nikki was what was needed and arranged for one of the evicted housemates to re-enter the house via a public vote. Sure enough, Nikki was victorious, but her return kicked up a storm, with some reports claiming that over six thousand complaints had been made to Ofcom about the sudden change in the rules.
Pete, series favourite from the outset, eventually emerged victorious from the house, 13 weeks after first leaving the real world behind, and his winning programme attracted a peak 8.2 million viewers, all anxious to find out which of the people they had grown to love or loathe would be crowned this year’s winner, ranking them alongside such greats as Brian Dowling and Kate Lawler.
Despite the naysayer’s moans about the dumbing down of television, series seven of Big Brother has shown once again that viewers can’t get enough of well structured, watchable formats, which could well be why this series has been the most watched so far, with audience figures well up on last year’s.
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