TV: What it Takes to Get on Big Brother

Some of us might not like to admit it but we Brits love reality TV. Whether it is a guilty pleasure or a full-blown addiction, we crave the drama and the often hilarious melt-downs.  Even the occasional bouts of fisticuffs. But why is this?

Big Brother will be back on our screens in Spring and the producers are, probably as we speak, carefully sifting through the tens of thousands of audition tapes, identifying those “lucky” final contestants.

We are, of course, a nation of people watchers.  We don’t have the climate for an alfresco lifestyle, so why else would coffee shops shoe-horn a couple of tables onto the pavement, if not to satisfy our craving for the ridiculous, the unusual and the downright weird? We see them all on UK High Streets!

The Victorians loved it so much they created (without the constraints of political correctness), the “freak” show. They satisfied a longing for the abnormal, and people flocked in their thousands to gawp at various physical extremes. Thankfully, society now frowns on such blatant exploitation but are shows like Big Brother really any different from a sleazy back-street Victorian side-show?  A group of people are thrown together in a house with dozens of cameras trained on every movement, not to mention every nose-pick and bodily function, in the hope that one or more will lose control with spectacular results.

In Victorian times, the focus was on physical deformity and impresarios combed the country looking for the outrageous in an attempt to out-do their competitors. These days, the Big Brother producers don’t have to travel the highways because the exhibits in this modern-day circus come to them. In their thousands.

All it takes to get you on the road to stardom is a short video filmed in the privacy of your own home, in which you put forward your “reality” credentials. You have to stand out, so these video-bites are crammed full of boasts about how “out-there” you are, how outrageous you can be, and how intolerant you are of other people’s shortcomings.

If you survive the first cull, the process becomes ever-more brutal, as the producers tease out more suppressed personality traits to reach the “perfect housemate”. The final set of individuals is eventually confirmed and the final videos are recorded. These will highlight the most extreme personality peculiarities and the production team can then sit back and hope that the reality lives up to the hype.

In recent years, another factor has crept in to the audition process.  The proliferation of reality shows means there is an ever-increasing library of videos and soundbites, and production companies will remember certain individuals.  Some of those people are then fast-tracked through the Big Brother selection process, coming out the other end with another chance at their idea of stardom.

Once in the house, the pressure to live up to the pre-series hype is so great that the first few days, coupled with the seemingly limitless supply of alcohol, are often brutally entertaining.  As things calm down a little, those warped individuals who design the tasks come into their own with ever-more devious ways of lighting the blue touch-paper of mental instability.

All this, of course, is put on for our entertainment. Don’t rail against the dross of reality TV.  It’s not about cerebral enlightenment, it’s about releasing your inner Victorian self.  Reality TV is the modern-day freak show, which may be why we love it!

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