Big Brian

By | June 24, 2011

It sounds like Ultimate Big Brother winner Brian Downling will be hosting the new series of Big Brother on Five and Emma Willis will be hosting BBLB. I think these are very reasonable choices, although it’s a shame Willis hasn’t been given the chance to front the main show.

Jedward are apparently being paid a million quid to do the Celebrity one.

Source: @BBFansC5

Meanwhile, the commentary on C5’s upcoming Silent Library will be provided by Adam Buxton of Adam and Joe fame. The show begins on July 12th at 10pm on 5* (that’s right, not proper Channel 5).

28 thoughts on “Big Brian

  1. Dan Peake

    There’s a sort of justice about the Ultimate Housemate becoming the presenter of BB that I like.

    I imagine he’ll do a good job, although the success of BB doesn’t depend on the host, but the housemates and the format too.

    Reply
    1. Brig Bother Post author

      I’ve seen comments on Twitter suggesting it should be the other way round which I can understand. But Brian is quite funny, and likely to be much more empathetic to housemates I think having been there and done it several times.

      Reply
      1. Alex McMillan

        I reckon if they had been switched around it would’ve been a better fit, Emma seems like she’d be better doing the more serious moments and Brian could be constantly light-hearted on BBLB.

        Reply
    1. Brig Bother Post author

      Well they have been doing a very good show on 6 Music, although it’s doubtful they’ll do much together now Joe’s doing Hollywood type things.

      Reply
      1. Alex McMillan

        I do love their 6 Music show, it’s just a shame such a funny duo haven’t been on tv in so long.

        Reply
    1. Gizensha

      If Channel 4 consider its performance a success we’re going to see a Dragon’s Den style ‘what happened next’ show, aren’t we?

      Reply
  2. Joe

    Did anyone watch Expedition Impossible on ABC last night, a new game show which I would describe as a cross between Total Wipeout and The Amazing Race. It is highly recommended.

    Reply
    1. Brig Bother Post author

      Mmm, I intend on watching it when I get home this evening.

      Edit: Hey! It did better than 101 Ways to Leave a Gameshow. So there we are.

      Reply
      1. Brig Bother Post author

        Hmm, I mean it’s not much like Total Wipeout is it?

        I don’t know, this is normally the sort of thing I quite enjoy but I just couldn’t get into it. I didn’t feel the action-based tasks were all that exciting or revealed things about the contestants and their limitations. The finding water thing was almost a good idea, but it really needed some sort of background explanation I felt, instead we get “there’s water underground,” “why?” “Dunno.” It was a good opportunity for some minor cultural/survival education missed. This said the penalty of sending a team on a wild goose chase for getting the counting challenge wrong is inspired and something TAR should think about. But even so, it was the only real opportunity teams could mess up, there doesn’t seem to be much scope for getting lost or misinterpreting a clue. And Dave Salmoni doesn’t have Phil Koeghan’s (or indeed Grant Bowler’s) presence.

        I’ll watch it again next week to see if it improves, but I’m a bit disappointed.

        Reply
        1. Chris M. Dickson

          OK. It’s definitely not bad, but like Brig said, it’s not great. It just feels… a bit redundant, a bit obviated, a bit seen-it-all-before. It feels a lot less arbitrary than The Amazing Race, as well as a lot more, well, crunchy. I liked the graphics and I’m favourably disposed towards the teams. It does feel like this show is going to be rather more about the race and its associated challenges and rather less of a relationship show than TAR, which should be to my taste. Didn’t like the music much.

          Another way to look at it is that before Survivor, Mark Burnett produced several years’ worth of Eco-Challenge, coverage of an adventure race presented as a sporting event rather than as a game show. This very much has the feel of an adventure race, with (variably) slightly more ordinary contestants and consequently rather less extreme challenges. On balance, I’d rather be watching either The Amazing Race, with all its frustrations and joys, or an adventure race, with all its marvels and attractions. EI is interesting in its own right, but probably not as interesting as either of its parents.

          Reply
    2. Gizensha

      …If you’re description is accurate, I’m almost disappointed. Waste of a title if you ask me – It should be a cross between Now Get Out Of That, The Great Egg Race and The Amazing Race.

      Reply
        1. Gizensha

          Due to the roadblock being used, they’ll have to get an egg to the other side of The Grand Canyon using the materials provided and their own ingenuity without breaking it before they get given their clue to the location of the check in point, which like for the other teams is incased in a steel box sealed with one hundred locks.

          …Too much? At least it wouldn’t have The Drop Zone’s problem of Too Much Hiking.

          Reply
  3. Brekkie

    That’s killed off BB then. Brian Dowling has proved time and time again what a useless presenter he is and it’s never a good idea to have a housemate as a presenter. Brian showed in Ultimate BB he had a very firm idea of what a housemate should be like (himself basically!) and wouldn’t be able to get beyond the comparison in presenting the show.

    Plus the interviews – never mind situations like Nasty Nick and Jade and Shilpa, I don’t think Brian could conduct even the simplest of interviews.

    If they’ve got Emma Willis on board give her the job. Even if she is too much of a mini-Davina, she proved herself on BBLB to be more than capable of the big gig. And talking of BBLB – waste of time bringing that back as it no longer serves it’s purpose.

    Reply
        1. Brig Bother Post author

          That’s interesting, I thought he was fine in it – certainly the idea that the show would collapse without Ant and Dec turned out to be quite wrong.

          Reply
          1. Des Elmes

            It was still much less good without Mr McPartlin and Mr Donnelly, though…

          2. Brig Bother Post author

            I don’t think anyone doubts Ant and Dec were SMTV, but there was a large groundswell of people at the time who suggested it wasn’t that bad immediately post them.

          3. sphil

            indeed it was (and still is) tess daly’s greatest presenting role.
            as a youth of the generation, i really liked the brian dowling days of smtv. it was still eminently enjoyable. after he left, that was, it seems, a bigger death knell than ant and dec’s departure.

            that said the ant dec and cat days were far and away supreme!

      1. Brekkie

        Considering his CV reads “SMTV” and “The Mint” I think that says it all. Fair does he had an impossible task on SM:TV, while I doubt even Ant and Dec could make The Mint watchable, but he is no presenter.

        Although I think any ex-HM is a bad idea as BB host, I wouldn’t go as far to say the fact they were a housemate makes them a bad presenter – I never think of Alison on This Morning as an ex-BB housemate for example.

        Reply
    1. Jon

      Brekkie obviously hasn’t seen Brian Dowling’s Irish TV interview with former US president Bill Clinton.

      Reply

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