Darius Doallo
03/10/2021 10:02
Clarín.com
Fame
Updated 03/10/2021 10:02
The first edition of
Big Brother
in Argentina debuted 20 years ago, on Saturday March 10, 2001.
The format, created in the Netherlands by the producer Endemol, had been acquired by Telefe, then artistically directed by Claudio Villarruel, who called on
Marcos Gorbán
, former director of
VideoMatch's
hidden cameras
, to be the executive producer.
Twenty-seven robotic cameras and seventy microphones were installed in the house that was specially built in the Canal studios in Martínez to house the 12 participants and monitor them 24 hours a day with viewers and scriptwriters (divided into three groups that worked 8 hours) who had the function of detailing everything that happened.
Then, the best was selected for editing and that material was broadcast on
Big Brother El Debate
, hosted by Juan Alberto Badía, and at the Galas, for nomination or elimination, led by Soledad Silveyra.
The rating started very well, hovering around 17 points in its first programs and narrowly surpassing its direct rival:
Sábado Bus
, with Nicolás Repetto in El Trece.
But, after the first month on the air, something was missing from the program.
So there the question came up:
"What if we put Maradona in the house?"
The intern of the visit of the Ten
"I had the perception that we were making a success but that it lacked a blow of the oven. It was a success of Telefe for the inside, we had to drill the walls.
We needed something that would do it for everyone"
, recalls Gorbán, who defines himself as " maradoneano ".
The first step in contacting Maradona was
Guillermo Cóppola
, who answered the call with his usual kindness and listened to the proposal.
"Diego would love it, he always watches the program, he's a fan", was the response of the manager who deluded Gorbán.
But he quickly marked the field:
"Of course, it is a commercial event, there has to be a twine."
Twenty-five thousand dollars was the requested figure.
"Spicy, but not impossible for that time,"
recalls Gorbán, who was shocked to hear that Maradona was a fan of the program and used to hang up until the wee hours watching the DirecTV signal that broadcast 24 hours a day.
Diego Maradona and Marcos Gorbán, during Diez's visit to "GH".
Instagram @mgorban.
"Well, let me find out, I have to talk to the channel," he told Cóppola.
And there the chain of calls started: Gorbán communicated with Villarruel and later with the commercial manager of Telefe, who twenty minutes later asked: "Tell me something, would Maradona wear a T-shirt with the brand of a beer?"
Again the calls and the response from Cóppola: "It's a commercial event, Diego does what you say.
There is a cachet, you pay that cachet and he does what you say."
In half an hour it was agreed that Brahma beer would sponsor Maradona's visit to
Big Brother
, which was planned for the following day, Friday, April 6, with no fixed schedule "in the afternoon."
It must have been a secret but quickly the version of the arrival of the
Ten
leaked and the channel was filled with people.
"I never saw so many people on Telefe as that day. There were employees, employees' children ... Everyone went with something for Diego to sign or to be able to take a picture. It was a mess, a tremendous commotion," recalls
Mariano Peluffo
, who, as he was in charge of accompanying the entrance and exit of the participants to the house, would do the same with Maradona.
Diego Maradona, at the door of the house of "Big Brother", in 2001. Archive.
Everything was ready but there was still nervousness about whether the visit would take place or not, so the channel decided not to promote the special program.
If it came, something that raised doubts, they would broadcast the house live.
"'And is Maradona coming?', They asked me. 'We think so, there's the T-shirt, there's the check, there's
GH's
house
... let's hope'.
Cóppola had only told me 'Let's go'"
, says Gorbán, who in those hours of waiting sent a producer to buy a pair of boots and a soccer ball at the Unicenter shopping mall.
Suddenly the phone rings.
"Hello, Marquitos, what is the descent from Panamericana? Thames?" Asks Cóppola.
Diego Maradona, before entering GH's house.
Instagram @mgorban.
"I yelled 'Maradona is coming!' It looked like the
Pearl Harbor
movie
, everyone running everywhere. The euphoria there was incredible."
The Maradona with long hair and headband arrived, the one who weeks ago had said "Pity, nobody" to Sanfilippo.
Three-quarter trousers and orange Armani sneakers.
The only order he received was not to tell the participants anything about what was happening outside.
"I knew him from events and I knew well that he did not like to be touched, to be carried. And Marcos tells me 'Hug him, hold him when entering as if he were a participant'. And he gave me something. See if he cleaned me I finally took him by the shoulder, but the guy was so excited, so happy that he was going to enter
GH
that he didn't say anything. I was surprised by that. He's letting himself be hugged! Crazy, "recalls Peluffo.
Mariano Peluffo and Diego Maradona, seconds before entering the "Big Brother" house.
He came in wearing a hooded jacket, rolled onto his back and began to stretch.
The participants, led by
Gastón Trezeguet
, noticed something strange and went out into the garden.
Then came the screams, jumps, hugs and the classic little song of 'Diego, Diego ... ".
"He looked like an alien. We didn't see anyone 40 days ago. He was wearing a hood and we said 'And who is this?'. We didn't understand anything.
When I saw him I couldn't believe it. Crazy,"
recalls former participant
Santiago Almeyda
, providing the look from within.
Maradona, cocaine and Big Brother
That is the title of the video that can be found on YouTube and that went viral years ago.
The images show a fragment of
Ten's
visit
to the house and the moment in which he throws a small white bag on the floor, which the participants receive with great euphoria.
"Don't send me to the front, assholes,"
says Maradona.
A fact that went completely unnoticed at the time but later became a myth.
Gorbán takes his time to explain what happened.
"There was a rule that was the weekly test in which you bet part of your budget to eat. And they had lost the test two weeks in a row, with which they were starving and they were also a group very addicted to tobacco. Very addicted to snuff.
All were cigarette smokers and were not ten days ago. They were already very desperate.
They even were smoking alfalfa cow (Margarita) wrapped in toilet paper. "
"Diego couldn't go in without cigarettes. So we grabbed two bundles of blondes, which were the ones who smoked in the house, and since tobacco advertising was prohibited, we wrapped them in white paper. If you look at
Big Brother 1
you'll always see bundles of cigarettes wrapped in white paper, without the brand name. We give Diego two packages.
Diego enters, hides them and there he starts fucking, he throws them in a sneaky way and the kids jump on their heads. "
"Then someone cut it off, uploaded the edited video and said 'Maradona gives the kids cocaine.'
No, he didn't give them cocaine, he gave them two bundles of cigarettes,"
says Gorbán.
Diego Maradona in "Big Brother" and the moment of controversy.
Capture tv.
And he adds: "This came out live on Telefe. Imagine that the entire América channel was there, with Rial and Hadad, Canosa in El Nueve, everyone watching what was happening in
GH
to speak badly and nobody said that we gave cocaine to the kids. It's absurd. Completely absurd, everyone saw it.
They cut it, put it on YouTube and it became
fake news
. "
Santiago Almeyda gives the same version: "In the house there were no butts. We were crazy. He had them in his jacket and he was throwing them away in a concealed way, pretending that they fell off. Then the gilada raised something stupid."
"He pretended that
Big Brother
did not leave him and left us the butts with a tent. That was,"
says Santiago, who these days is also celebrating 20 years in a relationship with Natalia Fava, whom he met at
GH.
The Maradona effect on
GH
Maradona was inside the house for an hour.
He did not accept the booties but he did accept the ball they had bought and he played soccer on the muddy grass of the patio, he took a peek with all the participants, signed all kinds of autographs, joked with revealing information from abroad but always held back and even spoke with the voice of
Big Brother
in the famous confessional.
Maradona and the ball in "GH".
Santiago Almeyda, witness.
"When I left I looked at his Armani sneakers and they were made on a hanger,"
adds Gorbán.
"I remember that in the picadito he told me 'Throw me a pipe Santi'. He knew us, he could not believe it. Then he gave Nati a pick and it screwed me that he did not make me jealous. That day was a party because we ate again with Everything, they gave us asado, beer.
It was a magical night "
, describes Almeyda.
He left the house and Diego was worried about one thing: what the participants would be saying about him.
Then he ordered some pizzas and stayed until 5 in the morning in the production office, watching televisions with the cameras in the house.
Diego Maradona with Guillermo Cóppola, after entering the house of "GH".
Instagram @mgorban.
That special program, which was later summarized the next day at La Gala, marked a break for the cycle, which initially sought to legitimize itself as a sociological experiment, even with the opinions of sociologists Eliseo Verón and Luis Quevedo in the debates.
Maradona's
visit
marked that the program's course was more towards the colorful, playful and later controversial reality side.
And they realized the success that he had in hand.
"We thought that no one saw us because we were 12 stupid talking nonsense and that was the day we realized that something was really happening. How could this guy be in here? We reacted there," sums up Santiago.
The rating began to climb, surpassing the 20-point barrier, other Telefe programs (and other channels) began to be nurtured with their content and reached
37 rating points on the day of the final
between Tamara Paganini and the winner Marcelo. Corazza.
HA
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