House On Fire

Sydney Morning Herald

Monday April 21, 2008

Michael Idato

Big Brother's new hosts plan to shake up the fading franchise, writes Michael Idato.

They will quake. They will tremble. With radio's enfant terrible Kyle Sandilands cracking the ringmaster's whip, the 14 housemates ushered into the Big Brother house next Monday night probably won't know what's hit them.

Sandilands and his radio co-host, Jackie O, promise to inject some fire into the format, which is good news on all fronts - for Ten, conscious of the format's age and structural fatigue; and for the audience, whose frustration with the show's lack of reinvention has gone from a whisper to a roar.

"We need to shake it up a little bit but we don't want to change the thread of why people like to watch this too much," Sandilands says.

Big Brother is now eight years old. Its audience has been in steady, albeit slow, decline and, despite an annual promise to deliver a diverse and original cast, Ten and producer Southern Star Endemol continue to attract criticism for superficial, "blonde" casting.

When the subject is raised, Sandilands doesn't mince his words. "It needs to be less 'frat house', more real suburban streets, so a few more real issues can come out. [In the past] there was romance and a little bit of drama but there were no really meaty issues being discussed in the house."

The decision to revamp the show was made in the middle of last year, although it was not until September that Sandilands and Jackie O were approached, and October before the show's long-standing host, Gretel Killeen was told her services were no longer required.

Sandilands and Jackie O acknowledge it was time for change, though neither is critical of Killeen.

"I've always admired her," Jackie O says. "It's a tough job. She sometimes let her emotions show but it's a tough job and she handled it solo for seven years and she remained very calm under pressure."

The immediate advantage for Ten is that the show naturally locks into the new hosts' 2Day FM radio audience - a smooth demographic fit for a network chasing 16- to 39-year-olds. For the past eight years, Sandilands and Jackie O have built an astonishingly successful radio partnership in the most competitive radio market in the country.

It helps that both are familiar with the show, although only Jackie O is a fan. "Like everyone else, I watched the first series and I thought it was fantastic," she says. "I loved the soap opera of it all, and the fact that it is real. We always tune in thinking this year will be crazy; some years it has disappointed, some years not. It's pot luck."

Sandilands watched the first series but "like many people I peeled off over the years ... I didn't consciously drift; I watched the first couple of years and then I thought, 'This is pretty much the same thing as it was,' so it wasn't an appointment for me."

His perspective, however, is unique, having been "on the inside" on two occasions. First as one of the stars of Celebrity Big Brother in 2002, and later, in 2007, as a intruder in a stunt intended to ruffle feathers in the house. The latter fizzled, he says, because at the time he was "sick, tired, cold and [suffering from] headaches".

Having experienced it first hand, Sandilands acknowledges the pressure-cooker environment of the house, where emotions and relationships are heightened because of the close proximity. "I was one of those guys who would think, 'They get evicted, they're crying, they're saying their best friends are in there and they've only known each other for three weeks,' and I thought, 'How stupid does that sound?' But when I went in, I was only in there for three weeks and I came out with some of the closest friendships I've ever had."

Sandilands spent 22 days on Celebrity Big Brother, bunking down with game show hostess Adriana Xenides, music presenter Dylan Lewis, former AFL pin-up Warwick Capper, boxer Anthony Mundine and drag queen Vanessa Wagner. Since then, Sandilands and Mundine have remained particularly close.

"What was I going to have in common with an Aboriginal boxer?" he says. "You can form great relationships with people you wouldn't think you have anything in common with. I can see why they fall in love very quickly and I can see why they become great friends after the show."

Sandilands and Jackie O acknowledge the show has lacked fire in recent years. The most memorable milestones in the show's history are the "dancing doona" (an under-the-covers tryst between first-year housemates Peter Timbs and Christina Davis), Sara-Marie Fedele's bunny ears, the "Logan twins" (brothers Greg and David Mathew who, for 10 days during the 2005 season, convinced the other housemates they were one person), the public declaration of his sexuality by gay farmer David Graham in 2006 and the cancellation of Big Brother: Adults Only the same year, under pressure from government lobbyists in Canberra. (Some of the adult content will return this year, in a panel-style show, Big Brother: Big Mouth, to be hosted by Tony Squires and Rebecca Wilson.)

Jackie O believes the show's finest moments are born of stunts, "when we're in on something the housemates are not, and it's clever". She also enjoys it when relationships form, such as that between Timbs and Davis in season one. "He wasn't as into her as she was, she wanted to have the whole commitment talk, and it was on TV and it was kind of cringe-worthy, but I like those moments."

Sandilands and Jackie O have worked on television before, not always with success. Jackie O featured in Undercover Angels, Australian Princess, The Nation With Mick Molloy and Surprise Surprise Gotcha, the last two of which were spectacular failures.

"Sometimes you feel like you're working on a show that is a winner and it can be an absolute dud," she says. "And vice versa - you can think, 'This won't do very well' and it can be a huge hit. It can be a big gamble in TV. It's also a very fickle industry, a lot more fickle than radio. You can be the golden child at the network for a year and the next year they don't want to know you, and I've definitely experienced that.

"I take TV with a grain of salt. It's fun to do but it's tough. I don't know how people survive."

Sandilands fared considerably better with Australian Idol, to which he'll return later this year, although he went through a difficult adjustment when brought in to replace Ian Dickson in 2005. "I was extremely uncomfortable going into an established show. I was s---ting myself most of the time."

Sandilands says that, for him and Jackie O, working together immediately introduces a "comfort factor". "I'm more excited than I am nervous," he says. "I'm excited to work with Jackie on television because I know if I screw something up she will be there to catch me, and I will be there to catch her as well."

Big Brother begins on Ten on Monday next week at 7pm.

© 2008 Sydney Morning Herald

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