Guest Editorial

Abstract

When the fifth series of Celebrity Big Brother (CBB), a spin-off of the reality show Big Brother, was broadcast in the UK in January 2007, it initially appeared that it would fail to generate the same level of public interest as previous series. That changed spectacularly when the show was hit by allegations of racism. As a reality format, the principal appeal of CBB is that it gives viewers an opportunity to explore how well contestants cope with the pressure of constant surveillance in the Big Brother House, often revealing their ‘veridical’ self (Rojek 2001) in the process. CBB also plays successfully with ‘fame hierarchies’ (Holmes, in this issue). One of its trademarks is its fondness for making ‘top’ celebrities (i.e. participants with some degree of fame) mingle with bottom-ranking Z-listers. A masterstroke in the 2006 series was undoubtedly the introduction of the non-celebrity Chantelle Houghton, whom celebrity peers genuinely believed to be a singer in the (fictitious) girl band Kandy Floss. When she went on to win the show, her triumph appeared to confirm not only that everyone can be famous these days but also that everyone can successfully pretend to be famous. Celebrity itself has become a kind of pastiche we can skill ourselves in by studiously reading the celebrity press and cherry-picking the most affordable aspects of celebrity fashion and lifestyle. Despite its continuing association with privilege, wealth and excess, celebrity status appears to have been become increasingly egalitarian thanks to the ubiquity of reality TV.