Pre-production work
Big Brother (UK)
Introduction:
Overtime reality TV has become
more popular as more reality based programmes are being produced (for example;
I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here, Keeping Up With The Kardashians, Young Dumb
And Living Off Mum, Americas Next Top Model etc…). I am going to be researching
one of the world’s most well-known TV programmes; Big Brother (UK).
Plot:
The
plot of Big Brother is where a number of contestants live together in a house,
isolated from anyone or anything on the outside, and they may have to complete
a number of tasks or challenges as well as having to put up with other peoples
“home life” habits, these may be conditions that other people are not
necessarily used too. The house consists
of a kitchen and eating area, a bathroom, a living room, a sleeping area, a
garden and arguably the most important room; the diary room. The diary room was
a place where contestants could talk about their own feelings or emotions to
the world without input from anyone else or it was a place where the Big
Brother House could decide “secret tasks” for the contestants to complete
without anyone else in the house knowing. The program has audience
participation as they watch the contestants in the Big Brother house and chose
who stays and who gets evicted. This keeps happening until there is one winner
left who wins a large cash prize.
Hosts:
A host is an important part
of reality TV as it is someone who always appears on every show therefore must
be someone the audience can enjoy watching and even connect with. Davina McCall
was the host for the duration of the program when it was hosted on Channel 4
and Brian Dowling has hosted it since Big Brother was moved to Channel 5. A
good reality TV show must also have a strong voice over which most of the time
was Marcus Bentley.
Background information:
Big Brother was first
broadcast on Channel 4 (and E4) on the 18th of July 2000 and
stopped running on that TV channel on the 10th of September 2010.
Since the 18th of August 2011, Big Brother has been hosted on
Channel 5 (and 5*) and is still going on now.
Examples Of
Contestants:
On spin-off series’ such as
Celebrity Big Brother there have been contestants such as Jedward, Kerry
Katona, Mark Owen, Shilpa Shetty, Amy Childs etc… and on Big Brother there have
been contestants such as Craig Phillps, Anna Nolan, Darren Ramsay etc…
Media Interest:
Big Brother has a big impact
on the UK as most tabloids and magazines cover the stories that happen within
the Big Brother House. After leaving the house housemates usually remain
newsworthy for only a short time. However there are some contestants (such as
Jade Goody who was known as ‘the ultimate housemate’) who remain in the public
eye long after they leave the house due to issues or arguments that happened on
the program while they were there. A number of books have also been released
such as Big Brother: The
Inside Story by Narinder Kaur, Big Brother: The Official Unseen Story by Jean
Ritchie, The Psychology of Big Brother by Dan Jones.
Good recognition and discussion about some of the key components of Reality TV. Also good recognition of how BB has gone 'cross-platform' to the print industry and how this has formed a national institution based on the show. It might be worth having a look at some of the books you mentioned at the end, to gain insight into the 'real' workings of the programme
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