Classic Rant #44 (July 15, 2009): CBS's Big Brother Watches Over Me

As I said in an earlier post, I don't watch much network TV.

However, I also admit that I do watch the lowest form of television, which has to be CBS's Big Brother. Suffice it to say, William Paley turns over in his grave every time a new edition of this voyeur-fest premieres. It must be successful--he has now turned over in his grave 11 times!

The latest edition features house guests who are split into cliques, like the ones that existed in high school. You have your athletes, brains, popular people, and the ones that just don't fit in anywhere.

And yes, there are the usual petty squabbles, arguments, nonsense and a girl with breasts that are the size of Mount Rushmore (and probably as man-made as that tourist attraction is).

I can't put my finger on why I watch this show, and have watched it since it debuted a number of years ago. I guess there is a voyeur in me, who basks in knowing the personal so and so's of these house guests.

I know that I have always loved show host Julie Chen, ever since she was a reporter on WCBS Channel 2, the local CBS station and the network's flagship. She is noticeably pregnant, even though she is still skinnier than 99 percent of the people on this planet.

I guess I am also interested because it is the summer, and after a hard day at work, I need a respite from all the nonsense I have to put up with there--this is one show that goes in one ear and out the other for sure.

And, of course, they constantly show girls in bikinis, and that has to be listed as a reason. The one girl I alluded to earlier--a bikini model, natch--is a natural for this show (although I don't think she is very natural in any way).

Whatever the case, if you have never seen the show, I am not going to tell you to watch it, because if you haven't gotten involved after 11 seasons of this, you just won't ever get involved.

If you do watch it, please provide me with some other reasons that people take in this voyeur-fest, other than the bikinis and large breasts.

Again, I don't normally watch this type of stuff, but Big Brother has intrigued me from day one--and I am somewhat embarrassed to admit that, although I just did.