Big Brother

Last summer's Big Brother 8 was the first season of the series to feature a companion program entitled Big Brother: After Dark, which aired on CBS sister network Showtime Too.  After Dark was a nightly three hour block of live footage from the Big Brother house, uncensored and unfiltered.  This sort of live footage had been available in the past with the live, twenty four internet feeds, but After Dark was presented in glorious high definition.  The uncensored nature of the show was the supposed appeal, though that didn't play out as well as CBS had likely hoped.  By casting a model/nanny, a sorority girl and a Hooters waitress, the producers probably assumed that nudity would be abundant.  This was not the case.

The only female nudity came from an unattractive ex-Meth addict, and no one wanted to see that. Nonetheless, the few times I tuned into After Dark, I was weirdly enthralled.  I don't have the Showtime channels, so I didn't watch regularly, but it was packaged well.  This may be on accord of the quality of the house mates, who I enjoyed last season, but I don't see the harm in giving audiences another season of After Dark.

Even if the ratings were poor, it's not like Showtime Too can't afford to waste three hours a day on Big Brother content.  The real question is, do Big Brother fans want more Big Brother: After Dark. One of the major criticisms of After Dark was that the housemates were fully aware of it.  The ladies would dress up, put make up on and everyone would save much of their scheming and drama for the three hour block.  While this is not necessarily a bad thing, in a way it watered down all the other waking hours inside the house, making for more boring internet feeds. 

So, what do you all think?


-Oscar Dahl, BuddyTV Senior Writer
(Image Courtesy of CBS)