Contestants must face harsh reality: cruel social media

After being sequestered for nearly three months while competing on CBS’ “Big Brother” in the summer of 2007, Daniele Briones got a warning from producers after the finale was broadcast.

“They were like, ‘Don't go on the message boards. … People can be really mean and cruel,’ ” recalled Briones, who came in second place and won $50,000. “So obviously, the first thing you do is go online and read the message boards.”

Back in 2007, reality stars could still decide when and if they wanted to go to the trouble of reading what strangers had written about them. But now that social media is a basic tool, one click on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook unleashes a torrent of opinions from strangers. And former contestants say nothing prepared them for the brutal onslaught of commentary they received when they exited a show.

“Girls on my season are getting death threats. I’m getting told to go kill myself,” Caelynn Miller Keyes vented in an Instagram post in March after a stint on “The Bachelor.” “This show is super easy to make fun of; I get it. But viciously tearing people down is absolutely disgusting.”

When two stars of ITV’S “Love Island,” a popular British dating show, recently died within nine months of each other, reportedly by suicide, it prompted the British Health Secretary to urge stronger “aftercare” for reality contestants.

The impact of reality TV on mental health has been a concern since the early years. Networks and production companies have established strict vetting processes and conduct multiple psychological screenings of cast members. But even when support systems are available, contestants still struggle with the social-media backlash.

“Big Brother,” which returned for Season 21 on June 25, pits more than a dozen contestants against each other, competing for a $500,000 prize while cooped up together in one big house. After last fall’s finale, two-time player Paul Abrahamian noted on Twitter that the stars’ re-acclimation to society “is a fragile process, especially with the nature of social media. Keep your vile opinions/hateful messages to yourselves.”

CBS declined to make “Big Brother” producers available for an interview, but it sent a statement from executive producers Allison Grodner and Rich Meehan. The wellbeing of cast members is their “top priority,” they said, and houseguests are given guidance to “inform and prepare them” for all stages of the show.

“As the intensity of social-media conversation has increased in all parts of our culture, we’ve expanded this preparation and increased our dialogue with them in this area,” Grodner and Meehan said. “Following their time in the house, resources are made available should they need assistance.”

Briones, who went by Dani Donato during her time on the show, had a stalker after her first season of “Big Brother.” She shut down her social-media accounts when the “online hate” got to be too much, but she eventually restored them and even returned to the show for another season.

“I just remember thinking, ‘I don’t know if I can go through all of this again,’ ” she said. “But it is the experience of a lifetime.”