It’s that time of year when, I make wildly ambitious statements about my intent over the next few months.
Long-time readers of TV Today might remember my very first post to this blog, in which I said:
“I have willingly become a social pariah at the water cooler by a conscious decision to go Big Brother free this year”
and once again, thus creating a TV Today tradition, I’m doing the same this year.
Well, that’s the theory. Other readers with a long memory may also recall me posting this less than a month later, reporting my complete failure at the task in hand.
But not so this year! This year I will be strong! This year I will be forthright! And after the mis-managed disaster area that was Celebrity Big Brother and Channel 4’s belligerent refusal to take any kind of responsibility, I don’t think I’ll have a problem.
The main obstacle for Big Brother is the fact that it has, almost overnight, stopped being cool. It’s an embarrassment to watch, and despite a strong audience for the opening night, I predict that ratings for this year’s tedious battle to become famous for doing nothing to earn it will slide off as we go along. I can but hope, anyway…
And even before the first week is out, the producers have made a huge error of creative judgment in choosing to populate the house exclusively with women. Now, before anybody pounces and accuses me of being sexist, this decision doesn’t bother me in the slightest. Remember, I’m not watching. I’m merely reporting the reaction of my beloved who flicked on for two minutes before grimacing and switching over for some Adrian Chiles action on BBC2.
“What’s wrong?” I called from the kitchen where I was attempting to slide cocktail sticks under my fingernails as a suitable alternative to BB.
“A bunch of shrieking women in a room is not what I’d call entertainment,” she sighed.
And there we have the problem in a nutshell with no need to elaborate. If you want to preserve your ratings, Channel 4, get some blokes in there quick sharp, or disaster will be just around the corner…
Which might not be a bad thing on reflection.
