Big Brother (Germany)

Reality TV – even the words sends pangs of nausea throughout the body of the thinking TV viewer, and though Big Brother in the US never really rated hugely, in Europe it was a monster. Oddly, while Survivor was huge in the US, in the UK it rated so poorly it was considered a massive failure. What is it about these two audiences that brings about such different results? Regardless, in the German version of Big Brother, ten strangers shared a house in Cologne while being constantly watched by dozens of cameras. Their every move was documented, from what they ate to who they slept with, and every two weeks the contestants would nominate two housemates to be voted out of the house, with the last person left in line winning a cash prize. Makes you wonder how the starving masses in Africa would feel about how we don’t care about their plight but we pay weekly attention to who wins a game in a house in Germany… good grief. Sophie Rosentreter hosted the first season, then went on to show her chest slappers in the 2001 feature film Sass. I’m sure the Africans would have appreciated that more.