‘Big Brother’ Draws Ratings, Protesters

POOLSIDE ANTICS: Ratings for the season finale of the controversial Hebrew-language version of ?Big Brother? broke records.
The Israeli version of “Big Brother,” a reality show alternately beloved and reviled by Hebrew speakers, wrapped up on December 16 in exactly the manner in which it was broadcast all season: as a ratings juggernaut.

POOLSIDE ANTICS: Ratings for the season finale of the controversial Hebrew-language version of ?Big Brother? broke records.
Early estimates suggest that a record 39.2% of the country’s television audience tuned in on Tuesday evening to watch as Shifra Cornfeld, a 28-year-old designer from Jerusalem, was announced as the show’s debut winner over 56-year-old Ashkelon resident Yossi Boublil. Cornfeld took home 1 million shekels and a place in the country’s pop culture pantheon.
From the start of its three-month run, “Big Brother” served as a consistent source of controversy — especially after Boublil, a Jewish contractor of Moroccan descent, began to refer mockingly to the show’s Ashkenazic participants as, collectively, “the Friedmans.” An instant catchphrase, the moniker only intensified the disapproval of the show’s already numerous critics, who condemned “Big Brother” as celebrating superficiality and anti-intellectualism — and even, in many cases, as degrading the country’s culture and moral values. Protest rallies timed to coincide with the season finale were held in Akko, Beersheba and at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art.
Based on a Dutch concept later adapted in dozens of countries, “Big Brother” isolates its contestants in a single house, recording their activities 24 hours a day and assigning them weekly challenges as competitors are eliminated.
Before the “Big Brother” season finale, the country’s prime-time ratings record had been held by the Hebrew-language edition of “Survivor,” which concluded its debut run in May. The second season of “Survivor” kicks off on December 24, and work is under way on an Israeli version of “Project Runway.”
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
2X match on all Passover gifts!
Most Popular
- 1
News A Jewish Republican and Muslim Democrat are suddenly in a tight race for a special seat in Congress
- 2
Fast Forward The NCAA men’s Final Four has 3 Jewish coaches
- 3
Film & TV What Gal Gadot has said about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
- 4
Fast Forward Cory Booker proclaims, ‘Hineni’ — I am here — 19 hours into anti-Trump Senate speech
In Case You Missed It
-
News Who would protect New York Jews better? Cuomo and Lander trade attacks on the campaign trail
-
News Rabbis revolt over LGBTQ+ club, exposing fight over queer acceptance at Yeshiva University
-
Opinion In Qatargate fiasco, Netanyahu’s ‘witch hunt’ narrative takes cues from Trump
-
Yiddish די הגדה ווי אַ לעבעדיקער דענקמאָל פֿון אַשכּנזישער פּאָעזיעThe Haggadah as a living monument to Ashkenazi poetry
אַמאָל זענען די פּייטנים, מיסטישע דיכטער־וויזיאָנערן, געווען אויבן־אָן בײַ די פֿראַנצויזישע און דײַטשישע ייִדן.
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.