Yeah I was definitely leery of it all too. I always said that although I found it all tacky, it's not Tahan's or Ed's fault that her boyfriend happens to race cars or that Ed and his brother used to play footy so it's understandable that they'd do what they could to see their loved one win as all the other HMs families/friends were doing the same, just on a much lesser scale. On the other hand as a Tim fan, when it was getting down to crunch time and I was watching Tim's parents and friends do little promotion other than posting stuff on their FB page, I admit I was like how the heck can he compete with these contests and other stuff being done by people on the outside with already built in fan bases? Then again I remember questioning at the time when Nick took out that ad in the SA newspaper how many non BB fans would even be compelled to spend cash simply because an ex footy player was asking them to vote for an ex footy player who happened to be from there to win a tv show they don't even watch. So it's all a bit murky for me still.
I guess I just don't see an ideal solution to it. If they eliminate everyone who knows "someone" or has worked in/is trying to work in the industry then their potential pool of decent HMs would shrink dramatically as it takes a certain type of person even willing to go on BB these days, especially with all the scrutiny from social media. We saw that with even Drew when Estelle was coming out in support of him because she knows him and his sister and yet he's never worked in the media at all. I think the best thing that could've happened this year is the people who finished 1 and 2 didn't have any of that promotion going on for them so it kind of dispels how powerful any of that influence was from David, Nick or anyone else. Even though Tahan gained a crazy amount of fans as weeks went on, hell would've broken loose if she'd won.
