In the great words of George Constanza 'It's a show about nothing.'
On the 14th July 2000, after the milluenium didn't crumble the world away, TV was about to take a leap into another direction and would never look back. Orwell's 1984 created the name for what was deemed originally as a social experiment, ten people unknown to each other, entered what was only known as a house back then, and were watched by the curious small public of audience over a half an hour slot, six nights a week. The show rattled along, people drinking tea, dinner, breakfast, taking care of the chickens, running around naked, playing games, arguements, flirting, likes and hates. It wasn't until the cheating scandal that rocked the nation and the front pages of the newspapers then, in which Nick Bateman manipulated hosuemates to vote his way by writing housemates names on pieces of paper, a house quickly became a big brother house and the reality TV show was born.
You could argue that without Nick Bateman, there wouldn't have been a funeral and a celebration for Big brother at it's demise on the 10/09/10. At the end of series one, the winner Craig Philips donated his winning prize of £70,000 to his Down's syndrome friend Joanne Harris to help pay for her heart and lung transplant in America. This all made it seemed so important, like the show had a purpose, that people had been watched, examined, judged, reflected on, and in the end, a hero was chosen and a life was saved. Watching it at the time, it changed the way I saw soaps, I stopped watching Eastenders, I was instead enjoying 'reality.' The editing of the show was incredible, how they mangaged to create narratves through hours of nothing, each day, for every night's show.
As Big Brother continues a year later, BBLB was born, a pre show to the main show, there was an episode of the main show on now everyday of the week, and once again, people sat around and mainly did nothing. Big brother would continues onto his most sucessful series three in 2003 and into it's least sucessful four, at which point it all changed. The idea of people doing nothing, suddenly wasn't so interesting anymore and big brother had become dull. A revamp was born, the evil big brother, where everything and everything was thrown at the show, like a overloaded garden shed.
Back in the days of 'the word', the greatest talk show ever created, where a section titled the hopefuls where indidivuals would do anything to be on TV, was now what Big Brother had become. BB was now an event, a show where people's lives were edited and played with, to create an entertainment. The show became a platform to gain instant fame, get your magazine deals, do a few TV jobs, some other reality TV shows, including making small appearances on shows related to big brother such as big mouth. Social quickly turned into ego, followed by hungry, followed by freaks. It's quite fitting that for the last series of the show, the house was created and decorated as a circus.
In January 2007, Big Brother would make world headlines and be at the front of what is ignorance and what is racism. The infamous race row, detroyed the career of the most famous housemate to come out of Big brother and challenged the public and disturbed ofcom in weather they were right in what they were broadcasting and how. Big Brother would later start to donate a part of the viewers phone phone call votes to charity, to show some charity.
As the old saying goes, all good things come to an end but let's not forget one thing. If someone says, 'I don't watch reality TV', they are sadly mistaken, as Big brother spawned all that defined the genre of what is considered to reality TV. From the farm, to I'm a celebrity, get me out of here, masterchef, the apprentice, survivor, come dine with me, love island, X factor, Britain's got talent, Big Brother created the idea of putting individual strangers together in front of cameras, the rest continues to dominate the TV ratings.
With it's brilliant advertising for the final season, in which past housemates bury the diary room chair from the first series, the show has ended on a rather simple note, celebrating what it once was and is today. BB, the show that changed the way TV is watched and made, whether you like it or not, the father of new genres, always goes first. The social experiment is over
R.EYE.P. Big Brother is no longer watching
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