Ok so I’m liking the kinda wrap around feel of the outside the house set with the tiered seating, looks cool. Eye opening out to the stage for Brian Dowling, now host and the housemates walking through, theres a rotating section of the staircase just before the door leading into the house, and interior wise theres a staircase leading down into the main area which from memory Iirc caught a glimpse of some of the Channel 5 houses before a long time ago and I think that staircase becomes a central constant in a few of the designs from here on in but we shall see.
I havent watched the second episode yet but there was a very quick few flips through the rest of the house shown also in the opening titles (again you can see some of the influence Channel 9 later may have taken much inspiration from for our 2012 reboot especially the Eye logo design), but the Diary room is shown to be behind a long airlock corridor beghind the staircase and has a kindoff cubey kinda diary room chair this time. Theres also a sauna.
What I’m wondering is as BB12 apparently started literally the day after CBB8 wrapped, how much of this is essentially seeing the BB12 house for the first time as well and if all this carries over unless they somehow might have a section or room secretly bordered off like maybe those few sections of BB8’s house that opened up later on. We’ll see.
Marcus is kinda helping Brian doing the narration for some of the housemate facts as they make their way into the house. Kerry Katona (one of the original Atomic Kitten members) is first up. Tara Reid is an interesting American get, She seems like she could be a bit more quiet and reserved at first like maybe LaToya Jackson, but it’ll be interesting to see, bit of a funny moment she couldnt seem to stop going on about how ‘the front door didn’t open straightaway’, when it did, she was just turned back around to wave at the crowd.
Paddy is one Im not familiar with so he’ll be interesting. Darryn Lyons the mr Paparrazzi man comes in with a loud outfit, and I think Sally Bercow could be fun to watch.
Got a few younger ones in there, Amy Childs from Essex show, Lucien Laviscount (what a name) is only 19 (thanks OKTV for putting some info up) and giving me a little bit Kenzie vibes, and the 25 year old Model guy Bobby Sabel.
Pamela from Baywatch (no not that Pamela, David Hasselhoff’s ex wife Pam Bach-Hasselhoff) was very kooky, Brian had a tough time keeping her from twirling him around to get the entry interview lol. Lastly there was Jedward, they’re gonna be a handful, or are we gonna see another side to them perhaps?
First secret task has Kerry first to the diary room, she must make a big Diva level strop within like 30 minutes and await further instructions.
BOTS: Ok, I think I see the bridging between it and what we currently have as Late and Live now. Hosted by (pregnant again) Emma Willis (with some co-regulars perhaps? Jamie East and Alice Levine) Theres a bit of a Big Mouth esque audience, with a Couch off to the side and also a panel desk with some guests (First Episode had Brian in the audience, Lauren Harries on the coiuch and also a fashion VT, and Alex Reid, Josie Gibson and Jamie on the panel.
OkTV:Bruv Takes Over is from the same set, hosted by Jenny Frost (who replaced Kerry in Atomic Kitten) and Jeff Brazier. They spoke to Brian, and later Jamie and Alice, but in-between there was also a segment on X Factor UK starting. Bit of a slightly different format/vine in parts, but I think its also easier Im comfortable skimming/1.5x buffering through it for now to get a general gist unless I find a particular segment or guest interesting I think. Also getting used to Davina and George having moved on, but we at least still have Emma (and Brian) for some bridging Haha.
There was also a bit of a BTS VT with Jedward at one of their tours before they went in. So next episode is another Live special where I think we’ll get an update on whatever next part of Kerry’s task is going.
So you've finally reached what was the true end of Big Brother. Going from the effort they put into BB11 to Kerry Katona just sums up everything wrong about BB on C5.
Ok so the bedroom is in a similar position, you can tell the walk in closet area from BB11 is in the same spot, as is the shell of the BB11 Kitchen which has now become the bathroom with a couch and a big bathtub in the centre. I haven’t quite worked out where the gym room is but during a Jedward VT on BOTS they opened the door which makes it look like it’s somewhere off to the side of the main area (perhaps near the bedroom door)?
So night one Kerry begins her Diva strop task by throwing herself on the floor and telling Jedward it’s in her contract that they are not allowed to touch her.
BB ups the ante next part of the task is to say ‘don’t you know who I am’ to 3 housemates and also try and swap beds then swap back at lights out. However Kerry only manages to ask Darryn if all the beds are taken.
Next day the housemates vote but they pretty much unanimously vote Jedward as the most diva. Later Kerry is shown to them being punished in the diary room, up for eviction and having to pick 2 other nominees. She chooses Bobby and Sally. It’s now vote to SAVE.
Darryn gets thrown a birthday party - during which Jedward paint their chins with chocolate then wash it off thinking they might get an acne breakout.
Special guest Mohammed Al Fayed enters the house for an Egyptian themed task to find a replacement for him as pharaoh. First round was the housemates all wrapped up as mummies and having to try and stand up. The following round was musical chairs. Al Fayed seems like he may have slightly rig it though helping Sally and Tara stand up, taking a shine to Tara who was the Victor, and giving the girls his business card at the end.
They get another party, where Lucien is being a bit weird with Amy after being teased by Darryn & Paddy earlier if he would chase after any girls in the house. Tara also gets paranoid about Darryn and tries to get Bobby and Lucien on her ‘team’ against him. I’m not sure what extra privileges Tara got for winning the task but the pharaoh outfit. I do wonder if they maybe had a backup twist if Kerry was named biggest Diva, or some kindof save and replace maybe. Hmm.
Sally gets a mini task to organise the housemates for a bedsheet fashion show.
Jedward for a day wash and flatten their hair. Bobby and Lucien prank everyone one morning by putting chickpeas in drawers and corn flakes box etc. the others think it’s Jedward being funny.
The mess situation is starting to annoy them though, particularly Darryn with Jedward and Sally tries to raise it with Pamela who thinks it’s fine just leaving it to the individual and it’ll eventually get done because she’s ’worked with teens and gang members’ before.
A little later Jedward are being obnoxious, making some cucumber mush face masks, also leaving coleslaw that fell out of her fridge on the floor, and giving Amy a wedgie trying to hurry her up to come and watch their fake talk show with Tara in the lounge, which momentarily offends Darryn and Paddy. They Apologise to Amy later after she talks to them.
Darryn gets a secret paparazzi task with a small spy cam given to him by BB to snap the other housemates covertly to match several captions. He passes and wins the house - another party! This time it’s paparazzi themed.
Bobby after several days going under the radar a bit suddenly pipes up after he perceives Darryn and Amy talking about Pamela posing by the pool for photos as taking the piss out of her and starts speaking up about it to the others to air his annoyances and get it off his chest without causing an argument.
It’s starting to get to Bobby a little bit though as the next day he first comes to the Diary room to have a good bitch session about how he finds Darryn two faced and his sculpted liposuction or whatever 8 pack and image a bit fake, then later as Kerry is telling another story about herself, how she finds it hard to date on the quiet without either the media finding out or someone blabbing, Bobby walks away seemingly a little exhausted by the conversation to have another bitch in the diary room, but ends up fourth walling to the cameras whilst waiting outside it, then goes for a walk around the bedroom.
The others are a bit weirded out by Pamela deciding to cook some meat in salad dressing. Jed ward are given a task to put on the shock suits and stay no closer than 5 feet apart for an hour, lest they get zapped. This is to allow the other HMs to get to know them as individuals. This is for a task later on, which is just to tel them apart looking at them sitting in the diary room on the plasma screen. Not a quiz or anything, just to pick them apart.
This wins them… another party! This time it’s a ‘pop party’ after which John and Amy stage a fake wedding ceremony for the lulz. Lol.
The shopping task rolls around, and it’s themed around the Wizard of Oz. The three nominees are all Dorothy, and must stay at least one of them on the yellow brick road in the garden at all times. They also pick the roles for the rest.
Darryn gets a bit taken aback by Sally remarking he didn’t have a heart when choosing him as the Tin man - she explains it as just basing it on him not following up with her when she got nominated.
Bobby causes a bit of controversy on the outside as he decides to prank Darryn by going to the sauna, collecting his sweat in cotton balls and decants a bit into the watering oil can they use for Darryn to drink when the creaking noise plays and he must stay in place.
Later Darryn passes all of his task by refusing a plate of food, a glass of wine and 30 mins with his pet Macaw (which he’s a bit misty eyed about afterwards) in exchange for a Chinese takeout for the rest of the house, fizzy pop for Lucien so he doesn’t have to keep drinking the witches brew instead of water as part of his role as witch, and a phone call from Tara’s husband to prove he has a heart. Bobby feels bad for Darryn and comes clean about ‘sweatgate’ and apologised to him, and Sally says she saw a different side to him in the diary room.
Amy’s task as the scarecrow was to prove she has a brain by passing a quiz which has bird related answers, all he while a person in a pigeon suit tarred and feathered her and distracted her. She passed that.
Pamela had to test her courage as the Lion in the small task room by allowing this magician guy to play a spike in the cups shuffled trick where she had to pick a cup and allow him to slam her hand on it. She passes that.
Tara, Jedward are munchkins and Paddy is Toto. When the witches cackle sounds they have to run into a hiding position and Toto howls. They didn’t make it on time one night session and fail that part. It’s also revealed Kerry stepped off the YBR near the start of the task so they failed that but passed the overall task 4/6.
More Jedward shenanigans, including a shaving cream playfight with Bobby, splashing water out of the bathtub, attempting to throw a bread bag water bomb at Darryn, and making ‘Modern Art’ by stacking chairs in the lounge area.
There’s some bickering between Darryn and Pamela as Darryn tries to take charge of the shopping list.
Sally is evicted (apparently Brian’s catchphrase replacing ‘please do not swear’ is going to be ‘hello housemates, your time has come’ or something) and apparently it was close between her and Bobby , I guess with such a long week long voting period (that has to be up there in the records thus far right) and his late surge making some waves after a quiet first couple days may have paid off. The eviction interview studio is just behind that eye door on the stage as well which is interesting.
Later after Pamela has a phone call to her daughter for her bday in the diary room, she has some further bickering with Lucien and then Darryn about Sally’s departure, and Tara and Kerry discuss it. Amy also had a secret booze task to drop 5 Shakespearean quotes into conversation.
Now I’ve had a week of content getting the swing of BOTS/OKTV, I’m fairly satisfied can be fairly skimmable/1.5x speed bits from here just to get a general audience perspectives gist and background and not skip over anything too major, maybe pick up some exclusive extra scenes or whatnot and stuff like that as we go.
There’s sometimes a fair bit of rehash or fluff (Nikki Graham playing BB Psych, the squirting dog Gag or what’s trending on Twitter, Jamie has an occasional ‘bedtime story’ outro gag, etc) and only the occasional VT/game or interesting guest etc, compared to BBLB/Big Mouth (more of a kind of mix of some elements from both) and it’s more like Late & Live as I mentioned before.
Although they’re still making use of a few ex housemates or familiar faces so far. So that will help in the interests of getting through the remainder of my watch through a bit easier.
For instance I can see on BOTS they are also using that recurring main celebrity guest for the week or whatever it is that they have on Late & Live now, first few days it was Alex Reid, then switched to Pete Burns in gradually more out there and extravagant outfits as the week went on, haha.
In OKTV’s case, it varies how much of the episode is relevant, for example there was one episode early they chatted to Vanessa Feltz for about 6 minutes, then moved onto Joe McElderry mainly promoting his new album, before a few other celeb gossip stories then Joe joined Jenny and Jeff in the camera run at end as their boom mic holder. Whereas another episode had about a 17 of the 28 minute show chat with Emma, Keith Lemon and Josie presenting a short piece on how to tell Jedward apart.
Anyways some other guests on BOTS this week included: Chantelle Houghton (Alex and her are now together), BB9’s Mario & Lisa doing Chers tramps and thieves song as an outro, John McCririck, Sundays episode was a quiz hosted by Alice between Alex and Josie vs Jamie and Jodie Marsh, with Ben from BB11 as the points scorer. BB8’s Carole popped in one round as a distraction to a watch this scene question.
I think that looked like Saskia (BB6) popping up as a bar woman during Emma’s chat with Harry Derbridge from the only way is Essex show, and BB10 Marcus popped in to analyse some housemate self portraits. Terry Christian, BB5/UBB Victor and Michelle were also on. In a VT Jamie took Lauren Harries to a vajazzler then goes to a pub to see if any of the guys want a ‘cockadoodle’ lol.
On OKTV, they chatted to David Hasselhoff and his daughters who are a pop duo ‘Bella Vida’ and sang ‘Kiss Me Bang Bang’ as an outro on an episode. Brian was of course back on discussing the Eviction and stuff.
The shopping task rolls around, and it’s themed around the Wizard of Oz. The three nominees are all Dorothy, and must stay at least one of them on the yellow brick road in the garden at all times. They also pick the roles for the rest.
Darryn gets a bit taken aback by Sally remarking he didn’t have a heart when choosing him as the Tin man - she explains it as just basing it on him not following up with her when she got nominated.
Marco Pierre White comes into the house for a mini task, showing the housemates in pairs how to cook a 20 minute bass fish dish. Lucian and Tara are declared the winners whilst Jedward are tasked with doing the cleaning up of the large task room, which they don’t do a very good job of. Later in the small task room dinner they won as a prize, Lucian makes a bad BJ and shortness joke to Tara which earns him the jug of water tipped over him by her in a bit of a play food fight. Later Tara is back to being a bit paranoid about Darryn seeming to be in Paddy’s ear all the time as she tries to tell them she thought she heard a dog in the camera runs.. Meanwhile Pamela is sleep talking.
Jedward’s tower of toast they made the day before crumbles and they amuse themselves by setting up a slingshot in the garden. Nominations take place and Pamela and Darryn are up (basically everyone except Jedward nominated Pamela). However due to Tara and Bobby discussing nominations by speculating if Lucian voted for Bobby (which rattles Lucian a bit when its played back) they lose the Hot water until further notice as punishment. BB also makes Jedward wear baby costumes for the afternoon as punishment for not completing the cleanup to standard the day before, although they seem to enjoy it. LOL.
Monday there was a mini vampire/garlic themed task in the small task room to win tickets to the movie premiere of Fright Night in the large task room. They have an eat off in pairs on several Garlic food items including Garlic Smoothie, Garlic Cereal, Garlic Chocolate, Garlic Ice Cream and Garlic Jelly. Paddy is a little dramatic about the garlic ice cream, although he beats Lucian in that challenge. Edward also gets a bonus ticket attempting to eat something Garlicky when the movies stars Christopher Mintz-Plasse and Anton Yelchin come into the house to take them to the movie. Also attending are some comp winners dressed in skeleton outfits (Jamie East is one of them).
Paddy has a bit of a breakdown in the diary room after the movie as Jedward were annoying the crap out of him during the movies credits. Meanwhile Lucian pulls Darryn aside and tears up a bit confessing he feels like hes been a bit of a follower and infers that he nominated him.
Tuesday: Jedward are made head twins and have to judge the others who have been paired up as twins with one mimicking the other. They had ‘Amara’ (Tara as Amy) ‘Perry’ (Kerry as Paddy), ‘Pambob’ (Bobby as Pamela), and ‘Darluc’ (Lucian as Darryn). Perry and Amara go through to the final round which is blindfolded, having to name what location on body and with what item the other was touched with (inflatable hammer, Feather duster, Fish or Custard pie) Perry win.
Hot Water punishment extends to the hair straighteners/dryers as well as Pamela and Tara discussed noms as well as Darryn and Lucien's heart to heart being brought up. Later Lucien gets the giggles at the awkward inappropriate time as Pamela is discussing her motorcycle accident to Bobby.
Wednesday: Jedward decide to dress up like punk rockers and trash the house a bit, throwing furniture into the pool, and throwing soup out of a can at Bobby from the storeroom. Amy isn’t impressed they used a lot of her eyeliner for tattoo’s without asking, whilst Kerry nearly slips over on the soup on the floor and yells at Jedward to clean it up, which they sheepishly start to get to work on all afternoon.
Kerry gets to speak to her daughter in the diary room for her daughter’s 10th Bday for 8 minutes as she blew out 8 of 10 candles on the cake in one breath. Pamela is evicted, and theres a twist, half the house will now be nominated for Friday’s eviction. Pamela chooses to Save Jedward, Amy, Paddy and Kerry, Meaning Darryn, Bobby, Lucien and Tara are up.
Thursday: Hot water/Hair power punishment is over. This week’s shopping task begins with an endurance task holding two shopping bags aloft for as long as possible. Darryn gets a bit salty about his disqualification mid way through, whilst Kerry, Bobby and Jedward are the final 4 going through to the final. The final is Bobby and Kerry Vs Jedward in the task room watched by th others, having to push the other in a shopping cart to knock down as much of the food stacks as they can to win the right to do the houses entire shopping for the week! You can read the disbelief on the others faces as Jedward come out victorious. LOL.
Around midnight, Jedward get 2 minutes to ask the others what they want as they are told they will be taking a trip to LIDL to do a 2.5 minute each ’Supermarket sweep dash’ style pickup of whatever the want. They end up with a crap load of bananas, eggs, sweets and manage to get some other basics like bread and stuff.
Friday: Amy gets a mini task to vajazzle the others (Darryn and Paddy get one on their arm, and later Jedward Vajazzle Amy all down her leg) and wins a visit from her Dog in the diary room. Later Darryn and Lucian are saved first then Tara is evicted. She gets a bit abrupt with Brian in the interview when she thinks that the footage of her speaking out about Darryn and stuff felt a bit selectively honed in on in the edit, but Brian points out there were other sides to her we saw in the overall package.
It’s been discussed repetitively on BOTS/OKTV all week whether some moments between Lucien and Kerry could be taken as flirting or just having a laugh (earlier in the week he suddenly mentioned he might have a bit of a thing with a 27 year old on the outside before he came in but nothing serious), and after the eviction they are a bit tipsy and Darryn feels like a bit of a third wheel as Amy and Lucian start having a bit of a back and forth again about if he fancies her or not, as Kerry heads off to bed after her and Lucian were mucking around a bit again. Amy and Lucian end up mucking around a bit shoving each other on the way to bed and end up sleeping in the same bed.
BOTS, Dane Bowers was the celebrity week long guest this week. Sundays Quiz episode had Pete Burns on Team Josie, Makosi on Team Jamie, Carole was back distracting by washing a car during the video question, and the points scorer/face twirler in the ‘more or less’ (NOT Higher or lower!) game was Freddie from BB10.
Some more guests aside from the regular recurring and evictees were Vanessa Feltz, Marcus from BB10, Pete Bennett, Lembit Opik, Nicola T & Josie (who played in the Garlic challenge they recreated) Narlnder and Steve Strange. Ben Ofeudu and BB9 Bex were in the audience on Friday’s show, and Saturday’s outro had Michelle Bass in a Dorothy outfit singing American Pie. I think the previous Saturday ep wasn’t on this playlist but I think Emma mentioned Brian Belo may have been on that too.
On OKTV, Josie co hosted with Jeff as fill in until Friday as Jenny was off doing some swim thing in the Irish Sea with Ronan Keating et al. Brian Belo was on (with a bald look) Sally and Vanessa Feltz, Emma and Nikki Grahame, and Brian Dowling with Harry Derbridge were some other guests. Also on was Alan Fletcher (Dr Karl from Neighbours) and they had a story about Shane Warne and Liz Hurley's relationship, and Kim Kardashian when she was still in that first short marriage to that guy she had (pre Kanye).
Some teasing Amy and Lucien (‘Mumbles’) about the night before. New mini task is is a Boy/Girl Band one. They have to perform and film a music video each to get the most views. With Lucien and Edward joing the two remaining girls in wigs (and Edward a padded chest calling himself ‘Britney’, they form ‘KELA’ and do All Saints ‘Never Ever’ whilst John, Bobby, Darryn and Paddy (with yellow hair highlights) do Take That’s ‘Relight My Fire’ as ‘Take This’.
Later that night theres yet another party, this time 90’s themed where Lucian and my continue to muck around dancing with each other. The following day theres another part to the task, where each team has to hold a freeze frame pose for the longest to outlast the other team. It gets down to John with his mouth open drooling, and Lucian leaning on the wall, but Lucian darts his eyes back and forth and BB calls it for John, winning Take This a boost to their viewership. Later the results are announced and Take This have won, meaning they get to stay inside enjoying ‘Brotherly Hills Hotel’ whilst KELA become their groupies and head off to the gated off fans area with signs and placards.
Monday: Take This get a breakfast delivered to them whilst Kela are outside, although John brings them some bits and pieces. He also jumps the barrier though to hang out with them, so BB has him sign a whole stack of flyers with autographs in the Diary room.
Later to finish up that part of the task and make their way inside, Kela must each sort out a particular coloured smartie/skittle (or whatever the sweet was) from a tub each and have it verified by the corresponding member of Take This. Later theres a house party (yep again, this one was a cocktail party) for the houses reunification. Bobby and Lucien have a bit of a play fight, whilst Lucien also gets a bit frustrated with Amy perceiving her to be giving him mixed signals and eavesdropping on Kerry talking with her to get and idea if they are just mucking around or does she fancy him (she says she doesn’t). The next morning they both agree they were a bit tipsy and just got the wires crossed kinda thing and they are mates.
Tuesday: It’s Kerry’s BDay and she reflects in the Diary room on the little journey she’s been on in the house. Theres another mini task, to make a pizza in 2 teams on an inflatable bungee run thing, The Chef must try and throw ingredients passed to them by their assistant onto the Pizza base platter held up by their waiter, whilst the other team’s helper tries to throw food at them and distract. The Red Team wins (including Lucien, Paddy etc), and get some Pizza’s whilst Darryn’s Blue team (with Kerry, Amy etc). get just a Garlic bread style thing.
BB has Jedward organise the others to set up a surprise party for Kerry whilst she is in diary room for 15 mins with props from store room. Later Jedward give her a strip show and then Paddy and the other boys do too. Everyone reflects on the series in the diary room. The next night BB organises a little awards dinner where the housemates give each other some awards.
Finale Night: Placings are Bobby, Darryn, Lucien, Amy, then 3rd Jedward, Runner up Kerry and Winner Paddy. I couldn’t recall if I’d came across the winner of this one so that was a bit surprising to me, I went in expecting Jedward to have it in the bag and Paddy to perhaps come in 3rd, But he did gain a lot of support over the course of the season and had some funny moments.
One last teaser before the house is set up for the following night’s Launch of BB12: Someone is sitting in the lounge and is called to the Diary room. It’s Pamela Anderson! She’s going to be part of the BB12 launch should be interesting (Also recall she visited BBAU in 2008).
So the last week of the season went down atm on one of my playlists and the other only had the dailies and not the side shows (typically so far some of them were the other way around or had both) so I might circle back later to see if I can track those for BOTS and OkTV for wk 3, not missing anything much though. Although I was at least able to find guest lists on IMDB for BOTS for those episodes so I can see they included appearances from some ex hms and such including Nasty Nick, Shabby, Sam Pepper, Lady Sov, Anthony BB6, Rex BB9, Nikki Grahame, Michelle Heaton, etc and the last show was of course the Finale so would’ve had a whole heap.
I thought it was a good start to ease into the Channel 5 Era, although some episodes had a fair bit of between tasks padding/filler and like Pete Burns pointed out, there were a lot of Parties given to them on almost a nightly basis (plus only really one real shopping task) they could’ve been perhaps a little bit tougher on them/raised the stakes a little at least a bit more to test them. I also noticed Marcus does the you have been evicted countdown on their exits instead of Big Brother.
Vote to save had its introduction, although in the one round of nominations it still looks like they’ve stuck to the Top 2 nominations slots/head to head unless theres a tie in 2nd or its a double eviction’ method. IIRC didnt someone mention Ch 5 switches to like BBAU’s Top 3 nominated at some point? we’ll see if that happens during BB12. Also Perhaps Tara’s eviction could’ve been a double with 4 of them up to give 6 for the Final but anyways.
Housemates closing thoughts:
Sally Bercow: It looks like the Bedsheet thing was a fairly then recent controversy (Feb 2011) and she had a couple more gaffes afterwards, but I thought she was good value and may have possibly got through the first Eviction over Bobby if he hadn’t stepped it up. Went on to appear in several other shows including after CBB a special with Paddy called When Paddy Met Sally.
Pamela Bach-Hasselhoff: Was very entertaining on her entry and had some moments in the house, but also got sidelined a bit to the background not fitting in as well, especially towards the end of the first week. Sadly and Im not sure If i vaguely remember this mentioned earlier this year she’s no longer with us, RIP.
Tara Reid: She got along really well with Lucien, Bobby and Jedward, but also had some really paranoid moments when it came to her perception that Darryn was a bullly and trying to control the house. Afterwards she continued her friendship with Jedward, appearing in some of their music videos.
Bobby Sabel: Was ultra quiet in the first few days, may have saved himself from eviction in a combination of not holding hi annoyance with the others in and playing up in the middle of the first week, also that the voting period was a week long and vote to save. I did see a couple rumours he possibly last minute replaced a bigger celebrity that pulled out, but no concrete evidence. He seems to have gone back to the semi-quiet life from the public eye, he has an instagram.
Darryn Lyons: Had a few stories and was entertaining in the potential antagonist role to Tara and Jedward in a way. Was interesting to see a bit more of him after being a longtime occasional guest during Channel 4 era. After the show I think I recall seeing him on the Australian celeb weight loss/fitness show ‘Excess Baggage’ in 2012 and he became the Mayor of Geelong in Australian Politics from 2013-2016.
Lucien Laviscount: There were times he came across well for the youngest in the house (compared with Jedward in a maturity sense iykwim) but others where it showed his age a little bit, like the whole thing with mucking around with Amy & Kerry, even though he was just having a laugh and the viewers were projecting a bit of their own perceptions about it a little too much kinda thing, at the same time it got a bit annoying to watch at times IMO. After the show, I must’ve seen him in that backdoor pilot episode ‘Bloodlines’ in Supernatural’s 9th Season in 2014, and he was also in Scream Queens which started the following year. Apparently he’s also more recently in that Netflix show Emily in Paris.
Amy Childs: She was endearing, if it also seemed to some she might’ve been playing up the Essex ditzy girl a little bit at times, but she had a good journey come through the edit. She also appeared on some other shows including a special spin off from he Only Way is Essex in Dec 2011/Jan 2012 focused on her It’s All About Amy. She’s also had 4 kids since then including recently twins. Amy returned to the Essex show in 2020.
Jedward: I thought they were their usual selves, although we did get glimpses of some other sides of them when they were briefly separated on tasks and such. I did know they were in this season (as I also saw the note about Kerry applying for CBB7 but knocked back due to the psych requirements) but managed to avoid reading their placings. I do know they return for the CBB all stars season in 2017 though and their place, but thats alright. Their appearance here was between their double appearance on Eurovision, and theyve released pretty conistent singles right up through the 2010’s and a Christmas single last year.
Kerry Katona: Did well for herself to turn her image around after being knocked back from CBB7, and also being centre of the opening twist and being put up for eviction. Since the show, it looks like she’s had a few road bumps still (and also having a fifth child along the way) but also appeared on various other Celebrity reality shows.
Paddy Doherty: He had a few funny moments, such as dealing with Jedwards outrageous OTT ness and some of the tasks. He also started out with perhaps a few side eye remarks in his opening VT, but grew to become endearing to the public through his friendship with Sally, explaining the ‘Womaaaannn’ catchphrase and also his background with the travelling community (which at the time the Irish and Romani communities were being as some might say kindof misrepresented in ways by shows such as big fat G*sy Wedding and such). He went on to appear in a couple more Celeb shows like Celeb Bainisteoir which was about managing Gaelic football sides.
House has been slightly altered for BB12: theres now a sandy area in the far backyard next to a lifeguard hut outcrop (part of Pammy’s entrance) and the area where the outdoor lounges were in CBB8 now has a hard black floor with silver couches (it’s also the ‘VIP area’ for the first night). The covering of the shower has been removed (although theres still a frosted surround). The housemates portraits on the wall of the lounge are blank and don’t get put up until Day 3.
Pamela is in her quarters or another room watching the Launch show as the Housemates enter. (Pete Burns and Lauren Harries have a VT on BOTS critiquing their fashions as well). Mark is first, he actually came in seeming a little bit kookier than his VT I thought, will be an interesting one. Tom was being compared to MIKA but and this is a bit early for this comparison but I’m also getting maybe a bit of Timothy Chalamet? haha. Heaven Afrika (what a name) seems like she’ll be fun. Rebeckah gets teary for some reason on her way in, also Alex was pretty nervous.
We got an ‘Aden’ thats pronounced like ‘Ah-Den’, and Jay the tatted Geordie guy reminds me a bit in both looks and accent of Liam from BB8. Apparently when Jamie East was interviewing them all for the BOTS VT (and basically dry humping Mark LOL) He said he was a lot more outspoken kinda thing with some of the stuff he said (beyond what was in his VT already makes that look tame) than he’s been thus far, but give it time we shall see what happens. Harry is also a bit of a posh guy who owns a milkshake company or something, he's not quite as same posh as Ben BB11 though someone commented on BOTS. Haha.
Another interesting thing that I noticed but it was also brought up on BOTS was that the Age average on launch this season is perhaps skewed slightly young in particular. Not too obviously so, but basically Heaven and Aaron are the oldest at only 30, and theres like 6 housemates that are between 18-20. If we take Mark/Rebeckah (28), Jay (27) and maybe even Louise (25) into that older portion, theres only a handful left that are like between 21-23 in the middle there.
OTOH though this could be interesting to watch actually if they’ve subtly intentionally cast it this way at least for the start, for house dynamics, If like in BB8 only putting in girls first then drip dropping the Boys gradually, Seeing how the 25-30 year olds now are the oldest in the house from the outset and there being so many sub 20 yos there too, whether they get looked up to as more of a leadership/HOH style role than if there were a few more housemates in their 30’s/40’s even 50’s in there with them from the start, and if chucking maybe one or two in later as intruders might fare if that happens from a social experiment POV IYKWIM.
Also thinking back on some previous seasons and even BBAU where some seasons didn’t have any housemates older than their early-mid 30’s at all (but a bit more of a spread perhaps) or those few above 30 might have been some of the ones voted out earlier in the season anyway leaving a younger on average group, It’s not too extreme, but interesting nonetheless to see how it will go.
The garden is revealed and Pamela is there to greet them. The first task for Pamela is to pick 5 Housemates to join her for a dance and foood in the VIP section with bracelets. She chooses Heaven, Tashie, Tom, Faye & Louise), then after some dancing and stuff picks Heaven to receive a ‘Golden swimsuit and cape’ to wear until further notice, which informed gives her some sort of ’superpower’ (which the audience is told at least means they are immune from the first eviction/noms next week, but the housemates dont know yet). This plays a bit on Heaven as she tells BB she thinks the others think she knows exactly what it is and is keeping it hush but she doesn’t actually. It remains to be seen if its just immunity from noms or something else extra.
Anton and Aden are discussing body counts and the look of the ladies in the house. Apparently Aisleyne BB7 who was a guest along with Paddy on BOTS knows Anton previously. He seems to me atm kinda reminding a bit of Slick Vic from BB5 a little bit. Aden reckons he’s a former player and wants to change his image a bit and talks to the girls about how he respects Women etc etc. Also explaining his slang to Jay telling everyone theyre nice and ‘blessed’.
Meanwhile Rebeckah and Aaron go and check out the toilet while Rebeckah tells a story about (she apparently views herself as a kindof Robin Hood figure doing ‘Dancing or something on the side being paid by guys to ‘talk’ and being a dance teacher for kids or something like that but ‘she’s not an escort’) how she peed on some guy that was into watersports asking Aaron if he’s ever peed on anybody lol.
Beds are chosen and the next days Pamela task after she emerges from her room (door off to the left of the Staircase beind the Dining table) is to conduct speed dates in the sauna with the safe phrase ‘It’s getting hot in here’. Jay gifts her a gold chain necklace, but its ultimately Aden who is next chosen for a golden swimsuit. Later Pammy is asked some questions in the diary room about the dates viewed by the housemates and gets them all right earning a full Chinese meal and wine for the house. Aaron has started getting a bit perceptive about the honeymoon period in the house and talks to BB about expecting things will escalate at some point as the game begins.
Some other guests on the first two BOTS were Josie, Jedward and Paddy. On the Quiz episode they Had Darryn and Kerry on the teams. On OKTV they had Brian Belo, Brian, Paddy Jedward, Amy Childs, Kerry Katona and Jenny interviewed Pamela Anderson before she went in.
Vote to save had its introduction, although in the one round of nominations it still looks like they’ve stuck to the Top 2 nominations slots/head to head unless theres a tie in 2nd or its a double eviction’ method. IIRC didnt someone mention Ch 5 switches to like BBAU’s Top 3 nominated at some point? we’ll see if that happens during BB12.
One of the biggest criticisms of C5 is they never had clear nominations rules, certainly in their later series. Other than when there was a twist C4 pretty much always had the top 2 or more and for a double the top 3 up for eviction, but C5 were very inconsistent and rules could change from one week to the next.
It was never absolutely confirmed but they tended to do anyone with at least two nominations was up, but sometimes it was anyone with one nomination and othertimes just the top 2 - and on one occassion they just put up everyone who wasn't nominated instead and got rid of 4 of them.
Interesting. Also another side note It looks pretty obvious they kept them in lockdown/sent them off somewhere (as they usually do pre season) but especially so this time whilst CBB was on that this is the first time theyve seen the house, judging from Mark's reaction to the bathroom - literally one of the first things he said to Maisy coming into the house was come and check this out - the bathtub is shaped like an egg! lol.
