Not long ago I saw an ad on television promoting the return, next year, of the has-been reality TV series, Big Brother and I had to ask…do networks never learn from past experience? I am guessing not if they are planning to revive this one.
I think the first series did reasonably well because it hadn’t been done before and viewers were curious. They also got in on the voting out thingy and some of the more popular housemates went on to bigger and better in TV land once it was all over, and that’s probably where it started to go downhill.
Wannabe starlets (male and female) saw the Big Brother series as a springboard to fame and celebrity (as they do with reality TV full stop) and so applications to be part of the following seasons began coming in from the narcissists and the talentless in the hope that media stardom would land in their lap too and, inevitably, the context of the show went from mildly entertaining, to same old same as, to tasteless, until it finally bottomed-out at crude and offensive. It was at this point that the television station airing it at the time wisely decided that it wouldn’t be airing it again.
Yet here we are. Again. Okay, so it’s on a different network but guaranteed that other than the change in station, nothing else will have changed at all. And this is the problem with reality television. The Internet is overflowing with talentless individuals who believe they are the whole package and I suspect many of them will be making a beeline to the auditions for this resurrection because they will view the experience as great exposure in their relentless pursuit of instant fame and fortune.
The thing is, there are a lot of hopefuls out there who have studied for the degrees and worked themselves ragged to make their way in the media world, be it television, online or the print media. They have the goods but are often sidelined by a reality “star” who gets the role, sans skills, degrees or working experience, because they look nice onscreen and/or were popular with those who sat through whichever mind-numbing reality rubbish they appeared in, and that is really wrong. But it happens and that’s why casting for Big Brother 2020 will be flooded with applicants hoping to up their Instagram profiles and/or get their names and faces out there to the people that count. Instant fame, easy money.
Except the shows they are appearing on are not very challenging, intellectually. On the other hand though, I suppose they don’t need to be, as many of today’s media jobs, especially television roles, just want you to look good. You don’t need a good head on your shoulders, just a pretty one.
But Big Brother 2020? That is scraping the bottom of the barrel and it was scrapped for a reason. It degenerated each season, with the time slots getting later and later as the content and behaviour of the housemates sunk to sleazier levels until it finally bit the dust. Then it had a banal revival that was short-lived and after that, it looked like networks finally saw the light and shelved it permanently. Best move they ever made.
Except now it looks like it’s coming back for another stab at popularity and of all they rubbish they could have revived, they chose the rubbish-est. Are they kidding or what?
Giving this one a Big Miss.