Study Guide to Big Brother (Channel 4)

Producer: Bazal Productions
Broadcaster: Channel 4
Transmission: July - September 2000

Key Concepts

Privacy, human nature, community, isolation, fame, voyeurism, reality TV

Summary

IT'S ONLY A GAME SHOW, reads the print on one of the official Big Brother T-shirts. Certainly it is a game show with a difference: the ten contestants are confined to a purpose-built house for 64 days, where they eat, sleep, talk and wash under the persistent gaze of hidden television cameras. The highlights are edited together and transmitted throughout the week to millions of Big Brother addicts, who can also log onto the web site for further live coverage. Every week, each of the contestants goes into the soundproofed Diary Room to nominate two of their fellow inmates for eviction. The decision on who will leave the house is put into the hands of the public, who choose between the two people with the most nominations. At the end of the nine weeks the surviving contestant wins £70, 000.

The inhabitants have no access to television or other media themselves, and so to a degree remain innocent of what the others are saying about them behind their backs. Conversely, the television audience is fed with the most salacious slices of the action. This tension produced an infuriating impasse for the viewers when one of the contestants, dubbed "Nasty" Nick by the press, tactically worked his way around the group, lying about who he planned to nominate in order to win favour with everyone. For some weeks his strategy worked and he fooled those around him - escaping nomination and hence eviction by a public who couldn't wait to vote him out. Eventually, Channel 4 sacked him for unfair play. He has since appeared in public accompanied by two bodyguards and has received offers to play the villain in various productions.

Like animals in a cage, the inhabitants of the Big Brother household have nothing much to do. If there is any fascination in this, it is in the development of relationships and the behaviour they produce. In both the making of wildlife documentaries and voyeurism, for the majority of the time the subjects are watched not for what they are doing, but for what they might do. One fan wrote in a BBC web forum, "What is really fascinating in this case is to see each contestant manoeuvre to try to appear both likeable (to ensure their popularity with the rest of the group) and watchable (sufficiently interesting that the public won't vote them out) The rising tension as the numbers slowly dwindle should make for great viewing - it's drama as much documentary."

Background

Big Brother is the latest spectacle in the parade of "reality TV" shows that has been followed by millions of people across the world. More than a fly-on-the-wall documentary, it is better described as a real-life soap opera in a game show format. The story is constructed from round-the-clock footage of the house inhabitants, complete with cliffhanger endings for each episode. Some have said that it falls far short of being a sociological experiment, but producer Peter Bazalgette, responding to his critics in The Times, confirmed that, "Big Brother is nothing but entertainment; it never pretended to be a genuine social experiment. It's just a game show with a prizewinner." Its purpose is therefore different to that of its predecessors, such as the BBC's Castaway 2000 and Channel 4's Shipwrecked. These programmes aimed to track a community of strangers living in extraordinary circumstances, but offered no financial incentive or invitation to the audience to control the fate of the participants.

The show, which originated in Holland and has also been sold to Germany, Spain and America, builds on a couple of classic works of fiction. The name "Big Brother" instantly brings to mind the nightmare created by George Orwell in his book, "1984". Big Brother is the all-seeing, all-knowing force behind the ruling Party which has everyone under constant televisual surveillance. There are posters everywhere that read, "BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU". The Party slogan is, "Who controls the past controls the future; who controls the present controls the past". It is not difficult to find parallels with the television producers who ultimately have control of how the personalities are portrayed on Big Brother. One of the evicted contestants, Sada Walkington, was not happy with their editing: "I found them very cutting, highly destructive to my personality and I felt very betrayed."

Big Brother is also a development of the ideas played out in the film The Truman Show (1998), written by Andrew Niccol. It is the story of a man who finds out that he is the star of the television show of his life. Everything he knows is not real - his family and friends are merely actors and his town is the largest sound stage in the world. His entire life is transmitted live to the world 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Truman Burbank is a man living in ignorance of his celebrity status; EdTV (1999) makes the logical step to a story about a man who is followed by a TV crew with his full consent. Unlike the Big Brother household, however, Ed Pekurny is followed around in his everyday life and interacts with the media. Naturally his celebrity status affects his private relationships and it is not long before he is looking for a way out of the contract. The need for privacy finally outweighs the benefits of fame.

For the Big Brother contestants, selected from 40,000 hopefuls, fame and fortune were obviously motivating factors and seen as the guaranteed reward for having your life opened up to the public over nine weeks. Whether or not the notoriety of these ordinary people will last may well be determined by who they were before they entered the contest.

Ideas for discussion

1. Following her eviction from the house, Sada commented, "People do believe that they know us, but your public persona and your private persona are very different things." Is it possible to have a public and a private persona when you are being watched by television cameras 24 hours a day? How real is what you see in the edited highlights on Channel 4?
2. How does the experience of watching Big Brother compare to that of watching
   
   - a straightforward documentary?
   - a soap opera?
   - a drama based on real events?
3. What is privacy? Do the contestants have any privacy? How do you think this state affects their behaviour
   
   - in front of one another?
   - in front of the cameras?
4. How have the characters developed through the series? How do you respond to their behaviour?
5. What tensions have arisen in the household? Why?
6. Peter Bazalgette analysed the Big Brother 20-30's generation in The Times: "They absolutely never talk about politics as we once did. They are interested in ethics, New Age nostrums (tarot cards, yoga) and have no hang-ups about nudity or language. They don't define themselves as Tory or Labour. The exercise of politics is a long way removed from their lives. They have 1,000 things to entertain them and there's a splintering of adherences. You aren't just C of E and Tory. You're Greenpeace, gay and a fan of Fatboy Slim." How true is this analysis in your opinion? How do you think they chose the contestants? Are they a typical representation of twenty-somethings?
7. Are the Big Brother contestants celebrities? How would you define "celebrity" for the 21st century?
8. Paul Romer, producer of the Dutch Big Brother, told the BBC, "I think in every one of us there is a little bit of a voyeur and the show appeals to that feeling." What is voyeurism? Why do you think so many people watch Big Brother? Why do you watch it? What are you hoping will happen?
9. Andrew Niccol (writer of The Truman Show): "Everyone in this culture wants to be on television. The irony is that nobody wants to wake up and find out they already are." Compare Big Brother to The Truman Show. What difference does awareness of the camera make to behaviour? What does the programme tell us about exhibitionism?
10. Do you think that the contestants are living in isolation or community?

Actions Questions

1. List the components that make a TV programme successful today. How do programmes today compare to those being made twenty or thirty years ago? How do the changes reflect what is happening in society?
2. Andrew Niccol: "Television blurs boundaries between reality and fiction, and it unites us, but in a way that also separates us. Watching is what we share, not proximity." (Philadelphia citypaper.net) What are the ideal characteristics of a community? Is the television community real or virtual? What does the existence of such communities tell us about our society and ourselves?
3. Why is "reality" now a form of entertainment?
4. What do you think the inhabitants of the Big Brother household have learnt from their experiences? How did you identify with them? What have you learnt about yourself from watching this programme?
5. Consider your response to the following statement: GOD IS WATCHING YOU. How do you think a typical twenty-something would respond? How does the notion of God being all-knowing compare to the thought of being watched by millions of people every day?
6. How would you cope in the Big Brother house?
7. Where does television go from here?

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