Day 19 FNL

Brigitte wasn’t required to compete in the first round as Big Brother was impressed with her temper tantrum this week and deemed it worthy of a celebrity behaving badly. In the first round, housemates competed against each other in pairs.

Ben faced off against Travis first up in a game which required them to moonwalk (backwards) to a portrait of Michael Jackson and affix a plastic nose to his face. Ben checked his position before putting his blindfold on and, despite missing the face, didn’t do too badly. Travis didn’t bother to look where he was going and missed the portrait completely losing the round and putting himself out of the games.

Dave and Nate then faced each other in a handbag throwing competition. Each boy was required to use their mouth throw handbags for maximum distance. They each only managed to get one of two handbags into the throw zone but Nathan was a clear winner, tossing his bag twice as far as David’s.

Alice and Renee battled next in a David Hasslehof inspired game of crawling along the ground and eating a hamburger. They were required to make their way along the ground and finish a hamburger in the fastest time, without using their hands. Although neither of them actually finished, Alice almost got there and was declared the winner by Big Brother.

Next Nobbie and Rory had to don high healed shoes and kick soccer balls in a Beckham themed game. Each of the boys, dubbed “Posh Spice” and “Victoria Beckham” kicked two balls, each aiming to get as close to the mannequin (David Beckham) as possible. Rory seriously overshot the mark on both attempts before Big Brother announced that Nobbi had the “golden balls” and would continue in the games.

Dixie and Terri then competed in the ‘dummy spit’. Each of them spat two dummies for distance. Dixie easily won this one, with Terri barely making a metre on each attempt.

Bianca and Rebecca were last to compete. They played a game called “Twist and Shout. They were spun around by the ninjas, then required to walk as far as near as they could to a decibelmeter and scream “Show me the money!”

The seven remaining housemates then compete in an elimination round named “The Britney Spear Throwing Contest”. They’re each required to throw umbrellas at a limo and the paparazzi to score points. At the end of two throws Brigitte and Bianca have only one point each, so they throw one final spear each. As Bianca’s misses the mark completely, she’s out of the games.

Big Brother then tells the housemates to split themselves into two teams. Nobbi teams up with Alice and Dixie while Brigitte goes with the boys; Nathan and Ben.

Saxon joins the hosts on stage and talks about his week on the outside. He says he’s had lots of questions about UFO and he’s received mixed responses from people. The hosts tell him he did well on Big Mouth when he was being attacked.

The housemates then play the “The Tom Cruise Couch Jump”. Two of them have to push their team mate around on a couch. The player on the couch grabs Tom Cruise themed items, dresses in a Risky Business themed costume and finally high-fives Oprah.

Brigitte rides the couch first and completed the course in 0:38. Alice rides second, but drops some items and only manages to attain a time of 0:48.

Brigitte, Nathan and Ben then have to choose an eliminated housemate to join them in the final round. As it’s Rebecca’s birthday, they choose her. Nathan teams up wither her to face off against Brigitte and Ben in the next game.

This round required a relay-style race on “Choppers”. One housemate was required to fill a bucket on their helmet with “cement”, cycle up the course and fill their “star on the walk of fame”. Once their helmet was emptied, their partner was allowed to begin. Nathan and Rebecca competed first and managed 3.3Kg of cement. Ben and Brigitte were unable to beat them, claiming only 2.5Kg.

The final round is the “Tori Spelling Bee”. The housemates are each required to spell three celebrity names. Nathan manages to spell Timberlake and Hasselhof, but trips up on McConaughey. Rebecca correctly spells Lohan and Cruise, but also gets one wrong – Beyonce. As there is a draw, the house mates rock off for the right to pass-or-play one final word. Nathan wins the rock off and elects to play, but fails to spell Schwarzenegger making Rebecca the winner of the games.

Big Brother calls Rebecca to the diary room and informs her the current bottom three are Alice, Bianca and herself. She choses to take Brigitte to the Strategy Room.

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They’re straying from the concept!

I hate to make such a negative blog entry for my first for the 2008 season, but I can’t help it. So far, this season is so beyond a joke I’m finding it hard to watch.

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.

Also on Behind Big Brother

Radio – Week 2 10/05/08

What a confusing week! We try to sort out the riddle of who’s come and gone this week, and which housemates we’re left with now. We also try get a grasp on FNL – not even BB knew what he was doing last Friday night!

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!

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Day 12 FNL

BB came out swinging on “Hip Hop Night” with an announcement that the winner of the games each week would win Head Of Household status, advance notice of the bottom three and dinner for two in the all-new strategy room.

Before the games got underway though, Fitzy had to apologise to Rima for his off-colour jokes last week and the rest of us had to check out the ninjas in their converse sneakers.

Onto the games and BB announces Alice has a bye into round two while in round one Terri (representing Old Skool) and Corey (representing New Skool) would be team captains. Terri selects her team as Rory, Nobbi, Natan, Renee, Bianca and Travis while Corey picked Saxon, Dave, Ben, Rebecca, Bridette and was left with Dixie.

Round one turns out to be the Battle Of The Mics. Terri’s team are dressed up as fifty-cent pieces – Corey’s team as M&Ms. They’re required to dance, with enthusiasm, around a circle until the music stops, then grab a microphone. The housemate who wins takes their whole team through to the second round. Team captains Coery and Terri are knocked out early and the number of M&Ms to fifty-cent pieces remains fairly constant right down to the final in which Nathan just beats out Ben to win it for the fifty-cent pieces.

Round two and Alison’s back. BB tells them to split themselves into two teams and nominate captains. It’s obvious Nobbi and Rory are heartbroken when they can’t team together but the teams turn out to be Alice, Travis and Terri led by Rory vs Nobbi, Renee and Bianca led by Nathan.

The second round is the Big Booty Can – an obstacle course made more difficult by the housemates having giant asses strapped onto themselves and being joined at the hip by lengths of rope. Nathan’s team completes the course in 1:39.

Despite the fact that nothing needs to be reset for the second team to compete, we take time out to catch up with Nigel the Ninja. Apparently he now needs a job so he tries his hand at a DJ gig and fails. When we finally get back to the arena, Rory’s team smashes the time of Nathan’s, completing the course in 1:23. However Big Brother tells the loosing team that the night is not over for them.

The four eliminated housemates from round two compete in the Busta Rhyme bonus round by rapping along with BB. Each housemate has to follow a line given by BB with a line of their own which is topical and rhymes. Bianca does very well by completing “Breakdancing requires you to move your feet” with “But I’m too short so I sit on my seat” and completing “As I entered the house I had a plan” with “To find myself a really hot man”. Nathan doesn’t do well on his first rhyme but redeems himself in the second one by completing “Being a rap star brings money and fame” with “If I win this round it will be my claim”.

BB again tells the housemates to split themselves into to teams. Rory quickly grabs Bianca and Alice leaving Nathan, Travis and Terri to team up.

The third game is Hip Hop Bunnies. Housemates are dressed as rabbits and have 2:30 to collect as much “carrot juice” as they can. The carrot juice is actually water pouring out of a shower head and in addition to the ridiculous costumes the housemates are also hindered by having to stand on a giant rotating record.

Rory’s team competes first and does fairly poorly, filling their container less than half-way. Rory has a small temper tantrum at the end of their leg. After being the only real contributor to his team’s effort he throws his cup in anger. Bree makes a comment to the effect of ‘It serves him right for picking the hot girls’. Despite a dismal (yet hilarious) effort from Terri her team wins the round, easily collecting more carrot juice than Rory’s team.

BB then tells the eliminated housemates they must choose one of the final three (Terri, Travis or Nathan) to kick out of the final. Predictably, and to a loud chorus of boo’s from the audience, they choose Terri leaving Travis and Nathan as the finalists.

In the final round Travis and Nathan have one minute to thow as many “Boyz” into “Da Hood” as possible. The “Boyz” are actually soccer balls and “Da Hood” is the engine conduit of a car. In their allotted minute Travis only manages to get three in while Nathan gets eleven and easily wins the night.

Big Brother calls Nathan to the Diary Room and presents him with his Head Of Household armband then tells him that, since he is excluded from the voting process this week, the nominations twist part of this prize will be given to the runner up instead.

Big Brother calls Travis to the Diary Room and informs Travis that he’s won the power to save one person from the hot list, he will be voting with double points on Sunday night and he’s also won dinner for two in the Strategy Room. He then asks Travis who he wants to take to the Strategy Room and Travis chooses Renee.

Big Brother minces his words and Travis leaves the diary room mistakenly believing that Nathan is also invited to the Strategy Room – a belief which he shares with his other housemates. Big Brother does not correct him, but informs Travis and Renee (only) that the Strategy Room is open. As the show ends both housemates and viewers are left very confused as to whether Nathan will be included.

Also on Behind Big Brother

BBBA Podcast – Day 8

We’re finally back for more podcast goodness! In our return episode for the 2008 season:

– Do we really think so?
– All about the launch
– Official website talk
– Rima’s blowout leg
– Racism, Australia, Racism!
– The BB host expiry date
– Booing Corey
– Bits and pieces
– The real deal with Travis’ voice

Support the podcast and write us a good review on iTunes!

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Radio – Week 1 03/05/08

This week we give you the lo-down on the week that was!

Hear our opinions on the housemates, the house, the launch and anything else that happened in the first week. Plus WTF was up with FNL? And where the heck did Rima dissapear too?! Plus Will drops by to give us his thoughts in his first audio blog.

The Great Debate also returns for ’08, with one of the boys getting a landslide victory! Plus hear highlights from our interview with Susannah and Thomas from BB07 and heaps more!

Also on Behind Big Brother