Our changing audience
31/01/06 08:27 Media
issues
There was a fascinating piece in yesterday's Guardian
by the people at Endemol who bring us Big Brother.
You need to register to read it, and you can find
it
here.
Essentially Endemol head man Peter Bazalgette is
crowing - understandably - about the success of
the latest Celebrity captive show. The reality
show isn't dead, he says, something profound is
happening to TV these days.
Well, yes and no. The show was a collossal hit of course, and it gave us all a powerful insight into (for example) that nice Mr. Galloway. But it's not actually revolutionary or new. Putting people into extreme or odd situations and watching them has been happening since Candid Camera. Big Brother simply exaggerates it and spins it out for longer. The real revelation to media bosses over the last year is what's happened on Saturday evenings. Bruce Forsyth, Doctor Who, some music...these elements revived Saturday evening family viewing and made that time of the week primetime again.
And that tells us something profound. It tells us that contrary to the perception that we're all more sophisticated than previous generations of viewers, we're not. We're roughly the same and respond to the same mix in our entertainments. TV executives had, in short, mis-read their audience almost completely.
Funnily enough you don't see many of them writing articles saying so...
Well, yes and no. The show was a collossal hit of course, and it gave us all a powerful insight into (for example) that nice Mr. Galloway. But it's not actually revolutionary or new. Putting people into extreme or odd situations and watching them has been happening since Candid Camera. Big Brother simply exaggerates it and spins it out for longer. The real revelation to media bosses over the last year is what's happened on Saturday evenings. Bruce Forsyth, Doctor Who, some music...these elements revived Saturday evening family viewing and made that time of the week primetime again.
And that tells us something profound. It tells us that contrary to the perception that we're all more sophisticated than previous generations of viewers, we're not. We're roughly the same and respond to the same mix in our entertainments. TV executives had, in short, mis-read their audience almost completely.
Funnily enough you don't see many of them writing articles saying so...
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