P15-M set being built for 'Big Brother'
By Jocelyn Valle
Inquirer News Service
ABS-CBN is building a house worth P15 million across its Quezon City estate, for use as the setting of the Philippine edition of the global reality TV hit, "Big Brother."
This was divulged by Linggit Tan, business unit manager and producer of ABS-CBN shows like "Goin' Bulilit" and "Quizon Avenue" when she met the press on Thursday, along with representatives of Endemol, the company behind "Big Brother."
"It will be a complete house, with two bedrooms and a living room," she said, adding that her group had asked occupants of houses on the property, which ABS-CBN owns, to move out.
From the network's 14th-floor restaurant, Tan pointed to a site where a construction team was busy at work. "Tall fences will be built to keep intruders away," she said.
Biggest investment
Tan said the "Big Brother" project is ABS-CBN's biggest investment so far, in terms of money paid for rights. She refused to disclose how much, exactly, but the big smiles on the faces of Endemol's Anuska Ban, executive director for creative and production support, and Ed Sharples, sales director for South East Asia, gave away an answer: huge.
The Philippines is the 31st country to adapt to local conditions the "Big Brother" concept originally thought up by two Dutch men, Joop van den Ende and Jon Mol. (Mol is no longer with Endemol, and sold his shares a few years ago, Sharples said.) The program is on its seventh season in the United States, Germany and Holland.
Endemol is also behind "Fear Factor."
"Big Brother" is a term coined by George Orwell in his novel, "1984," to refer to the state or government which, he predicted while writing the his book back in 1948, would be watching everybody's moves. The show is premised on this, Sharples explained, because cameras and microphones will be operating 24/7 to record the pre-selected 12 occupants' activities.
Tan also revealed that her group had to set up a call center to facilitate inquiries from would-be contestants. "We get 1,500 calls a day," she said. "We'll base our selection on the callers' personalities. Looks aren't our primary concern. The number of applicants will be trimmed down to six males and six females."
The producers will subject the 12 contestants, or housemates, to background checks and psychiatric tests to determine if they are mentally prepared to spend 100 days in isolation with total strangers-in a house with cameras and microphones that will allow the whole country to watch them on television. The housemates will have no contact whatsoever with the outside world-no TV, newspapers, radios and phones!
What they will have is the chance to win a cool million pesos, a house and lot, a car, the privilege to join the list of global "Big Brother" winners, and instant fame.
The housemates will each be given a weekly allowance of P500 for necessities, including food. They will have two sets of tasks: the first one should be accomplished at the end of the day, and the second by week's end.
One member will leave the house at the end of each week. Who will stay will be determined by audience voting through telephone and SMS. In other countries, except Thailand, audiences vote for those they want out.
No director
"There's also no director," Tan said. "The producers will choose which shots will be aired."
She said she first saw the show in Australia last year. "I was there to look for a new editing software," she recalled. Somebody mentioned 'Big Brother' to me. I watched last year's season on tape. I also found out that Filipinos in Australia are 'Big Brother' fans."
Tan believes that Filipinos at home are ready for what Sharples called a "reality soap."
"It's interesting because there's no acting," she said. "It's about building relationships and watching how people behave."
Sharples put it another way: "Essentially," he said, "human nature is pretty much the same anywhere in the world." (Call 1-800-5223-KUYA or [02] 929-KUYA)
