How CBS Is Ruining Big Brother

Since the first season of "Big Brother" viewers in the United States have not really been watching the real "Big Brother." American audiences were not receptive, read as low ratings, to the format that had been so successful everywhere else in the world, so US producers made up their own rules. It's become a unique entity, and that's not even getting into oddities like US censorship, editing, and limited viewing or prerecorded broadcasts. "Big Brother" US is its own thing, and it's killing it.

I could get into how incestuous it's become. The only excitement seems to come from having old houseguests return, or having them transplant from and to other CBS reality TV programs. New viewers tend to be turned off by all of this internal continuity faster than a newbie reading an X-Men comic.

There is also the censorship issue. If CBS doesn't want you to see something, and it doesn't happen in the seemingly regulated Showtime late night hours, or you're not subscribed to the paid feed (and even then sometimes), you're just not going to see it. Like the rumors of houseguest Chima threatening to take a dump on the bed - the real ratings-getters never make the grade.

The most infuriating way CBS is ruining "Big Brother" is with their Big Brother Network email subscription service. They apparently don't understand the simply concepts of subject lines, and most importantly, spoilers. I tend to watch my television on DVR, hours, sometimes days later than the original broadcast. More times than I want to admit, I have gotten an email from the BBN with "So-And-So Evicted" in the subject heading. Wtf??

You better straighten up, CBS, I don't know how much longer I'll be hanging around the Big Brother House.