Big Brother 2009 Ratings: US vs. UK

The United States and CBS must be doing something right, as according to guardian.co.uk, “Big Brother” ratings are falling in the UK, but figures are up on “Big Brother 11” in the US. The question that is on many people’s minds now, is why is it up in the US and not in the UK?

In CBS’s “Big Brother 11,” there has supposedly been homophobia, sexism, racist slurs, more than the apparently allowable amount of bullying and at the weekend, there was a houseguest thrown out of the house for her constant childish and irritating behavior.

But that might not be the reason for the ratings increase. There are a lot of differences between “Big Brother US” and Big Brother UK.” In the UK, housemates are not allowed to talk about nominations, apart from the last couple of weeks of course, with the constant rule-breaking.

Meanwhile, the US version focuses very much on nominations. And the public don’t vote for eviction in the US, the houseguests do. Then in the US, there is the Power of Veto and Head of Household. In the UK, there are shopping tasks, which decide how much food budget they get.

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