Big Brother needs to regain public trust to survive says Reality TV website

This year's series of Big Brother has caused the public to lose trust in the popular reality TV show, because of a combination of mishaps, poor contestant screening and manipulation of the public.

The show was disrupted in the first week with the departure of three contestants - Shahbaz, Dawn and George. Shahbaz had a rapid and severe mental breakdown, Dawn was accused of receiving messages from outside the house and George opted to leave because of the pressures of post-BB fame.

Shahbaz's breakdown led to complaints that housemates were not properly screened. Gerard McGarry, of the popular website Unreality TV said:

"Dawn Blake contacted me about the screening issue through Unreality TV. Having been through the application process for Big Brother, she was concerned that Shahbaz was a danger to himself and the other housemates. She mentioned that the psychological vetting consisted of a questionnaire and a short interview with the Big Brother psychologist."


Cheating The Viewers

Aside from the issues over vetting of housemates and the careless loss of three in the first week, the most controversial issue this year has been the decision to return housemates to the house. Although this isn't a new tactic - Jon Tickle was an enormously popular housemate returned in Big Brother 4 - this year's returning housemate was eligible to win the contest.

This led to outcry over profiteering by Channel 4 and Endemol on phone and text voting, specifically by the people who had voted out model and dancer Nikki Grahame. "Nikki was loved and hated by the public in equal measue," says McGarry, "So when people heard she would be eligible to win, the public were outraged. Big Brother's slogan is 'Who goes? You decide.', and the public had already evicted Nikki. The whole situation stunk."

Reality TV forums and front pages quickly filled up with furious fans and communications regulator Ofcom received more than 1,000 complaints about the situation.

The reality is that when Nikki was evicted, the show lost a lot of viewers. Shortly afterward, rumours began to circulate that Nikki was being put back into the house. So when Big Brother announced the return of four ex-housemates, it was almost a certainty that Nikki would return to the main house. To the public, it looked like the result was engineered by Big Brother.

Loss Of Trust

According to McGarry, many people feel disillusioned by the show and feel cheated at the return of Nikki, despite having been evicted by the public:

"[Nikki] has been back to the outside world. She knows what people liked about her and now she's playing up to that. Some would say she's overplaying! It's hard for people to watch the show knowing that she's been voted out."


The show has failed on a number of other areas, such as a confusing cast of characters and newcomers, accusations of 'fixing' the Golden Ticket event, and even claims that ethnic minorities are poorly portrayed in the show.

"Big Brother relies upon the public vote to survive, yet the public were cheated when Nikki returned to the show. Where's the incentive to vote for a housemate when you can't be sure they'll stay out of the house?


When Big Brother plays with the basic rules of the game, people will undoubtedly lose trust in the production. For Big Brother to regain trust, they need to go back to basics with the next series, cut down on confusing twists and plots and to honor the slogan "Who goes? You decide." Endemol's contract with housemates states that Big Brother can change the rules at any time - they have no such contract with the public.

Related article: http://www.unrealitytv.co.uk/big-brother/big-brother-2006/big-brother-needs-to-regain-our-trust/