“Big Brother”. The patriarch of reality shows, hosted by Santiago del Moro.“Big Brother”. After suffering months of strict and excessive government quarantine due to the pandemic, what leads 18 Argentines to fight for voluntary confinement, without contact with the outside world and cameras monitoring them 24 hours a day, for approximately 4 months? The succulent prize of 15 million pesos for whoever wins or the famous 15 minutes of fame that, according to Andy Warhol (the artist who knew how to capture mass culture like no other) we all yearn for? Whatever the reason, this new version of the reality TV patriarch became a formidable success for our struggling broadcast television with more than 20 rating points in its first days.
Since that first local edition, at the beginning of this century, a lot of water has flowed under the bridge. Conceived as a kind of social experiment to spy on the lives of strangers, it is only remembered for the amplification of conflicts between participants, their survival strategies and relationships. But now that information from social networks prevails, strangers are no longer so. This is how, in minutes, the rejection, past and present, of some was exposed: since the only sixty-year-old in the group participated in an edition of Masterchef, or that the former national deputy militated for access to abortion, but did not vote for it when she had opportunity to do so; even the childhood television appearances of an actress or the public display of the resounding physical attractiveness of an almost lawyer from Salta. In addition, after his presentation, Thiago Medina, the tender 19-year-old, Central Market stocker and cartonero, became the undisputed favorite of the audience.
Given the serious socioeconomic crisis we are experiencing, the overwhelming mental need to escape, even for a while, may influence the level of interest to remain very high. Beyond that the format, ideal for voyeurs, with almost no structural surprises, is tedious and impossible to follow in detail.
By the way, involuntarily, there is already a winner: Wanda Nara. The media businesswoman was the host of the debut and showed an admirable ease, very much in the style of Susana Giménez, something that an uncomfortable Roberto Funes Ugarte, her partner, did not know (or did not want) to hide before the scrutinizing camera.
