Reality TV shock

Big Brother- has reality television gone too far?

Questions are to be asked of Endemol regarding the 9th series of Big Brother, which has already attracted controversy. According to concerned parties the show, which in the past has been accused of racism and bullying, has reached a new low.

The controversy centres around the fact that successful applicants for the latest series were not even aware they had been selected. Instead, the record breaking Channel 4 show took them by surprise, as armed men in balaclavas grabbed them and hustled them into unmarked vans. The lucky contestants were then sedated, dressed in nappies, and flown away to a top secret location in Afghanistan.

The contestants’ families weren’t in on the joke either. Michelle Gonk, the wife of Pete (currently odds 7/2) told the Sun newspaper ‘I didn’t even realise Pete was going to be on Big Brother till I came home from work and found our front door kicked in and Pete nowhere to be seen. Then I got a phone call from some guy saying Pete was on a secret plane to Afghanistan in plastic handcuffs. It didn’t half make me laugh.’

Allegations of ‘bullying’ and psychological pressure have also been made against Big Brother. Last weeks ‘game’ to get the weekly food bonuses required contestants to lie on the floor and be urinated on from a secret panel. Lisa, a 25 year old lap dancer, was reduced to tears after she went to the diary room where a noose had been left on the chair, and heard Big Brother’s voice saying ‘why don’t you kill yourself you fucking enemy combatant.’ And complaints poured in after a young Asian man, Shabaz, appeared to be suicidal and disoriented after he was locked in the secret bedroom and forced to listen to Barney the Purple Dinosaur non-stop for 50 hours.

Channel 4 have yet to confirm rumours about ideas for series 10, which are said to include dressing contestants in orange suits and encouraging them to vote each other out for thought crimes.