Big Brother has just shut its doors on an unexpectedly refreshing season of Australian reality TV.

On Monday night’s finale, Coco took out the title against runner up Emily.

The ratings for the finale were another win for Ten, capping off a surprising return to form for a reality show that once dominated the Australian psyche like no other when the first Big Brother house opened its doors in 2001.

This season’s launch topped a million viewers, making it the biggest reality TV premiere Ten has had in years, with the show even managing to top the ratings against Nine and Seven some nights.

For a network that has experienced dwindling figures in recent years, Big Brother has come just in time.

 

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But just as importantly, Big Brother has secured the coveted youth demographic, with nightly episodes consistently dominating in the 16-39 and 25-54 age brackets.

Like what Nine has done with Love Island Australia, which gets the majority of its young viewership from the 9Now streaming platform, Ten has seen the value of making a show that appeals to Gen Z, who can watch it on demand — and when it comes Big Brother, the limit doesn’t exist on what fans can watch.

The addition of Big Brother live stream was nothing short of genius. Sure, it had some problems. There was a range of tone-deaf, racist, offensive and sexually explicit conversations that streamed online before the live footage was cut off.

But at its best, the live stream broke Big Brother out of its daily episodes into an entire BB ecosystem. The show lived on online, changing constantly, as fans on X, Reddit and TikTok intimately got to know each of the housemates on a level the daily show could never capture.

And this is exactly the level of access that Gen Z and the TikTok/YouTube generations demand with their reality TV — an all-access pass to every facet of the show, the kind of access they get to their favourite content creator or vlogger’s lives.

This brings me to why Big Brother worked this year, and no, it has nothing to do with people like me who watched it for a pure hit of TV nostalgia.

It was a celebration of the banal, the boring, the lives of people who aren’t particularly all that special.

To be clear, they did cast some intriguing, divisive and funny characters, but with the exception of model and influencer Holly — who was likely cast for this very reason — the rest were all the type of people you’d pass at the local servo any day of the week.

Thank you for giving Australia Emily. Image: Ten.

Watching these folks every night became the ultimate comfort watch — a much-needed reprieve from the chaos and conflict we typically associate with reality TV.

In a world of glass-smashing and wine-spilling on Married at First Sight, heated breakups on Farmer Wants a Wife, and ‘mean girl’ dynamics on Love Island, it can be the ultimate means of self-soothing to tune into the lives of 12 strangers having to go grocery shopping on a budget of $100.

Yes, I absolutely want to see two housemates arguing about how to equally distribute a bag of Kit-Kats.

Reality juggernauts like MAFS have aired long enough for fans to see right through the edits, hero characters and villain arcs. I’m not saying I won’t inhale MAFS when it airs next year (also: it’s my literal job), but Big Brother has proven there is a place for more unfiltered and raw stories on the Australian TV landscape.

And young people are clearly crying out for it.

Of course, it wasn’t just silly convos about snack-sized chocolate and grocery lists that occupied the episodes: two love stories blossomed (between Colin/Holly and Bruce/Coco, respectively), there were friendships formed and fractured, and plenty of debates on everything ranging from gender roles to modern dating. And I ate it all up.

Was it a perfect season? Not really. I wouldn’t quite put it in the same category as Ten original seasons that gave us the likes of Bree Amer and Chrissie Swan, or even the chaotic Nine reboot, which brought us Tim Dormer.

It’s a promising start, but the variety of housemates didn’t quite nail the magical Big Brother formula.

Finding people with opposing opinions is one thing, but they didn’t quite succeed in finding people, who umm… like each other. What was lacking was the fun, the friendships, the silliness that comes from when people form a bond that’s beyond just housemates — they become family.

For example, after a three-year rest, the Nine reboot in 2012 provided plenty of drama (mostly around Estelle Landy or Benjamin Norris) but it was also a pure joy to watch.

The 2012 season of Big Brother was something else, featuring Estelle, Michael and Benjamin. Image: Nine.

Between the hilarious tasks, songs and lifetime friendships made, it felt like spending time with your favourite dysfunctional friend group each night.

But then again, the 2012 season ran for over three months.

Overall, the Ten reboot did not allow enough time to get to know these housemates — some felt more like caricatures of people than fleshed-out humans.

Coco is a good mum! Emily gives the best one-liners! Abiola likes to rap! Conor is rather grumpy in the kitchen! Colin constantly farts (eww)!

It was all a little bit surface-level at times.

I’d love to have seen what became of Coco and Bruce, once they left the honeymoon period of their relationship, which was the sort of relationship that historically tends to combust while in the house as reality sets in.

Given the ratings and how economical the show is to make, it seems like a safe bet that another, potentially longer season will air on Ten next year.

I’m hopeful that Ten can continue to build on this year’s season because they’ve found something special — and it’s filling a void that reality TV has needed filled for years.

Feature image: Ten.