Television

Big Brother to push boundaries in Season 6   Author: eNews staff and agencies | Mar 22, 2006, 12:33

Gretski to oversee a meaner, but more covered up, Big Brother in 2006?

Yet another 'punishment' for the Ten Network over dirty bits on an episode of Big Brother Uncut from last July. ACMA, the electronic media regulator, whipping Ten with a feather, because that’s it can do after just two complaints about naughty bits on the episode of Uncut.

The regulator found that what was shown (full front nudity etc etc) was so strong that it could not be covered by the MA(15+) classification at 9.30 pm. i.e. it was too ‘dirty’ for the classification!

That means the dirty bits, were really, really naughty and all those kiddies who were awake and watching, even those 15 and above, would have been shocked and horrified, wouldn't they?

So where were the parents? Watching with them, downloading on the net, reading, doing something else and not supervising their children?

Who knows, that wasn’t an issue in the ACMA decision.

But even though Ten is contrite and has promised it won’t happen again, with a reputation for showing naughty bits, Ten has ensured that Big Brother this year will have more viewers from the 15 year age group and above who will want to see if there's any more salacious content.

There won't be.

Ten has no interest in stoking those fires again after successfully doing it last year, after all, it could mean more pressure on the licence and with media ownership law changes in the offing, that may not be wise.

I think we can depend upon a new tack to be revealed soon by the Network when it announces its new line up of housemates and hints at the approach.

Think a 'Pat The Rat' type approach of mean-spirited contestants, out for themselves. No more Mr Nice Guy with the 'nice housemates' continually put upon and outplayed by the nasties (although the Nicest One of all will win the loot).

In fact think Big Brother this year as a metaphor for John Howard's Australia, Wheat for Weapons to Iraq and bribes and all that.

The phrase, "I can't recall' seems to have been a familiar refrain in the C7 case in the Federal Court, in the ASIC case against Jodee Rich and Mark Silberman (especially from Lachie Murdoch and James Packer) while there's a growing cast of 'can't recallers' at the Cole Commission into the AWB bribes and who knew about them.

That would be something for BB this year in style and approach. Just imagine a housemate saying to Big Brother “I can’t re-call” and BB saying, let’s go to the video tape….!

The demographic base of the program would change and skew old as politicians, their advisers and quite a few people in business watched to see what happens…

Quit dreaming Son, it won’t happen.

Big Brother starts the week The Biggest Loser ends in April.

The exact date hasn't been announced, but look for the Ten Network to try and piggyback off the good ratings Loser has been achieving.

In fact the last pre-games elimination episode of Loser's audience was close to some of the elimination episodes of BB last year.

Loser's final elimination episode could easily give Ten a 1.6 million plus audience, which would be great for a program that started out with considerable doubt attached to it.

Meanwhile Ten sat back and kept a straight face Wednesday when Mark Holden, trying hard to once again play the convincing nasty judge of Australian Idol, re-entered the public consciousness Tuesday with a comment that this could be the last Idol.

It was picked up in the Daily Telegraph's Sydney Confidential column Holden is one of the reasons Idol underperformed last year: his attempts to replace Dicko as 'nasty' judge left viewers very underwhelmed.

Ten is making significant changes to the format (especially the finals) casting a wider net geographically and demographically.

Perhaps the biggest change will be the freedom for the finalists to sing any type of song in the last eliminations.

With The Biggest Loser showing the attractiveness of the 7 pm timeslot up against Home and Away, Ten is being sorely tempted to run the daily BB and Idol shows at that time.

If that happens, then it will be crunch time for Nine's older skewing Temptation game show.

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