Not hating. Just genuinely find it curious as I’ve only caught Love Island a few times. Seems to be based on the old Big Bro formula. The obvious difference is the attractiveness of the contestants. Which of course, fuckin a, why not.
But it’s curious that we went from Big Bro to that cos 1) Isn’t society supposed to be headed in the opposite direction, with body positivity and bla bla, etc?! and 2) Big Bro still had attractive people. They just stood out more cos they let a few of the normal folk in there with them. And a handful of weirdos.
It just seems like you get so much more out of Big Bro. The inventiveness of the tasks, the mind games from Big Brother, etc. It felt like a kinda cynical experiment more than a reality show. There was so much more drama. Love Island, they just seem to be playing some version of spin the bottle and getting off with each other in every episode. Is that the point? People just wanna see the sexy stuff?
No disrespect to the show, I fully get that it is pure entertainment and knows what it’s about, just wondering if people realise we had a much better version of it before? Whole post is sort of a long drawn out shoutout to Big Brother, for your reading pleasure.
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Big Brother ran for 19 series in the UK, people got bored of it. But if you repackage an idea and make it look different even if it isn’t, people will see it as a new thing. It’s like with action and horror films, people will soon roll their eyes if one of them gets 3 or 4 sequels, but release the same plot with a different cast and a new title and there you go, smash hit.
I think BB is coming back is it not?
Big Brother pointed cameras at people wanting to get telly presenting jobs (certainly after the first series) and the public lost interest after a long run.
Love Island points cameras at vacuous people who want ASOS and/or BooHoo deals and to do sponsored posts on Instagram for tooth whitening.
It’s the same thing for a different generation.
People got bored of BB. The same will happen to Love Island at some point. Then someone will revive BB, and then someone will revive Love Island.
People found BB boring long before it ended. It was novel a first, then people tuned in for the drama, then people got bored of that too. Channel 4 and then Channel 5 just found it hard to pull the plug because they were desperate for a few million people to watch a show they could produce for cheap.
> Isn’t society supposed to be headed in the opposite direction, with body positivity and bla bla, etc?!
That does not mean people don’t prefer looking at attractive people. It just means they might be less likely to be rude to people who are not conventionally attractive.
It might also depend on how much it costs to use what is a franchise. Invent a similar theme – but different enough to nor get sued – may be cheaper.
I genuinely do miss Big Brother, used to love the January CBB and the regular BB in summer (CBB summer always sucked imo). Just seeing people who wouldn’t normally interract become friends.
I actually got to audition and see the diary room for their final season lol. Felt so surreal.
Who’s your favourite housemate? I loved Gina Rio.
I kind of think of Love Island as being Big Brother for the Instagram generation. I’m not sure BB would be as popular with young people now, it seems relationship drama is what people want out of reality TV