When it was all over, one by one the lights went out.
Outside the prefabricated reality of the Big Brother reality television studio that has served for the past three months as the "house" in which contestants endured the marathon-for-money, supporters cheered on the winner, Zdravko, on whom thousands of SMS messages had conferred the prize money of 200 000 leva.
There was a fleeting poignancy as those lights went out, as the euphoria of the climax receded, as genuine reality sank in among the losing contestants that they had not won the money and would have to make do with whatever dividend of income-earning potential that the transitory fame of having participated would bestow on them; perhaps, even, for diehard fans of the show and the impassioned supporters of individual contestants, the switching off of the lights was a sign it was time to find another reality.
Those losing contestants were not forgotten in the finale. They had their moment in the spotlight again, summoned to the outdoor stage, running a hand-slapping benevolent gauntlet of supporters, treated as if they had achieved something more substantial than getting a portion of a television audience to like them, or at least like their reality television personas.
Now Zdravko joins the pantheon of winners, and the losers slip into the footnotes of international Big Brother history, fading minor chords in the raucous symphony. Search the internet, and you will find that contestants, even the losing ones, in other countries sometimes have clung on to the lower crags of celebrity, while others have evaporated into the obscurity from which the all-seeing eye of Big Brother briefly summoned them.
Perhaps, among the losers, Viktor "Doctora" Zhechkov from Sliven will become the town's first celebrity dentist, the practitioner to go to, to be able to say that one did. Young Zara's career as a model cannot have been done any harm. "Doctora" and Zara were two of the three remaining survivors from whose number Zdravko emerged triumphant on the night of January 17.
Zdravko of Primorsko, whose family owns hotels in the Black Sea resort, who has a pregnant girlfriend he has said he intends to marry (he asked to do so in the house but fell foul of Orthodox Church rules which do not allow nuptials in the advent to Christmas), who employed with no success his drunken clumsy attempts at seduction on almost every woman contestant, Zdravko who intends to spend his winnings on buying a yacht. Of the original 12 contestants and those who came and went as stand-ins for those who fell along the way, it was Zdravko whom most of those who voted felt most deserved the money. If there is an epilogue to the first season of Big Brother in Bulgaria (something to pass the time before the next season, expected to start in October) it is in speculation about whether the choice of this man says anything about the national psyche of Bulgarians. Not that anyone should confuse an attempt at a generalisation about Bulgarians as a whole, with the behaviour of those with the time and inclination to have sent those SMSes.
When the show reached its climax, 27-year-old Zdravko Vassilev was left for some time marooned alone in the house, apparently in a form of shock at his victory. Co-host Nicky Kanchev led him out, into the cold night air, where Zdravko was welcomed by a huge crowd of fans, some of his former housemates, family and friends, who, in spite of below zero temperatures had gathered in front of the house hours before the event.
Zdravko survived the most nominations for eviction, five, and walked out as the winner with 53 per cent of the votes, or 56 000 votes more than the runner-up.
According to the production team, Zdravko got a total of 850 000 votes.
Shortly before the finale of the show, he lagged behind the last woman contestant remaining in the house, 19-year-old Svetlozara Trendafilova, Zara, from Varna, by one per cent.
Zdravko was jeered by the fans of Zara and of "Doktora" Zhechkov who had emerged as the closest thing the house had to an intellectual, but who in the end won only about 10 per cent of the votes.
One thing, however, is sure - the brightest characters among the housemates will have their 15 minutes of fame, as already proved by Naiden who appears on the cover of the latest edition of Gamers Workshop magazine, and was invited by the National Movement Simeon II to bring Christmas gifts to the children in an orphanage in the countryside, Dimitar who advertises a fitness club, has his own radio show, and is most welcome at all major social events; Anelia who appeared on the cover of the Egoist magazine and has got a job offer from a cosmetics company; Stoika who reportedly has been invited to a slimming centre and then will record a chalga CD; Mel who will have her own photo exhibition; Groshi who got an offer to advertise liquor; and Tisho who is the best advertisement for his Indian restaurant in Sofia and got to date his dream woman, TV host Veneta Raikova.