"Please Allow Me To Introduce Myself"

I guess it's only right that my first post here is a bit of an introduction to give everybody a bit of a hint at what you may expect from me in the future.

So here we go - I'm a bored, 45 year-old Midwestern zero whose day job consists of taking care of the books of my family's business. In my spare time I've been a writer for a number of local publications - mainly music reviews and previews, but I've also dabbled in television, movie, and political opinion pieces. I even hosted an advice column for a couple of years.

I'm also a weekly guest on a local rock radio station, where I "kick" somebody out of town. These rants can be found at scotthudson.blogspot.com.

It's only fair to point out that I'm NOT a fan of reality television. In my opinion, American Idol is everything that's wrong with the music industry. I gave Survivor almost one season, but the product placement and selective editing drove me away long before the tax dodger collected his prize.

Yet I've always been a fan of Big Brother. Although this fact perplexes the majority of my friends, the reasoning is simple - by far it comes the closest to "real". Sure, the producers commit some of the same casting sins as every other reality show. It's also obvious there is some behind the scenes manipulation to ensure certain events occur. For the most part, though, once the contestants enter the house we see them as real people. In fact, thanks to the multiple cams what we wtiness is even more real than what the other contestants see. If a contestant is a complete phony to the others, we're the first with the ability to call them out.

Sure, the actual network broadcast stinks. Historically, it's been the most low-rent production of the entire reality genre, and the producers commit every editing sin possible. But those of us who watch the live feeds know the "truth", and it's always been fun to nitpick what's not true (or has been overplayed/underplayed) on the CBS version.

Thanks to the writer's strike, we have a special new season ready to kick off in a couple of weeks. What can we expect? I'm happy to hear there's no silly couples/ex's/feuds/America's Player garbage. Could this be the season where there's no silly "twists"? Probably not, as I'm sure there's other schemes to attract headlines. But it will be interesting, particularly in the early weeks, to see how the contestants deal with the difference in the weather. Will the smokers sit outside all night, like last summer? Granted, the weather in Southern California is a lot nicer than in my chilly part of the country, but even late in the summer seasons we have seen complaints about the dropping temperatures.

I'm also hoping that the rush to get this season underway will cut the number of "professional" reality show contestants. Almost every season has been plagued with houseguests (I hate that term) who have either appeared on other shows or were in the running. Hiring nothing but "semi-pros" could be argued as the easier way to go, but wouldn't it be nice to have a "pure" version to watch this spring?

What I know about Big Brother 9 so far.

Here are the details I have been able to get so far, I am pretty sure it is all accurate.

• The show participants will not know each other ahead of time this year, they may all have 'dirty little secrets' but there won't be any secret couples, or relatives, or ex's. I really hope I am not mis-informed on that. The last time we saw this was Big Brother Three, which I personally enjoyed (Daniele, Lisa, Jason, etc etc).
• The show will run the normal time frame - sometime between 70 and 80 days.
• It will be back on Sho2 (a Showtime channel) - overnight from 12am-3am Eastern.
• There WILL NOT be an "America's Player" which is fine by me. I found that concept a joke, no offense to Eric.
• I am guessing that the HGs will move into the house some time next week so they can get a few days of tape 'in the can' before the first episode on Tuesday, February 12th.
• Lastly, there are still plans to have the regular summer version of Big Brother as well come July.

Now on to more random Big Brother things.

I'll be doing my usual recaps over on my main Big Brother site which is I Love Reality - Big Brother 9 - I have started this site as a way for a few friends to post and others to be able to comment, something I don't allow on my other site.

The feeds will be up 24x7 again and I have yet to hear about a 'season package' but you can sign up for the two week trial via links on this site (which I will be greatful for!).

I'm hoping that this season is not a flop, having the show at this time of year is going to bring in a different group of viewers, not everyone can devote the same amount of time in February that they can in July, it will be interesting to see if the ratings, which ALWAYS start out slow, pick up at the end as they have every season during the summer.

Are you excited? Ready for this? Do you think a 'winter/spring' version will be a flop? Are you burned out on Big Brother?

Two Weeks And Off We Go.

Ok now, I think I am finally getting things in order here.

Hiya folks, for those that are 'new' let me tell you a tiny bit about myself and then I'll put up another post with my thoughts/info about Big Brother 9 which will be off and running 14 days from now.

I have been a Big Brother fan since season one way back in 2000. I tend to enjoy the show for different reasons that some, and for the most part I don't tend to care who wins. I get the live feeds every year and like watching how the producers take the live feed footage and edit it down to create the story line that the TV viewers see.

I have asked a few of my 'internet' friends that are also fans of the show to join me and post their thoughts on the show, the feeds, whatever is on their mind. I also hope that those that stop by will feel free to comment and interract with all of us, just please have a thick skin if you do because some people can get pretty brutal.

I'll let the people that will be posting introduce themselves if they choose to, if not I guess you'll just have to figgure out how they feel about Big Brother by reading their posts!

Ok, that's it for now, time to buckle down and do some more work on this site and make another post that is actually related to the show!