Real-life soap opera

More details about the German Big Brother village.

For Big Brother-Das Dorf, TV channel RTL II has built an entire village just outside Cologne. It includes a bar, a gym, and a market square.

In the show, which began at the beginning of March, the contestants have to work either in a farmyard, a car workshop or a fashion atelier.

Prize money will be given out bit by bit as a reward for challenges successfully carried out, but the sum will be lost if the contestant leaves the village voluntarily. And with no set end date, they could well find themselves living in it forever.

Candidates are divided into three social classes: rich, poor and average. The bosses give the orders and the lower ranks carry out more menial duties.

"It seems to be a bit like a social experiment," says Katrin Brinkhoff, a Berlin-based media psychologist.

"And I find it especially interesting to have class distinctions in the programme in times likes these, when a seventh of all Germans are now defined as living in poverty."

Via BBC News.