Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Reality Television Goes Interactive: The Big Brother Television Audience, Lisa Gandy, Lisa Mcchristian

The Corinthian

Reality television was taken to a new realm in the summer of 2000. Television audiences and Internet audiences were married through a voyeuristic, interactive experience. This study attempted to better understand the audience attracted to these interactive, realistic television shows. Utilizing previous studies on audience interactivity, a random telephone survey of Big Brother viewers was administered. Big Brother viewers that browsed the show's website before and after the show were demographically more likely to be younger, more educated, and own computers. Big Brother website visitors were significantly more likely to plan to watch the television show, eliminate distractions to that …