It’s About Time: Big Brother Welcomes Diversity in Latest Season
It only took 23 seasons (not including celebrity and all-stars seasons) for reality show Big Brother to crown the first African American player as the season’s winner and include a diverse cast.
Big Brother is a take on the classic book 1984 by George Orwell. This book coined the phrase “Big Brother is watching you,” which refers to a group of leaders who were able to watch every move of those they ruled over. The reality show takes a similar format as the house the contestants live in for up to 100 days is filled with cameras and microphones that allow viewers to watch their every move and eavesdrop on conversations. The show takes place in the summer in Los Angeles, California where 16 strangers move into a house to compete for $750,000 by being the last houseguest standing after 15 evictions through different competitions. The final two then plead their case to the jury which is made up of nine former contestants who were eliminated after week five and they vote on a winner.
The 23rd season of Big Brother which just aired this past summer in 2021, acted on a criticism that has long plagued the show: the lack of diversity. Big Brother is a notoriously racist show and prior to this season, there was maybe one or two non-white people on the cast. The Black Lives Matter protests during 2020 were a wake-up call for CBS, the company that produces the show, to give people of color more of a fighting chance to win statistically speaking. The Chief Executive of CBS, George Cheeks, ordered that at least half of the casts of any unscripted show that was to be aired on the network were to be made up of BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and people of color).
One of the key strategies of Big Brother is making alliances with fellow houseguests. Typically these alliances consisted of physically strong white men who would run the game, carry the votes, and inevitably win the season. Often having group names, these alliances of six or less people would carry each other to the end of the game. This season however created one of the most well rounded alliances in the history of the show: The Cookout. This alliance is made up of all African-American people and was initially started as more of an agreement to not target one another but eventually evolved into a powerful group that was able to win all different kinds of competitions. The team carried themselves to the final six, which assured that a Black person would be crowned the winner. This alliance consisted of the following players: Hannah Chaddah, Tiffany Mitchell, Xavier Prather, Derek Frazier, Kyland Young, and Azah Awasu.
This season of the show affected not only Big Brother, but the reality television industry as a whole. When actually given an even playing field, people from any background have a fair shot at progressing within the show. This is only the start of more inclusive casting, as this particular season got a lot more views over last year’s season. Audiences can only hope the inclusivity they’ve gotten to see more recently within the entertainment industry will continue.