Who Watches Big Brother?

The UK's Reality TV pioneer show Big Brother is over for another season, but others such as 'I'm a Celebrity...', 'Fame Academy' & 'Pop Idol' are gearing up for new series, so Alas the phenomenon continues. Ipsos UK recently used its weekly Quest media issues panel of 4000 individuals to probe the reasons for its popularity.

Less than half the UK population are prepared to admit that they watch reality TV shows (RTV), with only 1 in 10 saying that they make a special effort to watch. Three quarters of the Ipsos sample indicated that they think 'ordinary' people act differently because they know people are watching, whereas the same number believe that 'you get to know a lot more about a celebrity' by watching them on such a show, so it's not a great surprise to find that for those people who do watch, the preference is to watch celebrities rather than 'ordinary' people in 'real life situations'.

RTV viewers are generally very happy with their role as observers. Fuelling the belief among some that they are the arch-couch potatoes, 72% do not want any direct control over tasks given to celebrity participants and only 8% agree that they would 'love to appear on a RTV show' themselves. In fact, says Ipsos, 'the majority agree that there are too many reality shows on TV nowadays, so it must be the drug-like quality that keeps them watching (nearly half agree they tend to become addicted)'.

However, over half admit to voting during RTV shows in the past, spurred on by the fact that calls are reasonably priced and the money goes to a good cause: 8 out of 10 would not pay more than £1 and 5 out of 10 insist the cash must go to charity.

Telephone is the most popular way to vote with nearly half of all RTV viewers choosing this method, followed by text message for 28% and a significant 14% of RTV 'pressing the red button'.

Ipsos is on the Web at www.ipsos.com

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.

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