Boys and girls, I am sure all of you have watched the television show Big Brother, some of you may even watch it religiously. After all, just under 8 million people in the nation regularly tune into the show, but have you ever wondered why?
             Big Brother 'fever' has swept the nation for a third time this summer. Despite people complaining about the repetitiveness of the show, the ratings have increased and the third series has been the most popular so far. Last years figures averaged between 4 million and 5 million. However this series is failing to attract the younger generation, the proportion of under-34s watching has decreased to 53% from 57% last year. This has concerned advertisers as the younger generation are more susceptible to buying merchandise, subscribing to Internet viewing (which has now been priced at £9.95 per month) and to Big Brother interaction by SMS, this is going to cause the company to lose money. Money is an important part of the Big Brother, advertising companies want to make money from the show, channel 4 and the production company Endemol want to make money from the show and the contestants themselves enter to in the prize money.
             Shows similar to Big Brother, such as Survivor have become a bit of a craze, once you have watched one half hour slot you are hooked and continue to watch the rest of the series. The difference is, in Big Brother the prize money is the only real goal for the contestants to reach, the weekly tasks add excitement for viewers and can put the pressure on the housemates but all the competitors auditioned for the show because of the prize money. The show Survivor is the same but there are many personal challenges to overcome as well, it is a much tougher game and it gives the contestants more of a chance to grow as a person. It may not be as high profile, and it has lower ratings but does this tell us something about what we want to see? Why do we want to wat...