When MTV began airing an unprecedented TV show featuring a group of strangers living together in the same house, with their relations recorded on camera for all to watch, it kick-started a new age in television. The Real World debuted in 1992, helping make George Orwell’s dystopian omnipotent eye Big Brother a reality for years to come.
MTV has always been a fragmented TV experience, breaking the norms and standards of mainstream broadcasting for a progressive, younger audience. While The Real World had a cult following (the show will enter its 24th season this month), it wasn’t inspirational for producers of big TV channels.
All that changed in the late 1990s when a major TV outlet began airing Big Brother in the Netherlands. The rest is history. Today, in 70 countries, ordinary people are exhibiting their fears, longings and eating and sleeping habits on TV for the enjoyment of millions.
Andy Warhol’s forecast that everybody would be famous for 15 minutes was becoming true, and a new sense of television programming opened the way for ordinary people to become popular household names, even if only for a few weeks, or hopefully for a couple of months.
