Big Brother - the successful years

Earlier I offered these as the headings that I should think about:

• What was Big Brother?
• What was wrong with Big Brother
• What should be carried forward
• What should be dropped.
• The value and meaning of Social Media
• The changes to voting that will be introduced
• Whether Big Brother can survive
• The world view of Big Brother
• How to campaign successfully to ensure all stakeholders (us) have a say

I will start there then.
Big Brother was a groundbreaking concept.  Many different countries had their own.  It was Reality but mostly with a difference.  The Housemates would be treated like lab rats and would provide us with entertainment by their responses to the goading of BB.  We were offered the chance to participate on a couple of levels. 
We could watch and we could vote.  If we were fortunate we could go along and participate but for most of us it was the watching and voting.  Live Feed was invented (albeit with a 15 minute delay for censorship).  
The concept took off.  We could watch and listen.  We formed opinions and discussed them with colleagues.  The show was a huge success although there were many who thought it fairly infantile which it could be.
The contestants were chosen for their extrovert natures and we ended up feeling we knew them and either liked them or did not.
We were even given the choice of who to follow from 4 story lines for a while.  The series came and went but the constant of Live Feed made it an enjoyable experience for us. We watched in our millions (and I daresay we voted in millions too).  BB rang the changes but the show depends on an active and perhaps an informed audience which we enjoyed being.  Without us there is no show.