Big Brothel Finally Bites the Dust

When there is so much bad news around, it is great to get some good news once and a while. And it doesn’t get much better than to learn that Big Brother will no longer be disgracing our small screens. The Ten Network has just announced that it will not run the show next year. The last episode for this year will be aired on July 21.

Although this decision is eight years overdue, I can hear the popping of champaign corks all around the country. Millions of Australians will be able to sleep better at night, knowing this trash is no longer contaminating our airwaves.

The 1316 episodes of the show were certainly 1316 episodes too many. BB was arguably one of the worst shows ever to air on Australian television. Big Brothel was one big excuse for voyeurism, gratuitous sex, and the exploitation of young people – all so that the fat cats at the Ten Network could line their pockets.

It was always a cheap, crass gimmick, which revelled in controversy and shock value. It of course was never serious TV, and its producers were always happy to aim for the gutter. And the gutter is where it stayed.

And it was certainly never anything to do with reality. Just where in the real world do hormonally-charged young people live in cramped quarters, with communal beds and showers, plied with all the free alcohol they can consume This totally artificial environment was always designed to bring out the worst in young people, and to show off as much flesh and debauchery as possible.

Ratings of course had been going down over the past several years, but the corpse of BB had to keep being dragged out. Indeed, it was a corpse from episode one onwards, but the amoral TV execs at Channel Ten were happy to get rich off such prurient voyeurism.

Of course BB is not the only sleazeball show to air on television in the past decade. There have been plenty of other contenders for the worst show of the year. But BB excelled in pushing all the wrong buttons, all in the name of ratings and revenue.

Of course don’t expect things to get any better in the future. While the removal of BB ranks up there with the Geelong Cats Premiership, and the invention of penicillin, the Ten Network has already said it will introduce a similar “reality” show in 2010.

While ordinary Australians are rejoicing in this decision, critics will roll out the usual excuses: ‘if you don’t like it, don’t watch it’. But that totally misses the point. To put it crudely, crap matters. And when crap is beamed into our homes on prime time television, the negative effects will be forthcoming.

The general coarseness and crassness of such shows does wear off on those who watch it. And those who don’t watch it will still be on the receiving end of those who do. The more immoral, perverted and juvenile our entertainment tastes become, the more that will filter through to the entire community.

It’s sort of like passive smoking. Non-smokers still pay a price for what smokers do. And when we dumb down a whole generation by crap shows like this, it affects everyone in the end. And the worrying thing is, as the shock value wears down, television networks then look for something even more shocking, more offensive, and more disgusting.

So there is a downward spiral to all this, and it does have an impact on us all. If every decent Australian threw out their television sets, they will still be subject to toxic programming in the form of down-stream pollution from those who still continue to soak it up. The whole culture is tarnished by such programming.

So it is tremendous news that this particular bit of sewage is finally over. But don’t expect things to be all sweetness and light henceforth. As I said, the networks are only interested in one thing: ratings and revenue. There are no limits to human depravity, and the big boys at the networks are surely already planning the next primetime outrage.

So enjoy the champaign over this particular win, but expect more heated battles in the future.