The official figure from Oztam for the 7.30 Eviction show is 1.05 million viewers, giving it 11th place overall for the night. More significantly however is that Ten was beaten in its key 18-49 and 16-39 demographics.

The 6.30 Daily Show scored 848,000, well behind Seven and Nine.

The first Live Eviction for 2008 followed a very different format to previous years. Traditionally the first half-hour of the program would be used for catching up with the nominees and their families, followed by the eviction announcement just after 8.00pm and about half an hour with the evictee on the stage. This year, the first hour of the program was all about the Housemate voting and the setup of the eviction, which no longer climaxed with an announcement from the hosts and instead saw the nominees stepping into a bizarre and largely pointless revolving door. By the time Saxon finally reached the stage at the end of this convoluted process, there was only a short time left for his interview with the hosts.

What do you think - has the magic and suspense of the eviction been lost in the new format? Discuss it in our forums. So far, the response from our users is largely negative.

Thanks to Media Spy for the ratings figures.

Saxon then goes onto the second part of his message; Saxon’s hand grenade. He is allowed to take all possessions from one housemate indefinitely. He chooses this housemate to be Brigitte and says ‘that includes Princess Sparkles.’ Brigitte is furious and starts banging the plasma. She says she wants to leave the house to make sure she can bash up Saxon before he leaves Queensland. Travis and Rebecca both tell Brigitte they can borrow anything of theirs.

David says that Saxon picked the one that would get the most upset. He goes out to the kombi van and chats to Nobbi. David says that Saxon was very smart, but perhaps he is ten years younger and that’s why he thinks that David is sitting on the fence, because he realises that fighting and arguing will get him nowhere.

Brigitte again says that she wants to leave only to bash Saxon. Brigitte repeatedly hits the button to get into the diary room.

11:01pm: Brigitte is let into the diary room. Silence for a little bit. Big Brother tells Brigitte she only needs to push the button once. Brigitte apologises, but says she wants to go home immediately. She says that Saxon’s reasoning was absolute rubbish and if he had a problem with her behaviour he should have told her. Big Brother reminds Brigitte that there are a lot of housemates in the house and they will surely lend her clothes and toiletry needs. She lies down on the chair and starts crying.

Nobbi is outside wondering how someone could get so devastated over clothes. One of the guys says ‘she won’t go.’ Back to Brigitte in the diary room who is still crying and lying on the chair. Rory says it would be very funny to have seen Terri cop losing all of her clothes. The guys laugh. Big Brother recommends that Brigitte return to the house. Brigitte says she doesn’t want to because she can’t trust any of the housemates now. Ben is talking to Dixie because Dixie has caught out Ben talking about her. Dixie says that he can’t trust Ben now as far as he could kick him. Ben says that he won’t talk about her behind her back anymore.

Brigitte is still crying. Big Brother says that he has listened to everything that Brigitte has said, and he suggests that she rest and talk to him again ni the morning. Brigitte says she can’t sleep without Sparkles. Big Brother tells Brigitte she is strong, and she is to rest and speak to Big Brother in the morning. He gets her to leave. Nobbi outside says he was pissing himself laughing when Saxon gave the grenade to Brigitte.

Rebecca asks Brigitte if she is ok. She says that she is going home in the morning.

12:46am: Big Brother calls Rory, David, Alice and Renee to the diary room. With half in the spa, they get dry and enter the room. On the seat they see airline tickets. They get a bit excited. Big Brother informs them that they are all leaving the house. In fact, all the housemates are leaving the country. Big Brother tells them that they will travel on Big Brother Airlines, and they must pack immediately. Their flight will depart shortly. They tell the others they’ve been chosen to leave and the look on Brigitte’s face is priceless. The four chosen are running around very excited. Rebecca says it’s very exciting for them. Nobbi is trying to convince Brigitte to stay and stop mopping around. Nobbi says she adds value to the house. The four on the flight are ready to depart. Big Brother tells them to leave the compound through the cloud door. They go through the door and walk straight into a makeup plane. Once seated, the emergency details are introduced on the plasma by a Ninja. Big Brother prepares the housemates for takeoff.

2:14am: Brigitte once again comes to the diary room. Brigitte asks if she can leave tomorrow. Big Brother tells her to rest and speak to Big Brother in the morning. She is once again crying, saying she is too upset to sleep. She says she misses her family and all her stuff has been taken away so there is no point to staying.

On the flight, two hours in, Big Brother tells them that it’s time for a hot meal. They each get a meal and a couple of beers. Meanwhile, Brigitte says she won’t eat in the house until she gets her stuff back. Big Brother tells her that a hunger strike is pointless. She finally leaves the diary room. Corey tries to talk to her but she refuses.

Back on the plane, the four don’t think that Brigitte won’t leave. Alice says she wants to win so she get another boob job. Rory says she won’t win. Corey finally gets to talk to Brigitte, telling her that he would be pissed off if all his possessions were taken as well. Brigitte decides to go back outside and Corey follows.

One hour from the end of the flight, unexpected turbulence forces all the passengers to sit back in their seats. They all laugh. Brigitte kicks a large ball around the backyard while sniffling away. Brigitte walks up to the kombi and sticks her head in but then walks away.

8:14am: Housemates are woken up by Big Brother via an alarm. Meanwhile, David, Rory, Alice and Renee begin their descent to their destination. Terri walks out of the bedroom and finds Adidas t-shirts on a rack for the housemates. Terri says they are cricket outfits. Dixie says “I’m not getting out of f***** bed in the middle of the morning to play bloody cricket.” Dixie says she wouldn’t get out of bed for Brett Lee or even Bradman.

The flight has landed and Big Brother reveals they are in Bali. They get to see the new part of the house and there are screams from everyone.

Back in the main bedroom, another alarm plays to try to wake up the housemates. Still not much movement is forthcoming. Big Brother then tells all housemates they must come to the living room immediately.

Over in Bali, the four housemates sit down to their breakfast, orange juice and muffins. Meanwhile, Nathan reads out the instructions for this week’s weekly task. They must simply catch the ball when the ball is released. 3 people must man the pitch at all times.

8:31am: The cricket task is about to begin. Brigitte is going back to sleep however. She says she is going home but before she goes she is having one last sleep to make sure her eyes aren’t puffy. Terri can’t believe she is being so immature. The first cricket ball comes out and they miss it. Ben still can’t field the second ball either.

Over in Bali, the housemates are saying that they feel a little bit bad for the others. David says they weren’t given an option to give it up though. They all set down to sleep. Back at the cricket pitch, they get their first wicket when Ben catches it! The excitement wakes up the housemates in Bali!

One of my biggest gripes about any series of Big Brother (and it’s happened in international series, not just our Australian version) is when core elements of the show are removed and modified to make the show “fresh” or “exciting”. Unfortunately, it’s happening with this season.

It’s week three, and we’ve already had three intruders/gatecrashers/whatever, two snap evictions, some idiot party kid, and endless twists. Now, we’re about to see Carson go into the house. Why? I hardly know any of the housemates in the house as is and you’re flooding the daily show with twists instead of letting Big Brother just be Big Brother.

The core concept of Big Brother is a range of people living in a house, their every move followed by cameras. By throwing a twist in every second day the housemates cannot just live - get to know each other, bicker, fight, cry, etc. They’re too busy dealing with the twists!

I want to be able to form opinions on the housemates and decide who I like and who I don’t like. Right now, that’s impossible.

I know that Big Brother is a one-of-a-kind television show: in Australia it’s been running for 8 years now and still manages to get more than 1 million viewers tuning in every night. Perhaps it’s the higher powers at Channel 10 that are pushing these crazy ideas onto the viewers and quite frankly, treating them as idiots. Carson going in the house is nothing but blatant cross-promotion and to think that the viewers will look at it like anything more than that is hideously naive.

Checkout our podcast page where you can hear more of my views on this season of Big Brother.

“Travis may have a squeaky little voice but he’s also got a squeaky clean image which is why he’s made his way into favouritism in this competition,” said Lasseters’ Gerard Daffy.

Here’s the latest odds:

The head-to-head markets are unique to Lasseters, and are a special market on who will stay in the house longer. Log on to Lasseters to view the latest odds (or check our front page!) and make your bets!

Corey says he’s had a great week. Kyle wants to know about the sexual tension between Bianca and Corey. Bianca agrees that it’s very love hate. Nobbi gets a nice reception from the crowd and says that Terri will never get an invite to the kombi. They also talk to Travis and he says he is looking at the extra power as a chance to save one housemate he really likes.

Big Brother reveals to the house the bottom three housemates for this week. They are: David, Rebecca and Saxon. These three housemates are asked to move to 3 new seats in the eviction room. Big Brother tells the three that one is about to be thrown a lifeline.

Back from the break, it’s time for the nomination twist. Big Brother tells Travis to stand up. Big Brother explains why he has the power, and then asks him to save one housemate from eviction tonight. The housemate in 4th place will then be up for eviction. Travis says he wants to save everyone, but he says he is closest to Rebecca and so he saves her. Rebecca says thank you, and then returns to her normal seat. Throw back to the stage to explain what will happen next. Kyle says he is happy Rebecca is staying, and then they throw a graphic up revealing that Rory has dropped down into the bottom 3. We cross back to the house to hear the news and lots of the guys in the house are devastated. Nobbi can’t believe it.

Not mucking around tonight as they get straight into the nominating. Big Brother explains they are nominating to evict, not to save. Terri, Corey and Nathan are told to return to the couch. Renee is called to the diary room. For 2 points she evicts Saxon because he gets into lots of arguments and he accused her as being one of the ringleaders. For 1 point she evicts David because of strategy reasons. She comes out to the couch and says she is shaking.

Bianca is called to the diary room next. For 2 points she evicts Saxon because of recent arguments and tension between them. For 1 point she evicts David because sometimes he interrupts conversations constantly. She leaves to the living room as well.

Back to the stage where they say that Rory still hasn’t received a vote. They also reveal that the nominees will also vote during the breaks and they won’t reveal these votes at all until after the eviction.

Back after the break, Kyle and Jackie are sitting on the couch. Kyle wants to see Rory gone. Jackie doesn’t want it to be Saxon. It’s Ben’s turn to evict, and for 2 points he evicts David because he thinks David is in charge of the group and he thinks everyone should be on a level footing. He evicts Saxon for 1 point because he is threatening and making the girls seem uncomfortable. He leaves the diary room. Alice is up next; she evicts Saxon because he occasionally causes rifts between the housemates. For one point she evicts Rory because he’ll disregard certain housemates conversations.

Jackie shows us the leader board with Saxon on 7, David on 4 and Rory with 1. Nobbi for 2 points evicts David because he thinks that David is fake. For 1 point he evicts Rory because his best friend in the house is Saxon. Commercial break.

Brigitte votes to evict Saxon for 2 points because he constantly complains about the food. For 1 point she evicts Rory because he is untidy around the house. Dixie is up next. She evicts Saxon for 2 points because he is stubborn and she finds it difficult to get along with him. For 1 point she evicts David for strategic reasons.

It’s Rebecca’s turn to vote. She evicts Saxon for 2 points because he can be aggressive. For 1 point she chooses to evict Rory because he is younger than Dave and so Rory has more opportunities in the world….weird stuff! Travis has double points and it’s time for him to vote. Travis evicts David for 4 points because within group conversations he doesn’t listen to Travis’s contributions. For 2 points, Travis evicts Rory because he can sometimes be a bit graphic in his descriptions. He is told to return to the eviction room rather than the couch in the main house.

Big Brother then tells the nominees that they’re fellow housemates have made their decision. He tells them to return to the living room. Not a word is spoken throughout the walk. The hosts reveal that the three nominees each week will be put into the ‘Revolve”. The housemates all say goodbye to David, and then Saxon and last of all Rory. Big Brother tells housemates that one has left the Big Brother house for good. The two lucky ones will be spat back into the house.

Back to the house after the break, and it’s time to welcome back the first save nominee, David. Except it’s Rory, Big Brother stuffed up. Big Brother does say Rory is save however. The second safe nominee is David meaning Saxon is gone. Saxon comes outside of the house and looks very disappointed. Saxon says that he is pretty arrogant and that’s probably why he got evicted. Saxon says out of the nominees, he admits he probably should’ve been evicted. Saxon says the whole Princess Sparkles thing was a bit much and he’s quite happy to have been evicted. Jackie tells him they will now head to the main stage.

Back from the break, Saxon comes back out onto the main stage. He seems pretty relaxed, saying that he ruffled a few feathers and that’s why he was sitting there tonight. The leader board shows Saxon got 16 votes and David was right behind him on 15 points. Saxon says that on the outside world he wouldn’t have spoken to Travis, and also that he wouldn’t have associated with Nobbi. Saxon says that Dixie is always in the kitchen and that’s the only problem he had with her. Saxon says he was trying to hold back but he thinks that if he were in there for longer he would’ve exploded at someone. Saxon gets a phone as a present and a mobile broadband kit, as well as a holiday. And that’s the end of Saxon as a housemate. Commercial break.

Back with the hosts and they cross back to the house. They are all a bit upset. Bianca says she was surprised that no girls were in the bottom three after Rebecca was saved. Rory and David say that they were shocked and it hit them both hard being in the bottom three. Kyle and Jackie reveal that voting lines are reopened, before showing us a new part of the house only able to be reached by spending lots of time on a plane. It can either be heaven or hell, and this week it’s pure heaven with a pool, huge beds and all the comforts you could ever want. And that’s it for the first eviction.

Big Brother gathers all the other housemates on the couch and informs then that someone will be chosen to be pampered for the day. They are very excited to find out that Nobbi is the one to get some good treatment.

11:29am: Bianca and Terri are in the diary room. They have ingredients to make French toast for Nobbi. Bianca goes and gives Nobbi the rose. Terri tells him they will prepare the toast for the mother. Even Terri says that Nobbi has suffered enough and deserves his special treatment. Nobbi gets his breakfast and tells Ben that he might get someone to give me a shower. Travis agrees to do it if he wears underwear.

12:32pm: Shower time has arrived. Travis is having second thoughts about this now. He washes his back and Nobbi pulls down his underwear. Travis says, “OK I’m going down there.” Travis says that this is disgusting and he would never clean his own mother.

12:54pm: Ben and Nobbi are chatting. Nobbi says he’s not stressed about this weekend at all. It seems to be getting to Ben a bit. Ben seems to think that it’ll be hard for everyone, regardless of who goes. Inside, Travis and Terri are talking. Terri says she is a tough mother. She again says that she would be ashamed to have Corey as her son.

Rory and Ben are talking in the garden. They both agree that Dave is fake and simply playing the game. Saxon joins in and agrees with the boys. Rory says that Travis is definitely playing the game, and Ben says that Nathan probably is as well.

Housemates are called to the living area, except for Nobbi. Nobbi watches on from just outside. Big Brother tells them that they have passed this week’s task, and then invites everyone to the diary room to collect their reward. They are all excited at all the food.

6:31pm: Ben steals Brigitte seat outside as everyone sits down to dinner. Ben gets up and tells Renee that Brigitte is starting to get on his nerves. Renee agrees with him. Back at the table, Saxon and David are having a discussion about aliens and religion, with Saxon saying that it’s all a conspiracy. David can understand his point of view. Terri tells Saxon that his last point was a ‘bit uncalled for’. Saxon tells Terri to shut up, which starts a bit of a argument.

Corey and Rebecca are talking in the bedroom. Corey wonders who he thinks is cute out of the girls. Rebecca says that she thinks Brigitte has. Corey says he thinks that Brigitte is cute, but Rebecca has the personality as well.

Saxon comes to the diary room complaining about the simple minds of certain people. He says he gets frustrated when they start talking about alien life forms. Terri seems to think that her opinion was not valid. Saxon admits in the diary room that he only snapped because it was Terri, and he admits that it was totally unacceptable and that he’s well aware of it. The girls, talking to Terri, suggest that he would’ve snapped at anyone. Terri is not so sure. Saxon seems to think he is going tomorrow night anyway, because he ‘can feel it.’

10:46pm: Terri asks Saxon if he is all right, but keeps calling him Travis! Saxon says that Terri was an easy target and he apologises. Saxon say’s it’s nothing personal.

Corey is in the bedroom and annoying Renee. Bianca starts up talking to him, saying that she doesn’t think he has the brain capacity to keep up with her. Bianca says that he doesn’t have any respect for elders. Corey can’t believe it, and keep at her even when Bianca doesn’t want to keep going. She says that he has been rude and disrespectful, and then says he even has an expression “To throw a Corey.” Bianca says that he is looked up to and therefore he should be a bit more grown up. Corey says he’ll win and then he walks out. Brigitte walks in and wonders what the hell went on.

Travis tells Bianca that he should’ve spoken up as well, but he didn’t. Bianca says that at least Travis stayed, saying that everyone else bailed. Outside, David wonders how bad Bianca will be when she is 30.

Later, Terri tells Alice what she said. Alice thinks that Terri was rude, and it was a ‘harsh comment.’ She says it was horrible. After Terri leaves, Alice tells the others that Terri had just spoken to her. In the kitchen, Rebecca tells Travis she wants to leave again. She says it’s nothing against anyone; she just doesn’t like it that much.

Rebecca is in the diary room. She says that it’s not against anyone in the house; she just really wants to go home. Outside, a few boys in the kombi are saying it’s sad that Rebecca wants to leave. Rebecca, out of the diary room, hugs Travis. She says she just wants to make a phone call or something similar. She has a little cry.

9:31pm: Housemates have just completed Friday Night Games. Big Brother tells Travis and Renee that the strategy room is now open. Travis is confused because he thought that Nathan would also be allowed in as well. They have Pizza and alcohol. The room is broadcast into the house via the plasma’s but no sound can be heard. The guys are thinking of food and say they would be very grateful even for a personal serving of frozen lasagna or similar.

The guys, getting changed in the bathroom, say they would have taken Nobbi into the room. Big Brother tells Travis that the bottoms three are Dixie, Rebecca and Saxon. The boy’s wonder who will start being extra nice to Travis since he now has all the power. Travis tells Renee that she isn’t in the bottom three, and then tells her the three names. Travis says that he is going to save Rebecca.

Brigitte says she didn’t even know that Travis and Renee we’re good mates. Bianca says they’ve got closer over the past couple of days. Back in the strategy room, Travis says he doesn’t want to see Dixie go, but he will probably give her the two points. On the couch, Brigitte is worried she’ll be in the bottom three.

Plus Tronno, our most ‘enthusicastic’ fan, drops by to give us his thoughts on the BB proceedings to date, we reveal a BB secret from one of our many goons on the inside and can TiGS make a comeback in the Debate?

We also take a look back at the all the “extra people” BB has squeezed in over the years and we get your thoughts from the chat, the mailbag and the forums!

In this week’s show we’ll give you the lo-down on the week that was, take you on an intruder time-warp and talk to Behind Big Brother Radio’s biggest ever fan!

We’ll also see if TiGS can win his way back in the live debate, which tonight is Uncut VS Big Mouth!

You can check out our past shows on the feed page or grab them on iTunes but for the true radio experience you gotta listen live from 7:30pm!

Plus stick around on COVE Radio after Behind Big Brother for CJ’s exclusive interview with Geoff from the Kyle and Jackie-O show!

The promo campaign was great, the signs of change were there and from their initial intros, the housemates seemed to be just what the show needed. Two weeks later though and we’re already dissecting what went wrong.

The daily shows are just dull - partly due to the housemates leaving their back stories and baggage at the doors, but mainly due to complete lack of structure. The housemates aren’t given the opportunity to shine, perhaps with the exception of the weekly “family dinner”, while the lack of any real task means content is thin on the ground. Cleaning is not entertaining - especially when the task is minus any of the humour required to make it work.

But now - the major moan - axing nominations. The new system removes the core element from the show, more important than evictions or the public vote - it’s what the housemates really think of each other.

How a housemate nominates reveals alot about their character - whether they are spineless, manipulative, game-players or hold a grudge. Equally as important is how a housemate reacts to being nominated - that can often determine their fate, and similarly, a housemate being cocky about not being nominated can see them getting evicted sooner rather than later too.

However, giving this power to the viewers has now removed the key component of the show, and the structure to the daily shows too. Indeed now it’s just a case of voting for your favourite with those at the bottom facing elimination it’s just like every other reality show around - Big Brother has well and truly lost it’s unique selling point.

But, this being Big Brother of course they’ve screwed it up even further with the most ridiculous FNL twists ever. An over complicated affairs sees a housemate saved, 4th from bottom nominated and the FNL winner have four points to evict and two to save. The other HMs will vote with one and two points to evict.

It’s over complicated to say the least - and though I’m not a fan of viewers nominating, HMs evicting, keeping it simpler would give it a much greater chance of succeeding. Just let the FNL winner save one of the bottom three and then the other HMs vote out one of the other two. That’s it - simple!
Talking of voting though, the real scandal this week has been the “webmates”. Voted in by Australia, voted out by Terri two days later - the biggest insult to viewers yet. And this week they’ve barely featured in the daily show at all - indeed on Tuesday and Thursday they were nothing more than non-speaking extras.

And then we reach the end of the week with Nathan reminding BB he’s in the house by inconveniently winning FNL. Big Brother of course though continues to deny his existence and finds a reason to give the prize to Travis instead. The worst thing is we all know if Terri had won there is no way BB would have taken away her HoH powers.

Anyway, I’ve lasted two weeks and as usual by now it’s only key episodes I’ll be interested in. I think the fact BBUK is about to return influences that slightly too, but so far BB08 is dangerously close to becoming even worse than the Noble era - especially if producers continue to make up the rules as they go along.

As always, BBBA members can add their views on the Userblogs.