When Network Ten unceremoniously shafted longtime Big Brother stalwart Gretel Killeen and replaced her with the comparatively garish and insensitive 2DAY FM shock-jocks Kyle and Jackie O, they began a suicide mission that would ultimately result in the death of the series.
To begin with, it seemed that the dismal failures of Undercover Angels, The Chat Room, Greeks On The Roof and The Nation, were not enough of a warning to BB producers that anything Jackie O touches on telly turns to bones.
And as for Kyle Sandilands, I’ve seen more engaging and personable cuts of wood – with a higher blinking frequency - that would have run rings around this talentless hack who has somehow managed to bully his way to the top of mediocrity mountain.
The suicide mission continued when some genius of gimmickery decided to pop party-boy Corey Worthington into the mix. Once the glasses came off his thinly-coated veil of defiance was removed and he was swiftly just another self-obsessed kid with nothing to say.
But the tricks kept coming. Queer-eye Carson Kresley did a fashion makeover and Pamela Anderson flaunted whatever it is she does now… it all looked like a horrible moving version of New Weekly. These were all arrows into the heart of an already dying premise.
But despite the self-destructive train wreck that was Big Brother 2008 – it was more of a case of the tracks being out of whack.
The simple fact is – people are over it. We have had nearly 10 years of people simply wanting to be famous by being on television - and it’s getting boring.
My mate Tim Brunero and I argue to the teeth about the cultural value of the show. He tends to think it can act as a platform for people to get their voices heard. There is a level of truth to this – but the question needs to be asked, who is being brought in?
Sure, you might get a Brunero or a Merlin who bring to the table something more than shiny abs or fake boobs, but let’s be realistic – this happens very, very rarely. A few moments like this are not worth the months and months of programming and resources dedicated to the behemoth.
The death of Big Brother is a strong indicator that the Australian viewing public is turning off hollow celebrity and returning back to folk who can actually do something. Witness the continued success of Australia’s Got Talent and So You Think You Can Dance.
It’s an indicator that it’s no longer enjoyable - or even passable - to simply be on television without any reason to be there. TV, after all, is about entertainment.
When the fame machine of reality television was churned out at the beginning of the millenium, it was exciting to see Warhol’s “everyone will be famous for 15 minutes” prophecy come to fruition. But the novelty wore off soon enough.
Like the saying goes “When everybody is somebody, then nobody is anybody”.
Maybe the death of Big Brother means that we can get the nobodies off our screens – and start giving a chance to the potential somebodies.
