Celebrity Big Brother

Celebrity Big brother started with BBC's Comic relief charity, with celebrities volunteering to do the show for charity, but it received such high ratings so there is now a celebrity big brother every year in the UK, typically airing during the January/February months. The celebrities are normally paid for their appearances, on the provision that they don't voluntarily leave. Usually the celebrity version only goes on for 2-3 weeks; much shorter the the average normal big brother. Some of the celebs that are placed in the house are faded celebrities who are no longer in the limelight; big brother is a way used as a stepping stone in order to gain publicity again.

This version of the show brings in more audiences because of its celebrity twist. It allows people at home to watch celebrities different personalities and how they really act and see them go through different tasks to be able to win food or prizes for the house. There are various reasons why the public find celebrity big brother appealing, the media portrays celebrities lives much more exciting then our own lives so it can give us a form of aspiration because we want to be like them.

I believe Celebrity Big brother has become so successful because people like to identify with the celebrities. People like to watch celebrities because it is believed that their lives might be more exciting, some might say that the fans are fascinated by the talent, beauty and money; celebrities are often living the life we would want to live.

Global scale of Big Brother

The idea of Big brother was developed by John de Mol,
the first ever Big Brother started in the Netherlands in 1999.
It was a basic concept which was introduced to 22 other countries such as Belgium, Brazil, Thailand, Germany, Switzerland and many more, including the United Kingdom, of course.

The Big Brother house's rules varies depending on the country, for example in the Belgium's big brother house, it started of with eleven men and one women who had to nominate 3 men, which was then passed on to the viewing public and the person with the most votes was evicted. However, in the United States, the viewers are not able to control the voting. Many of other big brothers around the world are almost mainly uncensored; however CBS would not allow that.

Big Brothers rules also changed with different religions in the different country's, such as Thailand once had an actual elephant inside the big brother house for the housemates to feed, wash and maintain. In the early days of big brother in the UK, the house also had animals such as pigs and chickens to look after.

Occasionally, there is a twist added in by swapping a contestant out with another contestant to Big Brother in a different country. Most Big Brother series last for about 1-3 months, depending on the television schedules in different countries.

Even though there are many countries that participate, they are nearly all called “Big Brother” in one language or another; however the French versions from Canada and France are called Loft Story. Both of these versions feature a winning couple, instead of the normal single winner.

Past Ratings..

'Big Brother' is a social experiment where a selected number of contestants are selectively picked to get a chance to live in an isolated house; with no television, radio, telephone, computer or any social contact with the outside world. Although the TV show is classed as a reality programme, it has elements of a documentary (because of the narrator) and a game show. The main aim is trying to avoid being evicted by the public with the aim of winning a large cash prize at the end. The house has camera's rolling 24/7, allowing no privacy. Big Brother uses and gratifications by getting a 9pm slot on channel 4, which reaches a wider age group as an audience. The audience find Big Brother interesting because they may relate to the housemates or their situation. The show is also a way to escape from your own personal troubles and observe other people's life and their different or similar personality's, it is used to entertain as well as to socially connect with others. During the past couple of years, the reality television programme has been the most successful show on Channel 4. The social experiment was first introduced to the on channel 4 was in 2000, which drew huge numbers of phone votes and web votes; 20 million calls, with 7.4m for the final, and 200 million pages on the website, for the first series.

Love it or hate it, Big Brother has changed our world. The activities and stunts in the shows housemates provoked countless tabloid headlines, they provoked statements from Gordon Brown and brought burning rioters on to the streets of India.

"People were staying up all night to watch this unedited stream and to chat away online amongst each other, Big Brother was the first show to bring that online engagement." said James Harring, head of public relations.

Heat magazine embraced the rise of Big Brother success reality show, "We realised that every time we put Big Brother on the cover it sold well," said Boyd Hilton, the magazine's TV and reviews editor. He said he was busy around the time Big Brother 3 launched when the show had a rise in audience of 10 million, generating more money in advertisements for Channel 4.

Although controversy was sparked at the start of the second series, with critics saying the characters was less entertaining but however the ratings remained high, with technology increasing. The second series allowed the audience at home to vote by text, this lets the audience interact with the show and feel like they can be in charge. By the third series, the show was at it's peak. In 2002, the shows audience hit 5.3 million , with a peak of 10 million viewers.

Resources

Primary Text: News, Magazines, Text, Radios, Websites.

Secondary: Journals, Personal opinion, Articles, Magazines.

Theories: Uses and gratifications, Water cooler affect.

Linked production: My final production will be creating my own magazine cover cover, followed by a 2 page spread featuring Big Brother. I will be making my own Big Brother “housemates” contestents and an interview with the Big brother winner.

Bibliography

http://www.channel4.com/bigbrother/index.html?day=94

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/aug/26/big-brother-dropped-channel-4
Title: Big Brother axed by Channel 4
Author: Mark Sweney and Leigh Holmwood
Date : Wednesday 26 August 2009

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/aug/26/big-brother-in-figures
Title: Big Brother in figures
Author: Chris Tryhorn
Date :Wednesday 26 August 2009

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/aug/26/major-channels-no-big-brother
Title: Major channels say no to Big Brother
Author: Mark Sweney and Leigh Holmwood
Date: Wednesday 26 August 2009

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/organgrinder/2009/jul/30/big-brother-10-best-in-years
Title: Big Brother's back on form
Date: Wednesday 26 August 2009
Author: Toby Young
Time: 08.03 BST

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Brother -
Title: Big Brother (article title)
Date: 21 August 2009 at 21:47.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Brother_(TV_series)
Date:15 October 2009 at 05:15
Title: Big Brother (TV series)

-http://www.mediauk.com/the_knowledge/i.muk/Big_Brother -
Title: Big Brother
Time: 16:17
Date: 18 May 2005
Author: Phill Thorne.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/aug/26/big-brother-axed-ratings
Title: This is Big Brother … You have been evicted from Channel 4
Auther: Leigh Holmwood
Date: Wednesday 26 August 2009
Time:19.30 BST

http://www.ivillage.co.uk/newspol/tv/tvfeats/articles/0,,648091_580130,00.html
Title: Big brother around the world

http://www.buddytv.com/articles/big-brother/big-brother-around-the-world-6631.aspx
Title: Big brother around the world
Date: Friday 18 May 2007
Auther: Mel

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7928199.stm
Title: Jade Goody - a life in 10 headlines
Date: Monday, 23 March 2009
Time: 09:22 GMT


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/7869431.stm
Title: Obituary: Jade Goody
Time: 07:41 GMT
Date: Sunday, 22 March 2009

http://www.brandrepublic.com/News/929442/Big-Brother-faces-axe-ratings-failure-say-reports/
Title: Big Brother faces axe after ratings failure say reports
Time : 08:45
Date : 26-Aug-09
Author: Jennifer Whitehead

http://www.yourlocalguardian.co.uk/uk_national_news/4567115.Big_Brother_axed_after_ratings_drop/
Title: Big Brother axed after ratings drop
Time: 7:52pm
Time: Wednesday 26th August 2009

http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=143856161&Fmt=3&clientId=48828&RQT=309&VName=PQD

Source: Times newspaper
Author: Jane Mulkerins

http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=424524421&Fmt=3&clientId=48828&RQT=309&VName=PQD

Author: Richard Price
Source: Daily mail newspaper.
Date: Oct 16, 2003. pg. 11

http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=1846596901&Fmt=3&clientId=48828&RQT=309&VName=PQD

Author: Ian Burrell
Source: The Independent Newspaper
Date: Aug 27, 2009. pg. 14

http://teacher-hannah.blogspot.com/2009/05/audience-theory.html
Title: Audience Theory
Date: Friday, 22 May 2009

How is big brother represented in the media?

This investigation is about the reality TV programme “Big Brother” and why it has been a big success for a long period of time. I will be debating on the racial issues in the big brother house for example the Jade Goody dilemma that happened in Celebrity big brother January 2007. Also during this investigation, I am also discussing the different types of big brother and the global scale of this reality television programme.I will also be talking about ratings and the soon to be end of big brother after the 11th series.