When it launched in 2006, Bigg Boss was where celebrities whose stardom had waned went for a boost. Their antics personified the adage — all publicity is good publicity. Their popularity soared, long enough for them to capture the viewers’ attention and their votes. Now, contestants are influencers, who have followers in the millions before they step foot in the house. Their fame has changed the game.
MC Stan winning the title of Bigg Boss 16 and Elvish Yadav taking the crown of Bigg Boss OTT 2 signify the changing tide. They were not stars whose shine was dimming. They didn’t need airtime for relevance, the show needed them more. It’s clear in the viewership data. The TV finale topped the TRP list with 3.3 rating, far ahead of last year’s 1.3. Meanwhile, the OTT spinoff broke records, with 2.3 crore people tuning in for the finale.
With the gamification of fanbases, the audience now knows who will win as soon as the contestants are announced. How long will the format survive?
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Legions of fans
The crux of Bigg Boss is the ability of a contestant to survive in a locked house with people they’ve never interacted with before. Votes are, or rather were, given on the basis of their performance in the house.
Virality was the name of the game, the more controversial the better. Even those who don’t watch the show will know iconic one-liners that the format has gifted to pop culture — Pooja, what is this behaviour?, Tuada kutta Tommy, sada kutta kutta?
With the entry of influencers like Elvish, MC Stan, Puneet Superstar, Uorfi Javed, and Abhishek Malhan (Fukra Insaan), the format has been turned on its head. Their legions of fans ensure votes arrive, regardless of what they do in the house.
When Puneet Superstar was evicted from Bigg Boss OTT in June, he asked his fans to boycott the show and JioCinema, the platform streaming it. They listened and how.
The rating of the app dropped to 1.1 on the Google Play Store and 1.6 on the App Store. While the former rating is back up to 4.2, the latter remains. The review section is littered with the same long reviews with genuine concerns. What gives it away is the titles — Lord ki awaaz, Justice for janta ki awaaz, Big Boss OTT.
If the ones who get voted out yield this much influence, the winners are gaming the ‘systuum’.
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Influencer wars
Elvish Yadav’s win was unprecedented. The influencer, who then had six million followers on Instagram came on in the fourth week as a wildcard entrant to the OTT spinoff. He is the first such entrant to win the show.
By the end of the show, he had 15.2 million followers on Instagram. Those translated into effortless votes, he won with a whopping 8 million votes.
Over on Bigg Boss 16, conditions were the same. MC Stan, though a rapper, had amassed a cult following prior to the show. His Instagram account brought in the most engagement, higher than Uorfi Javed.
The rise of influencers has turned Bigg Boss on its head. The variety of characters from all walks of life coming together was what made the show interesting to watch. Now, the show has found itself in a catch-22 trying to bring up viewership. An influencer in the house means TRP, but it also means the audience knows who will win.
One more step and Bigg Boss will become a competition for influencer fanbases. Next stop, CarryMinati vs Bhuvan Bam.
Views are personal.
(Edited by Theres Sudeep)