Big Brother 9 star Mikey Hughes said he thinks that the show can be used as a “springboard” by the contestants who appear on it.
Mikey, Big Brother’s only blind contestant so far, has gone on to forge a successful career since his time on the show. He DJs every week night on Insight Radio, as well as regularly in clubs, and has also been featured on a number of TV programmes, and is currently working on a BBC documentary.
And he believes that the programme can open doors and give contestants opportunities that they wouldn’t otherwise have had.
He told stv.tv: “Big Brother is a springboard, it’s a platform…it does open doors. I’m not saying there’s not a stigma with the Big Brother tag, but I don’t mind because I wanted to go on the telly, because I was fed up with blind folk being sectioned away and just forgotten about.”
He added: “I think Big Brother is quite a powerful medium. And I know that a lot of people knock realty TV, but if you do well on Big Brother, The X Factor etc…you’ve got Jedward at the National TV Awards, you’ve got the exposure the Big Brother people get from the press. Very few other TV programmes have that, and that’s quite a unique thing, so that was one of the reasons I wanted to on it.”
Mikey has also just joined the SNP, to work with the party to promote independence to Scotland’s young people. Prior to this, he stood as an independent candidate in the Glasgow North East by-election, and he believes that without his time in the Big Brother house, he would never even have had a shot at doing that.
He said: “The best thing I’ve done since Big Brother is stand in that by-election in Glasgow North East. Within half an hour I arrived at Springburn and ten names were on the nomination form for me to stand as an MP. Before Big Brother there’s absolutely no chance I’d have been able to do that, walking about Springburn, getting people to sign their names to get me down as their prospective MP.”
He added: “I didn’t even know these people, they knew me because they’d watched me ever night for three months on the telly, they knew I was straight-talking, they knew I’d stand up for them.”
Mikey, who also said that “every minute was a highlight” on Big Brother, urged people who fancy going on Big Brother to get along to the auditions, because this is their last shot.
“This is the last year. Anybody who has ever thought about doing it needs to get themselves along to the auditions. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. You just don’t know what will happen. I would definitely recommend people to do it, but there is a lot of thinking to be done about why you want to do it. The worst thing you can do in life is regret things.”
If you want to be part of the last ever series of Big Brother, get along to the Glasgow auditions this Saturday, January 30, from 8.30am. Entrants need to be 18 by May 2010. Find out more by going to www.channel4.com/bigbrother
