The third series of Big Brother started over the weekend. This is a godsend for lazy tabloid journalists. All they have to do is sit watching E4 all day and they can print stories about a group of complete nobodies who the public have suddenly become completely interested in. It’s interesting to compare the different approaches that different tabloids take – the Star and the Sport will just be printing as many nude pictures of the women in the house as they can

find, and on the other hand, the Mirror has declared itself the “anti-Big Brother” paper and fills it’s pages with stories of how dire the contestants are. Here at “Wasted Inches” we love Big Brother, but we really can’t see how it should be front page news. Every day. For the next nine weeks.

This seems dated now. It’s hard to believe that Big Brother was ever that popular. It’s been five years since anyone really took any notice of it. Channel Four attempted to put the show out of its misery a couple of years ago, but Channel Five picked it up and has been running it into the ground ever since. As this story says, ten years ago there would be Big Brother stories on the front page of just about every tabloid for the duration of the show. Last summer I don’t remember seeing a single front page story. And I’m embarrassed that I admitted to loving Big Brother. The interest soon wore off. I don’t think I’ve watched an episode since Big Brother 7 in 2006.