New promos hint of UK copycat house

Will the season be "British BB down under"?

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Big Brother Promo comparison

A fresh round of Big Brother promos have begun airing this weekend, featuring Sonia Kruger emerging from the Big Brother eye and floating about on some flashy CGI stairs.

She’s decided to keep her wardrobe conservative by wearing the same outfit as the previous shuffle promo… or more likely both promos were shot on the same day. :-)

While Sonia doesn’t tell us anything new other than the usual commercial TV guff, the ad does give some hints of where the season is heading. It’s a frame-by-frame copy of a Big Brother UK ad that aired last year (watch both below). Channel Nine and Southern Star have already looked to the UK for inspiration on previous promos and even the Big Brother logo itself.

So with the new season being heavily influenced by our British cousins, what could we potentially expect?

  • When it switched to a new channel, BBUK canned the live internet feeds. This is looking likely to happen on BBAU.
  • Evictions are held next to the house and involve a large crowd who greet (or boo) the evicted housemate as soon as they come out.
  • BBUK’s companion show “Bit on the side” airs later in the night and includes panelists and callers who discuss the latest house events. There’s a chance the 9pm ‘adult’ show on GO! channel will follow this format.
  • Some interesting recent tasks on BBUK may find their way to BBAU. One of particular note involved a housemate wearing an electric shock suit.

What do you want to see on the new Big Brother? Discuss the show in our fan forum.

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BBBA Podcast 2012 – Episode 1

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Welcome back to podcasts from Behind Big Brother! In our return episode:

– Big Brother’s revival
– The show moves to social media
– Sonia Kruger’s Ballarat rave
– No shuffling!
– Mystery plans
– No games!
– No adults only!
– Little Sister from Sutherland Shire
– Our weekly episode beverage

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House spa and sauna

Things to get steamy in this year's Rewards Room

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An Australian spa and sauna supplier have announced on their website that they will provide a unique barrel sauna and spa for this year’s Big Brother house. The supplier is notifying customers that all other orders have been pushed back to meet the needs of the show.

UPDATE: Within hours of posting this story Ukko Saunas have taken their Big Brother announcement off their website. We predict the show producers are freaking out again.

The barrel sauna – which is custom made in Canada – comes in three different models, two of which have transparent panels built-in: perfect for Big Brother’s cameras. The model most likely selected by the builders would be the ScenicView, which has a bubble wall built in to the side.

All spas from the manufacturer are below-ground, providing the optimal viewing angles for the cameras.

For this year’s house, both the barrel sauna and spa will be housed in the Rewards Room. It’s not yet known how housemates will win access to the room as Friday Night Live has been canned.

This isn’t the first time a Big Brother house has included a sauna – in 2005 and 2006 saunas were attached to the bathroom for all housemates to use. Unsurprisingly, some of Big Brother Uncut’s best footage was centred around housemates use of those facilities.

Thanks to Daltrim on our forums.

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How will the house be furnished?

Furniture trucks spotted at the Big Brother compound

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Now that we have an idea of how the outside of the Big Brother house will look, what about the inside? Behind Big Brother user Keagan let us know they’ve spotted Pacific Furniture trucks coming in and out of the BB compound at Dreamworld for the past few weeks.

Pacific Furniture were used to furnish the house in past seasons of the show, including the ‘modular’ couches in the 2004 and 2008 seasons (images below).

The Big Brother house blueprints show four sets of two-seater couches, which look similar to the modular couches.

Thanks to Keagan and haydenww.


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House blueprints revealed

House plans show new features and hidden rooms

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Southern Star Entertainment’s lawyers have been firing legal threats around to all of the mirrors hosting copies of the house blueprints, and they’ve now all been taken down.

If you didn’t get a chance to see the plans while they were up, try your favourite social media website. Check out our latest podcast episode for discussion on what features may be in the house.

Here’s some vague, gloomy scare tactic legal letters:

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Official website leaks

EXCLUSIVE: 13 housemates, no live feed and Facebook voting

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Oops! Channel 9’s web design agency accidentally published a preview version of the official Big Brother website to the publicly accessible internet this week, providing new details about the season to come.

The site, which was accessible for several days until the leak was plugged, was a semi-complete design version with mostly filler content from Channel 9’s other large reality TV show, The Voice.

Here’s what the site tells us:

  • No live feed. The main navigation contains no placeholders for a live internet feed. Channel 9 may provide this on one of their digital free to air channels, however this has yet to be confirmed. Cutting the live feed would cut costs for the show as it wouldn’t require a 24/7 producer. There is a Live Updates section of the website, but it is in a form similar to that of the diary from previous official sites.
  • No premium content. Previous official websites offered an option to become a ‘premium’ member for a small fee, which gave users access to additional video content, alternative live streams and other exclusive features. This doesn’t look like it’ll be making a comeback.
  • Full streaming episodes. Not surprising considering what Channel 9 offer for many of their other shows.
  • 13 housemates. Code for the sliding housemate banner in the header has provision for 13 housemates – at least to begin with. Seasons 1 and 2 began with 12 housemates, Season 3, 4 and 8 with 14, Season 5 and 6 with 15 and Season 7 with 16.
  • Public voting via Facebook. Social media has taken a massive step forward since the last incarnation of Big Brother, and it seems the show will be integrated tightly with Facebook. The Evictions page contains buttons to vote for nominated housemates via Facebook, as well as SMS and phone.
  • Little Sister. An entire navigation item is dedicated to Little Sister, and the page itself has a different (pink) background to the rest of the site. Little Sister is being pitched as an ‘insider’, but whether or not this will be online-only or extend to a TV slot is yet to be determined.

Ninemsn don’t have a great track record with gaffes like this – in May a video announcing the winner of Celebrity Apprentice was published online a day before it went to air.

Let’s hope they don’t announce the winner of Big Brother too early this season.

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