Big Brother's next step: show that lasts forever

Germany's version of the Big Brother reality TV show will take a giant leap next
spring with the opening of a small town mimicking The Truman Show concept. In the Jim
Carrey movie, a man called Truman is unwittingly the subject of a 24-hour TV
5programme that monitors his every moment for the gratification of a worldwide
audience.

In the city being built outside Hamburg, the only difference will be that contestants
will be willing participants. There will be a forest, a town square with shops and a
church, schools and businesses. Contestants will, it is hoped, live there for years, falling
10in love, going to school, even getting married. The producers hope to lure in businesses
to employ them, as well as teachers and doctors.

Producer Rainert Laux said: "We hope couples will get pregnant and family groups will
interact with all the usual family frictions."

He said they would handpick the "very best group, all unemployed" to live in what
15will be a cross between the Truman Show and Disneyworld. "They can do exams there if
they want to go to school, learn languages or any other type of professional examination
for a career and eventual employment." The city will be as realistic as possible so that
contestants have no problems reintegrating into society.

Celebrities will occasionally appear, but the main group of contestants will remain
20"for decades," according to Mr Laux.

Producers of the show say the present format has had its day. The plan now is for an
entire community to be scrutinised around the clock. As long as such a show draws
viewers it will remain on air.

The idea follows on from an experiment in America by Fox TV which introduced

25Forever Eden, in which contestants were plonked on a Caribbean island. The show was
intended to be indefinite but was cancelled in April after three episodes were aired.

By contrast, the reality TV world depicted in the Carrey film is a dark fantasy in which
unassuming salesman Truman Burbank grows up in a city that is actually a vast studio
without knowing that his every action is broadcast to the outside world.

30 RTL2's idea, provisionally titled Big Brother Forever, according to makers Endemol, is
not quite so ambitious.

Media psychologist Jo Graibel voiced concerns that people who stayed for any length
of time would find it hard to adjust to the "real world".

The Guardian, Saturday 23 October 2004

35 01.07 BST