Big Brother 2 Keeping Contestants in the Dark

How much do the Big Brother 2 houseguests know about the recent terrorist attacks? That was a question posed earlier today by a headline at Zap2it.com. It’s also been asked of me, as Editor of RealityNewsOnline, in numerous e-mails from readers. It appears the answer is, “not a whole lot.”

Why haven’t they been told much? Why haven’t their misconceptions of the event been corrected? One might argue that the contestants are supposed to be cut off from the outside world. Indeed, one competition earlier was to guess whether certain news headlines were true or false. The reward was three minutes in a room full of newspapers. When they signed on, they knew they would have no idea what was going on outside their four walls – other than some banners flown over the house, of course.

Yes, one might argue that, but then reality would slap them in the face. The reality of the situation is that Monica has a cousin who is, according to the Zap2it article, “still missing, and presumed dead.” All Monica has apparently been told is that downed phone lines are making it difficult to contact her.

Will stated shortly after they were told of the attack (though they were never told much) that he has friends in New York. We have no idea who these friends might be, and Will has no idea that they might have been in serious danger. All of them are treating it lightly, because they have not seen the images we have seen, heard the death tolls we have heard, or felt the pain that we have felt.

How can CBS justify keeping Monica in the dark when her own family member may have been killed? Is the game really more important?

I should note that the live feeds indicate that Nicole and Will are the finalists for the Head of Household (HoH) competition that was supposed to take place live tonight. They have both agreed that they will evict Monica, no matter who ends up winning it. Indeed, this is in their best interest, since Monica is the most well-liked of all three of them. So perhaps CBS figures that Monica will be leaving the house tonight anyway, or maybe they don’t want to alter the dynamics of the game by making it more likely Monica would be evicted so she can be with her family, or less likely because the HoH feels bad for her. Maybe. Maybe. Maybe.

No matter how many “maybes” I can come up with, the end result is that CBS is still wrong.

Arnold Shapiro, the show’s executive producer, told USA Today that “the tragedy that happened in America far outdoes anything with the show.” Does it really? Then why have they continued with production as if nothing happened? Why has Monica not been told the full truth about her cousin? Why have the houseguests not been told why banner planes aren’t flying over? Why have they not been told of the full magnitude of what has happened? Why? Because what Shapiro said and what they are doing are two different things.

One way or the other, the houseguests are in for quite a shock. But it’s time for CBS to treat them like adults, not caged rats. Tell them what has gone on. Show them the news footage. Explain to them the current situation. Let them decide if they want to stay in the house or go home to be with loved ones. Offer to split the prize money. Do something humane with them.

It was bad enough that CBS did everything they could to keep Nicole in the house while she was practically having a nervous breakdown and wanted to leave – they even violated their own rules to make sure she stuck around. Why did they do it? Because letting her go would have messed up their programming. But now it’s time for CBS to show the world that they really do value humanity over their prime time television scheduling.