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On the box

On the box

Oh brother, ‘Big Brother’

There has been a lot of chatter of the past few weeks regarding the latest instalment of the Australian ‘Big Brother’.  

Now in its 11th season, Big Brother has been a moderate success for Channel Nine since its rejuvenation from the television after-life in 2012.

Big Brother has always tried to play itself off as a show that is constantly looking to innovate or, to steal a phrase, “shake things up”, but the reality here (pardon the pun) is that what you see is what you have come to expect.  

Take a house wired up with almost as much surveillance equipment as Kirribilli House, a 16-strong group of aspiring one-hit, future FHM models and late night game-show hosts, sprinkle in the desperation of an attention-seeking child and garnish with a 40-something host who’s really above it all and there you have it. Despite many “twists” and variations that have changed little to the overall product, Big Brother remains exactly what you would hope it could be: fairly guilt-free reality television.

In today’s reality TV programming landscape, the idea of taking a bunch of bubbly individuals in their 20s and jamming them in a house together for a few days isn’t really that shocking. Now is the time of reality shows about tattoo artistry, melodramas that follow the exploits of “real” housewives and ShopGirls – a show dedicated to the lives of a group of women who work in retail. The idea of the humble Big Brother house with its booming voiceover and petty contestant antics is so far behind the “shocking” standards of most reality TV that it’s almost passé.  

This year’s Big Brother is a totally different beast to the one that was bemoaned in 2006 by then Prime Minister John Howard for being “a stupid program”, as controversy surrounded the then raunchy antics of housemates.

The Big Brother of today no longer broadcasts its adults only variant edition. Housemates are no longer depicted showering or being provocative and this is in line with the more family-friendly approach that Nine has brought to the mix.

Overall though, has it hurt its viewership? Potentially. In making the Big Brother brand more family-friendly, it may have lost some of its edge, but at the end of the day if you’re into watching the same old ant farm that is Big Brother, you’ll still be tuning in regardless.

Big Brother airs at 8pm (approximately) weeknights on Channel Nine.

Korey Fernando can be found live tweeting anything from Eurovision to the Winter Olympics. You can find him on Twitter here: @KoreyFernando

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