The latest TV craze

March 23, 2000 12:28 AM

The latest TV craze to hit Europe is coming to the UK. After the ratings success of Shipwrecked (18 volunteers living on an island) we have a kind of Truman Show but with volunteers.
posted by Markb (6 comments total)

Endemol, the Dutch company that created this concept, sold the American rights to 'Big Brother' to CBS last March. By the end of July, the program can be seen throughout the United States.
posted by prolific at 12:54 AM on March 23, 2000

This comes shortly after the chaos surrounding another UK show, Castaway 2000. One of the members of this little social experiment decided to leave due to bad conditions on the island (although not all would agree with him). The result was that he was chased around Scotland by the British tabloids in a manner reminiscent of the Keystone Cops.
posted by dodgygeezer at 2:41 AM on March 23, 2000

Jeesh... maybe "The Real World" from MTV will go mainstream. Just what the world needs, more reality-based TV shows.
posted by da5id at 5:34 AM on March 23, 2000

Don't you mean "reality"? I don't really think anyone living under a camera's eye 24/7 could really act like they would otherwise. And as far as Real World goes, everyone knows the producers intentionally pit members of the cast against each other, for more entertaining drama.

Of course I say all this, but if it weren't for the whole no-pay thing, I'd be on one of those shows in a minute. I'm a freak like that.
posted by endquote at 7:53 AM on March 23, 2000

What's notable about these fly-on-the-wall docusoap shows is that someone always seems to leave the whole experience with depression. I wonder if that's due to isolation or the constant intrusion of cameras for such prolonged periods. Maybe it's because throwing all these (often mismatched) people together in confined spaces is bound to leave someone feeling they're at the bottom of the pile.

A notable exception to this is The Real World which just seems to be some kind of audition for people who want to be models and soap actors.

At the moment I can't think which is the more painful to watch....
posted by dodgygeezer at 9:17 AM on March 23, 2000

The original Dutch Big Brother was the most painful thing I've ever seen. They picked the most tedious people they could find from their target audience (lads straight from the army and girls whose biggest ambition's to be in Playboy) , and the entire country watched them 24/7 as they did absolutely nothing... all day for weeks on end. Hours and hours just shots of dimwits sleeping on a couch. It was the biggest hit in Dutch television history. The latest clone is even worse, even tackier people forced to live on a bus for weeks... and they even made them pay for it. Sometimes I fear for this country...
posted by prolific at 9:58 AM on March 23, 2000