Actually the social experiment side of things was quite fascinating really. yes you are sat in your house watching people in a house but it was how those people interacted with generally nothing to do all day and having to complete things to get basics like food and drink if they worked together. Divisions and factions appearing and all that were really good to watch - though I suspect the editing tetam done a good job on that.
The problem that happens with this is peoples craving to become a celebrity or to be 'known' so they become more outlandish at auditions and the people who cast them are chasing the ratings so think these freak shows will boost their ratings so the whole concept gets dumbed down by its own success.
You are spot on. I found the first couple of series interesting, as the people on them were, by and large, not really aware of the show, what it was about and how it would be received.
The soical experiment aspect was far stronger originally, but after the roaring success of the second series, with its extensive coverage in the wider media, the series began to attract the attention seekers, the wannabes and the desperate.
Add to this the already mentioned fact of the producers deliberately selecting more and more outlandish characters* in order to create conflict and the dynamics changed so much that my interest disappeared quite rapidly.
* There were some contestants in various series who appeared totally off the wall in their auditions but must have been a sad disappointment when they actually got into the house!
Unfortunately, I did catch a few minutes of the latest dross the other night. The only person I knew was Julie Goodyear. I'm not sure if this is more of a reflection on my not being up to date with the latest so called 'celebrities', or the fact that they aren't really celebrities at all, and I;m pretty sure I don't care that much either way!
)
