Billion Dollar Game: How Three Men Risked It All and Changed the Face of Television

by Peter Bazalgette

In the mid-1990s, three men had three unique and revolutionary ideas for television shows entitled Cash Mountain , Survive , and Project X . Time and time again, they were each rejected by major the networks as theor projects were declared unfit for production. Rather than give up on their dreams, Paul Smith, Charlie Parsons, and John de Mol instead pushed ahead and went on to produce shows which quickly became the biggest and most successful programs on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? , Survivor , and Big Brother . This is the compelling story of how three men defied overwhelming odds to take the television industry by storm, make personal fortunes, and transform the map of popular culture.

320 pages, Paperback

First published April 4, 2005

Reviews

[Peter Dunn · Rating 5 out of 5]

While much of the book focuses in business deals needed to bringing the shows to the screen there are significant insights here into the thought put into, and the impact of, the Big Brother TV format. Most intriguing are the geographical differences. For most of the world relationships and sex between housemates was the obsession. In the UK it was class wars, with posh scheming “Nasty Nick” against working class hero Craig, and Jade Goody bouncing between perceived hero or zero. In the US it was the schemers and game players who were actually cheered on by the viewers.

Bazalgette also sets the Big Brother phenomenon firmly in its historical context, even citing Nigel Kneale’s 1968 BBC2 play “The Year of the Sex Olympics” which both predicted and railed against similar forms of TV.

Big Brother is also convincingly portrayed in the book as one of first fruits of the convergence of telephone use, the internet, and conventional TV broadcasting. The medium may not have become the message but it had certainly merged with it

[Janita Willems]

Biografie over John de Mol, Big Brother enz