Evict Big Brother. Please

Big Brother is watching. The trouble is, no one else is. With the launch night of Big Brother 9 attracting just 3.6 million viewers and the series average being easily the lowest on record, Channel 4 must surely be pondering sharpening the axe for a programme whose contract is up for renewal in 2010.

After reaching its peak of 8 million viewers on launch night 2006 and having comfortably posted series’ averages of over 5 million from 2001-2004, one programme executive boasted, ‘Big Brother is more than a TV show. It is a national institution, a television event.’

So where has it suddenly all gone wrong for the programme which revolutionised the reality TV genre with its launch in 2000? The answer lies in audience fatigue with contestants remorselessly chasing pipe dreams of fame, who have left no taboo or boundary unbroken in pursuit of this end. A programme that once thrived upon its ability to shock and awe the nation has nothing left in its arsenal. Add to that the depressingly shallow and talentless Z-list celebrity culture that ex-housemates have helped spawn and Big Brother’s apparent demise indicates that British show business is becoming like any other industry. Only those with a bit of flair and talent need apply.

Big Brother’s initial success was born from the simplicity of its format. A real-life, unscripted soap opera, played out before our very eyes, with half a dozen strangers locked away from the rest of civilisation. Refreshingly, they shared the same blemishes and flawed characteristics of mere mortals, which made them so accessible and easy to relate to.

Cameras were fixed everywhere to ensure that nothing contestants did would go undocumented in the pioneering social experiment. The added dimension of viewers phoning and texting in votes to oust the most despised housemates and save their favourites added an interactive spice to the format, where heroes and villains were made.

Nasty Nick became an overnight household name and panto villain in 2000 when his ill-fated attempt to manipulate the voting system backfired and his eviction made the headlines of BBC 6 o’clock news. Eventual winner Craig meanwhile achieved almost national treasure status for selflessly donating his entire prize fund to a family friend who required emergency heart and lung transplants.

However, Big Brother in 2008 bares little resemblance to the first series and is unlikely to be remembered with the same affection in a decade’s time.

Ironically the programme’s downfall began following the unexpected wave of interest in the Nasty Nick saga. Production company Endemol and potential future contestants watching at home immediately recognised that abandoning the emphasis on a reality based social experiment for engineered controversy led to headline-grabbing attention for the individual and mainstream media publicity for the show.

The house quickly became a breeding ground for opportunist and contemptible fame seeking vultures, who fiercely contested one another in shocking the nation to grasp lucrative newspaper, magazine and TV mega-pay deals. Channel 4 was happy to provide the stage for them to do so, with the show’s popularity attracting enormous sponsorship and voting revenues.

Jade Goody got naked. Michelle and Stuart trumped that by having sex. Police were called in to investigate a near brawl which erupted between Emma and Victor. Makosi claimed to have conceived Anthony’s child in the Jacuzzi. Then Kinga went and took things a little too far in simulating a sex act with the business end of a wine bottle.