Celebrity Big Brother probably seemed like a brilliant idea in the beginning. I can just picture the Endemol executives sitting around the table at the creative development meeting:
“I know, lets put a bunch of celebrities in the Big Brother house.”
“Cool”, says another. “The public will go crazy for it. The ratings will be sky high. Gossip… dirty laundry… I love it!”
And they weren’t wrong. Celebrity Big Brother 2006 has been the most controversial show to date, and the most talked about CBB ever. And it’s not surprising when 8 million people watched the celebrities enter the house.
But what’s entertaining about a bunch of bullies living together in a house for three weeks?
Family entertainment has changed since I was a child. But times have changed and what really worries me is that the British public now seem to regard bullying as entertainment.
Like Pete Burns’ brutal 10-minute verbal assault on Traci Bingham:
“You’re a dumbo. Do you think when you go for a casting anyone sees past your knockers? At 50 you’ll be a wreck.”
And Traci wasn’t the only one to suffer. Since leaving the house Jodie Marsh has decided to lead an anti-bullying campaign:
“I got so much stick, I was either miserable or defending myself the whole time,” she said.
120 viewers complained to TV regulator Ofcom about Pete’s behaviour the night he launched his attack on Traci. And what has been the outcome? Absolutely nothing! So just what kind of message is this sending to young people?
Why is bullying in the playground not acceptable but on national television, it’s perfectly fine? 32,688 young people called Childline to talk about bullying in 2005, which would indicate that it’s a very serious problem in this country. Surely we’re not helping young people by obsessing about celebrities who bully each other.
Some of you will probably think I’m just overreacting. Why get so upset over a reality TV show? But I’d like to think that I’m not alone in believing that this form of “entertainment” is like watching one of Paris Hilton’s Chihuahua’s let loose in a pen with an African lion. So why is it being produced?
Big Brother is big business. After the first CBB most of the money raised went to Comic Relief. But fast-forward to 2005 and celebrities like Bez are pocketing £60,000, and that doesn’t include appearance fees. In the same year £262,002 was given to charity – from a total of 1,048,007 votes. That means someone pocketed a lot of money.
Big Brother may be one of the most successful reality programme’s ever made, launching a string of imitations that have made living in a box more interesting than any of David Blaine’s magic tricks, but if this is an indication of what TV has in store for us in 2006, then we’re in for dismal viewing.
About the team
This story was produced by Annabel McLeod, 19. It was published by Reach for the Sky website.
