Headlines, Latin America & the Caribbean

/ARTS WEEKLY/ TELEVISION-MEXICO: Big Brother Lawmaker

Diego Cevallos

MEXICO CITY, Jun 8 2004 (IPS) - The Mexican version of the TV reality show “Big Brother” has boosted its viewing audience with the controversial participation of a Green Ecologist Party (PVE) legislative deputy, who has found in the programme an excellent venue to disseminate his ideas.

Sources from Televisa, the network that broadcasts the show, told IPS that “Big Brother”, which had been on the decline in recent months, saw a sharp increase in popularity beginning May 16, when Jorge Kahwagi and 16 other people – most of them from the entertainment world – launched the latest edition of the programme.

The participation of the lawmaker, who viewers can watch in “real time” via TV or Internet taking a shower, eating and interacting with the others on the show, eight men and seven women shut away in a house, has generated a wave of criticism among politicians.

Kahwagi, who is also the PVE’s congressional coordinator, belittles his position and worsens the already suffering reputation of politics, say some of the critics. Even some of his fellow PVE legislators are upset.

But for Televisa the controversy is profitable. “We recognise that Kahwagi’s presence has become one more attractive aspect” of the show, said a network source, who requested anonymity.

“It was a good decision to call him up to participate, because he attracted audiences,” said the Televisa source.

“I made the decision to participate, because it seemed to represent an opportunity to establish a direct channel of communication with a big segment of the population, through a powerful forum that would allow me to make known my ideas and way of thinking,” said Kahwagi.

“I am convinced that Mexican society is demanding new and unique forms of communication with public figures… (because) the image of politicians has frayed,” he added.

The lawmaker, who is also a boxer and famed organiser and participant in the parties held by Mexico’s wealthiest families, lobbied so that his presence on “Big Brother” might “serve as yet another way of making more transparent who we (legislators) are and what we propose.”

Like the rest of the “residents” of the Big Brother household, he has said he hopes to avoid being voted out of the running, and last the entire 64 days of the programme.

In that time, and according to the established format for this international programme, each week the viewing audience votes a participant off the show. The last housemate remaining receives prizes, including thousands of dollars in cash.

Different versions of “Big Brother” have been made already in 23 countries. In Mexico, the Televisa consortium holds the rights to the show, which belong to the Endelson company of the Netherlands, founded in 1994 and whose growth has been exponential since the first Big Brother was launched in 1999.

Endelson, with subsidiaries around the world, including in Mexico, sees annual revenues of more than 700 million dollars and since 2000 is the property of Spain’s Telef?nica, the telecommunications leader for Spanish and Portuguese.

In the past three years, two editions of Big Brother have aired in Mexico involving contestants who were previously unknown, and three editions with well known personalities from the world of arts, sport and fashion.

The Green legislator says audiences will accept his participation in the show because he is a person with a good sense of humour and because he is loyal.

The PVE’s assistant coordinator of legislators, Manuel Velasco, says, “I don’t agree with (Kahwagi’s) participation, but it was a personal decision. It could have political repercussions.”

The party’s executive committee reportedly asked Kahwagi not to take part in the Televisa show, but that request went unheeded. Velasco said that Kahwagi continues to by the PVE’s leader in Congress nonetheless.

Inti Munoz, spokesman for the leftist Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD), said the PVE lawmaker is denigrating politics and his fellow lawmakers.

In contrast, Roberto Campa, of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), reckons Kahwagi could use “Big Brother” to make known his political ideas and proposals.

Deputy “Big”, as some of his colleagues jokingly refer to him, joined the show just as Congress was in recess and only the committees are functioning, though he as a lawmaker is normally expected to take part in committee meetings.

Many citizens have expressed their opinions of Kahwagi’s participation in “Big Brother”, phoning or writing letters to the various media outlets. Most seem to see it as yet another stunt of the Greens.

The PVE is the fourth leading party in Mexico, and according to its detractors – including environmental groups, like Greenpeace – it is a party without serious political proposals that has taken up the ecological banner as a means to obtain funding and a place in the political arena.

Before entering the “Big Brother” house, the controversial 36-year-old lawmaker collected his full salary for May, 10,000 dollars, most of which he will have to return, according to the administrative staff of the Mexican Congress.

The Mexican Association for the Best in the Media, made up of business executives, leaders of the Roman Catholic Church, and the National Parents’ Union, of Catholic leanings, have unsuccessfully petitioned Televisa to halt broadcasts of the programme, which they consider a violation of the participants’ dignity.

But for journalist and media expert Javier Esteinou the question of the programme’s ethics is of minor importance.

“‘Big Brother’ is an example of how freedom of expression can be used for frivolous ends, instead of taking advantage of it for disseminating important ideas,” he said.

In a telephone survey conducted in March, Grupo de Asesores Unidos found that 70 percent of the 599 people consulted thought that “reality shows” undermined the quality of television programming content. And 84 percent said they thought the outcomes of the reality shows were manipulated.

But in the countries where “Big Brother” has been made, including the United States, at least the first versions have attracted record viewing audiences and triggered heated discussion about the psychology of the participants and the spectators.

The show has drawn huge profits for the television networks, as it has for Televisa in Mexico – at least in part because of the participation of a lawmaker.