Views: Big Brother 9 - 2008 - All over before its started?

Apparently Big Brother 2008 (Big Brother 9) which should start around 23rd - 3oth may (as these are both Fridays) is going to be scheduled in a "graveyard" slot much later than it's in-the-past-popular prime time slot of 9-10pm. This has to be an indication that C4 bosses have lost faith in one of their flag-ship shows.

Personally I think it's a bit of a shame. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a massive Big Brother fan, in-fact over the last few summers I've probably only watched a handful of the shows.

The reason I think it's a shame though is because it was an original concept and when it all began way back in 2000 it was compulsive viewing.

Endemol had an absolute monster on their hands and although you could quite easily criticise the voyeuristic nature of the show, it was a brave new program that would obviously lead to not only copy-cat shows, but a whole splurge of reality shows for virtually every channel on the box.

It's almost too easy to mock Big Brother and the wanna-be celebrities that audition for the show. The fact is though, this show can so easily turn the whole negative public perception around by inviting "normal" people into the house.

It's not hard to see that the show started to fail when it became a circus freak show. Viewers found themselves laughing at a transvestite that was quite clearly unstable or turning against a chav-like-lady that was 2 sandwiches short of the proverbial picnic! After laughter though came the harsh realisation that you now feel uncomfortable so you inevitably switch off.

The first series was quite clearly the best. The house mates didn't have any idea what they were letting themselves in for and therefore had no game plan. This meant from a sociological perspective it was fascinating to see how people act when confined to such claustrophobic surroundings with total strangers; body language of the various housemates gave away so much.

Big Brother was not only pioneering from a tv perspective. It also brought in other forms of media such as the Internet where viewers could watch a continuous 24-hour feed from multiple cameras on the web. Not to mention mobile phone updates - which must have made them a fortune!

No doubt come the summer there will be a wealth of people jumping on the "Big-Brothers-dumbing-down-our-nation-we-hate-wannabe-calebraties" bandwagon. Then those same people will scoff, then pick up the latest edition of heat magazine.
You see, we're all obsessed by celebrities and deep down everybody wants at least 15mins of fame to see what its like.

That said, apparently only one hundred people turned up to audition for the Channel 4 TV show in Newcastle... Perhaps it's not only Big Brother that's dying, but the whole "being a celebrity for absolutely no reason" syndrome that has somehow exploded over the last few years.

So this year I'm going to tune into the first episode of Big Brother and give it a chance. Because, if by some miracle they have let a few normal people in to the very abnormal surroundings of the BB house, you never know... we could be in for a treat!