“We sat down to talk about it Older brother We can talk about Diego Leonardi and insecurity, about Marianela Mira and the plot, about Silvina Luna and beauty standards, and about Nadia Epstein as the perfect villain. How many stories does another domesticated reality show present to you? ” Marcus Gurban Seated in his office in the Almagro neighborhood of Buenos Aires. This week marked the 20th anniversary of the premiere of “Big Brother” in Argentina s Producer of the first six releases of the reality show Take over TN Show It only takes years to talk about the marks the show has left on society.
While preparing to direct some TV shows on Zoom, 100 happy Latinos, The Mexican version of 100 Argentines say Which emanates from the Spanish market for American television, and finishes the details of the program that premieres on Channel 9 with Boy Olmi and Teté Coustarot, Gurban reviews the highlights of the reality show that featured Before and After on Argentine TV and which continues to give the canvas to pieces.
How do you analyze the phenomenon that arose with the elder brother, and which has stopped since today?
Look, after 20 years I still have the same joy and the same frustration, which I really feel more comfortable with. When I talk about frustration, I mean discussions that were amazingly happening and never happened, It was not discussed what it was Older brother. First as a format, it was before and after it on television: it changed the ways content is narrated, directed, written and even promoted in the world, not just in Argentina. Something also happened in the reality show of the average participant who got into the house and it produced something that some did not explain about “Why do they show a guy brushing his teeth and scoring 12 points when nothing happens?”
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The first reaction that emerged was exasperation …
There was exasperation, but the reason why it happened was never analyzed: TV as a person who keeps your company; The man was brushing his teeth because he was a normal person like you. And it’s something that had consequences on global television, I’ll give you an example: A little while ago I had to work as a consultant on a very important program in the United States, in which he worked a very good woman. He was someone who had a huge audience on social media, had millions of followers, but every time he appeared on TV, he would shun him and even sometimes the rating would drop. What was the matter? I saw her curled up in her pajamas, disheveled, with mischief and she was gorgeous. And then you can see her on TV at eight in the morning in a cocktail dress, makeup as if she was going to a party at the embassy, beating the weather forecast. And they were two different people. People loved the real person and hated the TV personality. That starts with Gaston Trezeguet Cleaning teeth in home[الشخص] Older brother. It was a process by which the audience began to choose themselves, to see themselves as flawed, normal, without makeup, with explosive labels and anger: “Oh but they are nobody, they have no talent, they are ugly, they are stupid., They are this, they are the other.”
In fact, there’s really no way nowadays to be popular without showing that natural, networked side of home.
Even when that is not true! Look how interesting it is: what was previously disavowed is now what is true. This phenomenon has never been discussed.There is a debate about whether the kids were scripted, and if Maradona got into the house with drugs, the debate is always crazy. That remains because that is what they discussed Older brother, Which was gossip programs.
But in the first GH debate it was Eliseo Verón.
Sure, but she was a part of Big Brother. Eliseo was there and he was analyzing these things with Pacho O’Donnell, Mario Maktas, Jorge Dorio, Adriana Chetini, Annie Ventura. Sociologist Luis Alberto Quevedo was part of the production team. They were all super cool people who helped us think a lot about the show, too. Dorio used to say, for example, that Big Brother is like Peronism: Everyone flogs him until they offer him a place on the advisors list (laughs).
What other discussions did you think were pending?
When Diego Leonardi entered the house in 2007, he put us in front of the cast that made us uncomfortable. A man we loved came and said, “I was in prison and paid my sentence, what would you like me to steal again?” It makes me uncomfortable, but I have to agree with him. This sparked an argument for us even in the legal department of the channel. This discussion later extended to the community. “It’s a jet,” Mercedes Ninche, being a journalist, said on Gossip. No, it is not a plane. He is a man who has paid his sentence. If the stigma of aircraft persists for life, the conviction is of no use. It’s an interesting debate created at Big Brother.
Something similar happened with Gaston and homosexuality …
These are the issues that GH has brought to the table as a discussion, as a catalyst I would say.
The other thing that happened is that the software got very high ratings and after that there were many people who denied seeing it.
TV like this. I’ve already had experience because I worked for five years at Videomatch in the 1990s. I usually say TV has the same amount of masturbation consumption, because people do that and they don’t admit to it. He’s been Tinelli for many years, he’s been an older brother, he’s been Cumbia. It is no coincidence that when people stopped asking what they saw to gauge what they were seeing, Pelanta’s rating went up and Mariano Grondona’s rating went down.
Out of the six versions of GH you’ve produced, do you have any favorites? Maybe the first?
The first and fourth stand out clearly. The reason was because he was new to everyone, we were all virgins for Big Brother and with people we’ve been spotting on the air. It was an incredibly amazing find we never had such a good time. Everything in the media, with gossip programs she talks badly about what we did and she says we drugged the kids …
There were magazine covers that were compared to Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels …
Sure, it wasn’t all pretty. We did not know how to play in the media. We’ve been driving a spaceship with a joystick and the story after that is always a success story. From fears, from insecurities, from things that have happened to us inside, we don’t realize it. It was such a hit, it was a great learning experience, but with suffering and ignorance. With very difficult discussions within the channel. For example, when Gaston asked Eleonora to vote for Tamara, our phones were tapped and we had to punish them. The channel told us: “No, how would you punish him if he was your hero?” It was in the rules, we had to punish that.
The second version of the program ended shortly before the outbreak in 2001 …
Yes, on December 7th. I was on vacation when the meltdown happened.
Was the crisis something that appeared in the castings?
This appeared much more in the third edition, which started in October 2002. People who wanted to try an unknown experiment came to pick the first version, and did not promote themselves in silver; Nobody really understands what it was. When choosing the second, all people were fanatical with the first. Two months later, the third was chosen, and people appeared desperate because of the crisis. The phrase “Big Brother or I’m leaving the country”, “Big Brother or I’ll kill myself”, “My father was unemployed, everything is wrong and I need this.” Then there were four years between then and when GH 2007 came, people actually came along They trained to be participants in a reality show.
At that time it was legitimate to be a player and strategist.
Note that in the first matches, in Argentina in 2001 and 2002, this was ashes: not the one who plays better wins but the one who needs the most to play and who plays badly. Since 2007, the player has been awarded a prize: Marianela Mira, Pam Pam and Diego, the three winners that year, are players who play and speculate. The crowd changes, the country changes: the country entering the shelf is not like a developing country. This is the difference between 2001 and 2007, another element that has never been analyzed. Analyzing what comes in choosing actors and the behavior of the audience in one program and another, depending on what is happening in the country, is very interesting. We did it internally, in choosing the decisions and things we did.
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For example?
In the third edition of Older brother We did something that no one remembers but that sparked a lot of controversy at the time. For all that the children did, they had prizes in the form of tokens with which they could buy cigarettes and sweets. And if they send a baton, they are punished and taken out. The children were like a bag with savings in which they could buy the comfort benefits at home. And one day the older brother told them he needed to make a change: What we did is create a fake coin inside the house and we ask them to stay calm so they can pull out two hundred days. It was a year of Cavallo corralito and we put it indoors. This was followed by a mind-boggling political debate. Now nobody remembers it and the rating was amazing, in line with what was being discussed in the community.
