Big Brother 8: the lineup - but fewer hopefuls want to emulate them this year.
The "is Big Brother in its death throes?" story is almost as much a part of the series as the oversized diary room chair, whining, and someone getting too drunk and doing something inappropriate with an inanimate object. But this year, we're starting really early, because, according to the Daily Mail, no one's even turning up for the auditions.
If it's true - and I'm sure Endemol would claim it to time of day and judicious camera angles, or, if they were feeling particularly buoyant, that it was low on attendance because everyone was at home watching Big Brother: Celebrity Hijack - then it is certainly worrying news for the producers of the show. After all, they might be able to go on without Dermot, who's leaving the franchise after the current run of Big Brother: Hijackky Thingo, and they may well one day find out if they can do without Davina - who's apparently in talks to move her career Stateside - but they literally can't continue without a healthy stream of pliable extroverts with a desperate need to be on television and nothing to do for three months.
And if it IS true, then perhaps it's time to just stop. The series have, debatably, just got weaker and weaker since, I don't know, series three? The one before the dull one that Cameron won. Of course, many people will say it's ALWAYS been a televisular aberration and should have been left to rot in the drug-addled brain of whichever thicko sick-wit came up with it. But regardless, it's always found an audience; it's always been, to some extent or other, a talking point; and people have, regardless of whether you think they should or not, enjoyed it, watched it, and until now, fallen over themselves to be in it.
There have been very few watercooler conversations focusing on the Big Brother: Celebrity Snorefest, which seems to have turned out to be less fun than a pair of gravel underpants. And then there's the residual bad feeling about last years racism and bullying and frankly dull main series last year. As annoying as you might find Davina and Dermot, their solid presenting presence is pretty much the only thin thread of familiarity holding the show together. So rather than, apparently, waiting around until someone dies in there and they're FORCED to pull it for good - is it not just time for Endemol to stop being so bloodyminded with the bloody Big Brother thing and think of something completely new? Or just, you know, Stop?
