To criticise something without seeing it is generally bad practice. To critisise something and then to continue seeing it is pure stupidity. That is what I feel about Big Brother viewers. Some television pundit at this point probably cannot wait to correct me with the fact that The Big Brother audience is more up market than might be expected: 44.2 per cent of viewers are from the ABC1 demographic. I do not believe that a moronic state and belonging to the ABC1 demographic are necessarily mutually exclusive. And what do I feel about the fact that 59% of the audience is women – take a wild guess.
Big Brother has been running for nine years now. I congratulate myself on not tuning in once this series. In fact, the last time I caught a glimpse of the mind numbing programme was when it was graced with a Bollywood starlet. But if you ask me about the latest controversy in this latest series then Alex the gangster wannabe comes to mind. How do I know? You do not need to be stupid to tune in. The non-stop coverage in newspapers, magazines and news outlets keeps me updated involuntarily.
The term stupid really does no justice for the wider implications to a group of people who year in year out religiously follow the lives of housemates. What does it say about a person who eagerly tunes in to follow the bullying tactics and abuse of a house mate? Or how about the few eager men that tune in to the household hoping to catch some female assets? Is that not equal to voyeurism? Let us not forget that Big Brother streams out 24 hours live. Who are these viewers? Perhaps they are enthusiasts of watching paint dry? Do viewers actually realise that Big Brother is predictable and quite frankly orchestrated for sadistic pleasure?
The makers of Big Brother - Endemol and Channel 4 - have consistently got into deep water for subjecting the public to indecency and not stepping in early to make a stand on important issues such as racism and bullying – almost excusing the behaviour by being slow to react and eject the offending culprits. But the truth is, record numbers of complaints get logged regarding Big Brother. But we are still watching it. It is now time to stop blaming the producers and commissioners. The real culprits are the viewers who freely accept their viewing destiny by tuning into a bunch of misfits who allegedly represent British society plucked from no man’s land in order to follow their every move, yawn, burp and other obscenities in their 15 minutes of fame.
Although viewers are diminishing, there are still viewers in the region of 3.8 million and when controversy strikes, even more people tune in. Proof of this was two weeks ago. Euro 2008 had reduced Big Brother’s viewing figures dramatically but the Alex de Gale’s removal from the show was watched by 703,000 viewers on the Channel 4 +1 between 10pm and 11pm according to unofficial viewing figures. The time shift channel benefited from one of its highest ever viewing figures because the public were intrigued by a bully. The fact that Big Brother possesses a cross-media impact is why Channel 4 wants to continue with Big Brother and why ITV1 craves it.
It is time that this generation took the lead in the moral opposition: switching on the critical eye and then switching off. Just think of the power of the “Switch-Off” campaign. It may put regulators out of business but the good news it may actually lead to the extinction of Big Brother. A far more effective alternative than to actually go through the motions of complaining. If the switch off campaign does not take off then producers will continue to manipulate the format, cast for sexual explosion, mental implosions all for the sake of maintaining the brand’s attractiveness to the youthful and affluent viewers or should I say the moronic demograph? And worst of all, I will still know about the latest controversy involuntarily.