Big Brother 08

Soooo...Big Brother is back and being hailed as radically different than the previous years efforts, which is probably a good thing. While I'm a big fan that Big Brother should influence the game, I don't think they should influence the players and trying to force Andrew to propose to Hayley as well as holding Michelle back from nomination for longer than should were both examples of the show going to shi-ite. Add to that Gretel Killeen's clear hatred of the programme, BB07 left a lot to be desired.

But the idea of Kyle Sandilands and Jackie O hosting the programme filled me with dread. Why not go with Bree Amer? She's hot, she's entertaining and she likes her job. She also knows Big Brother and unlike Sandilands has lasted a fair time in the house. Nonetheless, I'm a fair person and I thought I'd give it a chance.

And to my surprise I was impressed. Not with the new version of the theme, I might add, which sucks balls and doesn't have the same cool feel that the original arrangement had, but the lose of the cubes didn't bother me, and the new logo is...well, it's the same as the old ones really, isn't it? Changing colour and putting interference lines in it doesn't change the fact it's still the same old eye.

But Kyle and Jackie O actually seemed to be quite competent in their new roles. Kyle seemed to have some difficulty with the autocue - mainly not seeming to know what to do when he wasn't speaking (and eye-twitching doesn't count, Kyle), but Jackie O, presumably drawing on her hosting experience from Australian Princess, was in her element, and as soon as the pair didn't have to rely on the autocue and could just talk to the housemates, they seemed to be in their element. With Kyle not behaving like a dickhead, one gets the feeling that there weren't such a bad choice of host after all.

The house itself is quite different and it's nice to see some big changes - the lack of a kitchen and the swimming pool being reduced to a hottub, for instance - will make quite a difference to the way the housemates live. It's also interesting to see that they don't get to cook dinner and don't have to feed the animals. Suddenly the game seems to be going back to its origin, locking a group of people in a house with nothing but each other to entertain themselves.
Then there's the housemates. Kyle described the last few years BB as a "frat house" and he's not far off the mark. Clearly the producers were just sticking sexy young things in the house with the hope that they will get their clothes off and fuck. Obviously with the turkey slapping incident still scaring them, Southern Star/Endemol/Noble then made sure that any raunch of any description either never happened, or was quickly blocked from broadcast in any media, somewhat defeating the purpose of the putting young, sexy housemates in.

Bearing this in mind, one can understand then why they've decided to put in a mixed group of people...however...a racist granny, a midget, a squeaky-voiced salesman and a guy who escaped from a religious cult, kinda gives the impression that BB is just going for a freak show. Once you get them out of the way though, you are left with a group of young, sexy things; the four young girls were into the spa before you could say jacuzzi! On the one hand I'm impressed with the diversity, but on the other, one can't help but feel a little "same old, same old."

And then we come to the next night where the housemates are forced into (and this did seem somewhat surprising) evicting someone from the house on the first night. Say goodnight to the folks, racist granny; although this was hardly a surprise. Also goes to show just how little the bookies know, as they had her odds quite good, compared to Brigitte who got half of Terri's votes.

I'll give BB points for trying. At least they seem to be trying to do something different this year, and good for them. Whether this experiment will be successful or not remains to be seen.

"B"