While these competitions are important, what the game is more about, really, is people building alliances. Don't put me on the block and I'll protect you next time, etc. So it's all manipulations, backstabbing, lying, deceiving. Friendships are formed, friendships are destroyed.
In classic UK Big Brother, openly scheming to build alliances was strictly forbidden. Housemates who were caught talking about nominations, or even using code to signal their intentions, were punished by Big Brother. So forming a strategy was trickier in the UK. Housemates had to form voting blocks without ever speaking about their intentions. Any utterance on the subject of who to nominate had to be disguised as something else, and even then the producers would usually figure it out.
I don't know what current UK Big Brother is like, because the whole concept was ruined when 24/7 Live Feed for public viewing was discontinued many years ago. But there were certain other conventions that housemates had to follow if they wanted to win, considering that it was the UK public who would vote them out:
- Never say you want to win or you think you might win. This kind of statement is read as arrogance by the UK public and they will vote you out.
- Keep saying that you're just there "for the experience."
- Never mention a strategy for winning, even if you have one. This is called "having a game plan" by UK audiences, and they will vote you out.
- The more stupid you can appear in front of the BB audience, the better they like you. It's not possible to say anything too dumb or clueless. If the UK audience thinks you're guileless and natural, you're in the running to win.
- If you want someone voted out, keep saying that they have a game plan and they're "fake." If the UK audience believes you, they'll vote that person out.
- When making nominations, don't say the real reason you want them out. Most housemates dissemble when giving the reason for their nominations in the Diary Room, which is required. The individual nominations and reasons for nomination are kept secret from the housemates, but are shown to the entire voting TV audience. In order to avoid looking vindictive or scheming, the fake reason will usually be something like "I think he's really missing his mum" or "she seems to have lost herself in here."
In classic UK Big Brother, there were no competitions for "head of household" or "power of veto." Those concepts did not exist. Any competition that was held was for extra money in the food budget for the whole group, or perhaps extra alcohol or party supplies for the whole group.
Coming to the show from an outsider's perspective, it was a vivid illustration of certain British qualities that were new to me: the embrace of the underdog in any competition, the fetish of (and insistence upon) self-deprecation, the cult of Zelebrity, and the marked distaste toward any perceived effort to win or scheme. It's OK to win, but one mustn't be seen to really try or make too much effort.
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