Ready for another one of my posts where I point to how much of a set-up a reality show? Here goes..
The other day, I started watching the current season of Celebrity Big Brother and they brought on some fella I had never heard of before - Winston McKenzie. His VT that played immediately before he was introduced to the crowd had him saying some homophobic things. I can't recall exactly what he said, but it was along the lines of 'if I am in a room with homosexuals, I'll make sure my back is to a wall'.
Him saying that from the start should have been a red flag, to be fair. Not just because his views were bigoted but because the Big Brother producers let it ride.
You see, if he actually went ahead and said something like that while in the house itself, he would have been reprimanded. The fact they let it air before he went in should have been a tell to what would come on Friday.
During a task that aired on Friday, Big Brother's producers had the housemates split into two groups to play a game where a bit of information was said about one of the contestants and the group had to work out which person this quote or fact was attributed to.
Winston McKenzie's quote was quite an eye opener. The producers brought up a thing he said in the past where he said that gay couples shouldn't adopt children because he likened it to child abuse.
WHAT?
The producers knew what they were doing. McKenzie attempted to argue his flawed point and irked every housemate on the show.
To cut a long story short, he ended up being evicted. Then, he was brought in for his post-eviction interview and had Emma Willis have a go at him for his view in what I thought was an unprofessional manner.
It seemed like such a set up. I have no sympathy for how McKenzie was treated because he did come across extremely bad. However, you have to look beyond what went down and realise that all the crap was first stirred by the Big Brother producers from the off. They knew what they were getting and knew what buttons to push. This is the same production team that got rid of Tila Tequila almost as soon as they found out about controversial things she had done in the past. They did not want to own that. They did want to own McKenzie's bigotry and flat out played their hand as soon as they could knowing the window of opportunity was closing.
He should never have been in there to begin with. If they didn't like what Tequila did, they shouldn't have entertained the idea of adding McKenzie to the lineup.
Two wrongs were in play here.
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