Regarding my post about Big Brother a very disgusted viewer in England muses in the comments section about what could the entertainment value be in a show like this? I can’t speak for the viewer, because I don’t watch the damn thing.

From a programmer’s standpoint BIG BROTHER seems like the first step towards the ultimate show - put a few webcams on a few beaches. It’s foolproof. There will always be a market for young attractive half-naked people, no matter what they’re doing. Look at BAYWATCH! I’m not saying this show would get BAYWATCH numbers, but with no actors or writers, virtually no expense but a guy in a control room and some camera maintenance people, a 3-hour block of this is guaranteed to turn a profit.

Sure a competing network might counterprogram with, say, GYMCAM! but so what? That’s what Tivo is for.

Endemol is doing itself a disservice I think by insisting on shaping the narrative of their “reality shows”. They refuse to commit to a great idea, hedging their bets needlessly. Maybe the only thing that is saving civilization is entertainment companies’ fear of taking all ideas to their logical, base, idiot conclusions.

FOX being the exception, obviously.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 25th, 2006 at 11:47 pm and is filed under General, Television. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.