Jane Roscoe

Interview with Peter Abbott

Peter Abbott is the Executive Producer of Australia’s Big Brother. In this role he has overseen the development and reworking of the Endemol format for an Australian audience. Before joining Southern Star in 1999 to set up a factual and light entertainment division, Abbott had created, executive produced or reworked such programmes as The Times, The Great Outdoors and Better Homes and Gardens. For Beyond Productions he was the Executive Producer of Beyond 2000, and its US counterpart Beyond Tomorrow, for Fox Broadcasting. Abbott has been at the centre of the boom in lifestyle programming in Australia. Despite this involvement with so many programmes, it is Big Brother that is the most conspicuous of his successes: a programme that became a cultural event and an important part of Australian television’s cultural heritage.