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Big Brother (2000)
Big Draw.
The most successful reality TV format in the UK, with numerous versions that quickly sprung up (and continue running) across the globe. Each summer since the year 2000, millions of people have watched around twelve people with no prior claim to fame sweat it out in an enclosed house for about twelve weeks arguing, fighting, bitching, gossiping, screaming, going mad, getting drunk, scheming, and above all competing to win a lot of money.
For variation, the house interiors and exteriors are redesigned every year, along with a garden and sauna area; as are a series of usually cringeworthy group tasks potentially allowing them to earn more of a shopping budget, or escape elimination voting, for that particular week.
The first series, with inaugural winner Craig Phillips (offering his prize to help a Down's Syndrome sufferer) and headline-stealer Nasty Nick Bateman was the only real success in terms of entertainment credibility and invigorating television schedules. The series that followed, for all the producers' efforts, haven't really topped it (aside from the business aspect of viewing figures thanks to an increasing and increasingly apathetic "Hello" generation audience. However the first series of "Celebrity Big Brother" and similarly-formatted "I'm A Celebrity
." Have provided interesting twists.
I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here! (2002)
I'm Not A Celebrity......Thank The Lord.
This successful reality TV format first attracted high viewing figures in the U.K back in 2002 (when Tony Blackburn was crowned the first "king of the jungle"). Since then, a further half dozen U.K series have attracted increasingly higher viewing figures and the format's been adopted both in the U.S and in Germany.
It's essentially Celebrity Big Brother in a more interesting location, with more challenging tasks as a result of this change of setting. Instead of a house and garden with futuristic furniture, a dozen celebrities (of varied/no acclaim - another tongue in cheek draw) are paid a minimum of about £20K to spend a few weeks in an Australian jungle that's had all deadly venomous elements removed beforehand.
Apathetic couch potatoes watch the whole show and extras avidly. People with more get-up-and-go only turn "mute" off for Ant n' Dec's barely rehearsed links (not a criticism - they're often funny) and the real ratings winner - the bushtucker trial. Once they run out of decent variations for the latter (suggestedly soon if rehashed tasks in the current series are anything to go by), the show will struggle to be recommissioned.
Dragons' Den (2005)
Dragon's Den
Dragon's Den provides a more educated twist to the Pop Idol/X-Factor/Popstars panel format.
Members of the public are invited to come along and pitch their inventions and business proposals to a group of four suited men who're multi-millionaires and a token Nikki Chapman-like female "dragon". If the dragons see potential in the invention/idea, they barter with the member of the public over investing in its mass-production.
As you'd expect from the format, the show includes a lot of quirky inventions (not to mention quirky inventors) to keep you watching due to schadenfraude and one or two successful business deals during the hour's running time. It's TV to wind down to after a hard day's work. I imagine you'd only watch it avidly if you were thinking of pitching a line yourself on the next series.
What's next, I wonder? We've had singers and inventors. How about people who play instruments and sing their own songs to a panel of non-major label indie execs? Thinking caps on.