A Fazenda 15: Is Rachel Sheherazade ‘the new Juliette’ or is it all an internet freak? Understand

Comparisons between A Fazenda (Record) and BBB (Globo) are more than a temptation for fans of reality shows: they are inevitable. Shown by competing channels on open TV, the programs have always had relatively similar confinement dynamics, but it is when the trajectories of some participants sound similar that the public loves to point the finger.

This Sunday (15), for example, Radamés Furlan won the lamp test in the 15th edition of the rural reality show and sent Rachel Sheherazade straight to the stall. The journalist burst into tears and needed hugs to regain her composure inside the house.

“I think her story is similar to Juliette’s,” Milton Maria said on Twitter, upon seeing the crying. “I don’t think anyone can take away Rachel’s victory from this edition. Now the game will only decide who will be in second and third place. Rachel will come out with a strength equal to Juliette”, wrote a user who identifies himself as @GuruDouglas.

The two are not the only ones to make these comparisons. Dentistry student Raissa Melo, 21, is an avowed fan of Juliette and says she believes that Sheherazade has a similar trajectory. After spending weeks voting for the lawyer to win on BBB 21, her new focus has been on the journalist’s survival in the reality show set in the countryside. “They have the same power of argument and, yes, she is being persecuted a lot. I don’t think it’s victimization, it’s because the people there are really unfiltered,” she says.

There is a coincidence between the two personalities: both were born in Paraíba. Juliette in Campina Grande, in the interior of the state; Sheherazade in the capital João Pessoa, where the first moved when she went to study law. Both studied at UFPB (Federal University of Paraíba).

This connection between the two participants can also be proven in data. Since being announced as a guest on A Fazenda 15, Sheherazade was the participant who saw her Instagram profile grow the most: 191% (from 790 thousand to 2.3 million followers, until last Monday, the 16th).

Juliette also had stratospheric levels of growth during her confinement: she jumped from a mere 4.2 thousand — the lawyer joined the Pipoca group, made up of anonymous people until then — to 24.4 million. The BBB 21 champion’s team was contacted by the F5but refused to express any type of comments about the comparison.

On Google, the public is also reacting to the Rachel Sheherazade phenomenon. Just as happened with the ex-BBB in her time, she is the most sought after among the participants who continue on the program. According to data from Google Trends, the proportion of searches for the journalist grew 70 times in September, when she began her journey in reality, when compared to the volume of the previous month.

However, as with any ongoing reality show, it may still be too early to come to any conclusions. Higor Gonçalves, specialist in marketing, image and reputation, professor at ESPM and master in strategic marketing management from UFPE, highlights that “the temperature and pressure conditions” are different compared to the period in which Juliette entered the BBB 21 house.

“She won because the world was at a standstill, the edition was an audience phenomenon because we were still in confinement [durante a pandemia de coronavírus]. Not to mention that it is a reality show from a leading broadcaster. The Farm doesn’t have the same visibility, and the two have very different directions”, he says.

He comments on the argument defended by fans of the comparison about the argumentation power of both. “This is valid, because they both have the same power: Juliette is a lawyer and Sheherazade is a journalist, they ended up developing this, even though they both use this power in different ways — Juliette defended clients and Sheherazade sought to convince public opinion” , ponders.

However, the expert believes that there are enough nuances for each one to tell its own story. “They are completely different profiles. If you calmly analyze each one of them, there is nothing to see. The comparison is completely unreasonable”, he reinforces.

Gonçalves also points out that the journalist’s move into reality involves an important issue of repositioning. With A Fazenda, she opens up a new market for her career: advertising, normally forbidden to journalists. According to him, Sheherazade was “on the heavy, dense side of controversies”, mainly due to her analyzes and cancellations in the past, which made her unattractive for this niche.

With the new type of exposure, she could become a brand favorite, just as Juliette did when she became BBB champion. “She [Sheherazade] lost that audience that followed her before on TV, and now she has the chance to get it back. And what’s more: now she’s linked to entertainment, she takes away this journalistic cover and goes to something more low profile”, she assesses. “But it’s a matter of time before we have the answer on how to be. It’s just a wait and see.”