Top five things you hate about big brother?

[Cassyn]

- Unfair "twists" which slants events in one house guests's favor over another. This includes pandora's boxes, america's vote, special magical powers that allow them to over-throw a HOH etc. All of these things just mess with the game and don't allow people to win on their merits.

- The whole voting process. The way it's done, never allows people to vote how they want to vote. People end up voting to evict people based on what the "house" wants, instead of what they personally want for the game. This makes 99% of evicts a foregone conclusion, with only 1 or 2, truly surprising evictions. I feel like the live evictions with julie's lead up to build suspense before each vote is wasted air-space and boring. If I were in the house I'd constantly vote against the house just to create chaos as to whose voting which way and paint suspicion about people's loyalties cause it's just so boring that everyone is afraid to vote for their own interests.

-I hate the HOH thinking they can control who the house votes for -- and house guests who are dumb and vote out HG's to "honor the HOH's wishes.."

-I hate fast-forward weeks. Those evictions feel like blind luck as to which side of the house grabs HOH or POV and there is no real strategizing that can happen which is boring.

- The whole food competition with slop or PBJ as punishments. All this accomplishes is making the house guests get gas/constipated or so lethargic all they do is lay around the house all day.

-Lack of games or things for them to do while they are in the house. Decks of cards, or board games give house guests the perfect chance to talk strategy with each other away from the rest of the house, and also gets them out of bed, so I wish there were more than just Chess or Pool for them.

[Guest 6Borders]

I ONLY get to pick 5?? LMAO!! Pretty much everything Casper just said holds true

1. Returning HG's and people from other "reality tv" shows.

2. Grodner's obvious manipulation of the game: Revolving door weeks & special powers to keep who she wants in the game (which always happen the week one of her "kids" is in danger):

Includes voting...HG's have even talked in the house about DR trying to manipulate the votes before "you are not allowed..." and/or FOtH. Example: A & Nat (the twin switching) had to make it 5 weeks in order for both to be in the house...does anyone really think that would NOT have happened? I remember one danger week for them and somehow the voting came on their side.

Expanding on what Casper said, I agree about the voting with the house. Remember Diane voting out her friend Big Mike? He whispered "why" to her as he was leaving and she said "repercussions"!

America's Vote is a joke...Grodner will pick who she wants no matter how America really votes. It's just another way to make text and $1 voting money. I'm sure if any votes count those do and not the "votefreeatcbs.com" they run together at warp speed.

Pandora's Box is just stupid...like someone is NOT going to open it????

POV - everyone should play or at least be able to individually put their chips in the bag for drawing, OR just let the nominees play for POV.

(I suspect the HG's are under a gag order in their contract NOT to talk about the game or they will be sued...has anyone ever seen the actual contract the HG's sign???)

3. Have-Have Nots and stupid "punishment prizes" (the unitard #1).

Slop may have "all the nutrients..." (another wonderful Grodnerism), but slop, cold showers and bare rooms with cement-like beds does not make people happy and it does not make for good TV. This is Big Brother, not Abu Ghraib.

Groner said she'd be happy to hear about a "replacement"...why doesn't she just go back to letting everyone compete for food as a house. Some days they get more, some days less but it would make happier HG's and better TV.

4. The Jury House: it's just another manipulation of the game. Grodner makes sure her little favs make the jury house. Who knows what really goes on over there. Give us a Jury House cam 24/7 or give up the Jury House idea.

Either everyone should be on jury or they should all just go home, be allowed to watch the tapes and vote for the person who really played the game best (includes lying, cheating and manipulating since those are part of Big Brother).

5. Religion: Sorry for this last one and no means to offend anyone but leave religion and The Bible out of the house. I can't remember exactly how/when BB decided that was the "only reading material allowed" but Alison used the bible to manipulate Nate..she pretended she was all into it and he bought it and it saved her to F2. Remember Nate watching the tape of himself giving POV to Alison and saying "don't do it buddy".

It's nice that BB embraced Gee's and Andrew's beliefs and allowed them time and space to practice their religion and provided for them (avoiding discrimination suits) but that is also discrimination to the other HG's who have given up friends and family and can't bring their favorite book (be it Zane Grey or the book of memories from the last family reunion) into the house. Survivor has had Mormons on and I don't see them wearing "the garment" and Glass House also has a GHG who is Mormon.

[bbjag]

I love this show, in fact it is my favorite show during the summer to watch. But the five things I don't like have to involve Alison "Lazy" Grodner.

1. I don't like that the twists seem to be different versions of other twists we have seen recently. In BB9 we saw Pairs, the twist itself wasn't bad because it was the first time we saw it and it really threw people for a loop. Then in BB11 we saw the Cliques in the game. I thought when I heard it how cool it may turn out to be, but in the end to me it flopped. Those were the first times we saw teams or Duo's in the game which spiced things up a little, but then in BB13 we again saw Duo's only this time we saw six former Houseguests return to play the game and the other Houseguests picked their Duo's. All it was was a redo of BB9 only with some changes. And now it looks like in BB14 we are going to see Teams yet again.

2. Have and Have Nots. I loved this when it began because it was a twist that really screwed with the minds and the heads of the Houseguests, but I hate that we keep seeing it every year. I say it is about time we started seeing something new.

3. The repeating Competitions. Every year we seem to see the same competitions throughout the year. Every year we get the unitard, we get the go and find the name and bring it back to some big talking head, Even the HOH Compeitions that are mind based are the same basic questions, higher or lower, true or false, things like that.

4. The returning Houseguests are getting old. In BB7 we had All-stars, we then didn't have any returning Houseguests until season 11 when we saw Jessie return to play the game yet again. At this my mind was OK, thats kind of cool I didn't like Jessie and wanted another person back in but whatever. I thought doing it the one time was OK, but then we saw it again in BB13, and know we will see it again in BB14. Returning Houseguests are cool if done once every five or so seasons, but every other year is getting ridiculous.

5. Basically I think Alison "Lazy" Grodner needs to leave the show and they need to come up with a better producer for the show. The casting every year I have no problem with because I can always find one player that I root for in the game. But the twists,returning players, competitions, are all being repeated with slight variations to make it look like a brand new twist but in reality it is just a refreshed, recycled twist. Alison "Lazy" Grodner is just not doing this show any favors.

Like i said I love this show, but I think Grodner is leading this show into the ground because she can't come up with a new thing to save her life. When she began on the show, twists were pretty cool, BB4 twist with the ex's was great, BB5 with the Twins, as well as the sister and Brother was pretty cool, BB6 with the relationships and all the Housguests knowing someone else and trying to keep it secret was actually pretty cool, because it has to be hard to keep it a secret that you know someone in the house coming in. BB7 All-Stars was great, no new twists just the returning players all playing together, BB8 with the "enemies" I think really was a cool thing because while people knew each other it was people you probably did not want to see in the house with you. In BB9 we had Jen and her BF which was OK, it seemed the BF did it in order to get Jen in the game, and wasn't all that keen about being there. While the main twists dealt with someone knowing someone else it worked for the most part, but then it seemed all she did we recycle old twists and right now it is starting to get really old. If BB comes back for a BB15, I would love to see either a true All-stars with the first or second ones evicted coming back to compete, or all new Houseguests with a twist that shakes up the game without it being recycled. I wil watch season 14, but at this point I am almost tempted to start a peition asking for Alison Grodner to go.

[TbigbrotherfanW]

- The whole voting process. The way it's done, never allows people to vote how they want to vote. People end up voting to evict people based on what the "house" wants, instead of what they personally want for the game. This makes 99% of evicts a foregone conclusion, with only 1 or 2, truly surprising evictions. I feel like the live evictions with julie's lead up to build suspense before each vote is wasted air-space and boring. If I were in the house I'd constantly vote against the house just to create chaos as to whose voting which way and paint suspicion about people's loyalties cause it's just so boring that everyone is afraid to vote for their own interests.

I think an easy way for people to vote the way they wanted without having it come back on them and keep the mystery out there is for Julie/BB not to announce the # of votes for each player and instead just say who was eliminated. Seems like a pretty easy solution.

[CeCiMom]

Geez... season hasn't even started yet and we're making threads about "hating" BB.

[Cassyn]

Awww... not my intention at all. I was hoping this thread could serve as a umm suggestion thread for any BB producers who might lurk at mortys lol on things that could be improved about the game.

I love the game of big brother, but there are a few things which have over-stayed their welcome and come make the game fresh without drastically changing the game too much.

[weselntxs]

I do not see it as "hating". More as constructive criticism. The PTB should sit up and pay attention to what the fans say. I like the show, but some things need a change.

[CeCiMom]

Oh, I see.

eh-um... producer suggestions;

1.) Alison Grodner... please retire.

2.) No repeat houseguests.

3.) Alison Grodner... please get fired.

4.) Stop the DR from giving away information that alters houseguests decisions in noms, evictions, etc.

5.) Alison Grodner... please, at the very least... stop being so lazy about the game.

[Guest 6Borders]

LG (Lazy Grodner) says they read and listen to the fans but that does not bode true.

I have seen a ton of great suggestions for contests, twists and what people (pretty much consistently) liked and did not/do not like about the game and she never applies or changes any of them that I can see. Most all of the contests and twists the fans suggest would be no more work than the contests they have done over the past several years and probably cost less money.

I remember when Marcellas and what's-her-name had the talk show and they had a "suggest a comp" contest and people called in suggestions. A lot of them were really good and well thought out and I don't recall LG using any of them. I think the "winners" got something from the BB House (like a rubber chicken or something)

Example of other stupid comps: Indoor lockdown while major construction is going on in the backyard. Then the HG's have to run around and find tiles, assemble them to spell "Sheryl Crow In The Backyard". When I saw that one I was thinking gee what if the little hamsters don't find all the tiles and assemble them in time? Do they not get the Sheryl Crow concert??? Like that is going to happen so the outcome of a contest is totally predictable. How nice for the HG's to have this concert but that cost A LOT of money which could have been spent on comps which directly had to do with the big brother game, not promoting and paying some rock star. It's a little too much "product integration" for me.

Unfortunately BB has just become Grodner showcasing celebs and her stable of favs who think they are celebs!!

[Guest 6Borders]

You can't use 'why are you so lazy", "when are you going to retire" and "is Jessie really related to you?" LOL

1. What is the ratio of HG's who actually go to casting calls, submit tapes and are selected for the show vs. the number of people you find somewhere and ask to do the show, and why do you feel the need to select so many people and ask them to do the show? Are there really not enough "interesting and diverse" people who apply?

2. Why do you insist year after year on having HG's back when so many fans clearly want to see all new people? Do you offer certain HG's CBS contracts to do x-number of shows based on how the fans like/dislike them? How much of the decision making is you and how much does CBS just tell you who is going to be on??

3. How is the Big Brother Contract different from other game show contracts?

4. How do CBS/BB protect & help HG's who receive threats (ie Shelly, Matt...) because of their actions on the show? Does CBS provide legal assistance for them?

5. Why do you not use fan suggestions for comps & twists (there are some good ones)? Is there a legal reason and you are afraid these people will ask for money if their idea is used?

[uvp]

1. Finale: BB needs a proper wrap up show (a la survivor). The voting for the winner and announcing the winner should happen in the first hour not to the very end so we can get more and in-depth cast reaction to it and the entire season.

2. Showmance/Romance: Way too much tv time is given to these showmance. If you are looking for love go try out for the bachelor/bachelorette . I hate seeing players basically take themselves out of the game to pursue a showmance.

3. West Coast: their sleep schedule isn't affected and they can stay up all night and watch all the late night fights. Not the case for us living on the east coast.

4. Returning hg's: if casting does their job there would be no need for returning hg's.

5. America choice/ producers choice twist: Twist that are meant to change the direction the game is going since either America or the producers aren't liking the way things are heading.

[TwinCity]

Why do you keep bringing people back when the majority of fans do NOT want to see these folks back in the house?

[Guest 6Borders]

3. West Coast: their sleep schedule isn't affected and they can stay up all night and watch all the late night fights. Not the case for us living on the east coast.

That's an excellent point but a tough call and it kind of goes both ways:

* West knows what happens (you can't participate in chat or anything w/out knowing) before the show airs here

* West often has to wait until noon or past before anything happens on the feeds because the HG's have been sleeping in more and more, so we don't benefit anything from morning TV. If they are up early for a comp it's FOtH.

* Late nights can go either way. Since "Dick at Night" not much has been very entertaining (unless you enjoy watching people play pool). We very often have to stay up until 2-3am West Coast time to catch any strategy.

*BBAD: it's a shame CBS/BB can't take some of the "stupid money" they spend (paying past HG's to come back, "mentor", expensive sets when they could be don't cheaper", concerts & celebs) and have BBAD cover all times zones. I don't know how CBS and Sho2 benefit each other but more people would buy East Coast TV feeds at least for the summer.

*One thing which has been corrected; East used to have to wait until West saw the show before the feeds came back on, which was totally unfair to the East live feeders.

[Cassyn]

While I personally do not like seeing these people back on the show, I think it would be unfair to assume that our opinion represents the majority.

I am a gamer, and interact quite regularly with that community (when not fulfilling my bb obsession) and one of the things the community managers constantly tell us when making response to the public (they serve as the go between between the game developers and the fans of the game) is that it is dangerous to assume we're the majority, when at times, the people vocally responding about how much they don't like something, winds up being the "vocal minority". In terms of, they don't like something, they post about it, others who agree with them, also post about it, so there is this perception that EVERYONE feels this way.

The fact of the matter is, I doubt everyone feels the way we do about it. BB is famous for creating heros and villians and there are many people whom do want to see these people again. Taking a step back from the house-guests you don't like, think about house guests you have liked, and the ways in which their game play is constantly compared to people's "favorites". Quite a lot of the -fans- of the show, don't let house-guests die once the show is over.

Think about how obsessed fans get in the down time between seasons looking for gossip or dirt on past house guests {Note: Not everyone does this, but there are some}. Think about how people follow Jeff and Jordan around. Think about how people make comparissons from past house guests to current house-guests, and how there is this desire for some people to be able to compare them.

These are just examples off the top of my head, I don't have the true metrics on what went into this decision making process for the producers/or whom heads up the creative direction of the show. My point is only, that just because -WE- haven't asked for returning house guests, does NOT mean that others have not.

There were a bunch of people who hated last season, but there were just as many who LOVED watching the vets run circles around the newbies, and relishing how "dumb" the newbies were. There is a market there for that type of entertainment.

[Guest 6Borders]

Like Casper, I am more interested in the "behind the scenes" stuff. I would love to see a contract, be a fly on the wall when they are discussing potential houseguests around Grodner's round-table, who really has the decision-making powers....all that good stuff!

[Cassyn]

My guess is only the house-guests who return and are paid a greater amount of money for returning have different contracts. Most if not all other contracts I believe would be standard non-disclosure about production, you sign your life away and agree not to sue for us using the footage you agreed to be part of, kind of stuff.

One hint or clue that I think would reveal a lot about what goes into the contract was actually something I saw on Dan BB10's website about how to get on reality TV. He went over only 3 of the 3 page terms/eligibility requirements for getting on big brother which I think gave some clues about what is probably in the real contract, in that you have to be 21 or over when you apply, you have to be a US citizen, you can not be running for any type of political office.

My guess is the real contracts probably make them agree to a lot of those type of terms .. so that they have grounds to remove someone from the house if they later find out some stuff they don't like about a house-guest re: how american idol has kicked people off their show.

[Auroradawn]

1. One main thing: Grodner's obsession with Jessie, the brainless, muscle wonder.

2. Grodner's belief in the appeal of bringing back past hg to the game.

3. stupid, meaningless twists that have no effect on the game whatsoever

4. Rachel's annoying laugh

5. Showmances (eichh) just distract the viewers (and those hg involved) from what's actually going on in the house. We've seen far too many of them.

[MarkJ801]

1. Returning Houseguests

2. Returning Houseguests

3. Returning Houseguests

4. Returning Houseguests

5. Returning Houseguests

[TempletonPeck]

1. Julie Chen. In my opinion she is pretty terrible and not even really needed. Heck I like the voice from The Glass House better. The interviews she does are boring and just time fillers really as nothing interesting ever seems to get said. I wish they'd just cut her right out and use the announcer voice and really streamline the voting shows.

2. The predictability of the game now. They reuse competitions and ideas over and over (as well as houseguests at times). The problem is for the vast majority of what will happen in the house, everyone going in already knows what lays ahead. They all sit around practicing for competitions and it's quite boring. Having some legitimate new competitions and ideas would really liven things up I think.

3. FOTH. The live feeds cut away way too much. I know there are reasons, but it just happens way too much.

4. Alliances and house divides. I wish there was a way to make people play more as individuals. When the house gets split in half there becomes such a predictability of what can/will happen and if the players you like are on the wrong side, well you are really out of luck.

5. Fast Forwards. It really takes something away from the game I think, plus the houseguest predict when it's coming and know all about it now.

[bbjag]

1. Finale: BB needs a proper wrap up show (a la survivor). The voting for the winner and announcing the winner should happen in the first hour not to the very end so we can get more and in-depth cast reaction to it and the entire season.

2. Showmance/Romance: Way too much tv time is given to these showmance. If you are looking for love go try out for the bachelor/bachelorette . I hate seeing players basically take themselves out of the game to pursue a showmance.

3. West Coast: their sleep schedule isn't affected and they can stay up all night and watch all the late night fights. Not the case for us living on the east coast.

4. Returning hg's: if casting does their job there would be no need for returning hg's.

5. America choice/ producers choice twist: Twist that are meant to change the direction the game is going since either America or the producers aren't liking the way things are heading.

I also would love to see them change the Finale up or at least make it two hours long. My opinion is when the Houseguests leave the house at the end after the winner is announced they should let the winner and the runner up sit with the other Houseguests for the season and go through what happened, and things like that almost like a reunion portion where they can see clips from the season as well as maybe some diary rooms and ask about them some. Right now the ending seems a bit anticlimatic.

As for West Coast I think I can say the same thing about the East Coast as well. Living on the West Coast I have to stay away from the feeds and the internet sites on eviction night so I can see what happens from the show. I find watching the show rather pointless if I already now what happens so I like to see the show and then go on the feeds or what not. At the same time the majority of the time when I go to the live feeds right after the show ended if the HOH Comp is an endurance comp I find the comp already over and the Houseguests inside talking about it, or it is almost over and i have to wait until the next episode to find out what happened. For me I think I would like the eviction show to be a truly live show, and possibly make it at 7PM West Coast time and 10PM East Coast time and that way the feeds open right away after for everyone and no one has to miss some of the HOH endurance comps or anything like that right after the live show.

[Cassyn]

Wow, I never even really thought about the Finale issue before. But yeah I agree it's a bunch of lead up.. and then right at the end it's just her showing the keys, confetti .. and then nothing. Last season for example, adam was sooooooooooo mad .. and it would of been good to hear some of that anger/drama about what happened. I think they did do this format for like the first season, as I seem to remember Mike Boogie proposing to Krista lol but yeah..

RE: Showmances, sometimes I want to see them, sometimes I don't. For me it kind of depends on the people involved and how much their relationship effects the game play or not. I don't really like the weird/clearly fake ones, but the ones where people genuinely find love or a best friend, and get so wrapped up they forget they are there for the competition, for me is actually interesting. Because on one hand if someone "does someone wrong" and uses someone .. it's like BURRRN .. and you feel sort of bad for the person. On the other hand, when people get so attached to someone they have only known a month or two .. and forget about whatever family, friends, boyfriends/girlfriends they have on the outside.. it's curious to me. That interesting dilema between choosing between game and friendship.. choosing between people on the outside vs people on the inside.

Am having flash backs of Kalia saying over and over again she wasn't playing Danielle's game, even though she clearly was. That to me is part of why I watch the show. It's the ultimate psychological experiment.

[Guest 6Borders]

What I most hate is that this season is pretty much a given: Janelle and her mentee will win

(I would bet Grodner pretty much promised her the win in order to get her to do the show!)

[bbjag]

What I most hate is that this season is pretty much a given: Janelle and her mentee will win

(I would bet Grodner pretty much promised her the win in order to get her to do the show!)

This is where this could come to bite Grodner in the Butt. If one Houseguest comes out of the house and even claims that the show was rigged and the returning Houseguests were told what to do by Grodner, it could get ugly for Big Brother. First of all someone could file a complaint with the FCC saying that they rigged the game. While reality shows for the most part are staged none of it ever should affect the outcome of the game. This has never come out before (From a former Houseguest) that Grodner rigs the game, but if it does now it will spell the end of a career for Grodner in the reality business and possibly in the entertainment business as a whole.

[Cassyn]

This is where this could come to bite Grodner in the Butt. If one Houseguest comes out of the house and even claims that the show was rigged and the returning Houseguests were told what to do by Grodner, it could get ugly for Big Brother. First of all someone could file a complaint with the FCC saying that they rigged the game. While reality shows for the most part are staged none of it ever should affect the outcome of the game. This has never come out before (From a former Houseguest) that Grodner rigs the game, but if it does now it will spell the end of a career for Grodner in the reality business and possibly in the entertainment business as a whole.

No house guest has ever said the game is rigged. But house guests have said that they do influence the game through the diary-room, and many of their competitions are suspect. Where-by they are slanted heavily in one house guests favor or another. Of course the arguments in favor of them controlling it, is the whole of season 9 lol (what a train-wreck that season was), No ... I don't think they out-right control the entire game, there is a lot which is left up to chance.

What I do think is they 1) ask very leading questions to get people thinking about stuff they've forgotten about/stopped caring about while in the diaryroom/perhaps make someone think someone is more of a threat to them then they are. 2) I think they pick comps to favor specific contestants history ... lastly in recent years when a certain house guest was in danger of going home, they have these special "powers" via america's choice, or pandora's box which come off as the MOST suspect/outside influence.

[nyse]

They sign confidentiality agreements.. We all know this show is rigged and they know we know, I don't care what interviews the producers do swearing it isn't... The houseguests can't speak in public about it, that is why it has not come out before.

Matt season 12 was asked about Pretzelgate and he said something about not wanting to get sued.