February 09, 2006
DailyIndia
by Jennifer Maskill
Way back in the year 2000 when Big Brother first exploded onto our screens, it was a brand new concept. An interesting Game show where all you had to do was live in a house with a bunch of strangers for 3 months and at the end of it you could win £70,000.
The whole country was gripped. Would Nasty Nick get caught? Would Mel and Andy get it together? How did Craig Phillips – The most boring man in the country ever end up the winner??
Right across Great Britain, from Schools to Offices; Supermarket queues and coffee shops, everyone had an opinion and everyone had their favourite for one reason or another. It was new and exciting TV. No script and no plotline just throw them all in together and give them challenges to complete and see what happens.
The winner – Craig Phillips – went on to be a TV Handyman and popped up everywhere. He even tried his hand at the music biz and brought out a cheesy Christmas song for which all the profits (Along with his winnings) went to charity.
Season 2 got a little bit more exciting with the outspoken Brian Dowling being the final winner only just pipping Hairdresser Helen Adams to the post. Helen also had her will they won’t they story with fellow housemate Paul Clarke. Amazingly now 4 years later they are still together so Big Brother was a fairy tale ending for them.
It was from season 3 that things started going downhill when BB started playing with the format and added the Heaven & Hell sections of the house. Those on one side had more luxuries and better food than those on the other. A weekly task, shown live on Saturday nights, determined which housemates lived on which side of the Heaven and Hell divide. This season also brought us Jade Goody who, aside from her dumb blonde personality, is the highest earning ex-housemate of all the BB series’. Kate Lawler the Winner of BB3 enjoyed success as a Breakfast TV presenter for a while.
The whole Big Brother idea has just gone downhill from there. It is no longer new and different and no matter how much the producers play with the format, it will never be as good as that first season. These days it is all about who will get their boobs out first and who will have sex first. Whoever wins it is not important anymore as everyone just wants their 15 minutes of Fame!
