Big Brother (Dutch TV series)

Upon the announcement of the program's format, a debate arose about its ethical acceptability. It was not known whether participants would be shown showering or in the toilet. Though both had been deemed unacceptable, only the latter still holds. Experts argued whether participants should be protected against themselves and whether participation would cause psychological or emotional damage. This discussion included the moral panic in Sweden after the first contestant voted off Expedition Robinson killed himself; his family reportedly blaming the rejection he felt due to being unpopular with the public.

P. van Lange, a social psychologist at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam pointed out the similarity to the Stanford Prison Experiment (1971).[3] Participants in that experiment were placed in a jail, where half played guards and the other half prisoners. In six days, the experiment derailed. The guards became aggressive, repressive and sadistic. They transformed into personalities outside their normal selves. "From the Stanford-experiment may be concluded that human behavior is largely summoned by the local circumstances", added his colleague J. van der Pligt, professor at the Universiteit van Amsterdam.[3] "People get carried away," said A. Bergsma of Psychologie Magazine. "Isolation becomes reality. They lose themselves in the experiment. There are no checks and balances. If there is no correction, they will derail one after another."[3] All experts agreed that the big reward for the winner increased the chance of accidents. But not all had a negative opinion. A. Lange, a professor of clinical psychology at the Universiteit van Amsterdam indicated that the program could produce certain insights not possible to achieve any more in socio-psychological research because the psychological well-being of the participant had been given greater importance.[3] "The design of the programme is the wet dream of a psychological researcher. Nowhere in the world an ethical commission will be found that would agree to such a design", agreed psycho-physiologist A. Gaillard of the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research.[3]

From the moment Big Brother scored high ratings, the debate shifted to what this fact implied about the character of the Dutch, and if sexual explicit and terms of abuse suited the early broadcasting. What was considered voyeurism now became mainstream entertainment. One explanation was that people had become more isolated and were searching for others to identify with. In this view, talking about Big Brother took the place of backbiting and scandal on the village green.

The debate in the Netherlands has died down and reality TV has become a standard of television programming. In hindsight, it nonetheless became clear that some housemates (like first season's Bart en Ruud) suffered psychological problems akin to post traumatic stress disorder.

Big Brother VIPs was the first-ever of celebrity spin-off version of the original of the international reality television franchise Big Brother worldwide. The show was broadcast on Veronica from 22 May 2000 to 16 June 2000 for four weeks.

The show was pre-recorded in the Big Brother House were included four different groups of well-known Dutch celebrities known as VIPs. The VIPs of each group were only in the house for five days. There was no winner in this show.

The show could not take advantage of the hype of Big Brother 1, the ratings were significantly lower.

Hotel Big Brother was the second celebrity spin-off version of the original of the Dutch reality television series Big Brother. The show was broadcast on Talpa from 12 January 2006 to 7 March 2006 for 55 days.

In this show, well-known Dutch celebrities were brought together to operate a hotel as a "hotelier". The proceeds of the hotel would donate to the foundation of Mappa Mondo, for children with a life-threatening illness from the Red Cross in Eindhoven. The target amount was €2,500,000, to be raised in eight weeks.

Outsiders could stay in the hotel. For this, they had to register via the website of the show. On the website, they could reserve a room in the hotel for one or more nights where it was possible that they could be seen on TV.

Each week they will be joined by a new manager called "Big Boss", who will be in charge. The Big Boss will stay for a week and is not part of the competition. Initially, every week a "hotelier" would be voted out by the public, but this concept was immediately abandoned after a few celebrities quit the show.

The show suffered from poor viewing figures and the Red Cross was dissatisfied with the quality delivered, but after some adjustments, which inevitably led to censored TV coverage and often logos on the streams it was nevertheless maintained.

The show ended a week earlier than planned on 7 March 2006 with the "Gala van de Glimlach van een Kind (Gala of the Smile of a Child)" many celebrities participated free of charge.

Big Boss

Guest

• The Golden Cage

• Big Brother at IMDb