Word is starting to leak from the house on what we can expect from the all-new 2020 season of BIG BROTHER
And it’s not all good news.
In the most recent edition of the TV Blackbox podcast, former Big Brother winner Benjamin Norris revealed producers have hit some hurdles as the show continues to film at Sydney’s North Head Sanctuary, also known as The Barracks.
“When they first went in one of the things that channel 7 was most excited about was the casting.”
But Ben says the casting process hasn’t translated onto the screen, with producers disappointed by the results;
“The same person who told me the cast was amazing on paper also told me that two-or-three weeks into filming they haven’t gelled as well as what everyone assumed that they would”
It’s understood a common fix for problems like this is to introduce ‘intruders’. These are people who are not part of the original cast but are brought in to mix things up. There have been rumours Seven and Endemol Shine Australia (the production company) have been approaching celebrities such as Chrissie Swan.
Sources have told TV Blackbox that no intruders have been sent in at this stage though.
The other big revelation is the way they are shooting this series. Traditionally housemates are shot through a combination of cameras behind two-way mirrors and fixed remote controlled cameras, however Ben says the housemates are now interacting with crew members during the Survivor-style challenges;
“This is the biggest thing that’s changed because being the dynamic of this show that it’s surrounded by challenges, think maybe Survivor, and that is that every day they have to shoot these challenges they’re breaking that fourth wall and they’re actually seeing producers and they’re seeing camera people right in front of them when these challenges are being shot”
This goes against the very idea of Big Brother as the isolation of the housemates has often been part of the evolving storyline, as Ben attests;
“(This) is one of the saddest things I can imagine because, for me personally, I lost my mind eight weeks into the show because it was such an isolated challenge.
It has already been confirmed producers have told the housemates about the Coronavirus pandemic, but Ben says they had to because of the contracts.
You can hear all of Ben’s insights in the latest episode of the TV Blackbox podcast: HERE
Co-Creator and Editor of the TV Blackbox website, Robert McKnight is highly regarded Australian Television Producer, he has worked at SEVEN, NINE and TEN, and is most well-known for creating and producing STUDIO 10. Currently Rob is the host and producer of the TV Blackbox, McKnight Tonight and Monsters Who Murder podcasts.
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