Big Brother 2005 on official YouTube channel (Live streamed Sept 12-14 + Sept 19-21)

[jessy_girl]

No one knew until this interview in 2011:

It's very good, and very interesting. He goes into detail about it in the above clip. All the HMs here are visibly surprised by the admission.

Oh yep it’s all coming back to me now!

Seems unlikely to come up in conversation in house anyway, but I suppose it was intentional for it not to. Not that I think there was anything particularly duplicitous in the first place.

 

[James T]

Oh yep it’s all coming back to me now!

Seems unlikely to come up in conversation in house anyway, but I suppose it was intentional for it not to. Not that I think there was anything particularly duplicitous in the first place.

Chas was a avid follower of the show back during the 10 run, I remember an episode of Tim’s podcast where him and Chas were doing a state of play for 2006 and Chas Licciardello has a very strong understanding of the show and how to win it. I reckon they did it as an experiment to see if they were able to “play” BB with a formula.

 

[timmy]

Oh dear, you must have missed this moment then:

@ 9h59m12sec

Well tbf I was speaking generally across the season, aside from that bit. Overall she seemed less stressed.

 

[Brekkie]

Oh dear, you must have missed this moment then:

@ 9h59m12sec

That should never have been done on air.

 

[Being Big Brother]

I got the impression they couldn’t stand each other

I watched the episode of his podcast with her as a guest (hoping they'd talk about Big Brother – they did not).

She spent most of it slumped over in a chair, complaining of not having any energy. She did not look thrilled to be doing it.



ETA: Forgot about the YouTube description. Very weird vibes:

I worked with her on Big Brother when we were hosts and I have been lucky enough to be friends with her sort of. Gretel has friends and then gets new ones then comes back to the old ones and I'm an old one who is lucky enough to have her back for some fun with a microphone.

 

[Being Big Brother]

That should never have been done on air.

Her whole "quiet as a mouse" thing was the only thing about her that grated on me. "We're pretending you're not here!" ...What, on eviction night? Why?!

If the reason was that she couldn't hear the Housemates, it's WILD that they didn't get her a better earpiece, or build a small "eviction announcement set" with reduced crowd noise, in SEVEN YEARS.

Surely they could've decorated a little area at the back of the stage, beyond the big screens/doors? Literally adopt the "I'm now going to talk to the House" line from BBUK, and turn it into a cute little format point.

It's just another example of the production blatantly not supporting her properly to do her job.

 

[T.R.]

Her whole "quiet as a mouse" thing was the only thing about her that grated on me. "We're pretending you're not here!" ...What, on eviction night? Why?!

I think Gretel's rule and her audience control was a good thing. On the 9 series, the audience would be so wild and try to interact with the housemates when Sonia was live crossing with cheering, booing, etc. It's better when the housemates are not interfered with and have no idea who is popular or not. I think the audience reactions also make the housemates play up a bit and become too self-aware.

 

[Kingston]

Her whole "quiet as a mouse" thing was the only thing about her that grated on me. "We're pretending you're not here!" ...What, on eviction night? Why?!

If the reason was that she couldn't hear the Housemates, it's WILD that they didn't get her a better earpiece, or build a small "eviction announcement set" with reduced crowd noise, in SEVEN YEARS.

Surely they could've decorated a little area at the back of the stage, beyond the big screens/doors? Literally adopt the "I'm now going to talk to the House" line from BBUK, and turn it into a cute little format point.

It's just another example of the production blatantly not supporting her properly to do her job.

I’ll take “quite as a mouse” over BBUK’s mob any day.

 

[Being Big Brother]

On the 9 series, the audience would be so wild and try to interact with the housemates when Sonia was live crossing with cheering, booing, etc. It's better when the housemates are not interfered with and have no idea who is popular or not. I think the audience reactions also make the housemates play up a bit and become too self-aware.

Mostly agreed. I'm pretty sure it bleeds into nominations in BBUK, when you have "Get X out!" chants every week.

But... you can't charge hundreds of fans money to come to a show they're excited about, and then tell them they're too excited and need to shut up. And some of them are literally children. A quieter area, slightly farther away, surely would've helped.

I’ll take “quite as a mouse” over BBUK’s mob any day.

Speaking of which, didn't Davina used to do the eviction announcement in the indoor set, with the rent-a-crowd, in the early years of BBUK? For this very reason? I don't remember, maybe I'm just thinking of the original Bow House... where "I'm coming to get you!" actually used to mean something haha.

 

[Kingston]

Speaking of which, didn't Davina used to do the eviction announcement in the indoor set, with the rent-a-crowd, in the early years of BBUK? For this very reason? I don't remember, maybe I'm just thinking of the original Bow House... where "I'm coming to get you!" actually used to mean something haha.

Yes

 

[Brekkie]

No secret I much prefer the crowd being kept away from the studio announcements but the BBAU crowd were always kept under control, but Gretel shouldn't have been the one to control them.

Having a small area without the set (say on the balcony, though think that vanished with this set) where Gretel could talk to the house without hearing the crowd (but the set designed in such a way the crowd could still see her) could have been a good compromise, but I do wonder nowadays if with mic technology they could pretty much isolate the hosts mic so the house pretty much only hears them rather than any background noise.

As for eviction sets - still not sure about the BB05-07 set. It probably outstayed it's welcome but I did think the BB04 set was better.

 

[dasnico]

Gretel's frustration with the crowds always made me laugh, albeit uncomfortably. We were consistently given Gretel having fun 85% of the time with the other 15% just being annoyance or frustration. Her facial expressions were gold.

 

[Being Big Brother]

Having a small area without the set (say on the balcony, though think that vanished with this set)...

It was still there as of BB07, I think it's where The Potbelleez awkwardly pretended to DJ during the botched finale.

Isolating the host's mic is a good idea (or I guess it could be done using AI? Like the Google Photos thing where you can mute certain noises in the background of your videos). I'd like to see that done.