Right now, CBS' "Big Brother" is in the middle of its 18th season. For those of you who don't know what "Big Brother" is, it is a game show and a reality show mixed into one. At the beginning of each summer, 16 people from all over the U.S. are chosen to enter the "Big Brother" house, where they will be cut off from the outside world and will be forced to compete in social, physical and mental competitions against their fellow houseguests for a half a million dollar prize. Kind of sounds like putting mice in a maze, right?
Don't get me wrong, I love "Big Brother," but I just can't ignore how much it all reminds me of a social experiment. I mean, you put sixteen people, all from different backgrounds and different personalities in a house where there is no contact with the outside world and they are forced to interact with each other. A houseguest's life in the game is in the hands of their fellow houseguests. So, to get far in the game, you have to be a socialite.
Even though the whole thing is a social game, there are also mental and physical competitions to help the game along. Each week, there are two competitions, the Head of Household competition and the Power of Veto. The Head of Household competition is played at the beginning of every week and whoever wins this competition becomes the Head of Household for the week, which means they are safe from eviction for the week. The downfall? The winner has to "get blood on their hands" and nominate two fellow houseguests for eviction.
The second competition is the Power of Veto, which is played in the middle of the week. The Head of Household, the two nominees and three other random houseguests compete in the Power of Veto. The winner has the power to veto one of the nominations for eviction and remove one of the houseguests off "the chopping block."
Some houseguests are good at physical competitions, while others are good at mental competitions. The producers pick what type of competition and when it is played, which allows the producers to manipulate the game so that one group that the producers favor holds the power over the house. Again, sounds like the mice in the maze, right?
The whole game is one big social experiment, which the producers control and the players are the test subjects. The producers manipulate the game through competitions, making the game almost predictable. Not to mention, not everything is live, so the producers control what the viewers see and what they don't see, which is manipulation towards the viewers, trying to get viewers to like the same players that they do.
