Although somewhat off-topic, the return of the UK series of Big Brother has, generally, always made the front page of this blog. My love for host and Television’s greatest woman, Davina McCall, will indulge in her hilarious banter and on-stage-antics for one final year; after 11 years, Big Brother is packing it all in and calling it a night.

This move was put into action here in Australia back in 2008, when the final series made an absolute mockery out of the previous seven seasons of the show by firing long-time host (and our answer to Davina) Gretel Killeen, and replacing her with Kyle Sandilands and Jackie O, the latter whose previous work on reality television programs such as Australian Princess and Popstars was about as exciting and thundering as a bowl of cat food. The move to hire Kyle and Jackie was put into place in a last-minute ditch attempt to ’save’ the show, which had already been suffering from a ratings dive before the new hosts were put into place.

Is the decision to axe the UK leg of the show a wise one? Perhaps. In fact, it feels like it’s been a long-time coming. The move comes after average ratings and, more to the point, boring housemates over the last two years. I’ve stuck through it though. Unlike the Australian series which often had nothing more than Gretel to offer the viewer in the form of entertainment, the UK series was never dull. Yes, housemates might be boring, but the situations are always ball-tearingly good. From the arguments, racial rows, sex on television – it’s been a bumpy – and worthy – ride.  I’ve scoured the Internet for days in the lead-up to each series, finding out where I’ll be downloading the daily shows from, reading The Sun Online for gossip; it envelopes me still. And while I’m happy to admit the show hasn’t been anywhere near as exciting as it once was, I’ll still watch it with my eyes glued to the television, and still whimper with excitement as the countdown to Day 1 begins. Which is certainly a lot more than I can say for the Australian series, which I removed myself from towards the end of Season 7.

But when did peoples fascination with the lives of others come to a halt, enough to see the axing of a show many are used to having as a regular staple to their year?

To be honest it never really did. That interest is still there; the Big Brother theory just evolved into social networking sites. In an age with Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and Formspring, there is nothing left to the imagination – peoples lives are an open book, part of the thrill behind something like Big Brother was that you were watching it to view members of various socio-economic circles gathered in a glass box with mayhem and chaos. But there’s only so much you can learn after 10 years of the same old shit, isn’t there? And it’s much more exciting to know the ins and outs of people you already know, whether that be really well or barely at all.

That embedded video above is the current promo advert being aired in the UK in the lead up to the final series. It’s an exciting send-off, one that prompted this somewhat lengthy post.

Viva la UK Big Brother.