Be it the end of an era or cause for celebration, after 18 years Big Brother is leaving our screens after the 19th series earlier last year. Despite being an initial success when the show first aired on Channel 4, viewings dwindled and even a Channel 5 relaunch couldn’t save the show. The finale last year had just 1 million viewers – Big Brother, Celebrity Big Brother and Big Brothers Bit on The Side are all finished. Perhaps we as a nation, prefer our reality TV filled with slimy creepy crawlies or feisty lovers tiffs, with other reality shows such as I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here and Love Island which boasted 11,86 million and 4.1 million viewers tuning into the finals. There are rumours of Big Brother popping up again on another channel, but perhaps its time to admit the concept is out-dated and uninspiring.
Whether it’s the D-List celebrities or their foul mouths that were the worst thing about the show, many are not sad to see the end of the show. One cannot argue that the show put diversity in the spotlight, but it certainly doesn’t show the best of British. For anyone who has managed to live the last 18 years without Big Brother wasting their time, the show in a nutshell: a group of people, be it the likes of you and me or celebrities (that are barely celebrities), are put together in a house which is monitored 24/7 for three months. A number of challenges come their way and one by one they are evicted, every bit as riveting as it sounds. The key to good TV is of course the entertainment factor, which would see a fair few fiery characters thrown into the house. Big Brother however, has taken this to the next level and almost exclusively selected people that will form levels of unpleasantness and bitterness rarely televised. Add to this a shocking number of racist, sexist and homophobic outbursts and apparently, you’ve got a show worthy of prime time broadcasting. By filming, producing and then airing just a fraction of this, is the show condoning this sort of behaviour? A concept that could be an opportunity to gain insight into the lives of genuinely interesting people, is wasted on poor selections.
“There are exceptions, but the rule is that people are on Big Brother because no one will miss them.” (Holmes, 2013). Ouch, but you see her point.
Tammy Meadows
References: Independent, ITV, Radio Times, Ok
Image: PRESS ASSOCIATION