Types cast for more of the same in house of shock and yawn


Melinda Houston
April 15, 2007

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IN BIG Brother World, as in the actual world, the more things change the more they stay the same. BB 2007 starts next Sunday with all the attendant hoopla, including promises of new twists, new rules, new faces, new bits to the house and as much excitement and intrigue as a 16-year-old can bear.

Also as usual, the actual nature of those twists, surprises, additions and subtractions are a closely guarded secret to be gradually unveiled over the course of the season. But rumours abound, ranging from a dungeon being dug beneath the Gold Coast compound to every contestant having a sibling in the house. Executive producer Kris Noble says they're also hoping to improve the moral tone after last year, including (perhaps) having older housemates. (Because, yes, men over 25 never behave in a sexually inappropriate manner.)

But the one thing that's guaranteed is that no matter how they dress it up, and no matter how "diverse" the contestants are, they will all — as they have for the past six years — have that special Big Brother personality.

Tim Clucas, network head of production and development for Ten, says they try to choose a crew that's "broadly representative of the Australian community". And he insists that their selection panel most dreads the people who reckon they're the life of the party. "Those people who have been lying to themselves all their lives. Who think everybody loves them."

But psychologist Rachel Morris, who has been involved with UK Big Brother for the past four years, including the selection of housemates, says that's precisely what they're looking for.

"The Big Brother house is just a bunch of loud introverts," she says. They may appear diverse (and producers will want a superficial mix of physical and socio-economic types). But all BB housemates will be the same type of person: the kind who's constantly performing because they're terrified of what people think of them.

"They're great at forming relationships but not great at maintaining them because you can't maintain a facade for very long. That's the mistake these loud introverts make when they go on Big Brother. And at the bottom of it all, they're thinking if 10 people at the pub laughing makes me feel good, how good am I going to feel with 10 million people laughing."

The central dynamic of the show, what makes it such compelling viewing, is that all these loud introverts have to make a choice once they're in the Big Brother hothouse. Change. Or fail. "You're in a situation where you're not only on public display, you have to reveal the one thing you're most afraid of. Who you really are," Morris says. "And there is another section of people who go on Big Brother because they want to reveal who they are. They're sick of that display."