Actually, Big Brother was an interesting show when it started. The first two years were well handled and very revealing about UK society. It was during the third year when it started having an air of Big Brother gets evil, or "we'll put the housemates through anything for ratings".
By the way, I'm American and I've lived in the UK for 15 years. I don't miss American TV at all. The good US shows, thank goodness, are shown over here. (I loved "the Comeback.") I don't miss commericals every 5 minutes, endless cop shows, game shows, comedies, and mini series. What I disliked most about American TV was no arts programmes (aside from those few on public broadcasting)
and few documentaries (aside from those on public broadcasting and cable channels) and no programmes at all from other countries (except for a few British programmes on PBS ).