Wednesday 9 January 2008

Big Brother Celebrity Hijack

Last Thursday the latest series of Big Brother kicked off but with a twist this time instead of the housemate being celebrities they are a group of talented young people who could go on to be celebrities. Some of the housemates include a MoBo nominated singer, the Chairman of the Scottish Youth Parliament and one of the top young fashion designers in the world who have had their work showcased at New York Fashion week. You may remember we broke the news on this series many months ago on the blog when the production company were looking for housemates but now I am going to talk about how the series is going.

The first we need to ask ourselves is would this series be going ahead in this format this year if it wasn’t for last year’s race row? And if it wasn’t for last years race row would this series still be on Channel 4 and not E4? All the questions aside no young person with talent can’t afford to look a gift horse in the mouth and need to seize on opportunities when they arrive, so even though it’s only on E4 I’m so glad this series is happening.

Now down to the format of the new show. Instead of like previous series of Celebrity Big Brother when the celebrities were housemates this year they are not in the house and unlike previous series of the regular version Big Brother is no longer in control. The Celebrities are now in control of the house playing the role of Big Brother. Celebrities take it in turn each day to set tasks for the housemates and to listen to their problems.

Now to get the viewing ratings they have to use celebrities which has shown by the drop in viewing ratings from last years Celeb Big Brother by not having celebrities in the house itself. Saying this though for my personal tastes they pay too much attention to the celebrities well at least they did in the first night instead of putting the focus on the housemates but again I understand why they do this. I would have much preferred for them to have put some of the celebrities in to the house as I think this would have been an interesting learning experience for the housemates.

Going in to the show you knew that it was a reality show and that was going to be a fundamental part of the show so the producers were going to want to create conflict and interesting situations to keep the general public gripped. I am however loving the conversations in the house that centre around their talents and how they got to where they are today with them all seeming interested in each others achievements and learning from them. They really seem to be inspiring each other which I think is going to be a positive effect of the show.

I cannot however recommend the show to our younger viewers as there are some things on the show which aren’t suitable to the young audience. The one thing that the young housemates need to remember is that they have all worked hard to get their talent to the stage it is now so it is important they don’t let any of their actions on the show takeaway from what they have already achieved or to hinder their future development as sometimes what has taken years to build up can be taken down in a matter of seconds. On the other hand if the housemates are able to communicate positive messages about themselves to the audience at home their time spent on the show may help accelerate their path towards their dream.

I think it’s great that these young faces will now be known on a larger scale and on a scale they deserve but I just hope this programme doesn’t harm any of them in their pursuit of their dream. The longer the young housemates stay on the show and the more pressure they are put under I hope they don’t act in a way in the heat of the moment that may put them in a bad light.

What do you think of Big Brother? Are you enjoying the new series? Please let us know by getting involved on our topic of the week in the forum by going to:

http://www.talentedyoungpeople.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=307

Adam Sibley
Founder of the Talented Young People organisation
www.talentedyoungpeople.com
"Envisage it, Believe it, Achieve it!"

http://www.talentedyoungpeople.blogspot.com

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