★★★★★ 0/5

Big Brother

Nine's Big Brother is a faithful return to a watercooler format, but so far the cast is very white and very young.

40
Leave a comment

Big Brother has entered the building after an absence of 5 years, this time on Nine.

New host Sonia Kruger shuffled onto the Dreamworld stage via a huge neon eye before an enthusiastic crowd. Early nods from the first series, including narrator Mike Goldman and a catwalk (now running parallel to the stage) were all there.

A confident Kruger showed us glimpses of the house, most of which had already been published by weekend newspapers. It’s a bright mix of retro and contemporary, pool and garden, and includes a “Secret Room.” The diary chair is hot red and black leather.

The first housemate is Michael: 26, copywriter from Qld. Hairy, unshaven, admits he “looks funny” and could double for Tim Minchin. He is the first to enter the house. “I need to go the toilet,” he says. “This is the worst because I know I’m being filmed.” Michael is quick with the punchlines and should become an early favourite. “Laundry, that’ll happen.”

Next up is Sarah: 30 Car Sales Person from NSW. “I love a chat,” she says. She enters a Parlour Room where she can watch Michael via video.

She is followed by:

Angie, 21 Sales Rep from Qld. “I want to be a girly girl,” she says. “My friends call me Mange because of the way I eat. I love to eat slobby foods.”

Zoe, 23 Student, a 6 foot girl from the NSW bush, who has never had a boyfriend. “I don’t like rude people,” she says. Zoe is a conservative and doesn’t agree with “boat people.” Should prove to be outspoken.

Layla. 23 Unemployed from Manchester, living in Queensland since February. “My bad habit would be that I don’t shut up.” She’s hoping for a surfer dude in the house with a big surfboard.

Josh. 28 Musician, lead singer in a band from South Australia. “I pretty much live pay cheque to pay cheque,” he says. “Mum would describe me as a lovely boy.” Surfer. He enters the house and joins Michael, both now watched by the girls in the Parlour room.

4 more housemates enter:

Charne, 32 Pin up Girl, works at Dracula’s on the Gold Coast. “Do your own thing, that’s my mantra,” she says. “I’m not anyone else, but myself.” Nicknames: Chaa or Va-Va.

Estelle, 23, Law student from Victoria. “Humanitarian law is something I’d really like to get into,” she says. Describes herself as “a little bit street,” and “a debate queen.” Dislikes anyone who is racist, cruel to animals, homophobic, or sexist. Cool.

Stacey. 24 Account Manager from NSW. Nickname ‘Totes.’ This city lover says, “Maybe I’m too much but maybe someone will like me one day for that.” Could be Julia Zemiro’s doppleganger?

Hmm. There’s a lot of big hair in this house…

Finally another male arrives: Bradley, 18 ‘Checkout chick’ from Coraki, New South Wales. “I would call myself a geek and proudly. Talking to a girl is like talking to an alien for me.” He has never gotten to second or third base with a girl. Bradley also stutters. Should prove a popular inclusion.

With all of the females in the Parlour, Big Brother set the girls a challenge -to match up the boys with their secrets.

They are:
I have the IQ of a genius.
I have Ornithophobia as a result of an emu attack.
I have been fired from every job I ever had.
I haven’t had a girlfriend since I was 11.
I am a juvenile offender.
I have dated more than 100 women.
I am a multi-millionaire.

The girls have one week to match the secrets but forbidden from direct questions. With that they entered the house and joined the boys.

“It’s like an infinite supply of women,” observed Bradley.

4 more males will enter the house this week, including 2 on Tuesday in a Live event (1 will be the multi-millionaire).

It’s great to have Big Brother back on the telly, the social experiment aspect to the show can throw up so many surprises. But casting wise I feel like it’s similar to previous years.

They are predominantly young. They are all so, so white. Nine, where is the diversity, please? You’ve cast with the same approach you take to The Block. Keep ’em white, keep em young.

This show sorely needs some ethnicity. It is screaming for someone who arrived as an asylum seeker to trigger some discussion and understanding. Former housemate Merlin put that topic on the table years ago. I hope that’s coming in the next few males, but by the same token I’d be very concerned about one person from a multi-cultural background being in there on their own.

The age range 18-32 is very narrow. No eye candy yet. Is anybody gay this year? Granted it’s only early days, but first impressions are so terribly important in the current TV landscape.

Also looks like we will be getting a BB dog. Red Dog nod?

Sonia Kruger will fit very well as host. I look forward to her settling into very big shoes and giving us her trademark wit.

Camera work in the auditorium was awkward. Backs of heads? Really?

I also feel like the secrets (and we use that term loosely for some) have been disclosed too early. Farmer Dave had a secret in previous Big Brothers. Logan twins was a compelling secret. “I haven’t had a girlfriend since I was 11,” is no secret….

A lot of the conversation, including with Sonia Kruger, was about wanting to find partners, so I’m not convinced the show has necessarily revamped. But on first impressions it is at least a faithful return to what has been, and can still be, a watercooler format.

Whether it can succeed will come down to the mix of these 14 people. Will we like them? Will we be hooked by their social interaction? Or will they just be another batch of twenty-somethings with inane conversations that feel like every other season of the show?

One way to find out. I’ll be watching….

Big Brother airs 7pm weeknights on Nine.

40 Responses

  3. To: #mistaken

    Dont get me wrong. Sonia the host is doing a fantastic work for big brother. But it looks like she’s more (crazier) on stage then the rest of the so what bb-housemates on stage one by one.

    I notice how sonia screams crowly when one housemate walks on stage towards her with a hug. That scream loud voice comes from sonia. So wonder if shes that crazzy. Shes far too active and far too old to act like that. She was alittle annoying how she gets excited and screams crowly sound on mic.. She is worse then what the intelligent housemates are in the first place. Thats why i rather wish Gretal galleen was on stage to do the show.. No mucking around and no time wasters or scream crazzy like that. Tho with all respect sonia is a fun person. Always happy but shes been far too active and far too little crazzyness on stage. I’m suprise how all housemates where all relax and very respectfull rather then jumping around been stupid with excitement. But thats what the host Sonia is really doing jumping with creaming joy when a hosuemates comes towards her.. Thats why i think she looks like she had too many “redbull” that night.

  4. yep i agree looks like theres too much bad pixels with these channel 9 bb cameras on big brother… It just does not look clear most of the times. Looks like watching less then SD.

    So when someone moves around the camera follows the person it becomes even bad pixel. I have a plasma HD television. It wasn’t this bad when i last watch big brother 8 in 2008 on channelTEN.

    Not sure if this big brother is quality or just saving money by filming it with low grade cameras.. Dunno how much they are spending on bb show but i havn’t even see the house in full perspective. They show a tour of the house but very bad tour… too quick and its not like they sent a camera men inside to show you around as if you where there. Thats why it sort of feel like i dont even no the bb house in full perspective yet. And the show has just started since monday. And today is wed.

  5. I believe Sonia did surprisingly well considering she has some very big shoes to fill – Gretel was an excellent host. I would have preferred all the housemates to be put in the house on the first night as its dragging out too much. Secrets may have worked 10 years ago when social media wasn’t around but in this day and age, impossible to keep a secret with family, friends, etc blurting stuff about housemates on Twitter.

    Ten must be absolutely kicking themselves for letting Big Brother slip to Nine, especially when Everybody Dance Now has had a disasterous start.

  7. I was really disappointed, but not surprised as it had been advertised as a family show, meaning it’s aimed at the tweens and teens in effect. I was mainly disappointed in the lack of age diversity. 20 something’s on their own just aren’t that interesting. This doesn’t look like a shake up to me at all, just the same as before with minor tweeks. With no uncut or something similar later at night the overall show will probably be to sanitised, leaving little for adults, so I’m not going to invest any more or my time into the show.

  8. I certainly agree that the housemates so far seem very bland and very white. I’d also add that Channel 9 need to sort out their website for the show quick smart. Last night it was very shoddy, and all over the place – at one stage they even showed the names of the two male housemates entering tonight, who were listed as Nathan and Nobuyuki, with graphics indicating that both would immediately be up for nomination. I just wish I’d thought to get a screengrab at the time…

  9. I was glad to have it back.

    It did seem a bit less polished, however it hasn’t been on the air for years. Sonia is a new host. I don’t know how much of the production crew is the same. So they get a free pass from me.

    I’ll be watching it.

  10. PS: I forgot to add, whilst I did love the show last night, there were quite a few moments where I couldn’t help but think that the invisible glass shield wall that was meant to keep bimbo housemates out in the shuffle promo, weren’t working. Most of those girls were exactly like them. What gives BB?

  12. I wasn’t expecting much from this reboot in the first place, seeing as it was coming from Nine. From the moment it started my disappointment began.
    The picture quality was horrendous; everything was so pixelated, any fast camera action, dancing and the LED background lighting made it even worse. The annoying and over played shuffle song peeved me off through the intro. The auditorium stage was very low budget and sparse, they could have made it a lot more visually appealing.
    The big brother logo, graphics, opening credits and revamped theme music all seem quite pale with no impact. The house itself it pretty ugly, and the busyness of the kitchen décor is quite distracting. The audience cheering and ooing and aaaring at the first look of the house was so contrived it was nauseating.
    There is no diversity in the contestants so far and nothing like the age range they tried to cover using dancers in the commercials leading up to it. I don’t see any middle aged men and woman here (i.e the mother of the bride and priest examples).
    The contestants all seem to want to be there to find a relationship and that’s about it. None of them are very attractive at all, and I don’t see anyone who’d I’d want to come back and see/hear more of and watch their experience over the next 12 weeks. I already cannot stand Michael, and the audience being pandered to laugh at everything he does didn’t help the matter.
    Oh and the secrets are so terribly lame, and they really are not secrets, they are things that would eventually come into conversation at some point in time whether the ‘secret’ owner comes straight out with it or not.
    I see once again they are introducing a dog into the show as they did in one of the very early seasons, but the dog didn’t end up hanging around very long.

  13. What can i say…. whoever be big brother housemates will… just be that. Just hope we don’t get these of interest like sylmun seekers as a housemates to publicties it on television or something similar.

    But many other big brother shows in europe they do have forigners housemates some native and some who are imigrants as housemates.

    By the way… they indicated (come visit big brother website) right after the launch show to watch live big brother on the internet) I looked at the site lastnight and there was no live cam there.. and then i came on this morning no live feed cam. So someone is lieing on big brother against us? Or is it because it begings tonight after the show because the other (new hosuemates are to enter) since they allready in the house but we dont get to see this until 7pm on ch9 tonight. Also notice big brother is not updating what the housemates are doing and upto 24h… they sort of stop 11pm lastnight and when i woke up 830am this morning there was no more update blogs… whats going on here? surely someone is awake and they need to give us some news blog what the hosuemates are upto.

    But channel 9 indicated this time big brother will be very different.

  14. Having attended the live show on Sunday, I didn’t watch it last night. All I can say is be thankful it wasn’t live, as there was a (minor) fire on set just after the opening number.

    Will be interesting to see how Sonia handles tonight’s live show.

    I’ve been watching BBUK (which finished today). The last two seasons (which have been on Channel Five in the UK) have been pretty basic. No major twists. It’s the interactions between the house mates that make the show good to watch.

    Nine and SSE should be congratulated on the show. Will be interesting to see what the ratings are like as the series continues.

Leave a Reply