REVIEW FOR AN INTERNATIONAL STUDENT MAGAZINE - CAE

TWO TV PROGRAMMES OF SIMILAR GENRE

If you like to watch ordinary people make fool of themselves, then these two programmes could be for you.
In Big Brother, ten contestants are locked into a house, with no contact with the outside world.
Every week the TV audience vote one of them out, and the final person left in the house wins the prize. During the week the producers give the contestants tasks to make the show interesting. Of course, how interesting the programme is depends on the personalities and how they get on. Some people have found the show riveting, but personally I found it excruciatingly boring.
Survivor is considerably more interesting and, at its best, is absolutely hilarious. While Big Brother stretches over an interminable nine weeks, Survivor lasts only 39 days and has 16 contestants, thrown together in a remote part of the world. The basic idea is that they have to compete against each other and survive a number of physical and psychological challenges, then vote each other out of the game one by one. Of course, hidden cameras pick up everything, and there are some terrific shots, not only of the contestants making fools of themselves, but of exotic wildlife, too.
However, despite the many amusing moments, I have to admit I found the programme a bit flat at times, depending on which personality was being focused on.
If I had to choose one programme, though, there's no doubt which one I'd choose. Quite simply, Survivor is fun, Big Brother is a bore!