For the first time in its four year run, the UK version of the reality television show “Big Brother” has failed to include a house member of a non-hetrosexual persuasion.
Although production company Endemol refuted the claims as circumstantial, OffGay, the official watchdog set up to ensure adequate penetration of non-hetrosexual television personalities, issued the following statement:
“Endemol have been extremely short sighted this year – Big Brother needs at least a gay housemate – it’s part of the heritage of the show, even if they cant stretch to a lesbian.
Honestly, where do they think this years crop of Saturday morning telly presenters are going to come from? Brian Dowling will be moving into the evening slot any time soon and with Julian Clary getting a bit long in the tooth we really need a youth injection.
They’ll live to regret it, of course – come week five when there are fewer housemates and they’re down to the dull ugly birds, they’ll be crying out for someone to camp it up.”
With Graham Norton becoming more annoying by the evening, OffGay could have a point. However, it is a little rich of them to expect Big Brother to annually audition prospective non-straight personalities, before letting them practice on screen for a number of weeks.
By contrast, branding managers are said to “be over the moon” with the easy on the eye appearance of the majority of the contestants. With talking animals and computer generated advertising stars becoming a tired formula, you can bet that even mid-distance evictees will be selling us household products before the year is out.