How Big Brother rose like Lazarus
With 300 crew members, 42 cameras and almost 90 hours of television broadcast each series, there is no TV production quite like Big Brother. Encore managing editor Brooke Hemphill visited the set of the revived reality show to see how it is put together and found the training ground for Australia’s television industry.
Down the dark corridor, lit only by red strip lighting on the floor, thick black curtains cover one-way mirrors. Like a sex peep show, unidentifiable silhouettes peer through gaps in the curtains. “Shhhh. The housemates are over here,” a voice whispers shining a torch in Encore’s direction. We’re in the camera space of the Big Brother house, where up to five camera crew are on shift staffing the 10 fixed cameras rationed between the various rooms. It’s a maze of corridors populated only by the camera team, who work eight hour shifts, and the occasional sticky-beaking reporter.
The housemates are in the purple bedroom and, if not for the mirrored glass, you could reach out and touch them. It’s a rather disconcerting feeling to see people lying in bed or taking a shower as two of the housemates are doing further along the corridor where we pull back the curtains to reveal plenty of naked flesh. This element of voyeurism is at the heart of Big Brother, a reality franchise created by Dutch production company Endemol in the late ‘90s that has since aired in 78 countries. For those unfamiliar with the program, it hinges on a simple premise. For three months, a bunch of strangers are locked away from the outside world with their every move being watched. Each week they complete tasks and are rewarded, or punished, based on how they fare. They nominate their fellow contestants and the public then decides who will leave at the weekly evictions by voting to save their favourites.
The ratings were basically fine but what a boring, odd ‘family friendly’ and somewhat posed series the whole thing appeared to be. I have to disagree about this series harking back to the glory days though. The series was best under executive producer Peter Abbott (who may have had a better budget also). Throughout the current series fans continually called for Friday night games and more meat to the bones of the show. There were other various issues of regional areas not seeing shows at certain times and, frankly, voting seemed problematic all the way through. You are supposed to receive one sms reply for example in any given voting period but many fans raised non-reception of this reply text on the BB FB page and so many didn’t seem to know if their votes were being received or not. Another issue for social media were overseas people initially posting torrent sites for BB and working to encourage fans away from the actual BB website itself. Those people became quite a nuisance and moderation somewhat hit and miss. All in all, this series probably did far better than some initial signs showed but it has a way to go before it can claim to be the ‘best’ BB series shown in Australia.
Best BB since series 1, although budget may not have been as high the pychlogical games played were best by far. Well done SSE.
Yes, well done SSE for making shallow, idiotic, boring voyeurism popular again. We all await a new generation of self absorbed talentless Jersey Shore style ‘celebrities’ filling up our airwaves with their inane drivel.
I couldn’t agree with Jon more.
Is this really the standard that we aspire to? With this budget, crew and equipment almost anything could be achieved and yet we resort to producing content that literally makes people stupid and perpetuates a false ideology for its already impressionable followers.
I am also calling for a ban on advertising this crap, much the same as cigarettes in my mind and if I develop brain cancer due to accidental exposure I will be the first to begin a frivolous law suit.
Wow Davin, all have a right to an opinion but comparing BB to a carcinogen seems a little strong. While I can see why some people may see the program as a tad low brow I don’t think it’s the end of civilization as we know it.
Mixed in with the inane and stupid was some pretty interesting insights. Hardly Harvard thesis quality but all the same the phycological games the producers played made it a consumer-able guilty pleasure for me. I’d like to add, I think the fact the winner was a gay man goes to show how far we’ve come, even better if his proposal helps change a discriminatory law.
Great – loved the mind games! Much more enjoyable you could explore that more.
I like Big Brother. Liked most of the series. Saw the early ones with my kids who learnt about how people act – how they love, lie, deny, betray, procrastinate, steal food, cooperate or not – and they learned all this without having to spend years at an Agency!!!
I suspect those who eschew the show are attempting to tell us something of how they perceive themselves. A sort of snobby upmarket thing. I don’t see them ripping copies of People or Zoo Weekly off shelves or protesting about chewing gum. Or going on about copies of Barbara Cartland novels in their local library.
Low-brow is all about the democratisation of art, giving the “little people” some entertainment, allowing silly shows to be watched without the cerebral rationalisation so beloved by those of little brain.
Drivel? Sure, but don’t say “no deal” because the show THAT catchphrase comes from is also drivel. Part of so much drivel on TV, food slicers, steam cleaners, exercise equipment which conveniently folds to go under the bed (forever?).
I’d invite serious discussion here, since I believe that by becoming a professional, one must give up the silly criticism of the consumer.
Gangnam style. Enjoy it, it’s ephemeral.
(big words above courtesy of private school education)
Great artiсle.