‘Big Brother’ hopes to freshen concept

It’s become one of the rituals of summer: About a dozen celebrity wannabes move into a small house with a very big electric bill to try to take over a major television network. For the record, they’ve never succeeded, but “Big Brother,” premiering July 6 on CBS, is now a fixture on summer TV, which goes a long way towards explaining FOX’s Summer Season.

“Big Brother” is the mutant brainchild of Dutch producer John de Mol, whose local hit has now been exported to over 20 nations, from Mexico to Australia to Romania, plus multi-national editions in Africa and the Middle East.

Originally, the show put 10 people in a house full of cameras, and the public voted each week to eliminate one contestant. But the first season of the American version was “troubled“ (a kind way of saying “nearly disastrous“), and CBS called in Arnold Shapiro, creator of “Rescue 911,” as Emergency Show Doctor.

He changed the eviction system from a public vote to an internal process, established the power position of Head of Household, and added other twists, most notably last year’s Ex-Factor, in which the show put five former couples under the same roof. The Ex gimmick boosted the ratings while distracting from the show’s competition and is justifiably blamed for two of the house’s least-liked residents, Alison and Jun, becoming the finalists for the grand prize.

Twisting slowly
Promos have proclaimed that this summer’s “Big Brother 5” would feature the “biggest twist ever.” That twist, taking the Ex-Factor another step farther, brings together two relatives who don’t know the other exists.

One rumor is that the Head of Household will gain the ability to spy on the other players on a monitor. But is it good TV to show one player watching the other players on TV?

If that seems rather lame, remember that last year, after the players and the audience were warned to expect the unexpected, the biggest gimmick the producers came up with was a test of trust that subjected contestants to the dreaded peanut butter and jelly diet. PB&J is the most telling symbol of how Big Brother is the least grueling and least dangerous competition of its kind.

In a not-very-probing interview host Julie Chen did for her day job, CBS’s “Early Show,” she said that the game’s Power of Veto element, which can take one player off the chopping block for a week, is “going to be a little bit more involved this year” — surprising, since its rules are already more complicated than a mobile phone contract. Still, “Big Brother” needed to replace last year’s awkwardly named Golden Veto, which tried to add more power to the Veto in the same way Tim Allen installed a jet engine in a lawn mower.

Chen also revealed that one of the house’s bedrooms will provide the most uncomfortable accommodations in the history of the American show (the worst in past shows utilized army cots and a wooden bench) and generally promised that changes in rules would “hurt people who go in as a manipulative player, and help those who go in with a pure and open heart.”  The biggest surprise would be if the show found any players “with a pure and open heart.”

One unconfirmed but well-supported rumor is that the Head of Household will gain the ability to spy on the other players on a monitor in his/her room. An interesting strategy, but is it good TV to show one player watching the other players on TV?

Meet the Hamsters
The show’s Houseguests (“Big Brother’s” way of saying “players” — I prefer the term “hamsters”) have been selected and sequestered, and CBS has released their profiles:

• Adria, a married Web designer from Birmingham, whose motto is “being fit is twice the fun!”
• Diane, 22, a cocktail waitress from Burlington, Ky, who admits to telling “little white lies” and fears “that there will be snotty girls in the House”.
• Drew, 22, from Urbana, Ohio, whose listed occupation is “recent college graduate” (in other words, he applied for reality shows instead of going to job interviews); he says “women have been distracting to me in the past,” and looks just hunky enough to distract back.
• Holly, an L.A.-based model, only lists her age as “20s” and claims to be competing for “Blondekind”. Her personal hero: Jazz pianist David Hazeltine.
• Jase, 28, from Decatur, IL, a volunteer firefighter whose personal motto, as reported by CBS, is “F them if they can’t take a joke."
• Jennifer, 21, from San Antonio, restaurant hostess whose personal heroes are “all single parents, but mostly my mom,” but still claims to be overly judgemental.
• Karen, a married portrait artist from Saddle Brook, NJ, whose profile includes a reference to “a bull’s a**”, a snarky comment about “President Super-Genius”, the motto “don’t piss in my ear and tell me it’s raining!” and the revelation that “peanut butter constipates the hell outa me!”
• Lori, 26, a yoga instructor from Boston, whose most interesting factoid is her fear of PB&J (no mention of constipation).
• Marvin, 36-year-old mortician from Conway, SC, is this year’s Token Black Guy, whose personal hero is God, admitted weakness is “I’m too real for some people”, and who lays out his strategy as “A six-person alliance, then stab two in the back; be the gourmet chef”.
• Then there are the two Mikeys: Michael, 23, from Durant, Okla., engaged dad and security officer, who answered “What type of news from the outside world will you miss the most?” with “CBS.” (Kissing up?) Wears a cowboy hat in his profile picture to contrast with:
• Mike, single dad and commercial painter from Eastpointe, Mich., at 41, the Token Old Guy, whose personal heroes are “George W. Bush and Rush Limbaugh.”
• Scott, 26, a sales representative from Pittsburgh, who plans to win by “being everyone’s best friend, and having a deceitful strategy!”
• And finally, Will, 26, from Tupelo, Miss. Occupation: Registered Nurse. Personal Hero: San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom. Used “(wink, wink)” in his profile. Not directly stated, but obviously the Token Gay Guy.

Average age: 27.5 (with 9 out of 13 under 30), compared to last year’s 28.5, skewed by a 58-year-old Token Old Guy. 10 out of the 13 are single, and when asked “Why did you want to be on ‘Big Brother’?”, everybody but Jennifer and Karen mentioned the money.

Open House
Twists in other countries have ranged from sponsoring foster children in the Dominican Republic (who, ironically, became the players’ only contact with the outside world), to separating upper-class and lower-class contestants for a kind of artificial class warfare. Some countries have added extra contestants in mid-game, and America’s first “Big Brother” season unsuccessfully tried to bribe some of its players to let themselves be replaced.

Some Big Brother editions have even swapped selected contestants between countries for a week.  But the most entertaining intruder to the American house was late last year, when the producers hired a mime to stay in the house for a day and annoy the remaining contestants. They knew they had a problem when the mime became the house’s most popular resident.

An attempted twist in this year’s British Big Brother backfired badly, as a fake eviction resulted in what is now called “the Big Brother Riot," as the producers called in security guards, shut off the cameras for over an hour, and kicked out one of the fake evictees for real. But since the current American producers have taken over, the most significant recycled element involved using a prop popularized on the South African “Big Brother”: garden gnomes.

The only direct public participation in the show is via “America’s Choice,” an occasional public vote to determine which player deserves to briefly make contact with their loved ones outside, leading to the show’s most mawkishly sentimental segments.

Still, it would be good if the American show returned to its roots and got the audience more involved. Maybe voting, not for the direct evictions, but to pick one of the weekly nominees for eviction, with the Head of Household putting up the other. Or at least expand the “America’s Choice” polling to include votes for the least-popular contestant as well as the most-popular.

And bring back the mime. And more gnomes. Because if BB can’t find any contestants “with a pure and open heart,” we need somebody to root for.

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