Throng

Big Brother 10 is failing in the ratings. This weekend, on live eviction night, it came forth in the battle for bums-on-seats. Have I Got News For You trounced it, getting nearly double the viewers. Even a repeat of comedy Outnumbered fared better. So what's going on?

Apart from people tiring of the format, it seems that Big Brother is a show confused by what it is supposed to be. Once upon a time, back in the late nineties, it was a peculiar and intriguing look at how people functioned under the microscope. We watched Craig Phillips and Co. potter around, slowly going mad like listless laboratory rats. The only huge shift in the show occurred as a result of Nasty Nick Bateman overtly cheating, and even then, that was resolved with a reasonably placid discussion around a table.

This gave the producers an idea. Fashioning stress and cranking the tension will make for more explosive TV. The housemates soon stopped bumbling around the house and became incredibly self-aware of the cameras and like heat-seeking missiles looking for any chance of televisual notoriety and fame.

Initially, the carnage that unfolded was great fun to watch, with unhealthy doses of irritation for the viewer. The show continued to polarise the TV watching public, with people morally opposed to these shows that made people with no discernable talent, famous. On the other hand, people continued to tune in for the annual soap opera, treating the whole thing as a camp, bitchy, fun show where people snogged, fought and wept openly about out-of-tune violins.

However, things took a dark turn when Celebrity Big Brother shone its light on racism, with the argument between Shilpa Shetty and Jade Goody. Such was the outcry that it appeared that the Big Brother franchise may never recover.

To all intents and purposes, it certainly seems that way. Wannabe housemates were now acutely aware of the payback on abhorrent behaviour and the producers began to realise their responsibilities when making TV starring real people with very unpleasant, but all the same real, views. Big Brother became frightened and scared of what it could achieve.

Which leaves us with a show in the middle of an identity crisis.

Big Brother 10 is now more like Big Mother. At every turn, the arguments are nipped in the bud, leaving each housemate more inclined to reflect or feel jaded at the lack of opportunity to vent, rather than the huge flare-ups we've witnessed in the past.

Lisa's argument this weekend was stopped short of genuine venom, let alone plate throwing or particularly foul language. The most irritable housemate, Sophia, was voted out by a public seemingly weary of pointless arguments over territory and faux-respect.

So where does that leave Big Brother? The 'experiment' element has long gone as, in essence, we've got nine sets of inconclusive findings. The soap opera has vanished because Big Brother seemingly no longer wants to push buttons until someone snaps. Yet, it still wants to generate interest and headlines.

The show can't even look toward a TV equivalent of a holiday romance, with Kris and Dogface warned off each other recently, just on the off chance that their feelings for each other did not run true and deep.

As such, people are showing apathy towards the show and yearning for reality shows that have more about them. More structure. Look at the success of The Apprentice and you'll see that reality is a format that still works. There's a Point A and a Point B to travel toward. Big Brother now feels too flimsy and unable to provide the things your average TV viewers wants currently.

So, the makers of the show are going to have to make their minds up. They'll either have to add a reason to be in the house, other than a big cash prize, or, they'll have to ride the storms of controversy again because, as things stand, people simply can't be bothered to find out what the housemates are like. No emotional connection, no longevity.