viernes, 3 de diciembre de 2010

Big Brother 7 - Meet the Contestants - Part One

The seventh series of reality TV show Big Brother opened to a record television audience of 8.1 million on 18 May and placed 14 contestants in the goldfish bowl environment for 13 weeks, the longest stint ever.

Here are four of the seven women people brave enough, or stupid enough, to go under televised scrutiny and have their past dredged up in the gutter press for the next three and a half months.

Nikki GRAHAME
Age: 24. From: Middlesex. Occupation: Model / Dancer / Perfume Promo girl in Harrods.
Nikki is single and wants her experience on Big Brother to get her “noticed by rich and famous men”. Her dream and ambition in life is to marry a rich man, preferably a Premiership footballer, who would shower her with credit cards. She would like to marry him, but then have affairs “just like on Footballers' Wives”. She has a phobia of someone cutting her hair without her knowing and waking up covered in cellulite and also hates public transport, calling buses “peasant wagons”.

Bonnie HOLT
Age: 20. From: Leicestershire. Occupation: Part time care worker.
Bonnie is single and works with people who have Down’s Syndrome. She is currently banned from working in any factories within Loughborough. When asked why she wanted to go on Big Brother, she said it would be another adventure on her list and just to get in would be an achievement. She would also use her television stint as an excuse to stick her fingers up at her ex-friends as it would really wind them up. Amusingly, Bonnie has an older brother called Clyde.

Lisa HUO
Age: 27. From: Manchester. Occupation: Unemployed.
Lisa is single, was born in Shanghai and moved to the UK with her parents when she was two years old. She is an upholsterer by trade and her laddish occupation has given her the nickname “Boy Bod” by her friends. When asked why she wanted a stint in the Big Brother house she replied: “for the money and getting out of work for a good few weeks, and I know I’ll entertain everyone in there and maybe find a little love with someone”. Lisa admires Jennifer Lopez for her success and says if she could change one thing about herself she would like “a bigger arse”.

Lea WALKER
Age: 35. From: Nottingham. Occupation: Model & Pigmentation Artist
Lea is single and is the first “mum” to appear on Big Brother. She has spent over £35,000 on plastic surgery and has the largest breast implants in the UK – at a whopping 30M. She admits she has been celibate for a year because only the seedy guys are interested in her. When asked why she wanted to appear on Big Brother she answered: “for the money and fame – just like the others”. Lea describes her strangest and most frightening job as the time she was painted nude whilst standing in front of over 3,000 bikers.

miércoles, 1 de diciembre de 2010

Big Brother 7 - Meet the Contestants - Part Four

The final part of the introduction of the Big Brother 7 housemates reveals the identities of the final three men making up the 1eveals the identities of the final three men making up the 14-strong household.

George ASKEW
Age: 19. From: London. Occupation: Student.
George is a former public schoolboy and the son of a former private secretary to the Prince of Wales. He is a great-grandson of the fourth Earl of Ellesmere (through his paternal grandmother, Lady Susan Askew) and his great-uncle was the sixth Duke of Sutherland. One of his father's cousins married into the Bowes-Lyon family, Earls of Strathmore and Kinghorne, and so it has been claimed he is linked to the Queen Mother. He is an aspiring photographer, living on an allowance from his father and he wanted to enter Big Brother because it will be something he’s achieved on his own. He hopes the experience will broaden his mind and allow him meet people who don’t live and hang out in Sloane Square. George loves the socialite clubbing scene, counts Jack and Kelly Osbourne as his drinking partners and his friends include Princess Beatrice of York.

Mikey DALTON
Age: 22. From: Liverpool. Occupation: Model & IT Software Developer.
Mikey is single and is desperate for a girlfriend while in the house. He dislikes ugliness and only enjoys the company of good-looking people. He also hates feminists because “they feel women should be equal in every way and they are always dykes”. Since returning from university, Mikey has been living at home with his family and admits “my mum does all my washing and cooking like a woman should”. When asked why he wanted to appear on Big Brother he said: “there’s never been anyone like me in the house – confident, good looking and can hold a conversation. I think I can do better than others that have been on”. Such is his vanity he chose a more expensive gym to attend because of the better quality of female members and he also claims to have a fear of transvestites.

Sezer YURTSEVEN
Age: 26. From: London. Occupation: Stockbroker / Property Developer / Electronic Commodities Trainer.
Sezer is a Turkish Cypriot who went from being a tea boy in the City to owning a trading company at the age of 19. At 24, he decided to become a property developer and has been known to go out and spend £5,000 on alcohol in one single night. He believes women should stay in the kitchen and men should earn the money. When asked why he wanted to enter the Big Brother house he replied: “because my mum loves the show and I have the charisma that other contestants lack”. Sezer is also a boxing champion, having last won a British lightweight title in December 2005 and says if he was re-incarnated he’d want to be a pair of French knickers so he could “be on a woman all the time”.

martes, 30 de noviembre de 2010

Big Brother 7 - Lisa is Evicted

Lisa Huo became the fifth housemate to be evicted from the Big brother house after she was voted out ahead of Nikki Grahame, Imogen Thomas and Mikey Dalton in a four-way tussle.

As soon as Grace was given the boot last week, Lisa was odds-on favourite at 4/5 to be next person out of the door with the bookmakers expecting nominations from Aisleyne, Richard, Susie and Pete for the foul mouthed unemployed upholsterer from Manchester.

Big Brother introduced a twist this week for nomination-discussing rule breakers Glyn, Imogen, Lea, Lisa and Nikki who were not be allowed to nominate in the normal fashion. Instead, they each had to nominate one member of their group, on the spot, in front of everyone else. They were not allowed to discuss their choices or nominate themselves and the housemate with the most nominations would automatically face eviction via the public vote. The voting went as follows:

Glyn and Lisa nominated Nikki, Imogen voted for Lea who returned the favour and Nikki voted for Lisa. With two nominations Nikki faced eviction for the third successive week.

The rest of the housemates – Aisleyne, Mikey, Pete, Richard and Susie were allowed to nominate as usual in the privacy of the Diary Room. As Nikki was already put up for the public vote, the remaining housemates were not allowed to nominate her, which saw Imogen, Lisa and Mikey thrown into the eviction mix.

By Monday night, Lisa was 1/4 favourite for eviction, despite the remainder of the nominated housemates not being revealed officially until Tuesday evening.

Lisa’s price shortened considerably as the day’s neared Friday’s eviction night until she was trading at 1/100 so it was no surprise when host Davina McCall announced she was evicted.

Lisa appeared to be expecting to leave as she reacted well with a typical mix of smiles and good natured profanity, hugging each of her housemates in turn and repeating select phrases including “sorted mate”, “mint”, “take it easy” and “have fun”.

Following a few weeks where housemates have received landslide eviction percentages – Grace polling 87.9% and of course Sezer’s 91.6%, Lisa received a more respectable 60.3% of the vote considering she wasn’t trading at odds-against once during eviction week.

Big Brother’s latest twist will see five new contestants entering a secret “second” house next Friday. The new house, accessible via the diary room, features its own bedroom, kitchen, lounge, bathroom and garden area.

Instead of voting to evict a housemate next week, the public will instead choose one housemate to “save” but live with the five newcomers in the new house.

lunes, 29 de noviembre de 2010

Big Brother 7 - Half Term Report Part Two

Big Brother is entering the half-way stage so here is a short round-up of five of the remaining nine established characters and how they fair in the betting market.

Aisleyne
Current Odds: 20/1

Aisleyne was voted into the house next door but will return to the main compound which will shock the other housemates as they thought they had got rid of her and her constant singing of hip hop songs that nobody has heard of. Aisleyne is the strongest female character but her fake ghetto speak and snapping at the other housemates will see her up for eviction more often than not. The “House Next Door” twist will see Aisleyne “vote out” four of the five new housemates, although they will actually be moved into the main house and face her when she returns herself. There could be a tricky few weeks in store for the promotions girl and aspiring pop star.

Imogen
Current Odds: 50/1

Imogen has been a disappointment and her character in the house is just a female version of Mikey. Dull, boring and nothing like the real-life serial footballer dater the tabloids would have us believe. Until recently, the only screen time she enjoyed was when she had tedious conversations in Welsh with fellow compatriot Glyn. For someone proud to be university educated, Imogen didn’t know what “malice” meant nor “saboteur” before she was chosen to wreck the milk task in order for the housemates to win a luxury food budget. She passed the task, although all that was required was to let milk pour out of a giant vat without any of the other housemates noticing what she was up to. Yawn.

Richard
Current Odds: 66/1

The self-proclaimed “sexual terrorist” is another dullard who thinks he has a chance of winning. Since arguing with Imogen several weeks ago he has done very little since which unfortunately also seen his nominations by other housemates cease. Come on people, vote him out!

Susie
Current Odds: 80/1

Boring. Boring. Boring. Big Brother made a huge fuss about their “Golden Ticket” campaign in which a “lucky member of the public” would get the chance to enter the house. Instead, Susie, an ageing glamour model who had applied for Big Brother several times in the past was apparently chosen at random to join the rest of the housemates. Susie has found a role in the house as surrogate mother to little Nikki and lust object for granny fancier Glyn. Oh yes and she likes to drink tea. Lots and lots of tea.

Lea
Current Odds: 80/1

Surgically enhanced Lea has found life difficult in the house thus far and is now giving Nikki a run for her money on who can shed the most tears. Lea has the hots for Pete, although she denies it and has found herself a prime target for Aisleyne who established herself as the alpha female of the house. Lea’s almost unhealthy interest in Pete and constant crying will see her fellow housemates put her up for eviction soon. And not before time, either.

domingo, 28 de noviembre de 2010

Big Brother 7 - Half Term Report Part One

Big Brother is entering the half-way stage so here is a short round-up of four of the nine established characters and how they fair in the betting market.

Pete
Current Odds: 1/2

Pete has remained the undisputed favourite to win Big Brother ever since he fell down the stairs to mark his entrance. His odds-on status is justified since he appears to be the nicest and most genuine person incarcerated in the house and he has proved there is more to him than his Tourette’s outbusts and nervous ticks. Pete is the unlikely romeo of the house, with Lea, Lisa and Nikki all falling for his unique charms although he claims not to be interested in any of them. At the halfway point, it is difficult to see past Pete as the winner of Big Brother, since the producers love a “journey” and a slushy story about Pete “being accepted for who he is” is being played out right now. It’s all predictable and contrived, but it’s what mainstream television is all about, right?

Nikki
Current Odds: 11/2

Even though Pete is the likely winner, Nikki has been the best ever contestant on Big Brother bar none. Do people like her really exist and if so, how on earth do they survive in the wider world? Nikki is 24, but behaves like someone well short of hitting even their teenage years. Everything upsets her. She cries when she’s nominated, she cried when her fellow housemates had to wash her for a task and she cried when she couldn’t get her MP3 player to work. However, her constant grizzling is amusing rather than annoying and her Diary Room monologues have become compulsive viewing. Remarkably, she’s knocking out these TV gems seven nights a week on the highlights show. Nikki survived three successive eviction nights which will give the other housemates reason not to nominate her so often. Nikki and Pete in the final two – no question.

Glyn
Current Odds: 9/1

After a few weeks lurking in the background, Glyn has emerged as a strong contender to win the show. He’s awkward, lacks social skills, can’t take his drink and fancies the pants off any woman in the same room as him. Much the same as any other teenage boy, then. Glyn is seen as harmless by the other housemates and is funny without meaning to be, which is why he has received just one nomination in five weeks. Glyn’s lusting after “older women” Lea and Suzie is quite entertaining, while he also said there weren’t women like Aisleyne in Blaenau Ffestiniog. Lucky boy.

Mikey
Current Odds: 14/1

Mikey has done very little in almost 50 days in the Big Brother house apart from talk about “biiiiiiirds” and who fancies who. There is very little to his character apart from looking a bit like Vernon Kay and trying to get off with Imogen now Grace has been evicted. However, he was the only housemate that tried to help paralytic Glyn after one drink too many. Mikey doesn’t really do anything to offend anyone else so he could well make it until the final day.

sábado, 27 de noviembre de 2010

Big Brother 7 - Grace is Evicted

Grace Adams-Short became the fourth housemate evicted from Big Brother 7 in yet another no-shock result on Friday night. Grace polled 87.9% of votes in a head-to-head with Nikki Grahame, who survived eviction for two consecutive weeks.

It was such a no-contest that host Davina McCall didn’t even bother with her usual customary pause and instead immediately announced that Grace was evicted.

Both Grace and Nikki were put up for eviction by newcomer Suzie Verrico as the model was the only contestant able to nominate during week four. Grace had take offence to being nominated by Suzie and threw a glass of water over her before she left the house.

With one final hug for Mikey, Grace left the house to a chorus of boos from the eviction night crowd but took it on the chin, laughing and even encouraging the pantomime-esque booing.

When later asked why she performed such a childish act she replied: “Sorry guys, I just couldn't help myself. She was just sat there like Lady Muck”.

Grace had been favourite to leave all week and had been odds-on well before her nomination was confirmed. One of the reasons she was trading so low was due to the Big Brother twist that only Suzie would be eligible to nominate and she had made her dislike of Grace known publicly before she entered the house.

Grace was as short as 1/2 on Friday 9 June following the chants of “Get Grace Out!” heard clearly during Sam’s eviction, although she had risen to as large as 5/6 by the morning of Monday 11.

Big Brother even gave Grace a chance to earn immunity from nominations when a task was set early in the week. The housemates had to stand still on a podium for as long as possible, with a “mystery prize” awaiting the last person standing. During the task, Grace’s price had reached 2/1 to be evicted fourth as she appeared determined to see the task through.

After nine hours, Glyn and Mikey gave up, leaving Lisa and Grace to draw straws to determine the winner as boredom set in. Lisa drew the longest straw and was rewarded with a prize of being immune from nominations. Grace’s failure to win the immunity saw her price plummet to 1/2 even though nominations were yet to be announced.

When the nominations were announced on Tuesday 13 June, Grace was a short as 1.05 on the betting exchanges, then 1.03 and even as low as 1.02 by Wednesday in what appeared to be a certain eviction. Nikki was available at 33/1 and even 50/1 by comparison.

The bookmakers were also not keen on opening a “How much percentage of the vote will Grace receive” market as at least 85% also looked likely and could even beat the record 86% two-way vote record held by Stuart from Big Brother II and Vanessa from Big Brother V.

miércoles, 24 de noviembre de 2010

Big Brother 7 - Bonnie is Evicted

Bonnie Holt became the first housemate to leave the Big Brother house by public vote at a best price of 1/33 on eviction day.

Bonnie was actually the third housemate in a week to leave the Big Brother house following Shabaz’s decision to walk and Dawn’s ejection for receiving messages from the outside world. She had the dubious honour of being the first housemate to go in and was also the first to leave via the traditional public voting method of eviction.

Bonnie was a disappointing housemate and didn't offer much in the way of entertainment. She was originally chosen for "chatterbox personality" but that was not at all evident as she hardly spoke during her seven days incarceration. She wasn't a bad housemate - just a boring one.

Her original audition tape promised much in the way of wild times, with her claiming she was "sexy" and prepared to "blaze it up", but the reality was nothing like it. The only airtime she received on the show was when she was whinging in the Diary Room about her suitcase and her accent made her speech barely comprehensible ("me names Bonn-eh"). She failed to bond with the majority of the housemates, with the exception of Lea Walker and won't really be missed by the rest of the Big Brother housemates.

Shrewd punters will have spotted that Bonnie wasn’t really “fitting in” to life in the house and was even after 24 hours a few of her housemates were complaining they couldn’t understand a word she said and she was becoming withdrawn from the rest of the group while they all got to know eachother. At this stage Bonnie was around 6/1 to be the first housemate to face eviction.

She briefly drifted to almost 9/1 on the betting exchanges but by Saturday (two days into the show) had dropped to 5/2. By this time she was seen as a loner who had distanced herself from the group bar the odd exchange with Lea.

First impressions count for a lot on Big Brother and while she wasn’t generating any hatred from the other housemates, she became a bit of a non-entity and wasn’t giving the rest of the group any reason to keep her in.

By the time Wednesday came she was odds-on favourite to leave at 1/3, with the remaining housemates not deemed worthy of the “Big Brotherhood” Glyn and Dawn both available at 5/1.

Of course, Dawn was ejected before the final eviction day and Friday saw Bonnie become the overall favourite for eviction while Welsh sixth form head boy could have been backed art 12/1.

Being a girl against a boy never helps when it comes to survival in the house and Bonnie was evicted after receiving over 80% of the public vote.

During her post eviction interview, Bonnie tipped Nikki to win although hopes Lea will come out victorious at the end.