Did Big Brother Australia become Room 101?
I am a self confessed lover of Big Brother. It took me severals seasons to get into the show, and during those first few seasons, if asked, I vociferously denounced it as debased, lowering the standards of television in Australia. And yet I hadn’t even watched it at that stage. And if truth be told, if one didn’t want to, one didn’t even have to watch the late shows thereby eliminating any exposure to the sexual exploits that occurred when twenty young men and women were confined in a small enclosure with nothing much to do.
And that (the eye on the small enclosure) is what eventually got me interested. I liked watching the psychological aspect of the show. How people acted and reacted to situations under a microscope. The fact that it was a controlled environment rather than simply an eye in someone’s home (now that would be boring) made it even more interesting because BB forced their reactions and emotions. He didn’t force them to have those emotions, but he forced them to respond, due to lack of other stimuli, to given situations. Situations he set up.
For anyone who has read Nineteen Eighty-Four there have been moments (apart from the obvious 24 hour watch and Big Brother himself) that have, I think quite cleverly, made a nod to George Orwell’s masterpiece. Just this season the ‘hand grenade’ diverted focus from the evictee to another (a Housemate) thereby diverting punishment and, taking it a step further, allowing the originator to be free. Then there was the ‘game’ on Friday Night Live where Housemates heads were lowered into a tank of rats. Both nods to the climactic sequence of events in Room 101.
But these clever moments aside, did BB jump the shark? And if so, what was the defining moment? The infamous turkey slap incident? The stereotypical personalities in the House? HMs knowing how to ‘play the game’? Gretel becoming available to industry? The complete format change this year?
I suspect it is a combination of several of those so there isn’t really a defining moment. The turkey-slap incident simply confirmed to BB haters that it was a vile and lewd program that should be removed from the airwaves, putting the program once again in the news for an act that didn’t really define what the show was all about. But there were plenty who thought it did. And whilst Gretel’s leaving opened up the format change and change of hosts, and seemed like a new beginning, it was in fact the beginning of the end. Kyle and Jackie O didn’t have a prayer’s hope of pulling it off. Love her, or hate her, Gretel she was switched on… to the HMs, to what the viewers wanted, and to the fans. Something Kyle and Jackie O are not.
And here’s the rub. Fans are fickle. We ended up hating Gretel last year because of her favouritism. But we wanted her to stay. And we certainly didn’t want Kyle and Jackie O, whose touch in any television show is almost instant death, even before they hosted BB. (Yes, I am conveniently putting Australian Idol and Kyle’s involvement to one side because that show’s success doesn’t depend on him, whereas BB Eviction largely did).
But here’s the bigger twist. I love BB the show, and BB himself. I love the manipulation and his dialogue with Housemates. He is funny, he is mean… he is strict. I love that he is strict. But this year BB eased up, just a bit. And I didn’t like it because they got away with murder. And yet…
This year, for the first time ever, I thought it went too far. HMs were heaved into an emotional morass on more than one occasion and several times I truly felt uncomfortable watching their raw emotion. And all the more so knowing that it was forced upon them. BB truly got inside them and manipulated their reactions to the extreme. He forced them to lay aside their masks and be reminded of their own faults, failings, fears, all for the scrutiny of the public - because there is no mask they can safely wear in the House. Big Brother CAN control you as a HM no matter what barriers you put up. Because eventually he can get to you. That is what Big Brother is about. And that is what George Orwell was about. And it reminds the viewer, uncomfortably, of that totalitarian state - that state where we really don’t want to go. And here’s the irony. In previous years I didn’t think past the fact that it was simply good audience viewing. This year, however, I was more than ever acutely aware that it wasn’t even necessarily ratings driven either, but that every manipulation was done strategically and precisely to increase voting.
And I felt cheated this year. Largely because I felt the HMs were cheated - they are the one’s put to the sword - and this year for nothing in return. Prize money was an embarrassment and HMs deserved more than a poxy trip to Asia (nothing at all against Asia, but let’s face it, Australia to Asia isn’t exactly asking BB to put his hand into a very big pocket). I am left with the feeling that BB was surprised that the format changes didn’t work. But he was cheap. And he (the producers) cheapened the show by cheating both the HMs and the fans. And that’s why the fans switched off. I often feel that free-to-air television stations treat their viewers with contempt. Just perhaps, though, I am wrong about who has the power. Yes, we fans cried a single collective tear at the demise (and the power of Channel 10) in axing the show. But we didn’t like what we saw and we turned off. Maybe the power is with the fans. Maybe this is what we needed… and subconsciously want. We want a better show. And we deserve a better show than what we got this year. Television networks have to come up with the goods because the public isn’t stupid. And in the end I agree. We need a rest from BB because they can do it better.
So, however it happened, BB has certainly been set free from Room 101 and it is over. For now. I wonder though, what does indefinately mean?

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