Big Brother 9 sparks more than 300 complaints

[Sash]

Ofcom said it had received 337 complaints from viewers since the latest series of the reality show started last Thursday.

The vast majority - 217 - were sparked by Tuesday night’s episode in which four of the contestants had a heated argument about oven chips.

The row started when Alexandra De Gale, 23, allegedly abused Rebecca Shiner, 21, a nurse from Coventry, for burning the group’s chip supper.

Viewers complained to the watchdog about bullying and bad language in the house.

Although high for an opening week, the number of complaints pales into insignificance when compared to the 7,600 complaints received by Ofcom following the racism row last year on Celebrity Big Brother.

Angry viewers claimed at the time that Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty was being victimised by fellow housemates Jade Goody, Danielle Lloyd and Jo O’Meara.

The row led to Tony Blair, the then prime minister, facing a formal complaint from the Indian foreign minister Anand Sharm.

Gordon Brown, who was visiting India at the time, was also forced to make an announcement condemning “offensive behaviour”.


Big Brother 9 sparks more than 300 complaints - Telegraph



When will they dump this show!!!??!!

[Tagred]

My complaint to ofcom would be that channel 4 are allowed to put on such crap. I've had enough of this big brother stupidity. Please please stop allowing such stupid people onto the tv.

It is starting to turn me into a fundamentalist believer in eugenics and thinking that maybe Hitler & Stalin had a point. There are times when some human beings are a waste of oxygen. I dont know which is worse, the contestants or the idiots who keep making the program.

[Moonbeam]

think I only watched first two of them plus a celeb one (Jack Dee)that was enough for me

[Puratech]

People complaining that people on a social experiment gameshow, where the contestants know its gonna get pretty depraved and angry at times, are being bullied is nuts. Its exactly what they signed up for tbfh.

Theres like 5 bazillion tv channels now, and given that BB coverage is mostly only on daytime tv and early hours live, i dont see the problem. I get far more annoyed when itv, channel 5, virgin 1, all spam their channels up with phone in and guess the word games, or roulette.

[Detomah]

Originally Posted by Puratech

People complaining that people on a social experiment gameshow, where the contestants know its gonna get pretty depraved and angry at times, are being bullied is nuts. Its exactly what they signed up for tbfh.

Theres like 5 bazillion tv channels now, and given that BB coverage is mostly only on daytime tv and early hours live, i dont see the problem. I get far more annoyed when itv, channel 5, virgin 1, all spam their channels up with phone in and guess the word games, or roulette.

I completely agree with you regarding the complaints Pura.

There are hundreds of channels out there with all manner of programs on and the only channel regularly showing BB for more than an hour a day is E4 which is a channel that was fundamentally set up to show BB in the first place.

Looking at posts like for example the one Taggy has made, which mirrors the opinion of thousands of people on the net, it makes me really angry... Nobody at all has forced you to watch Big Brother Taggy, in fact I doubt very much if you've bothered to give it any time at all and that your judgements of the program are based on either reading what others have said, or just a general overall "I hate all of this kind of TV show". There are hundreds of alternate channels available and judging by your referral to Channel 4 and not E4, I doubt you've even tuned into the live program at all. I am finding it rather embarassing that you have started ranting on about eugenics as a result of a television show you don't even watch and are not forced to watch, when I'd say you very likely watch less than 3 hours a day of television as it is. Nobody forces you to have a TV or TV license, however I certainly don't believe that just because I enjoy a TV show that I am any less entitled to breath oxygen.

[emma roids]

lol if folks don't like it then why not just turn it off?

saves the phone bill

[Eraserhead]

Originally Posted by Detomah

however I certainly don't believe that just because I enjoy a TV show that I am any less entitled to breath oxygen.

lol, I think he was referring to the contestants.

Anyhow, the program is drivel, although sometimes entertaining drivel populated with attention seeking cracktards who deserve a slap rather than all the attention and money they get. That's what generates all the hatred.

I can't see a good reason for asking the program to be pulled though.

[teflon]

I'm going to defend Tagred's hyperbole because sometimes I talk like that when something pisses me off too. It's obvious to me at least that he doesn't really like Stalin.

Of course we can all just not watch it, presumably most of us don't, going by the ratings, but it does bug me that people are extorting cash out of society's less mentally endowed in the form of text messaging/voting. And the fact that youngsters surely must be being influenced by watching this and thinking it's ok to act like a vacuous fame-hungry back-stabbing wretch, the type of person who enters this nowadays.

Nodody is forcing us to watch it, or buy the rubbish papers which cover it in fine detail, but it still can't be good for society as a whole. The original idea/series was fine, but nowadays the contestants know what to expect and change their behaviour in accordance with how they think they will be perceived. It's trash TV and it's extortion on a grand scale, but since it continues to make vast amounts of money, it will stick around.

[Tagred]

Originally Posted by Detomah

I completely agree with you regarding the complaints Pura.

There are hundreds of channels out there with all manner of programs on and the only channel regularly showing BB for more than an hour a day is E4 which is a channel that was fundamentally set up to show BB in the first place.

Looking at posts like for example the one Taggy has made, which mirrors the opinion of thousands of people on the net, it makes me really angry... Nobody at all has forced you to watch Big Brother Taggy, in fact I doubt very much if you've bothered to give it any time at all and that your judgements of the program are based on either reading what others have said, or just a general overall "I hate all of this kind of TV show". There are hundreds of alternate channels available and judging by your referral to Channel 4 and not E4, I doubt you've even tuned into the live program at all. I am finding it rather embarassing that you have started ranting on about eugenics as a result of a television show you don't even watch and are not forced to watch, when I'd say you very likely watch less than 3 hours a day of television as it is. Nobody forces you to have a TV or TV license, however I certainly don't believe that just because I enjoy a TV show that I am any less entitled to breath oxygen.

True no-one forces me to watch BB, and i dont watch it because it is a version of dumbed down TV that clearly dumb people or just the morbidly curious like to watch.

For your information i have watched a fair few hours of the show, the first and second cut down programmes and a few hours of the day time boring stuff. It would be nice to not be too presumptious about my watching habits or any other habits i may have.

The point is, and here is the crux. TV has been dumbed down to such an extent that your average person (read 25 down to teenager) now thinks it is a goal to be on tv for any reason and that getting your 15 minutes of fame is an aspiration. Shows like big brother go out of their way to choose the misfits of society on purpose. The first and second shows were social experiments but they are now analogus to the gladiators of rome. Clearly the context in which i talked about eugenics was completely missed.

If big brother is a reflection of our society then i dearly hope that the ever decreasing number of even slightly intelligent people start some sort of fight back.

I have watched enough of all seasons of big brother thank you very much to form an opinion. My opinion is that it is time filling dumbed down tv to dupe people into spending money on other people they dont care about or even like. The ideals of the first 2 series are no longer relevant, it is simply putting people in a cage and rattling it, it is no longer a social experiment by any stretch of the imagination.

If people are fascinated by this stuff then fine, let them watch it. I hope it gives great pleasure to watch peope doing nothing for most of the day

FYI we are forced to pay the license because if we own any sort of electronic device that can receive tv or radio signals then we must have a tv licence. If i got rid of my TV i would still need a licence because of my stereo, radio alarm clock and recordable dvd player. Maybe i should get rid of all these and have no sort of entertainment at all. Don't know why i should since the licence only pays for BBC services anyway, which is why i tend to watch generally programmes with a little more interest like the documentarty channels, history, science channels and even the odd politics show. And of course footy for the next 2 weeks

[Detomah]

Originally Posted by Tagred

snipped

Seems to me that you really are becoming a very grumpy old man before your time.