The people of Tamil Nadu are not the only ones to have been completely swept by the Bigg Boss wave as the show has garnered terrific viewership in most of the countries it has been reproduced.
In the U.S. and U.K., the overseas version of the show, Big Brother , has been renewed for 20 seasons.
Despite the smashing success of the show elsewhere, and actor Kamal Haasan being roped in, there were doubts over whether a show that depends on surveillance and an intrusion on privacy would work in Tamil. Big Brother was conceptualised as a reality programme in which a group of people are sequestered in a fully-furnished house rigged with microphones and cameras for a considerable period of time — 100 days in the Tamil version’s case.
The show was first telecast in the Netherlands in 2000 and garnered 53 % of the national television audience after being televised every day.
Many a clone
The unprecedented popularity of the original spawned several clones on both sides of the Pacific and is said to have been reproduced in 54 countries.
In India, there have been 10 seasons in Hindi and four seasons in Kannada, in addition to the two seasons already scheduled in Tamil and Telugu. The show has had a huge impact on the careers of several of the participants — the most popular being Indian actor Shilpa Shetty who won the U.K.’s version of Big Brother in 2007.
While critics have said that the program caters to the base voyeuristic instincts of the human being, academics and scholars have tried to locate the show’s popularity in capturing society’s own anxiety over constant surveillance. Many a time, the show has brought forth and kickstarted debates on issues of racism, sexism and surveillance.
