I agree. Long gone are the days when reality shows last 10-12 weeks. DWTS and Idol’s Top 12 are a good example of this. They used to ve 12 weeks long, now they’re like 7 weeks long.
Big Brother might be the same? Maybe ever shorter to start off with?
Perhaps the licence fee and costs of set up of house etc can’t be justified for a 6 week show- which is why it might have to run for 10 weeks
if Channel 10 want Big Brother Australia to be a success with its third reboot they really should be looking at what ITV has done with big brother UK The CBB UK series was fantastic
Every BBUK fan though agrees six weeks is just too short. Ten has an opportunity to correct that mistake and 8-10 weeks would still be shorter than all the previous live series. MAFS, The Block and Masterchef all manage fine airing over a similatcperiod of time.
Alright, let’s get into this. First off, I respect the passion here as you’re clearly a die-hard fan, and I get where you’re coming from. But honestly? I think you’re romanticising the past a bit too much. Here’s why.
The 10-week season argument feels super out of touch with 2025 TV realities.
10 isn’t going to gamble three months of prime-time real estate on a show that’s been tarnished by Seven’s flop version.
The UK revival proved you don’t need 85 days to make it work. Six weeks of BBITV gave us legit drama, real convos about race and class, and a cast that actually bonded (and clashed) without feeling rushed. Why? Because they cut the filler! No one needs 10 weeks of HMs sunbathing and doing dishes just to “let things breathe.”
And Uncut? Look, I watched the OG seasons too and yes, it was messy fun, but let’s not pretend it’s the magic ingredient.
In 2025, Twitter/TikTok are the live feeds. No one’s sitting through grainy 24/7 streams anymore — they’re scrolling highlights on their phone while watching the main show. ITV’s revival thrived without it by focusing on raw moments in the edit. Uncut’s a nostalgia play, not a necessity.
You’re right about casting and I think ITV nailed that. But acting like 10 weeks of “authenticity” would magically fix everything? Nah. Seven’s pre-recorded mess failed because it felt fake, not because it was short. The UK’s 6-week run worked because the cast was great and it didn’t overstay its welcome. It’s about quality, not quantity.
And let’s talk about risk. You say 10 should “go all in” but the network’s broke. They’re not gonna greenlight a 10-week gamble when other more economically cheaper gambles have not paid off. The UK revival’s success wasn’t about replicating 2001, it was about making it relevant for a 2025 viewing audience without losing the soul. Live noms? Yes. Public votes? Absolutely. But a quirky Big Brother voice? Fine, whatever, it didn’t “ruin the authority,” it just made it feel less like a dystopian robot.
Bottom line: The show doesn’t need to be a time capsule. The world’s moved on. A tighter, smarter, shorter season with a killer cast and live elements is the sweet spot. Nostalgia’s a tool, not a blueprint.
(Also, Millennials might be nostalgic, but everyone’s time poor and 100 days of feeds only appeals to super die hard fans)
Let’s agree to disagree, but 6 weeks is fine.
IMO you’re missing the whole of what he’s trying to say…
To say 6 weeks is enough and that a ten week series doesnt match the TV landscape says to me that you are not well knowedged on the topic and are not exposed to various other RTV formats. Big Brother US as run for no shorter than 82 days for over a decade now.
Your point just doesn’t make sense when shows like Masterchef, Survivor, The Block and especially MAFs all running for 9-13 weeks and they enjoy success individually. Big Brother UK starts off well but by week 3/4 the storylines are too rushed and it’s time for reflections and conclusion. Big Brother needs time. Its all about trusting the process.
If a network Ten wanted a show they could fast track and overproduce to fit “younger and modern” audiences, then Big Brother is not that show. And Ten knows that too.
Absolutely. BBUK now ends just as it’s getting interesting - the format needs a minimum of 8 weeks. BB Canada was only 10 weeks most series (actually 9 weeks and 1 day) so never outstayed it’s welcome.
As you say most the flagship Aussie formats are still 2-3 months on air - it’s only the newer or no longer as successful formats that have been cut down significantly. And if it does flop Ten just bump it to 8.40pm and dig out the repeats of The Dog House.
Alright — let’s be real here.
Saying a 10-week season is “out of touch with 2025 TV realities” is wild when every successful Aussie reality format still runs for 9–13 weeks. The Block, MAFS, MasterChef, Survivor — all still on air, all still long-form. So if we’re calling Big Brother the one show that can’t sustain itself past six weeks, maybe the issue isn’t the format. Maybe it’s the people mismanaging it.
And this idea that longer seasons mean “watching housemates do dishes”? That’s exactly what made the original series work. You know what happened when the first housemates went in? They genuinely thought no one would be watching the mundane stuff. Guess what? We were. And we loved it. Because the beauty of Big Brother was never in “cutting the filler.” The filler was the show. That’s where the real moments lived.
As others already said (so I won’t rehash it too much), the UK revival’s biggest critique wasn’t “too slow” — it was too short. Storylines barely had time to land before it was over. Social feeds are full of people begging for a longer season next time. So if we’re using ITV as a gold standard, maybe look past the PR spin and into what actual fans are asking for.
And on Uncut — no, Twitter and TikTok are not the live feeds. That’s just media shorthand people use when they don’t want to admit there’s still value in longform. No one’s saying everyone watches feeds 24/7. But someone does — and they pull the gold. That’s how moments go viral. That’s why BBUS still trends. That’s why BBCAN flopped the second they tried to replace live feeds with Digital Dailies. (Spoiler: they’re on hiatus.)
Now let’s talk about Ten being broke. First of all, Seven asked for a payment delay before their first season was even filmed. So spare me the “networks can’t afford this” argument — they’ve never been able to afford it. The question isn’t whether BB is risky. It’s whether Ten wants to rebuild long-term brand value or just churn out another forgettable format with a six-week expiry date.
And if the concern is “people don’t have time” — cool, then don’t watch. But BB was never for the passive viewer scrolling through three shows at once. It was a commitment show. That’s why it mattered. If you don’t give people time to attach, they don’t care who wins. Or who leaves. Or who kisses who. It just becomes noise.
You say I’m romanticising the past. I say you’re underestimating the format. What I’m calling for isn’t a time capsule — it’s a show that trusts its own structure and doesn’t trip over itself trying to be trendy.
If anything, letting Big Brother be Big Brother in 2025 would be the boldest move Ten could make.
The “mundane” stuff was some of the best moments. when the housemates forget they were on camera and opened up to each other. those late-night chats were some of the most riveting parts of BB, and being able to watch it live was just chefs kiss
TV in Australia hasn’t had too many shows where you need to watch live or you really felt you were missing out. Those things that become the cultural zeitgeist. BB supplied a few of these. Sara Marie’s Bum Dance. Merilin’s Free Th Refugees protest, Farmer Dave comes out.
if this season is done properly there’s no reason why the same thing can’t happen. and there’s more opportunities for revenue now. Paid streams is the main one, but brand integration as well. It’s all gotten so much better in the last decade.
Yes! Thank you — this is exactly what I’ve been trying to get across.
Those “nothing” moments were the show. That’s when people stopped performing and started being human. That’s what made Big Brother addictive — not the task, not the format tweaks, but the weird, quiet tension of watching something real unfold in its own time.
And you’re spot on about the zeitgeist stuff. Those moments — Merlin, Sara-Marie, Farmer Dave — they landed because the show gave them space. Not because they were manufactured. Just honest reactions, in real time.
And here’s the thing — not everyone has time to sit and watch the live feeds 24/7. But someone does. And if you let them clip, share, meme, and spread it? Everyone else stays in the loop. That’s how buzz works now. That’s the new watercooler.
But networks need to stop strangling that at the source. ITV kills their own momentum by locking everything down. They act like the audience is the threat. Ten can’t afford to do the same. If they want people to care, they need to let them engage — on their own terms.
Let the feeds breathe. Let the content spread. That’s how you rebuild something real
I completely agree. Viewing habits are moving towards people wanting short and sharp seasons of shows.
This is a silly comparison. Big Brother US airs 3 episodes a week. So 2-3 days of footage are cut into single episodes. So it is not the same. It is also a completely different strategic show, where there is more content to show that focuses on gameplay.
All these shows started smaller and expanded once they had built up an audience (with the exception of Survivor but that is only a 24-episode season). Masterchef has even shortened it’s seasons by 3 weeks the last 3 years.
Big Brother airing 6 nights a week for 10 weeks would mean at least 60 episodes a season. That is more than any of these shows and doesn’t even include all the additional shows like nominations, evictions etc that may run above daily shows. It is expecting a lot from the viewer and I think in today’s landscape that might be enough to put people off. It’s not the heyday where people would fully immerse themselves in a show like this, reality shows have been flogged to death since.
Ultimately this format has been done som many times that the new version is a risk - it may work but it also may not. 6-7 weeks is the maximum they should be going for IMO as it’s working in the UK.
Let’s be real: the show’s length was never the issue.
Nine’s version didn’t flop because it was too long — it flopped because it was watered-down and disconnected. No live feeds. No sense of immediacy. And the so-called “live feed replacement” on Twitter? It was barely maintained and gave fans nothing to actually engage with. You can’t build buzz if production won’t meet the audience halfway.
And let’s not rewrite history — Ten’s final season in 2008 pulled 0.86 million and was labelled a failure, but that number would be a win now. The next lowest in that era still cleared a million. People didn’t walk away because it was 10 weeks. They walked away because the show stopped being worth their time.
And yeah — let’s talk about filler. The Ten era didn’t collapse because it was too long. It collapsed because it ran out of ideas. Too many pointless stunts, too much air to fill with nothing. The length didn’t hurt it — the quality did.
2001 didn’t start small. It went full-throttle from day one. Not because they were padding a schedule, but because they trusted people would watch — and they were right. That’s what’s missing now. Not tighter edits. Not shorter runs. Just trust in the format and the audience.
And this BBUS example? Let’s be honest: that show survives on the live feeds. It’s a 24/7 commitment for fans — and they’re still showing up. That’s not casual viewing. That’s investment. Meanwhile, BBCAN tried to swap feeds for edited Digital Dailies and the whole thing tanked. Ratings dropped. Engagement collapsed. Now they’re on hiatus. Wonder why.
The audience isn’t asking for less. They’re asking for something real — and they’re not going to get it in six weeks of fast edits and stunt casting.
I just hope they take the focus off the games every night. There can be twists and turns and challenges without survivor style games every night. The channel 7 formula was. catch up on events, survivor challenge, nominations talk, nominations and eviction. was so formulaic and boring.
This is exactly where Big Brother lost its way — when production started thinking it knew better than the fans.
Kris Noble couldn’t stand the critical fanbase. Once he took over, the shift wasn’t just creative — it was cultural. More stunts. Shallow casting. A show that felt more like it was playing dress-up than doing the work. And when the fanbase pushed back? BehindBigBrother was taken down. That wasn’t about moderation — that was about control.
It’s the same thing we’re seeing with ITV now. They’re keeping the content locked up, shrinking the runtime, and acting like we should be grateful. Like they’re doing us a favour by not making us watch too much. As if the audience isn’t capable of investing anymore.
But let’s be honest — people binge entire series on Netflix in a weekend. Multiple seasons. They’ll watch 10 hours in one sitting. Not because it’s short — but because it’s good. Because the quality’s there. People don’t have short attention spans. They just don’t waste them on things that aren’t worth the time.
Big Brother didn’t start with half-measures. It didn’t assume the audience needed training wheels. It assumed people would show up — and they did. Because it was different. Because it was real. And because it was worth it.
This isn’t about modernising. It’s about respecting the viewer. The same viewers who stuck around when the networks didn’t.
It wasn’t the length that lost people. It was the quality. It was the arrogance. It was the contempt.
It didn’t need to start small in 2001 because it was an exciting new concept (as was reality TV at that point in time). That’s not the case anymore. People have seen it all before. They are going to have to do a lot to hype it up to viewers, especially to try and lure new young viewers who are used to bingeing things.
That still doesn’t change the fact that it only airs 3 episode’s on TV per week. Our version is going to be 6 or more by the looks of it. They really are completely different shows and formats, so the comparison is kind of pointless IMO.
You are clearly a Big Brother super fan that is wanting to defend it going back to it’s roots, which is fine. I’m just looking at it from the perspective of the everyday viewer and what I think will work in 2025. In my view, that’s by keeping a close to original format but speeding it up. Time will tell if whatever direction they take works or not.
You say Big Brother didn’t need to start small in 2001 because it was a new concept. Sure — but what you’re missing is that it wasn’t just new, it was innovative. And guess what? It still can be. Not by reinventing itself — but by returning to what made it different in the first place.
It’s been 20 years since we’ve seen the real version of this show. Not the edited-to-hell competition model. Not the influencer casting reel. The real thing. And in a landscape now saturated with manufactured drama and scripted “reality,” doing Big Brother properly — stripped, slow, real — would feel just as innovative now as it did back then.
You mention young audiences being used to bingeing content. Great — so give them something binge-worthy. People aren’t put off by time. They’re put off by low effort. They’ll sit through 50 hours of a K-drama if it’s good. They’ll watch seven seasons of a niche show on Stan if it hooks them. So no — it’s not about “speeding things up.” It’s about giving people a reason to care.
As for BBUS — again, this isn’t about episode count. Of course it only airs three times a week. That’s how American prime time works. What matters is that it still runs 80–100 days, and it’s fueled by live feeds. That’s what makes it Big Brother. It’s not about daily eps — it’s about ongoing access. The comparison holds because both shows understand the format needs time. The feeds aren’t a bonus. They’re the spine.
You say you’re looking at it from the perspective of the everyday viewer. Fair. But I’d argue what the “everyday viewer” actually wants is something authentic. Not compressed. Not manufactured. Not another reality show built around production notes. And I say that as someone who’s spent two decades watching this show rise and fall, learning not just from what worked — but from what got lost along the way.
This isn’t just about nostalgia. It’s about potential.
And right now, doing Big Brother properly — trusting the format, giving it time, casting real people — would stand out more than any twist or cosmetic revamp ever could.
So many em dashes and repetition. Sounds to me like you are putting these arguments through AI because you can’t be effed actually responding to legitimate criticism of your article which you’ve put into quite a few TV forums for comment.
I think we all want the show to succeed and I for one am happy 10 are giving it a proper go, but you are deluding yourself if you think everything about the 2001 version if implemented properly in 2025 will ensure a mega hit. TV and viewing habits are simply vastly different.
Thoughts are my own — and would you rather I substitute the dashes for ellipses? I can.
Ah, yes. The classic “too many em dashes, must be AI” rebuttal. You cracked the case. Never mind that none of the actual arguments are AI-generated. I’m a scatterbrained human being who uses a writing tool to polish, structure, and make sure my thoughts don’t come out as incoherent nonsense. Shocking, I know. Not everyone writes like a press release or a troll post typed with one hand. There are no six-fingered hands here, champ.
And about the repetition. Maybe if the same tired, one-note arguments weren’t getting thrown at me every other reply, I’d have something new to respond to. You lot keep shouting “TV is different now” like it’s some mic drop. We know. It’s been different for years. That’s not the point.
Also, I’ve never said Ten should photocopy 2001. What I’ve said is they need to carry forward the DNA of what made the show work. Every revival that’s tried to modernise it by stripping out the core structure has failed. Every. Single. One.
BBUS worked because they took the time to understand what they were adapting. They didn’t just slap Survivor mechanics on it and pray for the best. They kept the feeds. They kept the audience engagement. They kept the core idea intact. In a lot of ways, it’s more Big Brother now than most of the “modernised” versions we’ve seen elsewhere.
And as for the forums comment — I’ve shared the article in a handful of relevant places. That’s not spamming. That’s basic distribution. I’m not a teenager pushing a fanfic. I’m someone who gave a damn and wanted it to reach the right people. And apparently it did, because 183 reads on a first-time post with no promo isn’t too shabby.
So if your biggest gripe is punctuation and the fact I care enough to structure an argument, I’d say that says more about you than me.