Casting the key for original Big Brother
- Published by David Knox
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Peter Abbott, Australia’s original Big Brother, has agreed with TEN’s decision to retire the reality series.
In acknowledging the show’s diminishing returns, he believes it became harder and harder to source housemates who were as genuine as the first series.
As the format draws to a close, Peter Abbott spoke to TV Tonight about the challenges of sustaining a reality series when many of its participants are wiser to the social experiment premise. And he had something to say to the show’s detractors.
Abbott, still well-regarded amongst loyal BB fans, has always been selective about his post-show comments. Even now he resists pointing out if and where the show may have gone off the rails.
“All those who sit back in the sidelines and say ‘that doesn’t work,’ I think it’s fair to say ‘well what would you do?’ And then the decision becomes much more complicated,” he said.
“I’m not a big fan of peanut galleries. That’s why I’m very prudent about anything I would say. Because you’ve got to be there, you’ve got to be doing it, you’ve got to know what you’re working with before you can make any qualified statement about what should or shouldn’t happen.”
Abbott, now putting together such shows as Top Gear: Australia, Missing Persons Unit and Dancing with the Stars, was Executive Producer on the first three series of Big Brother, but concedes the success of the first year, which catapulted ordinary people to pop-star status, made casting subsequent series extremely difficult. They were no longer as naive.
“You can’t find those housemates anymore,” he said.
“To paraphrase, we weren’t playing the same game anymore. We had to go to greater lengths to get the housemates to disengage from the real world. And the further the series has gone harder and harder that’s become.
“And therefore when people say ‘it’s not like it used to be’, it can’t be.”
3 Responses
I don’t think it’s the “quality” of the housemates that is lacking – simply that anyone who has watched the show has knowledge of what is likely to happen. These are real people we are talking about and I don’t think you can say they lack quality. I have watched all 8 seasons and possibly so have they. They have seen who got voted out an why, the ups and downs, the outcome of relationships that have gone before.
Consequently they have had to resort to gimmicks to try to bing in the ratings of past series. The viewer was no longer suprised by the reactions of housemates to life in the house, unless life in the house became unpredictable.
Every series there have been housemates that I have loved, liked, loathed and some that I was indifferent about. I would not however say that any of them lacked quality. They are just people like any other and as my kids are taught at school – everyone is special, no one person’s view is any more important than anothers. Yes, we are all different and some have special talents etc but that doesn’t make them better.
Sorry to be so pedantic but I am always mindful that the HM’s (every year) have families, friends, colleagues, careers etc. waiting for them. They have all – form the placid, boring, funny, gay, straight, male, female, old young, big, small – entertained us in very difficult circumstances.
Hope that all makes sense.
Great to hear from Abbott, and fully agree with him.
The quality of the housemates really made the first season – but replicating the same qualities was always going to be near impossible.
Great post, Abbott sounds very insightful and humble about it all.
Thanks Dave!