‘Big Brother’ returns. But not just a ‘Big Brother’ with celebrities, which is such a twisted version of the original concept, but a ‘Big Brother’ with anonymous contestants who attacked television in April 2000 and also saved the iconography of the revolutionary programme. Now, Mediaset has announced ‘Big Brother 19’. It has already started casting players to compete for the 300,000 euro prize.

Looking for an audience. It is clear what Telecinco is looking for with this announcement: a boost for the very weak audience that cannot face the brands of Antena 3, which defeat them almost every day, thanks to the enormous combination of established programs such as ‘El hormiguero’ and the following. talent show ‘Voice’ or ‘Your face looks familiar’. If nostalgia was unleashed among viewers for the times when ‘Big Brother’ was overflowing with innocence, Telecinco must have felt something similar when recalling the data from the finale of the first edition: 7.8 million viewers, 51.2% of the audience. To compare. 7 out of 10 Spaniards watched the match in front of television.

Since 2017. ‘Big Brother’ has a two-fold problem: on the one hand, the memory of the last episode featuring unnamed contestants, and the disastrous 2017 edition in which a contestant was raped by her partner while she was sleeping. A year ago, in April 2023, the attacker was sentenced to 15 months in prison for sexual abuse, and it was also decided to punish the producer of the program, Zeppelin TV. realityhe was responsible both for the circumstances in which the events occurred (food shortages and heavy alcohol intake) and for the way they communicated the incident to the victim the next morning.

Damage to the brand. The case damaged the ‘Big Brother’ brand tremendously and caused advertisers to back out when the trial began, affecting Mediaset’s financial situation. This was the last edition of ‘Big Brother’ to feature unnamed contestants, and was replaced by the VIP version, which still aired last year and was the last until the brand’s comeback. Since then, Telecinco has not abandoned this contract. truths, but they are of different kinds: ‘Island of Temptation’ and ‘Survivors’; here they play with isolation and physical demands rather than the traditional interactions of ‘Big Brother’.

People prefer celebrities. But the biggest problem facing ‘Big Brother’ is changing public taste: the success of ‘Big Brother VIP’, which initially aired in alternate years to the traditional ‘Big Brother’, gave way to the classic program with similar audience figures (ranging from 20% to 25%) To compare On average, except for the last and very weak ‘VIP’ edition of 2023). While annual editions of ‘Big Brother Vip’ have been available since 2015, traditional ‘Big Brother’ had already begun to attract public attention. , before the disaster in the 17th edition.

This is a change in public taste that has also changed with the success of ‘Survivors’, which always has famous participants. The notable success of successful reality/competition shows on other channels such as ‘Tu cara me sona’, ‘Mask Singer’ or ‘Master Chef Celebrity’ also confirms this change in taste.

Professional Competitors. This arrival of celebrities to the contestant list truths This results in a lateral phenomenon, the professionalization of competitors. They already know how the competition mechanisms work and how to ensure audience loyalty, as if they were actually professionals of the competition. reality. Because most of the time, this is their intention: to be permanent guests of discussions and programs. truths On the Telecinco grill.

We have already seen this phenomenon in a much accelerated version in ‘Temptation Island’, where it goes in record time from the first foray of relative innocence to the current incarnations where everything is pre-planned. The biggest enemy of this edition of ‘Big Brother’ is probably that it is impossible to regain the pure innocence of the contestants of the first edition.

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in Xataka | Big Brother was an oasis unaware of the end of the world. We don’t even have that left.