Abstract
This audience research was designed to interrogate the UK fans of Big Brother so as to present evidence that might shed light on the audience's understanding of the `reality' in this form of reality television. Using quantitative and qualitative data obtained from a web-based questionnaire linked to Big Brother's UK web site over three years, I investigate how the fan audiences negotiate what I have called `personalised reality contracts' with the contributors, and how this affects their understanding of what they are seeing as `real' or `constructed'. I argue that it is Big Brother's constructedness that serves to liberate its content, allowing the viewer freedom to navigate past the performative elements typical of the docu-soap genre. I outline how this form of multi-platform TV creatively involves viewers on a number of levels, allowing them to develop strategies for watching that satisfy the desire to witness `the real' through the lens of the camera. This is set within the context of the larger debate surrounding the change in status of factual programming.
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