Fascinating, how when creatives get stuck in ruts, they turn to other media's ruts to get them out. At this year's Edinburgh Interactive, the folks from Endemol - yes, Big Brother's Endemol - gave a presentation on how they're trying to develop interactive content with the themes of reality TV. And you know what? It seems to be a resounding success.
Final. Nail. In. Coffin.
Endemol are no stranger to gaming; I remember speaking several years back to an Endemol exec about gaming applications for their pre-BB properties. They wanted in in a bad way. So now that they've got the bums of Britain on millions of seats interacting with television in the only way that media allows (hello text-voting), they're trying to get the fingertips of the world interacting with the nincompoops who thrust themselves and their psychoses into our living rooms.
Now Endemol aren't the first big media organisation to get involved in these parts. MTV, most recently, has been using There.com to extend its reality TV show branding for products like Virtual Laguna Beach and Virtual Hills. Apparently they're doing rather well, too.
Which means Endemol's pathetic Big Brother attempt in Second Life (yet another example of how not to get into virtual worlds), was just the beginning. According to Endemol's Peter Cowley, the future feels a little bit Kate Modern (a concept that worked well when no one knew they were being duped), and a lot Deal or No Deal.
Hey, I'm all for expanding content and bringing new IP to the table, but surely this is a step backwards rather than a step in the right direction? I mean, how interactive is Big Brother, really?
