[letmein]

A more “aspirational” house and housemates who represent different sections of society and will engage in the debates of modern Britain are among the changes as Big Brother goes “back to basics” when it returns to British TV on Sunday.

At a time when division is exacerbated by culture wars and social media echo chambers, the producers have taken the format back to its social experiment roots by narrowing down 30,000 applications to just 16 housemates who reflect the “changes in society” since the reality show was axed five years ago by Channel 5.

“Gender identity terms like ‘non-binary’ and ‘gender fluid’ were nonexistent in society,” previously, Khagram said, along with, “phrases like ‘Black Lives Matter’ or ‘Me Too’ … we’ve been through a global pandemic since the last series of Big Brother aired”, so when choosing housemates the team was “mindful and representative” of “changes in the way we tackle mental health, political viewpoints, empowerment, prejudice and equality”.

Big Brother’s executive producer, Natalka Znak, said she was interested in finding people with “different accents” and “ordinary jobs” along with older contestants – the age range is from 18 to about 50+ – to ensure “a variety in age [and] backgrounds so it is a social experiment, because they’re just trapped in that [Big Brother] world”.

She was keen to find people who will provide “all the debates of modern society … you do want the national things that people are talking about … different generations approach things differently. I’m interested in that debate [and] in what young people think of old people.”

However, housemates and production teams were given inclusion and diversity training because “people are from different backgrounds” so might not “understand … why things might be unacceptable”.

https://amp.theguardian.com/tv-and-r...e-year-absence