Category: Blog

I’m struggling for a title this week – so be prepared for some random ramblings, plus a brief round up of the latest BBUK activity.

I’m going to start with the Ice Cave – the first thing in several weeks which has caught my attention in BB07.

Yes, they may have done the camping thing before – and yes, other countries may have had twists on the same premise before – but for once that didn’t really matter.

Firstly, the producers just about managed not too screw this twist up – letting it play out over the week and not seemingly making it up as it went along.

And secondly, and this is my new buzz phrase, it was an “original interpretation” of a twist seen elsewhere, even in regards to the camping in BB Aus. They took the basic idea but managed to turn it into a twist of their own without compromising the twist themselves.

And for that, I’ll congratulate the producers. It was well executed and pretty well timed too – though of course it’s a shame we haven’t seen anything near that calibre of creativity earlier in the season.

ORIGINAL INTERPRETATION

It’s that phrase again – and it’s an important one. Alot of people seem to misunderstand our criticism of reusing BBUK tasks, but it’s all down to creativity – so if they can’t come up with something themselves, at least when using borrowed ideas, they should try and add their own original twist to them to make something new – and at the same time, not completely screw it up in the process.

Therefore, when it was revealed that Big Brother had gone away and not left an automated version of itself in charge, I tried to avoid jumping in with the criticism and instead wait to see how it played out.

It turns out though perhaps I was giving the producers too much credit. “Automated Big Brother” made the twist on BBUK – and although it wasn’t necessary to be incorporated into Australia’s equivalent, they really did need something else to maintain the interest in the twist.

And this is where the phone could have really come in useful – rather than just using it to check up on the housemates, Big Brother could have upped the ante by setting secret “Insider” style secret missions for whoever they were communicating with (Joel) – and then perhaps we wouldn’t have seen the housemates rule themselves so strictly.

Though that itself is down to Big Brother’s petty authority over the series – it seems he probably suppresses the characters of the housemates rather than encouraging them.

NOMINATIONS

Unfair and sexist maybe – but who gives a shit? Four duds are up for eviction, and for once I’m relieved it’s a double.

The gender imbalance needed addressing and for once there is no denying – even by the producers – that they’ve fixed proceedings to ensure two of the boring blokes go.

However, surely they could have been more cunning about it. It’s pretty obvious that the “biggest threat” twist a couple of weeks ago (which I didn’t really agree with) was intended to see a man walking out of the door, but it spectacularly backfired.

The obvious way to fix this weeks nominations was to allow just the Intruders to nominate – I’m assuming Michelle and Zach are more likely to nominate the boys than the girls, but of course that too could backfire. However, perhaps that would be worth the risk.

AND FINALLY IN BBUK

So here we’ve gone from an all-girl house to a fairly even split of 8 girls and 7 men – but will it see an end to the bitching?   Probably not until Charley is evicted.

The four new fellas are all straight (so they claim), and all quite different.   Billi is a 25 year-old model who seems to have slipped through the audition process, while Jonathan, 49, is a millionaire businessman and former journalist.   Liam, 22, is a tree-surgeon who was an instant hit with the girls, while Brian, 19, works in IT and seems to have met half the housemates at the auditions.

Half an hour after they arrived the first eviction finally occured.   Earlier in the week, last Friday’s new intruders had selected the twins to join them in being the only housemates to nominate this week – and as a result Carole, Shabnam and Tracey all faced the public vote.   With 81..4% of the eviction votes, Shabnam got the boot, and didn’t enhance her popularity by taking forever to leave the house – even stopping to sing and dance for the crowd on the eviction balcony – much to their disgust!

Now with the guys finally providing a match for the girls, for many BBUK has now begun and it’s already evident from just one daily show what a difference they’ve made.    It feels like Big Brother once again – not the ladies toilets in a local nightclub!

Keep up to date with BBUK in the International Forum, while there is a full live rundown of each week’s eviction show at our sister site Being Big Brother.   Also catch a rundown of each week’s events in the last 15-minutes or so of BBBA Radio, which airs live at 7pm on “Satdays” and can be downloaded from Sundays.  

P.S.  We’ve not posted any guest blogs lately – so anyone feeling like an extended rant, send them in to the Mailbag.

WARNING: This blog may contain BBUK spoilers you may wish to avoid. It also contains quoted language you may find offensive.

Continue reading “BBUK: The story so far…”

1. Big Brother producers were too busy watching their pockets get fatter by 199 2 save calls. and forgot to pay line rental to Telstra.

2. The mouse that Hayley first saw on launch night, chewed through the telephone line.

3. While hiding cutlery one night, Tj hid the cord in the cistern of the toilet.

4. Big Brother forgot about it instead he only remembers intruders.

5. Big Brother Producers added the phone to the Do Not Call list. Due to this being a government program, it will take 3 months to be taken OFF the list.

It’s official. Big Brother has lost the plot. I think I’m going to vomit.

MORE intruders. What is he thinking? Too much meth before the weekly meeting to discuss what’s going to happen in the following weeks? Why won’t they just let the house be as it is – housemates, weekly tasks, and just let the show be.

It does work, and viewers won’t get bored. I’ve read so many rave reviews about the episode where Jamie went insane (“I’M NOT CRYING!”) and how it was just what everyone has been waiting for. The viewers want to see more episodes like this! And hold on… that argument/bout of insanity had NOTHING to do with any of these twists and turns that Big Brother has thrown into the works, it’s just been housemate interaction.

I’m finding it really hard to keep optimistic about this series – and Australian Big Brother as a whole. I help run a website on the show and this year I’m finding it very hard to find anything good to say about this season.

I was changing my profile on the forums the other day and came across the “Favourite Housemate” field. I had to think long and hard about the housemates in the house and who I liked the most. I couldn’t think of anyone, it was hard to even remember most of their names. I don’t KNOW the housemates like I have in previous years. I hate to repeat myself, but too many twists and not enough time to just get to know the housemates.

This is really negative so I’ll end it now.

Oh wait, I just thought of something good. This ‘twist’ in the nominations – great! However, Big Brother interupting them and asking “WHY IS THAT PERSON BETTER THAN YOU? RAAA” is not great. And opening up the nominations with “For two points, who do you nominate as your biggest threat to win Big Brother, and why?” is just stupid. Let them say “I nominate x for two points because they’re my biggest threat.” The end, over and done with.

At least Travis got nominated.

The podcast voicemail lines are now fixed, so call us and let us know your thoughts on the new intruders:

Adelaide: (08) 8463 1220
Brisbane: (07) 3137 1089
Gold Coast: (07) 5630 1563
Melbourne: (03) 9017 3799
Newcastle: (02) 4915 6832
Perth: (08) 6364 0958
Sydney: (02) 9011 6339
Wollongong: (02) 4231 4237

Stay tuned for the next podcast. I’m sure it’ll be full of amazing comments about the show.

WARNING: This blog may contain spoilers for anyone not up to date on the first few days of Big Brother UK.

Let’s cast our minds back to the night of April 22nd 2007 (or a day earlier to be truthful) and the launch of the seventh season of Big Brother Australia.

First in is Hayley, followed by TJ and Rebecca. Kate then goes in and Gretel begins to make the point that so far they’re all female. Emma and Aleisha follow, and the point is made again about the possibility of it being all girls.

Then, they give up on that and send in six guys.

Now, there is the difference. BB Aus might tease viewers with the suggestion, but never actually do anything – while BBUK just go ahead and take the risk – no teasing required.

If you don’t know by now on Wednesday night BBUK launched by sending in 11 all female housemates (thought there are still many doubts about Tracey) . The twist wasn’t promoted at all beforehand, though had found it’s way into one newspaper on the morning of the launch.

The line up began with twins – and the warning signs began to flash. Then though, they went straight ahead and put them both in – and that seemed somewhat of a relief. Next in was something unexpected – a 60 year old housemate, followed by wannabee rockers, WAGs and embalmists – with the final housemate being a 53 year old political protester – who turns out to be by far the crowds favourite of the night.

The concept of it being an all-female house doesn’t even hit the girls till about the 8th or 9th housemate walks in, while Davina doesn’t make a big deal about it either, not quipping about it until the very end. The thought of mentioning it’s a world first doesn’t even cross their minds either!

And then the complaints come rolling in – where are all the men?

The promise of one – just one – on day three wasn’t enough to satisfy many, and initially too I had my doubts about the single sex line up. However, it also intrigues me – it’s very different to any launch I’ve seen of Big Brother, both in the UK and beyond, and it’s set up the first couple of weeks quite nicely. We all know the men will arrive, but we don’t know how – and we don’t know how this will affect the original line up.

On Friday night a former model / Z-list boy-band star who names himself Ziggy (why?) entered the house – and due to the show keeping even the launch date a secret prior to lock-down, Ziggy didn’t even know the show had already launched, never mind that he would be the only man in the company of 11 other women.

However, for one of the first times BBUK let itself down by having a widely predicted twist to the nominations – with Ziggy being the only man to choose who is nominated face the first public vote.

Almost everyone on various forums had suggested that type of scenario would be the case – and unusually for BBUK, their predictions turned out to be correct.

One thing very evident though is that the producers are fully committed to this twist and not scared of it’s critics. It would be very easy to rush in the additional men some people are demanding and try and balance out the sexes after just a few days – but the producers are seeing it through and sticking with it, with no more men entering until Friday at the earlier, after the first eviction.

That is where the genius of this twist is – because it’s a twist which is now beginning to play out. As each show passes it becomes less about the sex of the housemates and more about their characters and personalities – almost to the point where you barely notice the lack of testosterone.

The same applies to the older housemates too – overnight they turn from “old” housemates to interesting characters – possibly two of the most interesting characters in the house.

Most of all though, this is giving us a rare glimpse into the psyche of woman – and that’s why the first week of the eighth series of BBUK is unlike anything we’ve ever seen before.

I’m so sick of hearing people complain about Emma not being told her father is dead. I thought this issue had well and truly run its course and we had all moved on. The media had a good Big Brother bash, uninformed dead-heads called up talk back radio stations and complained about a show they don’t even watch… and then we were supposed to hop onto the next Big Brother controversy.

Doesn’t seem so – every chance they get the media are dragging this one back up. The most recent case was today when it was reported some one tried to bring a sign to the eviction saying her Dad was dead, but I’m also noticing totally unrelated news will somehow mention her in some way. A story from The Daily Telegraph by BBBA-refresher Garth Montgomery reported simply that Nick was angry with Gretel’s interviewing of him, and somehow the Emma incident manages to sneak back in. Don’t ask me why thats even relevant to the main story.

Everyone is trying to take some politically correct standpoint and say “I’m so shocked” … “thats disgraceful” … “she should be told”, but in every single case no one knows the full circumstances surrounding Emma’s relationship with her Dad… not even me! It really frustrates me hearing journos bash the show and clueless people call up radio stations thinking they know whats best for Emma and her family. To reiterate: they do not know what is best for Emma and her family! It’s as simple as that people. BB exec Kris Noble even wrote in a letter to the editor in a Melbourne newspaper explaining this – and for once I actually agree with him!

I also notably point out that every time this is reported in a newspaper or on radio, important information is left out pretaining to Emma’s estrangement with her father and the fact they only communicated by text recently. Does this not give any weight to the fact Emma might not want to know about her father’s death at this point in time? Everyone keeps basing their opinions on their relationship with their own father – but does did it cross anyones minds that maybe Emma might not be that cut-up about her father dying? As horrible as that sounds to some people it could be the cold hard truth. Housemates are told to elect three scenarios they would like to be informed of when in the house. We don’t know for sure but perhaps her father’s death isn’t actually one she listed.

The most alarming thing about this whole scenario is that people continue to banter on about Emma being told when it was the family’s explicit wishes not to. Where do these people get off thinking they can over-ride the family just because they think it’s the “right” thing to do? In radio pieces I’ve been hearing a lot of callers say “even though the family said that if it was me I would want to be told”… well newsflash for you people you aren’t Emma or her Dad or her family. Really you should be butting right out of this whole thing because frankly you should be letting the family sort out their own problem.