And so the time has come to say goodbye to Channel 4’s Big Brother. After eleven series and over 1000 episodes, how will Channel 4 and E4 respectively fill the massive gap left by the program?
When the show started I was thirteen and thought it was an interesting concept, put eleven people in a house for a ‘social experiment’ to see if they could work and cohabit together successfully, whilst being watched 24 hours a day, seven days a week by camera’s and in the case of the first series, 4.5 million people on average. I immediately fell in love with the show, as an avid people watcher in every day life; it was so interesting to watch how people react under the demands of Big Brother. Who can forget the stand off between the housemates and Nasty Nick? With BB1 winner Craig taking the helm to confront Nick on his nomination methods.
I couldn’t wait for the next series to begin and in those early days the housemates had it relatively easy, no ‘evil’ BB, cases taken in when they entered the house and even a chicken coup for fresh eggs. The house’s décor was improved but the format remained the same, bringing us such gems as Helen ‘I like blinking I do’ Adams and the irreplaceable winner of BB2, Brian Dowling who has an extremely good chance of winning the current Ultimate Big Brother.
What set Big Brother apart from other reality TV programs is that is was the first of its kind in the UK. As the series has progressed, we as viewers have seen a variety of changes made. The third series had a new house, the rich/poor divide, Jade Goody and the highest average of 5.8 million viewers as well as the first female winner in Kate Lawler. Most importantly the characters that enter the house drive the show and the viewing figures. For the first four series’ the housemates were relatively ‘normal’ but after the snooze fest that was series four with Cameron Stout a devout Christian winning we entered the faze of ‘Big Brother Turns Evil’.
The house was changed to a confined environment, claustrophobic living space, intense décor and promoted as ‘Black Friday’. Mattresses were removed as housemates were evicted and the prize money was reduced every time they failed a task. Big Brother was criticised for the choice of housemates in this series, controversially choosing Nadia Almada, originally from Portugal and post op transsexual, however this theory was soon turned on its head when the nation feel in love with Nadia and chose her as the winner. However the tension and characters in the house, as well as Michelle and Emma’s knowledge from a residence in the bedsit next door to the house, culminated in the notorious fight night of BB5 when they re-entered the house. Scenes of aggression and violence followed and the live feed was cut when security were forced to enter the house and resolve the situation. In the aftermath a psychologist on the show resigned, claiming that his warnings to Endemol of their deliberate selection of housemates were likely to cause conflict and lead to a fight went unheeded.
The next five series were produced in a similar vein, personalities chosen because of the potential to clash with others and cause drama, characters such as Makosi, Kemal, Saskia, Science and Maxwell from series six consistently broke rules and had physical altercations with each other. Series seven, or as I like to call it ‘The One With All The Water’ also controversially chose a tourettes sufferer in Pete, who just like Nadia started as an underdog but ended up winning. This series also introduced us to the delights (ahem) of Nikki Graham, ‘Who is she?’ became THE quote of summer 2006.
Series eight began with all an all girl cast, which inevitably digressed into many arguments, mainly involving the poisonous Charley but the series also highlighted the importance of the BB fan. The winner Brian Belo had been a fan since the series began and through his love for the show and questionable intelligence he came out on top, kind of ironic for a series which didn’t have any men until day 17! To me, the format fell flat during series’ nine and ten and I watched very little. The people who entered all wanted their fifteen minutes to extend further and the show that had started as social experiment had turned into a circus.
When Channel 4 announced in 2009 that 2010 would be the last series of Big Brother I was heartbroken, for all my ‘I’ll never watch it again, it’s tired’, I still couldn’t imagine my TV viewing without it. The excitement to see who they put in, would there be a fitty for me to obsess over all summer, who would I hate? I wasn’t disappointed with the fourteen housemates picked by BB, especially the one who looked like David Beckham! There was unrequited love between women, a crazy old minister with very strong opinions, scary robots and the nicest Bristolian who I took a shining to straight away. For me Josie was a winner from day one, BB was made for this down to earth girl who defied stereotypes, was loyal but would stand her ground when tested. Along with Brian Dowling, Kate Lawler, Pete Bennett and Brian Belo she can be proud to be a BB winner with dignity.
We’ll have to wait and see who is crowned Ultimate Big Brother winner tonight and I’m sure there will be plenty of familiar faces and reminicising to do, I may even shed a tear. In the immortal words of Davina McCall ‘Big Brother house, this is Davina, please do not swear’.
Kayleigh xxx
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