Big Brother is a reality TV show where 16 people are selected to live together 24 hours a day in the “Big Brother” house, isolated from the outside world and under constant surveillance with no privacy for three months. Each week the house guest vote to evict one of their own and at the end of the show, the remaining house guest wins $500,000. Big Brother airs three nights a week on CBS. They also have a live 24 hour feed that users can subscribe to in order to see the house guests live. Most of what happens in the 24 hour live feed is quite boring and will never air during prime time hours. Most of the ‘good stuff’ is shown during the segments airing on CBS during prime time.
In past year’s the cast has been quite diverse with people of different ages and ethnicity. For BB15 however, CBS decided to go with a younger cast. I have watched this show since it started and I don’t care for the cast this year because they are mostly 20-somethings that seem to only care about having sex on the show (yes, someone has already had sex and we are only in week 1) and talking about how good looking they are. It is very conceded, shallow group of young adults.
This week on the live 24 feed, the cast really crossed the line. Almost half of the cast, including Aaryn, Kaitlin, GinaMarie, David, Jeremy, Spencer, and Amanda, made racist, sexist, and homophobic comments mostly towards other cast members. The live feed captured this and anyone watching was able to see / hear it live. Reality Blurred has a complete list of what was said by whom.
Ok, I can live with these 20-somethings who think they should be held to different standards than Paula Deen. They are only in their 20’s, after all. What I cannot believe is that CBS is doing absolutely nothing other than releasing a statement to The Hollywood Reporter addressing the houseguests’ comments saying: “Big Brother is a reality show about watching a group of people who have no privacy 24/7 — and seeing every moment of their lives. At times, the houseguests reveal prejudices and other beliefs that we do not condone. We certainly find the statements made by several of the houseguests on the live Internet feed to be offensive. Any views or opinions expressed in personal commentary by a houseguest appearing on Big Brother, either on any live feed from the House or during the broadcast, are those of the individual(s) speaking and do not represent the views or opinions of CBS or the producers of the program.”
CBS says they do not condon these remarks, however by not taking any action, aren’t they condoning them? After all the controversy surrounding something Paula Deen said 30 years ago, I would think that CBS would take a tougher stand. The one thing they have done is put the ‘live feed’ on a 5 minute delay so they can edit out anything you shouldn’t see.
Even though CBS chooses to put their head in the sand and ignore the problem, other companies are taking action. GinaMaria Zimmerman has lost her job East Coast USA Pageant and Aaryn Gries has been dropped by Austin-based talent agency Zephyr Talent. We can’t have a double standard in this country where it is not okay for a 60-something chef to be held accountable for a comment made 30 years ago, but it’s okay for 20-somethings to say whatever they want.
BTW, I think the whole Paula Deen situation is ridiculous.
