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Posted by: Liаm 20th July 2017, 12:24 AM

I thought I'd do a little retrospective

So basically in this thread I'll talk about hosuemates I loved and hated from each series. I decided not to do a countdown as such becasue it's hard to compare and I wanted to talk about a few from US, Can and Aus too and it's definitely hard to lump them in with UK housemates when hte format for the former 2 is different. So i'll talk about each UK series (lumping some in together if they're too dull etc.) and then lump those countries' housemates into one block for each country if I can. Mostly though this will about UK!

First lot coming soon, and I've chucked in all the BBs prior to BB5 as I couldn't think of much to say about ay of them apart from 3

Posted by: Cody Rance 20th July 2017, 12:43 AM

Worst: Paul

done

Posted by: HarryEzra 20th July 2017, 01:25 AM

I can't wait to see this I havent seen the AUS series but I know Tim from it due to BBCAN so excited

Posted by: Liаm 20th July 2017, 01:25 AM

BBUK Series 1-4:

Big Brother 1:

The very first series was a totally different world to what we are used to It was a proper social experiment, few (if any, iirc) twists and just people interacting, nominating and getting evicted. Sada Walkington holds the dubious honour of the first ever evictee, narrowly being ousted with 55% of the vote compared to Caroline O'Shea, who only lasted two more weeks. The most important storyline of the series was Nasty Nick's ejection, speaking of....

BEST:


Nasty Nick Bateman - simply because he was the first to realise it is indeed a game! It is absolutely laughable that he was ejected when you look at housemates like Aaron and Dexter from the C5 era, but back then "playing the game"was unheard of, it was seen as cheating! Nick's tactics are all in a day's work for most US housemates even, he lied about his dying in a car crash (he wasn't even married) and planted seeds to manipulate nomination. At the time, there was public outrage, but looking back, he set the precedent for a certain type of housemate, it was just a different time back in 2000!

WORST:
None really, looking back with what we know now it's very tame


Big Brother 2:

The second series was much the same, arguably bigger and better characters on the whole but still without the twists that make up the entire program now! A central storyline was what is still one of the best showmances from Helen and Paul. A ditzy welsh lass and a self confessed metrosexual from Reading actually seemed qite believable as a couple, and lasted 4 years outside the house. The series was won by gay Irishman Brian Dowling, who also inexplicably won Ultimate Big Brother despite being absolutely intolerable in both instances. Not a series I ever go back to apart from my initial watch years after (being 4 at the time I didn't quite manage to watch it at the time obv x).

BEST:

Helen Adams - an absolute joy of a woman, just hilarious. She was ditzy as anything, known for her phrases such as "I like blinking I do", which made her such fun to watch and totally lovable. She was one of those people you can imagine being friends with and beng the life and soul.

WORST:

Brian Dowling - good god I HATED him. I never found him amusing, likeable or funny in the slightest. To me he was just irritating, extra and a total attention seeker. I hate to use this phrasing but he is, for want of a better way to say it, the kind of gay person I hate. Everything just had to be about him and it has to be suh a big deal and over the top. I wouldn't have minded if he had just f***ed off after BB, but he had to go and win the Ultimate series too and host Big Brother for 2 years, which is the reason I'm a bit hazy on that first period of C5 BB, I just couldn't watch it properly because I hate him so much. Possibly my least fave who wasn't for being horrible


Big Brother 3:

After the success of the previous two, BB3 took some risks, it was bigger and flashier, with a live launch. It also had a big twist in the first eviction which upturned the game for then - the public nominated and the housemates evicted, with a little someone called Jade Goody surviving. Owing largely to the hysteria around Jade, this is still the highest rated series to date (and ofc Channel 5 aren't gonna beat it). Personally it's not my absolute fave series but definitely the best of this bunch!

BEST:

Jade Goody - Of course, it had to be her. In 9 short weeks, Jade went from reviled hate figure (there's no way she'd have survived the first eviction if the public voted) to the new nation's sweetheart and is symbolic of the juggernaut the show was at its prime. She was crass, loud, dumb and immature, but all of that made her strangely lovable. She was such an intruiging character to watch, you couldn't believe the facepalming dumb shit she came out with but you also couldn't help but laugh. Of course it all went a bit pearshaped in CBB5, but we'll get to that later.

WORST:

Adele Roberts - She was just quite nasty and argumentative and selfish. Not among the absolute worst by any means but if I have to pick for this series.... She was hated by the public and booed heavily on eviction but it didn't do her much harm as she is now a Radio 1 DJ, currently hosting the early breakfast show and she sometimes presents at more sociable times covering for her colleagues. She's probably lowkey the most successful BB housemate in terms of actually working after


Big Brother 4:

A hideously boring series the likes of which we have pretty much never seen since, except mabe BB12. There are CBB series that are worse for other reasons but we'll get to that later. For some reason rather than the winning formula of BB3, they made this series back to basics and then some, with pretty much none of the housemates having a personality. The one who did was out first, apart from Lisa "I can kill you with two fingers" Jeynes who was also quickly dispatched following a late entrance. While BB1 and 2 are just different to what we're used to, BB4 is and was a chore to watch when I did on Youtube, so I skipepd lots of it admittedly.

BEST:

Anoushka Golebiewski - Best being the only one of note apart from Lisa... She seemed pretty bubbly and fun but in a vote to evict series I guess the only one with a personality is gonna come off the worst :/ She did get a bit more of a chance to shine as a guest on Big Brother Australia.

WORST:
Pretty much the whole cast

Posted by: Leonardo 20th July 2017, 01:39 AM

I'd go faves; Anna, Helen, Jade & Lisa
Least fave: Tom (dull), Stuart (winker), Sandy (pissed in a bin) & Gos (deathly dull).

Also Nick did cheat as he clearly was trying to target people for nominations by writing names down, in C4 BB, this was always punished. He obviously didn't deserve the backlash against him which should only he reserved for evil people like Piers Morgan, his confrontation scene still remains one of the most iconic in BB history.

Posted by: HarryEzra 20th July 2017, 01:45 AM

Jade was my fave from series 2 too

Not sure I remember much of them series to say a worst

Posted by: Liаm 20th July 2017, 01:52 AM

Yeah true I forgot he actually wrote the names down But it's so amazing to think, looking back, how reviled he was for some stuff that really would be little to nothing in a series now Well, not nothing but they'd probably be evicted and never heard of (not least because of viewing figures ), it showed what a groundbreaking concept it was I suppose that it caused such furore at the time.

Posted by: Liаm 20th July 2017, 02:29 AM

Big Brother 5

The first series of the golden era of Big Brother for me, which I'd say is series 5-8. This is the series where BB properly found its lane imo, it embraced being a bit trashy and out there by employing leagues of big characters from all walks of life sure to clash. And boy did they clash... Big Brother 5 is remembered particularly for the iconic Fight Night, which if you didn't see it was MILES more heated than what got Lotan removed this series. Following what is still the greatest twist of all time, a fake eviction that sent Emma and Michelle to a bedsit where they saw everything of their fellow housemates, Emma and Michelle returned to the house and, with added alcohol, everything went tits up A small food fight in jest turned into uproar when hosuemates refused to clear up, Nadia pushed over tables, Victor and Emma threw plates at each other (iirc), Jason threatened violence and nearly walked due to having to live with "animals"... It was absolutely gripping to watch but also pretty awful, when you see poor timid Shell in the corner actually cowering you see how awful and scary the atmosphere must have been! Emma was eventually ejected, the second of the series. There was a bitchy clique in the form of the "Lipgloss Bitches", featuring eventual winner Nadia (the first trans winner of Big Brother), arguments galore (including one of my faves between Michelle and Ahmed, two polar opposites clashing that you would only see in Big Brother) and another controversial ejection for the first time since Big Brother 1. Kitten was a political activisit and made her anti-establishment views known, refusing to obey by the rules rght from the start. Big Brother had enough by the end of the week, but unlike most ejections, Kitten's was a live broadcast, like a normal eviction. She was told to give herself up by Big Brother, and the housemates wouldn't let her go - until the money was involved! For each second Kitten remained in the house, the prize money depleted, and the housemates suddenly couldn't wait to see the back of her, practically shoving her through the diary room door All in all this was an explosive series that gripped the nation from start to finish, with a suitable amount of twists (aside from the essential Bedsit twist, there were a couple of instances of immunity etc., but sparse enough so they were actually twists when they happened, not the norm) but the best thing was that, mostly, the drama started and sorted itself. Granted, a lot of it was the residual divide from the fight night stuff, but still

BEST:

Michelle Bass - My fave of the series, she was just hilarious She was probably the first big example of someone who you could tell really was gagging to be famous off the show, but I didn't really mind. I loved her romance with Chicken Stu, it was just quite cute and believable and nice to watch even if they did shag under the table She was always the life and soul, would go OTT enough in arguments to make them hilarious and blew up for drama when needed. NO NAKED JACCUZINESS. She's honestly in my top 10 of all time, the public I think were tired of her though by the end as she got nearly 70% of an I think 6 way vote to evict, oops


Nadia Almada - A worthy winner, a unique and hilarious character (who can forget her melting down over fags ). It would have been easy for Nadia to coast through on her story, perhaps a bit of novelty mixed with sympathy for being the first trans housemate, but she let her personality do the talking and the nation fell in love. Sadly, it went downhill in UBB as her time was marred by a fued with Coolio that pretty much consumed her entire stay and she was 3rd to be evicted, coming out to a hostile reception that kind of left a horrible mark on her legacy :/

WORST:

Jason Cowan - his arrogance was unbelievable, he wasn't even attractive I could put Victor for the same reason but I appreciated him as a housemate, whereas Jason was just aggressive, unreasonable and totally up himself with a distorted sense of self importance. I can't fathom how he came 2nd, although Nadia won by somewhat of a landslide anyway. I think he was maybe pushed by being the face of the anti Nadia etc. crowd once Victor was gone, which gave him more votes. Idk. But last I heard of him he was cleared of a suspected sexual assault.


Ahmed Aghil - just a bit of a weirdo really I appreciated Big Brother putting in someone totally different, 15 years older than the next oldest housemate, a Muslim and a somewhat socially reserved older male. But he was just in his own little bubble, didn't interact that much with others by and large and he's not one you'd say seemed to enjoy the experience much. I think it was just a cast of being mis-cast in the season, if he'd been with a few other older housemates, he could have found a niche maybe, idk. But I never really liked him at all.

Posted by: Leonardo 20th July 2017, 04:38 AM

Series 5, probably my favourite was, in retrospect, Michelle, although if I had the power I'd still keep Nadia as the winner as it was so important in terms of trans acceptance in this country, worst that series I'd say Kitten as I find that whole "breaking rules is radical" schtick very tedious, and Jason and Ahmed proved good as the foils in arguments against various Lipgloss Bitches,

Posted by: Klaus 20th July 2017, 07:09 AM

Not properly seen any of the series mentioned yet but I'm suprised that Adele Roberts was so argumentative! I'm even more surprised that she has a job at Radio 1 because she's so DULL anytime I've heard her cover a show!

Posted by: Oliver 20th July 2017, 07:29 AM

I agree that 5-8 is the pinnacle of Big Brother UK, however I don't agree that Jason isn't attractive lol (I wouldn't say no ).

Posted by: jase. 20th July 2017, 11:27 AM

Michelle and Nadia Sigh. We don't get housemates like that anymore.

Speaking of Michelle, I remember her RAGING at Ahmed for something I can't recall. It was so epic Ahmed did provide the iconic smashing of the plates tho.

I know we're not at BB6 yet but I'm hoping Makosi makes your best list. I know I overuse 'iconic' but she is the absolute definition of iconic housemate!

Posted by: jase. 20th July 2017, 11:28 AM

And welp, I remember Adele squaring up to Jade.

Posted by: Liаm 20th July 2017, 11:45 AM

Yeah I wouldn't take Nadia's win either, whilst I prefer Michelle, it was one of those sort of "journey" wins that felt satisfying to watch and like she really truly deserved it, I don't think there has been a better winner since except maybe one who I'll cover later, for that reason. It was a real moment and most winners I'm either wtf how or "aw" because they're just nice.


Omg I was too, idk why I know she's hardly going to be screaming at people on Radio 1 but when I've heard her you just wouldn't expect it


Ofc you would


spoiler: it goes without saying she'll feature *.*

Posted by: jase. 20th July 2017, 03:00 PM

Intrigued to see whether Grace makes your love or hate list

I recently watched her "best bits" and in a bitching session with Nikki she referred to Sam and Aisleyne as "the he-she and the wigga". Such a mean bitch

Posted by: Mack 20th July 2017, 07:04 PM

Hoping that either geezer Maxwell or Saskia as worst for BB6.

Was Ahmed the plate smashing guy?

Posted by: Liаm 20th July 2017, 07:43 PM

Yep that's Ahmed

Posted by: jase. 20th July 2017, 07:45 PM

Maxwell and Saskia were the f***ing PITS.

Derek from BB6 remains an icon <3

Posted by: King Rollo 20th July 2017, 08:05 PM

I stopped watching two years ago but was a regular viewer in the early days from BB2 onwards.

BB2 - In those days,housemates were allowed to bring in books and magazines. Sometimes if you put on the live feed (shown on E4 day and night except for evening peak time) they would be reading books and not saying anything. Two of the boring housemates,Elizabeth and Dean sailed through to the final week as they never said anything that would get them nominated. Highlights were the Helen/Paul romance,Bubble tripping over a table and getting sent to hospital and Dean breaking a world record for a sugar cube tower.

Best - Helen
Worst - Elizabeth

Posted by: jase. 20th July 2017, 08:16 PM

Helen and Paul (I remember thinking he was FIT) Back when two people falling for each other wasn't a showmance and was genuinely nice to watch.

Posted by: King Rollo 20th July 2017, 08:18 PM

BB3 - One of the best series. Highlights - The rich house/poor house divide,Sandy pissing in a bin and then climbing over the wall while the housemates were watching England v Nigeria in the World Cup (a reward for winning a task),Alison standing on a table to look over a wall and breaking it,Jade's antics in general.

Best - Jade
Worst - Tim (comprende)

Posted by: Mack 20th July 2017, 08:21 PM

I see Nush at the bakery sometimes in passing.

Posted by: jase. 20th July 2017, 08:22 PM

I was GUTTED Penny was first to be evicted from BB2.

Posted by: King Rollo 20th July 2017, 08:27 PM

BB4 - It was indeed a boring series with the only highlights being Lisa's two fingers remark and Jon Tickle's witty and quirky personality.

Best - Jon
Worst - Gos (I can't remember most of the others)

Posted by: King Rollo 20th July 2017, 08:39 PM

BB5 - A classic series. Highlights:Michelle and Emma in the secret bedsit and their return to the house,the army task,Victor's diary room chats,Becky coming in pretending she was from the Italian BB house but not convincing anyone,Ahmed smashing plates. I remember Ahmed had four plates but he only smashed three of them,putting the other one down,so you could measure how angry he was.

Best - Nadia (several other candidates)
Worst - Kitten

Posted by: Parallel Reality 20th July 2017, 08:59 PM

OMG, I really need to watch Series 5 all the way through! - I was quite young when it was on and we only had one TV downstairs so never really got a chance to watch most of it. It sounds like a classic though. I remember my dad talking about Kitten ripping the microphones off the walls.

I think BB has made a mistake with the whole UBB and putting in past housemates again, something C5 have done too. It just doesn't work. Poor Brian Belo having to deal with Helen, it was so uncomfortable to watch.

Posted by: Liаm 20th July 2017, 09:13 PM

Big Brother 6


Much like its predecessor, BB6 was full to the brim with arguments, drama and exciting evictions/twists, as well as the now usual sex and nudity, with an array of people including Tory speechwriter Derek Laud, sassy Nigerian nurse and all round icon Makosi Musambasi, self-procalimed psychic white witch Mary O'Leary and eventual winner Anthony Hutton, a cheeky chappie from Durham. Anthony's enduring storyline was creepy Craig's obession with him; you could turn on livefeed and see Craig stroking his arms, lying his on lap, things you'd probably do to a partner on a night in, except Anthony was straight. He was also involved in the iconic "PoolNight" in which Makosi thought she was pregnant following some fun in the hot tub with Anthony and demanded a pregnancy test the next day (of course she was not pregnant) The series was explsoive almost instantly, with Mary branding everyone wannabes and quickly getting on the wrong side of Saskia by lying about a dog visiting the house iirc, of all things... Even though Mary was out first (which was a shame, I alwas thought she could have lowkey been amazing with a bit longer ,she settled in towards the end), Lesley took over and behaved abysmally towards the admittedly rather annoying Sam, with the public seeing her as a bully and she was quickly dispatched in a whole hosue vote to evict. After that it was Saskia and Maxwell all the way, with their toxic showmance steamrolling anyone who dared to breathe at them. Both were as bad as each other really. Towards the end of the series, a housemate who entered just 2 weeks before the final made her mark on the show forever in one of the show's most endurng moments - for all the wrong reasons. Even if you haven't watched it, you'll probably know about Kinga and her wine bottle in the garden, no wonder BB is seen as lowbrow and trashy I guess This series is one of those where you couldn't pick one big moment, so much went on and eben when central housemates went, the drama carried on! It's one of the most rewatchable seasons imo and therefore the best. We have perhaps got even more iconic Kemal one liners like "at least someone's getting wet tonight", had Orlaith not narrowly survived two evictions and then decided to walk, so we lost Kemal and Science for nothing The latter in particular is still the closest head to head eviction in BB history, with 1% between him and Orlaith.


BEST:

Makosi - of course an icon, it goes without saying. At a time where hate figures on BB really had their reception ramped up, I'm shocked she made it to the final although the twist where the top 2 in a vote to evict (her and Vanessa) of most of the house were put forward for the housemates to save one of them, Makosi being fairly popular in the house was always going to survive that. As well as Poolgate, Makosi is none for being central to twists such a secret mission in week 1, and a secret garden in which new housemates Orlaith and Eugene (Kinga from that twist was given Orlaith's place when she walked). Her interview upon placing third is one of the most memorable in Big Brother history, as over 400 complaints were made over Davina's noticably very frosty reaction to Makosi, who didn't apologise for her actions in the hosue even on being booed! She's probably quite a controversial finalist all in all but in fan circles she is rightfully consistently recognised as one of the best housemates of all time, and the original of the robbed female forum fan favourite trope (later to be joined by the likes of Nikki Grahame, Ashleigh Coyle, Deana Uppal and Gina Rio, as well as Lauren Harries and Tiffany Pollard from CBB). She now presents a current affairs show in Nigeria called Makosi Today, when will your faves x


Kemal - hilarious one liners *.* Kemal was a total bitch but admitted it and was always on hand to put someone down when they needed it. "At least someone's getting wet tongiht" as a dig at Maxwell's sexual prowess after Maxwell threw a glass of water at Kemal is one of the best lines in BB history. Bizarrely, Kemal and Kinga dated after the show for a bit Kemal now lives as a woman called Zulekya.

WORST:

Lesley - horrible aggressive bully. Sam was annoying, extra and always gave tmi (telling Big Brother she's horny) but Lesley was just vile to her, hiding her stuff, making personal comments and even threatening her that she'd be "waiting" on the outside.


Saskia and Maxwell - it's a shame, they started off well and were quite well liked iirc, but they got into what i view as the first awful showmance BB had, they became absorbed in each other and ended up nominated together, they were as bad as each other imo but Saskia was evicted in the bigges head to head landslide of the series with 71%.Maxwell seemed to egt off lightly in comparison but was evicted the week after against Science.


Craig - just so uncomfortable to watch, he was awful at the start whining and cryig about being up for eviction but his obsession with Anthony was just creepy! Like eys Anthony was hot but he wasn't get a restraining order worthy lmao.

Posted by: Liаm 20th July 2017, 09:18 PM

Omg you so do, it's still the best series for me!

Yeah I agree, UBB is a bit of a flop looking back and it only did harm for fan faves like Makosi and Nadia who came off awfully there. Chantelle and Nikki making top 3 was great as there are two of the defining housemates, but a few of the housemates they got felt a bit like barrel scrapes (Collio and Ulrika, really?). It felt so odd withotu Jade too but of course she passed away a year prior Not only that but so many series went unrepresented, I'd hae had civilians only (including Chanelle ofc as she was a civillian in the celeb one) and maybe one to represent each series, perhaps having two from BB5 instead of anyone from BB4

Posted by: Jack 21st July 2017, 09:42 AM

Makosi, Vanessa, Kemal and Kinga were my faves from BB6

''At least someone's getting wet tonight'' and Cider gate were my fave moments.

Posted by: King Rollo 21st July 2017, 11:04 AM

BB6 - the best series they've done. It was perfectly cast with almost everyone playing a role. Derek and Eugene were both not the sort of characters you would expect to apply to be housemates so it was such a mixed bunch of people. Most of the highlights I can remember have been mentioned already.

Best - Makosi (so many others as well)
Worst - Saskia

Posted by: Liаm 21st July 2017, 04:09 PM

Big Brother 7

This was the first series I properly watched at the time, rather than on Youtube later on when I was really into BB. Obviously I was younger and mroe immature, but there remains no worse eviction than Nikki's imo and I think if she stayed the whole time the series would be untouchable. But it still almost is! Right from the start there was drama with Shahbaz being absolutely mental, tbh I don't know how he passed the psych test to get in and it was good he walked when he did because god knows what he would have done (along with others, Shahbaz's participation was met with criticism over the way they handle psych tests as he was monitored after saying he intended to commit suicide in the house, but eventually walked). I'd argue that this was the most explosive and drama filled start to a Big Brother series, as within 14 days we had the aforementioned, Dawn's ejection, Bonnie's normal eviction and George walking due to not wanting to be part of the "fame" of BB. Dawn's ejection was a total mess, she apparently had a "code" with her family and she received a message saying her sister is ill, which I assume was code for she wasn't coming across well or something. She was made to wait a night so that they make arrangements for her to go home, and she later went on hunger strike outside the house for 20 days until Big Brother proved that she was held "against her will" (they didn't and she gave up), she is classed as ejected officially although it's kind of both I feel, a mutual thing. I feel that if she had stayed she would have been evicted anyway and we might have saved Bonneh from eviction

Despite those two drama magnets ebing gone, it wasn't plain sailing from then either! One of the defining Big Brother bitches Grace Adams-Short (who I think lives near my uni, I've seen her a town a couple of times, and she is notable for actually still being with Mikey 11 years on which is the only BB couple still going afaik) had a reign of terror, back when the crowd chants actually meant something we'd hear the sweet sounds of "Get Grace Out" and that was when you knew she was in the public's bad books She threw water on Susie upon being evicted as it was Susie who nominated her alongside Nikki, who of course gave an even more iconic response in the form of the WHO IS SHE diary segment, the most iconic of Nikki's incomparable diary room segments. Without Nikki, the series did suffer a bit but in that few weeks there was still a largely likeable bunch of contestants. I still feel a bit eh about Pete being the winner, he was nice and all but Aisleyne went on such a journey from being hated by the public to growing as a person, and Glyn was hilarious. I feel maybe if it wasn't for Tourettes he woudn't have won and for such a big bang of a series he's a damp squib of a winner kind of.


BEST:

Nikki - Of course the #1 housemate of all time, arguably the most recognisable alongside Jade Goody and the one that many fans would point to as definitive of their time viewig BB. I don't think I know a single superfan who doesn't count Nikki as among their all time faves, and rightfully so. Right from when she entered in her pink outfit, we knw Nikki was something else. She gave us countless diary room moments of absolute hilarity, that even today are emulated by other contestants, and whilst Jayne from BB17 made us HOWL with "ARE YOU f***ING ON DRUGS", nobody can come close to Nikki. She was extremely divisive at the time because of her tantrums and was evicted when everybody bar late entrant Jayne faced the vote because of Jayne's rule breaking. Her eviction was such a loss and it was no surprise when she was brought back over Grace, Mikey and Lea the week before the final, which caused controversy due to going back on a public vote, something BB have been careful not to do since! The controversy and perceived unfairness of her re-entering after a month out of the game meant she only came 5th, beating only forgettable Jennie. Because of her iconic status, Nikki came 2nd in Ultimate Big Brother and even competed in 2016's series of Big Brother Canada, which does not have a public vote format but is a proper game with strategy (not that Nikki deployed any, which made her iconic all over again as she managed to come 6th off of nothing and was never a target), winning a public vote alongside Big Brother Australia winner Tim Dormer, beating an Italian contest and Jase Wirey from BBUS.


Aisleyne - a huge contender for my 2nd favourite ever although I can never quite decide beyond Nikki being 1st, BB7 did good As said above, Aisleyne started off quite hated by the public due to her attitude, and I think she would have been evicted a lot earlier than the final had they pulled off the house next door twist where she was a strong enouh personality to get voted next door, where she had to vote out another next door housemate in a memorable twist. That was the making of her as she turned from wannabe "you betta know yourself little gal" ghetto princess to showing a more caring and genuine side, winning the public over in the process to become the highest placed female of the series.


WORST:


Sezer - a thoroughly vile individual, along with Grace I vividly remember the hate for him because I used to look on Teletext and people would text in to the Big Brother page, and there was nothing nice ever about him apart from the odd person saying he was hot, and rightfully so! He thought he was god's gift to women, was sleazy and arrogant. His opinion of himself I remember was pretty high because he was one of those who truly believed he wasn't even remotely in danger when he was nominated for eviction. But he was proven VERY wrong when he was evicted with 91% of a 3 way vote, a record until Nicole Cammack in BB9 received 94% of a 3 way vote. He was accused of rape but cleared, both before and after the show aired.


Grace - this was a quite hard series because I think Sezer was the only truly vile one (and Dawn was thoroughly unlikeable I guess, but I'll stick to these too) with no redeeming features, Grace was a hideous person but as mentioned provided some entertainment. She was just nasty though rather than bitchy and funny most of the time, when you take away the one liners and defining moments, she was a spiteful mean girl type. But she did better than most after Big Brother even if not in the fame sense (although she did win Sky 1's circus talent show), as she found the love of her life in the house and is still married to him today!

Posted by: Oliver 21st July 2017, 04:23 PM

BB7 is my favourite series. I like nearly all the contestants and I felt like there was always something to keep my watching. It helped that it was during exam season and the 6 weeks holiday so I was able to watch a lot of it live (how sad I was, the bird sounds will always haunt me)!

Posted by: Klaus 21st July 2017, 04:31 PM

THE ultimate series for me and the first I mainly properly watched (I remember watching bits of BB6, mainly through early morning Channel 4 repeats and through BBLB). So many iconic moments, housemates and twists.

Nikki was of course evicted too early, but it was great she managed to last as long as she did and she was the biggest character in there so will always be susceptible to a vote to evict, even if everyone wasn't up. I do like how they got her back in there but it wasn't right for her to win after being evicted once really. It was also a miracle that Aisleyne managed 3rd place but she was mainly well liked in the house iirc so obviously that worked in her favour!

I liked Grace! She was a bitch but it was entertaining, especially her iconic eviction. Sezer though was horrific, at least the oublic saw sense there and gave him a huge percentage margin when he thought he was safe!

But yes, I LONG for the days where 'get ... OUT' actually meant something, it made the whole thing such an event when they were eventually evicted. Rather than now where a housemate gets into like one small argument and suddenly they're being chanted to get out.

Posted by: Liаm 21st July 2017, 04:57 PM

Big Brother 8


This series started in a fairly unique way, with a "twist" meaning that only women entered on launch night. This series didn't start as explosively as the few before it, although it is notable for being the first series following the CBB5 race row, so the most unfair ejection in Big Brother history occured when Emily used the n word to Charley, who did not take offence to it but of course in the wake of the race row the producers weren't taking any chances. Big Brother's oldest housemate Lesley also walked days later. Slowly, male housemates were filtered in as late entrants, including ex boyband member Ziggy, tree surgeon Liam McGough (one of my first crushes lol and he's still hot) and eventual winner Brian Belo, the first black winner and the first winner not to be in the house from day 1. Of course this series was defined largely by Charley Uchea, who I will cover below. There was also a tumultuous romance between Chanelle and Ziggy who were on and off more time than the bedroom lights, with Chanelle having numerous Nikki-esque (but ofc a Poundland Nikki) tantrums caused both by him and her arch rival Charley (POSH SPICE YOU f***ING WISH, UGLY BITCH), and Chanelle eventually walked quite late nto the series on day 63, although she probably wouldn't have lasted too much longer anyway. I actually did like Chanelle though, I feel like I am one of the few who did, she was hilarious at times. And of course, she gave us imo the best Big Brother single ever, the Pussycat Dolls esque I Want It, which reached #66 after being chronicled in an MTV documentary.

All in all the series failed to live up to the heights of the past 3, but I'd still say it was a time when BB was at the top of its game mostly. I will say though this is where the secret hosue stuff started to wear a bit thin, after it worked so well wit hthe bedsit and Aisleyne in BB7, and to a lesser extent Makosi in the secret garden. I do love this series so it feels odd not writing as much but it was a steadier series than 5, 6 or 7, never really hitting the same highs but still being a consistent grabbing series. Most of the huge moments came from individual contestants, who I'll cover below ofc.


BEST:

Charley - along with Makosi I feel Charley is one of the biggest examples of a disparity between fans and the "silent majority" of the generl public, although that feels much greater nowadays She was loud and argumentative, but I don't think she was as nasty as say Grace or Saskia, she just was easy to anger and didn't always handle confrontations or disagreements in the best way. But even when she was being argumentative nad starting on god knows who for god knows what, Charley was hugely entertaining and quotable. She had a lasting rivalry with Chanelle, up to releasing a song called I Want It More which was obviously a reference to Chanelle's song, which provided some of her best moments and quotes as a result of their numerous clashes.


Samanda - I think now I'd probably hate them, as there was a similar pair on BBAU who I hated with every bone in my body But I absolutely stanned them at the time, they were just so much fun and so bubbly that it was impossible not to love them every episode! They are also the only housemates along with Stuart from BB5 who made it to the final(well, just before in poor Stu's case evicted with least votes to win) without a single nomination against them, so the house clearly loved them too. Them not winning was a huge shock, as bookies saw it as done and dusted, and I think they should have won over Brian for sure, although he was fine as a winner. After the show, the girls had a #26 "hit" with a cover of Barbie Girl *_*

WORST:


Carole - I remember her being really loved when she first went in, with huge cheers and she was a favourite to win. But good lord how quickly that went downhill... Carole is the archetype of what an older housemate shouldn't be, she always had to be right, the iamspamspamamiwas hers and hers alone just becasue she was an older woman, she was just really unlikable and had such a high opinion of herself. She was lucky she started well imo as she was up for eviction a few times but stayed under the radar, but by the time she was next in danger there was the Guru twist where hte house had to keep her or Gerry which she of course survived and came 5th inthe final.


Billi - a nasty vile man with a huge opinion of himself, I'm glad Charley was on hand to put him down during his short stay. Apparently he produces hardcore porn now,, lovely.

Posted by: Oliver 21st July 2017, 05:10 PM

With Darnell in a starring role!

...Yes, I've seen what he's hiding.

This was another one that I enjoyed, agree with you Liam that Liam (lol) was very handsome in a cute way. I think series 5-9 is the pinnacle of Big Brother.

Posted by: Klaus 21st July 2017, 05:18 PM

Of course the race row was really one of the nails in the coffin for BB, but I think the all girls twist was also really harmful to the show. As we all know, the public tend to support males and so there were less people in the house for the general public to root for. I watched a few of the beginning episodes back a couple of years ago and many of the girls were a bit too all-knowning and definitely fitted into the category of wannabes. As much as I love Shabnam, the fact she wanted to get out to experience the fame after like one week is ridiculous. There weren't many housemates to root for either from the original housemates, a lot of it centered around Channelle vs Charley, and so normally the public would side with say Channelle and Charley would be the loveable villain but Channelle was far too whiny for people to get behind, and was often in the wrong I think.

The fact that its the only series where a late entrant won kind of says it all in respect of the original housemates.

Posted by: jase. 21st July 2017, 08:24 PM

"the iamspamspamamiwas hers and hers alone just becasue she was an older woman"

Huh?!

Posted by: Liаm 21st July 2017, 08:57 PM

Ffs, I always forget it's a spam filter because there used to be loads of spammers who spammed about iamspamspamami (there it is again - kitchens)

Posted by: Mack 22nd July 2017, 10:19 AM

Shabnam already had a couple of minutes taste of fame before entering the house as she auditioned for the first series of Britain's Got Talent.

I know I heard people moan about comments Charley made about Gerry during an argument. It was said in the heat of the moment.

Samanda were just like a breath of fresh air, the nicest housemates in there, fun and cheerful. That clip when they were telepathic was funny. A classic moment from the series.

Posted by: Liаm 22nd July 2017, 10:22 AM

Shabnam ended up on Embarrassing Bodies too Goals.

Posted by: Jack 22nd July 2017, 11:03 AM

The first couple of weeks were actually really good iirc.

Shabnam, Charley, Lesley, Emily and Nicky were all really good housemates imo.

Posted by: Liаm 27th July 2017, 01:26 AM

Big Brother 9

This was I think the end of "classic" BB, 8 was already a drop from 5-7 but still good enough, not that 9 was bad but it wasn't on tat same level. The series featured he first eevr disabled housemate Mikey, who was blind, as well as Albino American Darnell, Aussie babe Sara, THE single hottest BB housemate ever Dale (my first real HUGE gay crush when I really knew what it was and totally obsessed over him) and eventual winner, Welsh teacher Rachel. The launch night twist this time was that an actual couple, Lisa and Mario were entering, but Mario had to pretend to be with the much younger Stephanie with Luke also in on the act. This was on paper I suppose interesting, but it just didn't really work and it was quite obvious they weren't together. This meant that the 4 faced eviction, and Stephanie being an outspoken strong personality, young and pretty, was of course toast. Imo, alongside Adjoa from BB16 and Bonnie from BB7, that was the biggest shame out of all first evictions as I feel she had a lot more to give so it was a shame that she was shafted by that twist. Not long after that, Alexandra "MEMBA I TOLD U" DeGale was removed from the house for making threatening comments, as she told housemates that people would be "waiting for them" when they got out, having already been warned for bullying which stememd from Rebecca burning oven chips. There was a second ejection this series as Dennis was ejected for spitting in Mohammed's face during "fight night 2", which was borne out of Rex rubing pizza on a painting Jennifer did, which she didn't care much about and accepted an apology, but later made a fuss and everyone got involved, it was very odd really to go that far but it was probably the closest to fight night at that time, live feed was cut at the time. After that, the series was neevr quite as explosive, and got a bit boring in places. As lovely as she was in an English teacher who's too nice so you push her to see what you get away with kind of way, Rachel is the most boring female winner, although I'm glad Mikey didn't win as I f***ing HATED him at the time. Looking back he wasn't that bad but I preferred Rachel.

Looking through the table of nominations and evictions, I noticed this series has a few very high eviction percentages, including the highest in BBUK history (that we know of, but given that for example Pauline's % in Power Trip was revealed, I think if the record was broken they'd say)! Rex's girlfriend Nicole who had entered after being a prize from the shopping list, procured 94% of the public vote, which is the second highest in any Big Brother worldwide What was even more impressive, for want of a better word, is that the vote was between THREE housemates - Nicole, Lisa and Sara. This was 3% higher than the previous "record", Sezer from Big Brother 7 against Richard and Lea. Sylvia also became the second housemate ever (between Sezer and Sylvia) to get 90%+ of the public vote, with Jennifer also coming very close. I wonder if Alexandra hadn't been ejected, could she have beaten even Nicole? I never felt Nicole was quite THAT bad, but she was quite whiny and all she ever really did was argue with Rex, so it was good that she went having brought him down.

I feel overall this series was fine, but a lot of housemates went too early, I don't think Sylvia deserved 2nd eviction with one of the highest % ever at all and Bex was SO fun idc what anyone says, as well as Stephanie of course. Lisa really should have made the final too, she just missed out on my best section but she seemed such a rounded person, funny and likeable but she'd drag when needed and wouldn't bite her tongue for the sake of it. It's a shame that the last eviction before the final came down to her and Sara, who both would've been top 4 to win I think, and they certainly deserved it over bloody Mohammed and queen of falling rom grace Kathreya (she started so impossibly lovable but I feel it went to her head and she really thought she'd win after Belinda said she was bookies favourite when she entered weeks earlier), but OF COURSE I'd never trade Kathreya's iconic eviction which is the single best BBUK eviction ever - "please don't take anywhere of my friends" ok we'll have you instead hun x The series lacks a huge icon like Nikki, Makosi, Nadia,Michelle or Charley, but it had a lot of housemates I liked and I only really despised the ejected ones, Luke, Darnell and Mario, although Mohammed was dull af and Kathreya was playing up to the cameras. I had a random hatred for Mikey at the time but when I watched back on Youtube later, he was just a tad annoying and harmless really.



BEST:


Sara Folino - I know because she's Australian this is an easy comparison to make, but she really brought the essence of BBAU to BBUK. She was fun, flirty and didn't take herself too seriously, coming across as insanely likeable. We need more housemates like her tbh.


Rex Newmark - possibly my fave male HM ever (this list is noticeably lacking in males lmao), idk why but he was just so intriguing to watch. He was a definite wind up merchant, he knew what he was doing to piss people off but it made such great TV. On a more shallow note, he is sexy af (not Dale levels obv but who is?).

WORST:
It goes without saying...


Alexandra - an aggressive bully. The B word is thrown about far too much on BB, and indeed life in general, but it fits here. For someone to get threatening over burnt oven chips, she really has to have problems! She was very matter of fact when she spoke, never flinching and always seemed to be aggressive in conversations no matter what it was, she always did feel a bit threatening and intimidating.


Dennis - seemed a proper bitter queen, the sort of person you'd go out of your way to avoid irl. Him spitting in Mohammed's face was utterly vile.

Posted by: Jack 27th July 2017, 07:40 AM

Rebecca, Sara & Lisa were my faves from this series

Could not abide Darnell, Mohammed or Rex though.

Posted by: jafetsigfinns 27th July 2017, 09:59 AM

Stephanie being evicted first DEVASTATED me She deserved to stay over that disgusting pig Mario.

Posted by: Liаm 27th July 2017, 11:42 PM

Big Brother 10


I feel this is where BB started to lose its way. The having to earn housemate status thing was cool as an idea, but it was a bit convoluted and I think judging if someone should be a housemate isn't something they should have done in a matter of 4 days. We didn't get to see them all enough, so ones like Sophia, Angel and Sree were dispatched with huge fractions of the eviction vote mere weeks later. This was the start of them trying to overbake launch nights and launch twists imo, so that they just threw everything into these past few days but it sounds better on paper imo and actually wasn't all that wow or memorable. And that sums up the whole series for me. It wasn't that bad really, it just wasn't that memorable, in fact I'm struggling to find much to say about it There were no ejections this series, but there were 4 walkers, the highest in any series, 2 of which were partners of housemates brought into the house. Kenneth was brought into the house the same night Karly was evicted, whilst Isaac entered 2 days before Noirin's eviction and swiftly followed her. A memorable moment occured when Noirin was told of Michael Jackson's death in a task involving BB4's Federico (iirc), and we watched the housemates reactions of utter shock, a rare moment of the outside world breaking into the BB house - there were the days eh? None of this viewers tweets and conjugal visits lark Come to think of it, the 10th series celebrations should be definitive of the series, but again it felt a bit limp, with really random housemates coming back for tasks... This was apart from a certain moment featuring Sophie I'll mention below. I just kind of found it hard to give a shit about many of the contestants, I only really hated Rodrigo, Freddie and Sree, the rest were kind of just meh or not my type of housemate, barring Sophie ofc as weel as Noirin (the good version of Hazel), Bea (YES I KNOW she was a c**t but lord she was great TV), Karly and I guess Hira but she was the annual shafted by airtime one really (at least Raph of the current series stans xxx).

The first "proper" eviction was one of the highest % in the show's history as pint sized feisty Sophia got 91.2% of a vote against Freddie. Sadly Sophia was the first (and so far only, afaik unless I've majorly missed something) civillian Big Brother death, as she succumbed to lupus in 2012. She started strongly and seemed a public fave, but is a huge example of how much can go wrong in a week on BB. She was quite nasty to Saffia and constantly argued with her which resulted in Saffia walking prior to Sophia's eviction. As the initially very popular Freddie was nominated basically every week, it took until week 8 really for an eviction not to be a landslide, when Noirin got 60% against Marcus. Sophie, a bubbly blonde model, also had at the time the highest winning percentage, with 74.4% just ahead of BB5's Nadia, but it was surpassed by BB11's Josie Gibson. For not a vintage series, Sophie was a fab winner and the best behind Nadia imo, so all wasn't lost with this series.

BEST:


Sophie - an absolute sweetheart, and a real journey of a winner. People judged her for being blonde, pretty and ditzy with big boobs, but she soon won people over being just generally lovely, funny and kind, proving that people were wrong to assume. She won for the reason Isabelle should win this current series, she was herself, and I can't think of a bad thing to say about her. Well the Kris showmance is something we could've done without but he was quickly dispatched once it got going. My moment of the series is probably her task with Michelle Bass where they sang Pie Jesu, and Michelle sang it nicely then Sophie just proper screeched it out not knowing the tune or how to pronounce a single word


Noirin - basically the good version of Hazel. Love her or hate her, she was central to a lot of the action and things to actually remember about this series; men (and women, bloody Lisa) fell at her feet. She had Marcus and Siavash's hearts, and her boyfriend Isaac also briefly entered for what I believe is the shortest stint on BBUK (he walked just two days after entering), as he walked following Noirin's eviction. She wasn't a flawless lovely hilarious ditzy person like Sophie, but she always stuck up for herself and wherever Noirin went, drama followed. In a series like this, that's what made me really remember her.

WORST:


Rodrigo - I think I'm kind of alone but good lord I couldn't stand this petulant little twat He was like a spoilt child, I remember that he'd pretend to be all sweet and in awe of even being in Britain because "OMG THE QUEEN LIVES HERE!!!1!1" but the second anything went wrong he'd have a tantrum and act 5 years old. Like I remember when Michael Jackson died and Noirin was told by Big Brother she was allowed to tell the housemates, he had a go at her blaming her for how he felt 7 years on, Rodrigo lives as Rebecca, having completed gender reassignment surgery a couple of years ago.


Freddie - ah the classic public fave who has a downfall. Freddie was nominated most weeks but easily dispatched a lot of his competition as he was an early favourite. I didn't mind him that much to start with but I can't say I ever got the mass appeal. He soon became a bit wet, moany and overdramatic, mostly down to Bea. Now I know Bea was horrible towards him, used him becasue she knew his feelings for her, but it was a case where I couldn't have much sympathy because he annoyed me too much Him being evicted finally was quite satisfying.

Posted by: King Rollo 28th July 2017, 09:10 PM

Sophie was a great winner. I remember her having to be called Dogface for several weeks to gain entry to the house and I think Freddie was Halfwit. Rodrigo thinking he was having tea with the real Queen was one of the most memorable BB tasks.

Posted by: Liаm 31st July 2017, 12:12 PM

Big Brother 11

The final proper series on Channel 4, it seems Big Brother 11 was the straw that broke the camel's back. This series' viewing figures were up on Big Brother 10's, but were still a FAR cry from the days when 10 million people watched Kate win BB3 and 9 million watched Nadia win BB5. Whilst even the lowest viewing figures here are good today for Channel 5, it clearly just wasn't viable for Channel 4 anymore, getting these sort of viewing figures from a show that cost that much. There were some good twists, but not to the point of being overbearing, although I still feel this series was quite limp, even moreso than BB10. The cast wasn't that great tbh, with a few of the interesting ones (Rachael, Shabby and Sunshine) going in the first month. Actually, it feels like walkers took a lot out of this series as three of the four walkers (Keeley, Caiomhe and Shabby) I felt had potential, in Keeley's case, or they were a huge loss to the show in the case of the latter two. A lot of those left were quite boring - just look at the hideous final line-up apart from Josie! This includes who I would describe as probably the most non-descript hosuemate in Big Brother history, Laura McAdam. Apart from Big Brother 9's Isaac, she holds the record for the least time spent in the Big Brother house in a civillian series, as she walked after 5 days (of course, in Big Brother's Channel 5 era we've had evicitons on day 4 or 5, another change!). In those days she did the grand total of sweet FA. With a lack of brillint housemates, there was a lack of brilliant moments. I think my moment of the series is something really stupid and little, it was just the way she said it. Josie said to Corin something along the lines of "whenever I'm sad I think it could be worse because I could be that woman who got her face ripped off by a chimpanzee" to which Corin replied "awww yeah" Other points of interest were the Josie and John James romance (which was a bit of a rollercoaster for me, at times I thought aw cute but it really soured as time went on), Shabby's unrecquited crush on Caiomhe,

Twist wise, it was all systems go at the start as a bunch of something like 70 housemates were present on final night, and 13 were picked from that by Big Brother, and the last was by random draw, which ended up being 3rd placed finalist Mario. He was the "Big Brother mole" and it was made very obvious by him wearing "I Am A Mole" on his outfit and having a "mole hole" as his living quarters; if the housemates twigged he would be immediately evicted. Amazingly, housemates clealry thought it was to throw them off the scent, so a majority said Sunshine was the mole and Mario was allowed to continue. There was also a "Tree Of Temptation", in which housemates would do secret tasks to win rewards such as a message from home or a party. These were often amusing enough to watch and a good way to get them to earn something nice. The best part of this series imo was the Save and Replace challenge, very similar to BBUS' power of veto. Whicheevr of the nominees won this challenge would be safe from eviction and could replace themselves with someone else. This added facet of strategy you never see so much in the UK, there was actually a fight to survive. One twist too far though was the quadruple eviction just before the final, in which Josie was the only person safe. This was the first time I actually thought, hang on this is fixed I hate to call fix, but for them to save Josie then do a quad eviction of the others just served to axe all the bigger characters that might have challenged Josie... Corin probably would have been top 3 but Josie still would have walked it, so I don't know why they had to do it, perhaps just to ensure that she definitely did win, and that she did with a staggering 77.5% of the ENTIRE final vote of 5 people. I feel that's as close to a fix as possible without actually fiddling the votes. Josie was a very worthy winner though, one of my favourites. She also entered Ultimate Big Brother straigh after winning (more on that series next), but she quit after just 48 hours. Overall, this series was fine enough, better than some C5 series but notably fails in comparison to the "golden" BB5-7 ish era and the fairly solid series 8 and 9, so it was the worst series since BB4 (of course not that bad though x)


BEST:



Josie - of course, a worthy winner. She was instantly bubbly and fun, a huge character impossible not to like. She was the first in the house and the last out, and she did it for us Bristollians *.* She was bogged down a bit by the worst moments of the JJJ romance, but for every awful moment with him she'd come out with something hilarious or lovable and I wouldn't care again. I can see how she was a landslide winner, of course it was the most obvious a winner has ever been with THAT final cast but even in a "normal" year I'd say she'd be deserving. She has since gone on to be one of the more successful BB contestants, as you still hear about her now and again in the papers which is about all the later winners of C5 and anyone of C5 can hope for She was a regular guest host on OK!TV on Channel 5, had her own reality shows, lost loads of weight leading to magazine deals and a workout DVD, and even just this year appeared as a contestant on The Jump.



Corin - much like Josie, instantly bubbly and fun, she was ditzy and an airhead but not to an annoying extent, she was just always there with something hilarious. I feel she's the only one who'd have challenged Josie, but I guess we'll never know. I'm BUZZING AND LOVIN' IT

WORST:



Dave - good LORD, what a weirdo. How in the flying f*** did he come 2nd?! Well, apart from the fact BB made sure all of Josie's competition was ousted. I don't know what it was, his presence just went right through me with all his Christian shit that seemed to be all there was to him. He's one of those they chose because he has weird opinions I feel like, he was quite extreme religiously if any of the stuff that came out during his time in the house is anything to go by. Perhaps without the save and replace he'd have gone WAY earlier as he won a few of those, but alas we'll never know.


Govan - I hate to use this again, but the kind of gay I can't be arsed with who gives us all a bad name for the idiots who just take the easy stereotype. He was very bitchy and nasty, his whole time in the house as he promised in his VT he just bitched. But it wasn't the sort of cutting or funny bitching we'd laugh at and enjoy, it was just coming across as horrible :/

Posted by: jafetsigfinns 31st July 2017, 12:48 PM

What I most remember about BB11 is how much of a f**king bully John James was to Rachael for absolutely NO reason at all and how much I hated Dave for nominating her instead of himself, resulting in her being the first housemate to be evicted. That kind of turned me off this season almost immediately although I gave it a chance for a few weeks after that. The constant survival of horrible housemates (Dave, John James, Steve, Mario) over good ones just killed it for me.

Posted by: Liаm 31st July 2017, 01:07 PM

I feel like I've said this or think this about most first evictees but Rachael definitely should have lasted longer

Posted by: HarryEzra 31st July 2017, 01:13 PM

Josie was so funny and one of the massive highlights from that series

Posted by: Mack 31st July 2017, 01:21 PM

Josie was the only highlight of that series. BB11 was awful.

Posted by: Parallel Reality 31st July 2017, 06:00 PM

I really liked Josie as a housemate! She had some great moments. I was never a Corin fan though, she just really really irritated me and I'm not sure why! I also liked Mario, Sunshine (Lady GaGa look alike) and Shabby from that series. I still have no idea how Dave came 2nd, he was a very strange man. Ben kind of reminded me of Arthur from this series BB, but it may be just the accent.

BB12 up next. My least favourite of them all! Interested to see what you say about it.

Posted by: Liаm 1st August 2017, 10:38 AM

Big Brother 12

In all honesty this is going to be short and vague ish, because I didn't actually watch all of this properly It was so limp for the first Channel 5 series, I know I've said limp for the past few series but this really took the biscuit. They had Pamela Anderson for a guest stay for the first 4 days and that was about as exciting as the series got. One of the only housemates I liked, Rebeckah, went from a favourite to win (I think she was?) to out on week 2 following her being a bit of a bitch and the whole Aden thing iirc (never mind him being creepy af, he got let off and stayed in a few weeks longer). Yet again the first evictee was one who should've probably stayed, as Tashie was a total hot mess and her going mental over fish fingers or w/e was hilarious. Alex was pretty much the only reason to watch, I didn't mind Aaron I suppose, I liked him as a more strategic and thought out housemate (even if he protested that) plus he was DADDY, and Louise was nice if boring. Of course the moment of the series was Alex's part in the rewind task where she had to keep getting fake tan

In the end, I just ended up dipping in and out of this series because there was nothing to it really and I never got into it much, it just didn't feel the same on C5 so I guess I didn't give it enough of a chance. Aaron was a good winner for a pretty crap series, I think this was my least fave apart from maybe BB4.

BEST:

Alex - ROBBED. She felt like a classic C4 winner but I suppose it shows how the show changed between C4 and C5. She was so funny bubbly and likeable.


Rebeckah - idc she was entertaining af for when she was in it.


WORST:

Tom - annoying af, stfu.

Anton/Aden - icr which one I hated probs both. I remember Anton being aggressive and arrogant I think and Aden being really creepy with Rebeckah

Posted by: Jack 1st August 2017, 02:08 PM

I kind of gave up when Rebeckah left She was a nasty bitch but she was entertaining at least and stirred it up.

I did really like Alex though. Tom was torture to watch, so annoying. I really didn't like Aaron either, he was so miserable imo. Like a younger version of Jason.

Posted by: Parallel Reality 1st August 2017, 06:45 PM

Alex and Rebekah were the two best people of that series IMO. Spot on. One of the only funny bits was Alex getting like 10 spray tans in a row. I didn't watch the last few weeks, or most of it after Rebekah left to be honest. I didn't even realise they put Faye's wrestler sister in. Still, I think this was a learning curve for BB as nothing has been quite this dull, since.

Posted by: Liаm 2nd August 2017, 11:13 AM

I think maybe they got a bit complacent like "ooh we've got a show that'll get more ratings than our other shows" and just did pretty much nothing extra with it, which feels weird to say giving the way they try SO hard to try everything at recent series

Posted by: Liаm 2nd August 2017, 11:48 AM

Big Brother 13

I'll be honest I didn't pay this one my utmost attention either oops, some of the vile goings on meant I dipped in and out. It was all systems go from launch, as is customary for C5 BB, as saviour of the series Deana was randomly chosen to enter the house first and was immune for the first eviction but had to nominate 3 people for eviction, with animal loving model Victoria losing out to Andy Scott-Lee's missus Lydia narrowly. She was then replaced by Becky on Day 4 when, for the first time ever, viewers could vote in a housemate, but viewers soon regretted their decision as Becky was annoying af. Like Big Brother 12, I struggle to pick out any real standout moments that I think "ah classic", but I'll cover how much I love Deana below. I did like they were allowed to discuss nominations at first, I think that should be more prevalent as it emphasises strategy rather than eye wateringly try hard showmances etc etc etc, but when asked of course the stupid public put an end to it in a poll.

This series was marred by the insiders vs outsiders thing, particularly Conor's vile behaviour towards Deana. He made aggressive physical and sexual threats, among the most vile in BB history that almost makes Helen Wood look like Samanda. Deana could so much as breathe and he'd be calling her a piece of shit and threatening to shove her epilator up her vagina. He was backed up by his cronies Arron and Luke S particularly, but while neither of those were that popular (Luke S I feel would have been evicted prior to the final if nominated) for some reason the audience CONDONED Conor somewhat and saved him from eviction multiple times. I have no idea how he was getting votes, if people were voting for him being "hot" they clearly didn't see Luke S in his pants What was even worst was Conor was pretty much rewarded for this, when really he should have been thrown out. He wasn't evicted by public to a booing crowd, or a thrown out the back for his vile actions, he was rewarded with HALF THE BLOODY PRIZE FUND in a twist prior to the final... In the end this series ended a bit meh, as Luke A is one of my least fave winners tbh. Idk what it is, I just found him so unlikeable and dull af. Him and Adam are probably the worst final 2 in civilian BB history.

BEST:

Deana - queen. What she went through in that house was vile but she stayed herself and gave us so much entertainment <3 I wish she was in a better series I paid more attention to as she'd probably be an all time fave.


Lauren - she seemed lovely, just a lot of fun and likeable and it's a shame she couldn't oust Luke A in that head to head eviction. But then bloody Adam would have won which is even worse Well, or Lauren could have actually, I wouldn't have been surprised, but we'll never know.


WORST:

Conor - vile vile man but I've said all I need to above, just hideous. One of the all time worst.


Arron - up Conor's arse, not quite as bad to Deana but not much better.... At least he was hot I suppose.

Posted by: Parallel Reality 2nd August 2017, 03:51 PM

I really enjoyed BB13, and it was one of my favourite C5 series. It had a good mix of people in there, from the awful to the amazing. I loved Shievonne and her random sayings "Wake up and smell the HOUMOUS!" and "You came at me like a bull in a china shop" - I also loved Deana, of course. What a goddess. It was a messy series early on due to the discussions of nominations. Victoria went too soon, she was a complete diva in the two or three days she was in there. I didn't like Lydia but my friend was a HUGE fan of her. Ashleigh and Luke S weren't that likable but relatively inoffensive. I remember the public absolutely HATING Caroline - She was car crash TV, but Conor was far, far worse. Rumours had it that it was fixed for him to win the money, and I think this was a rare obvious fix in BB as the white room had space for three housemates, but the producers decided that it was between the four housemates (rather than the three) with the least nominations that week, to decide which of themselves would go into the white room. Quite conveniently, Conor had received the fourth least amount of nominations, so was allowed to go in, which was ridiculous. There were also rumours that he was friends with a producer too which may have explained why he never got into more serious trouble, and the show's bias towards him (especially when they realised he wouldn't win). This series also hosted my favourite task ever (Turf Wars).

Posted by: jafetsigfinns 2nd August 2017, 05:13 PM

Lauren and Deana were both robbed as well. I remember I stopped watching after Lauren lost to boring AF Luke and yes that F2 was the dullest in BBUK history.

Posted by: Mack 2nd August 2017, 06:06 PM

Conor should have been ejected for his behaviour.

Posted by: Liаm 4th August 2017, 06:53 PM

Oh yeah I remember about him being friends with a producer, that's the only explanation I can think of... Apart from Helen not getting her pass revoked I think that might be as close to a fix as BB has ever been, much like what I said about Josie when they got all her competition out Knowing C5 he probably would have won.

Posted by: Liаm 4th August 2017, 08:04 PM

Big Brother 14


HANDS DOWN the best C5 BB and we all know it. Ths was the perfect balance of old and new BB imo, having enough twists that were just a bit ridiculous to keep things exciting but not so many that it felt overbearing and convulted. The Secrets and Lies theme was perfect for this, as we had blindsides like Dan getting evicted after proclaiming "KNEW IT!!1!" after every twist, and Gina and Dexter's fake eviction, which was the best of that kind of twist since Emma and Michelle inthe bedsit from BB5. It didn't start QUITE as well on that front though, as the People's Puppet thing was a bit shit and Michael was awful at it, but I loved the idea that we controlled what he was doing, it'd be nice to do again maybe executed much better (no, Tom this series doesn't count his was shit too x). That twist did mean that we could nominate and boot the absolutely hideous Sallie Axl first, so all's well that ends well. Notably in this series, apart from the absolutely awful twins, I feel like most of the nasty or bad housemates were out pretty early, see Wolfy's fall from grace, Sallie being first out, Jemima second and Dan being shafted by the twist. Jack and Joe were the only ones I feel outstayed their welcome, Hazel was hardly Sophie Reade levels of likeablity but she added a lot so I was fine with her staying a while. Speaking of, Hazel was involved in Channel 5's first ejection, as her and Daley (a showmance) were voted into the house next door by viewers (which I still think was cruel af given Daley had a gf outside and this was just encouraging it...). Daley got a bit heavy handed, controlling and intimidated and was swiftly shown the back door!

Unlike the past few series I feel I actually have things to pick for iconic moments of this series, a lot of seemingly little things like arguments that just make me howl every time. For example, Jemima vs Dan's dead daughter arguement "SHE DIED ON THE FLOOR IN FRONT OF ME" and most little snipes Gina had at Hazel, little stuff like that all built up to make such a good series! I think my favourite though was the quarantine task, it was Gina's turning point, it was just gold seeing this spoilt little princess having to live in some cold, basic room without makeup and drink god knows what It wasn't always about huge explosive "twists", interference or anything, it felt like people interacting and blowing up naturally to what happened, like the old days, rather than a scripted reality series like a lot of what followed... This was down to a rather brilliant cast on the whole, we had a rare older housemate in Jackie, mixing with people like spoilt rich girl Gina, "sugar daddy" Dexter, ditzy dental nurse Sophie, her own daughter Charlie and detective Dan. It was an actual diverse cast that mixed so well, having fun when needed and clashing at the right times for drama. It was one of those series where I enjoyed pretty much every episode, there was never a point I thought ugh I cannot continue with this which is the only time that's happened on C5!!! It's a shame that the winner was a bit dull, Sam was nice enough but contributed next to nothing to the series. I wasn't a huge Dexter fan by any means but he was a brilliant housemate and would have deserved to win.


BEST:

Gina - QUEENA x It was incredible to see how she grew from week 1 being nominated by the public to being a bona fide fan favourite. We also saw her grow as a person, as I said the quarantine task was a real turning point for her as she just got on with it and realsied she wasn't in the Savoy being kept by mummy anymore. It was the little things like her learning to wash up, cook and tolerate people, she grew as a person and that was fab to see. But she never lost her slightly ridiculous sense of grandeur (she was in the news for being Britain's most spoiled girl after all) and bitchy putdowns, she was Gina at the core the way through and that's why I loved her.


Charlie - she reminded me a bit of Kate Lawler, just a really lovely, unassuming girl, so so likeable. She often said the wrong thing and got herself in shit but always made it up and was never nasty or bitchy. I think she just got better and better once her mum left as well, Jackie could be a bit overbearing.


WORST:

Sallie - absolutely hideous, 0 class, virtue or morals. Not even far off Helen Wood level, she was nothing but loud and nasty and I was so glad to see the back of her. The only time the worst one actually went first


Jack and Joe - so cocky and up themselves, they really thought everyone loved them and I think it went to their head. One of them was nice ish but the other was so loud and aggressive, icr which but I hated them anyway lmao, just so unlikable and really thought they were it when in reality they brought nothing to the show.

Posted by: Parallel Reality 5th August 2017, 09:50 PM

Agreed, this was a very good series! Jemima and Dan's "MY DAUGHTER DIED IN MY ARMS" "BUT SHE'S NOT DEAD, SHE'S ALIVE!!" Is one of my favourite moments from any C5 series - I really liked Charlie - she wasn't the biggest character in there but I felt like she had a lot of insecurities and has had a really tough time in her life (And I'm not just talking about having Jackie as a parent ) - It was awful to watch nearly all the housemates' friends and family slate her in that task. It was completely unwarranted IMO but it was great to see her outlast Sophie, and make the final (you can tell she didn't expect it)

My favourites from that series were obvs Gina and Charlie - And my least favourites were Daley, Hazel, Jack and Joe and Sallie. Dan was okay but was wayyyy overrated and I'm glad he went early on. Couldn't deal with anymore Detective Dan "I knew it"s. Wolfy's arrogance hitting a tumble was amazing. Jack and Joe were absolutely horrific. Probably the worst twins/siblings to ever go in the house I have no idea why the production team loved them so much.

Posted by: Liаm 5th August 2017, 10:57 PM

Omg yes that was awful for Charlie and I wish it won her more votes to get a push ahead of bloody Jack and Joe, I'd understand if she was bitchy or nasty but she did literally nothing to deserve it so it was SO random, friends and family noms have the potential to stir so much shit but it just metaphorically kicked the shit out of her for no reason :/

Posted by: Liаm 6th August 2017, 02:29 AM

BIG BROTHER 15

Jesus, what a comedown after Secrets & Lies... The theme for this series was Power Trip, meaning that housemates (or the public) had certain powers such as exclusive rights to nominate and immunity at certain times. On paper, this seemed great, a brilliant way to jazz things up! The power was given to Pauline (aka Jazzy P from Kylie's Shocked, queen xxx), who showed herself to an injection of fun and hilarity n her VT. Lol. And a day later she gave hairdresser Helen a pass to the final. That seemed broken, she was nice so fair enough. LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL. How wrong we were... Little did the public know what they had done, a domino effect that left the series on life support. The twists kept coming, and soon they felt suffocating and at times convoluted. We had killer nominations, immunity by the bucketload and even two evicions that the public had no hand in at all, a completely new thing at the time. The same power twist was done in Big Brother Australia that very year and low and behold as always they bettered us and actually got it right. Their power included money at times, sometiems nomination twists such as a chance to view the current leaderboard or get extra points, but it was never broken and never defeated the point of the game like the ridiculous final pass. That's how it should have been done, encouraging gameplay a bit more, rather than using twists and shock for the sake of it, it felt like it was only there to serve what the producers wanted. I get the odd immunity thing and even when only certain housemates can nominate, but a pass to the final totally goes against the Big Brother game and its even worse that it led to the most vile winner in BB history. In general this series was also marred by a horrible cast, for each gem like Ashleigh, each unintentional comedy queen like Danielle, each sweetheart like Christopher, you had Helen the bully, Pauline the harridan, Stephen the creep and Mark the banshee. That group were just odious, so horrible to anyone on the outside of it and borderline intolerable to watch.

Moments wise, this series is home to what is just about my favourite eviction in Big Brother history (sorry "don't take anymore of my fwends" *gets evicted* Kathreya and the extremely satisfying Marc eviction when he was fave to win). The one in question is of course Jale's, and it wasn't because Jale went as I actually liked her and thought she got a hard time from Pauline and her cronies. It was because of the incredible effort from the BB fanbase to keep Ashleigh in. At this point, Ashleigh had blossomed into what felt at times like the only reason to watch the show, in the wake of Toya and Matthew's evictions that dealt a massive blow to the good side of the house. But she wasn't on the public's good side due to being seen as a bit btichy or miserable or whatever (or just a strong, attractive female as we know the public don't like those). It felt like a foregone conclusion she'd go and I think had she gone there's no way I'd have stuck with the series as long as I did... So the fans all banded together and Jale was targeted, when it got to the top 2 to evict (Ashleigh and Jale, of course) I didn't dare to let myself think we'd done it... But we had!! Jale was gone and Ashleigh was free to slay another day, and she did right up to the final. Unfortunately, all the fan favourite power in the world couldn't stop Ashleigh from falling right at the final hurdle just 1000 votes behind Helen f***ing Wood. Just to think if the producers had realised a pass to the final is totally broken and against what BB is about, Ashleigh would have won :/ Instead of who would have been EASILY the best winner, we got the worst Anyway, aside from that eviction this series was also home to hilarity from Danielle which made up a good few of my favourite moments, for example her in tears over a Bloody Mary cocktail because it was blasphemy. Of course anything she did was rendered instantly hilarious as it transpired she was a webcam girl who for whatever reason was in the house pretending to be a staunch Christian who'd never touched a fag or alcohol in her life and was saving herself for marriage, unaware that a Nuts magazine spread was circulating where she boasted about the filthy things she'd done. Normally I'd think "oh f*** off you fake c***" but she owned it and just brought SO many moments, I didn't care that she was fake as she was 20x better than most of the real housemates.


All in all it's such a shame because in places this was a brilliant series and for all I moan about it, the tiwsts and turns did keep me watching, even if it was mostly to see how bad it would get But some fatal missteps killed the series and makes it overall far from the best, mostly due to Helen and her vile cronies.

BEST:


Ashleigh - a true Big Brother queen, to be 18 years old and one of the few who actually stood up to the vile bully ruining everyone's stay in the house was just INCREDIBLE. She started off so meek and just in the background, but by about week 4 she was pretty much the star and once Danielle went for me she was carrying the entire show and my will to keep watching it on her petite shoulders. She was smart, cunning and sassy, always seeing through Helen's bullshit and nastiness, but never went too far herself. Aside from being the one to challenge Helen, Ashleigh had hilarious drunk moments and really cute genuine frienships with the likes of Danielle, Christopher and Chris, the latter of whom I still see her interacting with and meeting with which is lovely. She really felt like a real person, the sort who could slot right into your friendship group and add as much to it as she did this seris of Big Brother. She's even become a byword for me, I always pick housemates (Charlotte and Jade as examples) who are "going to do an Ashleigh", ie be quiet but build to be amazing, of course in Charlotte's case that really wasn't true but ah well. As fabulous as Gina was, Ashleigh is the closest challenger to Nikki Grahame's untouchable pedestal at the top of my BB rankings.


Danielle - I could have picked the very genuine Christopher who was just so likeable and handled the awful Mark situation so well, but I'm goign for the comedy. As I've said, her good little Christian girl act was hilarious given what came out on the outside, esepcially as she had consented to be on a documentary about webcam girls for Channel 5 which aired straight after Big Brother one night (although she kept the act up on that, claiming god told her to help people and she only offered "company", sure Jan x)! There were hilarious moments like her pretending to choke on a fag on her "first time", crying over blasphemy, threatenign to sue Big Brother and of course the egg task I doubt she meant to be so hilarious but Danielle cracked me up more times than I could count which is something that was really needed amidst a lof of awful goings on in that house.


WORST (brace yourself, more than 2 this time as I couldn't decide which one was less awful in order to cut one out):


Helen - without a doubt the most vile winner of Big Brother, and possible the most vile contestant. This hideous excuse for a "woman", if you can call her that without mortally offending the female species, does not possess a single iota of decorum or class, and certainly doesn't have any morals, nor does she has a single virtuous bone in her body. For all of about 2 days she seemed nice enough, I remember her getting the pass to the final and thinking that she seemed nice and probably would have coasted to 5th anyway. LMAOOOOOOOOOOO good lord what a misjudgement. By the end of the first week, I was hoping and praying for them to remove her pass and shove her out the back door. She proved not only to be loud and argumenative, but personally offensive with an entire artillery of lowblows ready for when she didn't possess the brain cells to actually formulate a coherent comeback when challenged (and that was every time she had so much as a minor disagreement with anybody). There were flashes, very vague flashes, of a human being in there for say an episode, where it seemed like she might have thought "hey I'm being horrible I need to stop", but then she was right back to how she was. And all the vile and hideous things she said and did can in no way be made up for by being ok for an episode or two midway lmao. To this day she is still on Twitter spouting her toxic fumes of hate, just this week I saw her saying Nikki Grahame should be "put to sleep" during her In Therapy episode How in the flying f*** this creature managed to get enough people on side so that she triumphed over Ashleigh is truly beyond me, even in the era of Channel 5 where Big Brother has changed so much. Should we really reward behaviour like this with a hundred grand?! Surely it had to have been some form of fix, she knew a producer and was contracted to get to the final, she got something like 14 warnings and didn't get her pass revoked, and she manages a narrow win against a huge fan favourite... I usually hate to call fix but sometimes, like in this case, it just seems too fishy not do so...


Pauline - arguably approaching Helen levels, but at least she swiftly pissed off As I said Pauline was voted to have the power on launch night due to seeming fun and lovely, but good lord what a fall she had, the biggest in BB history surely? In mere days, she showed herself to be absolutely nothing like her VT, the power swelled her head and she was nothing but a hideous bully gathering her cronies to chip away at anyone and anything who dared to challenge her. The way she treated Jale over a bit of chicken was absolutely despicable. She wouldn't listen to anyone or take on board anything, she'd talk at them, shout and impose her idiotic views because she was older, she knew best. Her Power successor Chris wasted no time in nominating her and she was swiftly evicted with an eyewatering 80% of a 6 way vote, a definite plummet from the grace of being most popular on launch night, but it was no less than she deserved. I actually think these two are my bottom 2 of all time.


Steven - I suppose he's not as bad as the above two having written them out and let my anger out, but I want to cover him too. His behaviour was genuinely concerning. I remember thinking that some of his actions towards Kimbot felt like we were watching the start of an abusive relationship - "don't you love me????" "who's that? why have you got that photo??"... It seems melodramatic now but honestly in the vacuum of that series, sucked into it with so much awful stuff going on, it genuinely felt like that and wouldn't have surprised me if that's what transpired. He was creepy to watch, so slimy, moments like "open it" made me gag and the relationship in general made me cringe. I could put Kim here too for being so utterly cold, calculated and robotic in everything she did, even her breathing seemed to do lovingly and meticulously programmed. But it was mostly Steven for their relationship, his creepy obsession was just hideous to watch. For some reason Steven was popular inthe house so it took until week 7 to get him out :/ Him and Kimberley attemped marriage after the show, I remember them holding a contest to win tickets to their wedding... In a turn of events that shocks absolutely nobody, they split mere months later.

Posted by: troylovesmusic 6th August 2017, 03:04 PM

God series 15 was so awful it still annoys and irritates me to this day how that horror Helen somehow managed to win over Ashleigh !

Posted by: Parallel Reality 6th August 2017, 07:44 PM

This series was a complete mess. It had some nice housemates in there, but a particularly awful group of 'Insider' housemates led by the grim reaper herself... Helen Wood. I don't think we've ever had anyone coming close to being THAT awful on BB, and C5 invited her BACK a year later, where she was just as bad. Her treatment of Jale was absolutely horrific, and then she joined their crew (out of fear). My favourites were Toya and Matthew - The latter for actually standing up to Helen and referring to her 'saggy tits' - They both definitely went too early, and it was a real blow to the series losing them both early on and I kind of gave up on the series after they left. I liked Ashleigh, Chris and Christopher too, and Danielle was a complete hot mess.

Steven was AWFUL. Pauline was awful. Kimbot was awful (I snorted when reading your comments about her, Liam ), Winston was awful. Ash was horrific and Helen was THE WORST. (EDIT: Oh and Marlon - I forgot about him. Also awful.)

I think Tamara went too soon (but we say that about everyone who went out first )

Also, the three late entrants were a bit odd too, Pav and Biannca... I literally think we saw Biannca's boobs more than her face. And someone called Zoe according to Wikipedia... I don't remember her AT ALL.

Posted by: HarryEzra 6th August 2017, 08:21 PM

Helen was honestly the worst housemate in UK BB history for sure. How utterly vile she was. Pauline and Steven are not as bad but yeah annoying.

My favourites were Christoper and Ashleigh. Danielle was good but she had her moments which I disagreed with.

Posted by: JosephStyles 6th August 2017, 08:25 PM

BB14 was the first one I watched, still my favourite to this day was totally rooting for Sam even though I know he's not exactly the defining character of the year. Housemates like Gina and the LEGEND that is Jackie Travers all made for amazing viewing.

BB15 was a mess in comparison, so many unlikeable characters but Helen just took the biscuit

Posted by: Jack 7th August 2017, 10:37 PM

Helen winning to this DAY absolutely astounds me. The fact we rewarded her with 100 grand just makes me so angry. I have never hated another reality TV contestant as much as I have hated her. As you say, she is so mind numbing oh thick that she will always just use low blows when she has lost the argument. Thank god she will never be gracing our TV screens ever again.

Posted by: Liаm 10th August 2017, 02:57 PM

Big Brother 16

Subtitled Timebomb, this was another themed series, following the brilliant Secrets & Lies and of course the rather less brilliant Power Trip. This time the theme was pretty tenuous, with Timebomb pretty much referring to "we'll just spring twists whenever we want", which it has to be said is just C5 BB in general. The time thing was never really used to its fullest, they should have called it Bombshell or something... Such twists included immunity (that old chestnut), shock horror given to the worst housemate (Jack) YET AGAIN, Jack being voted the "early winner" on Day 4 and being offered a car (this would void the prize money) in exchange for his place in the house which he declined, a fake eviction and nominations galore. Oh and how could I forget... In possibly the most stupid twist in BB history that wasn't related to Power Trip, merely the SECOND eviction was a convoluted mess that flipped the nominations and we had a quadruple eviction of the more popular in the house housemates - Amy & Sally, Harriet, Kieran and Sarah. They were replaced by Simon (already evicted on Day 1 by another twist and it was obvious he'd be right back...), Harry Amelia, Sam and Marc. Whilst I suppose these 4 in general were quite integral to the series, I feel that Sarah and Harriet had potential within this series that was squandered by this, but in general whilst I didn't much care for Amy & Sally and Kieran (the latter is one of hte least memorable housemates ever for me, I always forget he even exists), this big a twist so early is just stupid. It also just made a mockery of everything about Big Brother even for Channel 5, you can't turn the head on its series two weeks in when half of the haven't had a chance to show who they are. Then again if they did a normal eviction we'd have lost Adjoa then Jade in consecutive weeks, so I suppose I should be somewhat thankful. That same week, extra af gay housemate Aaron was ejected for being almost Craig Coates level obsessed with poor Joel and flashing him, meaning we lost 5 original housemates in one week which felt really rushed, although of course BB couldn't anticipate and plan for such an ejection

In general, this cast was actually quite good. There's no absolute Big Brother icon but I really liked Jade, Chloe, Sam, Harry, Adjoa, Sarah, Eileen and Joel, but the problem was that a few of the good ones went too early, and/or were shafted by twists like Sam and Sarah. That was of course until the reign of terror of Marc, which was made even worse by yet another secret eviction twist. Marc was sent next door to the "Big Brother Bunker", and found ex housemates waiting for him. The ultimate BB legend Nikki Grahame was a welcome guest, and Brian Belo was always nice so yay for him. Who was the third you ask? Well after she came across SO WELL last year... HELEN f***ING WOOD And this was no flying visit, as Helen and Nikki didn't leave until 2 weeks later. Being the loudmouth she is, that meant Helen dominated most of those 2 weeks, with the actual housemates competing to win largely being extras in their own show. Helen was yet again a vile bully, pushing nice guy Brian to leave after just a few days. It's a good job iconic Nikki was on hand to tear Helen down, and Aisleyne joined for a week just before they left and also eviscerated Helen - "basic rations for a basic bitch" *.* Nikki taking the piss out of Jack lying that he'd blown up on Twitter was a hilarious moment as well. A week after Helen and Nikki left came one of the most satisfying evictions of all time, as the bookies' fave and seemingly foregone conclusion of a winner Marc was shockingly evicted over the almost certainly doomed Harry Amelia. Being a young, confidently sexual female who was certainly no wallflower is usually poison in BB, let alone being up against a bohemoth like Marc. But I was ecstatic to see Marc's reign of terror over in such a shock, he couldn't win anymore *.* Harry Amelia wasn't my absolute fave but I did like her, it was amusing seeing her last for 3 consectutive evictions where it looked like she was doomed, it's just a shame one of her victims was the series' best housemate Jade Despite some awful evictions and losing one of the best first in Adjoa, the top 2 of Chloe and Joel was actually possibly my fave in BB history up until Isabelle and Raph in the latest series. Neither Chloe nor Joel were stand out set the house alight types, but both were really likeable and fun when they were shown and got to shine, Chloe was a deserving winner I feel (even if she inspired the f***ing HIDEOUS Ellie two years later).

In short: this was another potentially good series marred by stupid twists and yet again Helen Wood. Thankfully the backlash around her second appearance led to Channel 5's controller banning her from appearing on anything BB related ever again


BEST:


Jade - one time that my "omg Ashleigh part II!!1!" thing checked out Not just because she's Irish, Jade had that same ice queen not taking shit exterior but fun and hilarious on the inside. She wasn't as rounded, likeable or intelligent as Ashleigh, but she always provided the laughs and actually brought something. She lasted longer than I expected but still not long enough.


Adjoa - I know we've all said that first evictees shouldn't have gone that early countless times, but if any first evictee should've gone further, it's Adjoa. She was absolutely hilarious, with her comments about being horny upon seeing girls "pussy print" and the classic "if you've been to Tenerife he's been to Elevenerife" She might have been loud af and I imagine she was annoying to live with, but the series really took a hit when she was out first

WORST:


Jack - one of my worst ever. Like Pauline before him, he was given one ego boost and went off the rails. I was never keen anyway, but once he got voted the early winner you'd think he had the end £100k already in his account... He was a petulant little brat when things didn't go the way he thought they should as the "winner", I couldn't believe a grown man would be such a spoilt brat. He's the kind of person I do not get on with in real life, thinking he's ladz ladz ladz and the king of banter when he's just boring af and an idiot. Interestingly I have met him a couple of times as I go to uni in Plymouth where he lives Once was in a club and he was just walking around by himself presumably so people would be like "ZOMG JACK FROM BB!!1!", unforunately I was one of those people in my drunk state.. Another time was at pres as he was there, I've seen him on the girl who invited us' snapchat so I think she made friends with him or sth We didn't speak though as I was more sober that time. Thank god he didn't win in the end is all I'll say.


Marc - Unlike Helen before him, I can KIND OF see the appeal with him, he just wasn't someone I enjoyed watching. He was a total wind up merchant and wouldn't stop when he'd annoyed, upset or pissed off someone, he didn't seem to know or care when he'd gone too far. It was just incessant and he was like an immature secondary school kid who would throw stuff at the teacher and laugh when they got angry or cried. At least he was hot from the waist down, but it's a shame giant arse could describe his best feature and his whole personality. As I said, his eviction was SO satisfying because he felt like the obvious winner but was evicted over Harry Amelia who seemed absolutely doomed

Posted by: Jack 10th August 2017, 03:26 PM

Timebomb is my worst C5 series, such a wet drab and didn't go anywhere and full of unlikeable characters and didn't really go anywhere. Adjoa, Sarah and Jade were my best but they all went relatively early.

Seeing Helen on our screens a second time and somehow even MORE vile than her first series was hard to watch also. Nikki & Aisleyne were probably the saving grace for me.

Posted by: Parallel Reality 10th August 2017, 08:40 PM

I loved Adjoa, Eileen, Jade and Harry from that series. I didn't loathe Jack as much as everyone else. Showbiz Simon was AWFUL and I couldn't stand Marc. Adjoa and Harriet definitely went too early, definitely for entertainment value.

Posted by: Liаm 10th August 2017, 11:35 PM

Omg I forgot to put Simon in worst, tbh he was FAR worse tha Marc

Posted by: Klaus 11th August 2017, 11:48 AM

Timebomb is the series with the most wasted potential for me and I do think it's a case of the voting ruining a series, plus too many desperate twists to revive ratings. With Secrets and Lies, nearly every vote gave a PERFECT result (Callum being evicted over Hazel was AMAZING and Gina/Dexter surviving every eviction with a vote to evict) but with both Power Trip and Timebomb, the public voting was waay off the mark, I'm still not over that double whammy of Toya and Matthew leaving over the likes of Ash, Steven and Marlon. 7

Back to Timebomb, there were lots of interesting housemates there but the voting meant we were left with one of the dullest line-ups ever. Only Joel & Nick were both likeable and deserving of their place there. I've never really got the fuss with Adjoa too much, but it would be interesting to see what she would have been like over time. The way that 4 In 4 Out was done was ridiculous but I am glad that it did save Jade when there was a 100% guarantee she would have been saved had it run normally. She was my favourite of the series and it would have been criminal for her to leave so early. Harriet was screwed over though, she's one of my biggest 'gone too early' across the entire show. Jack, Cristian and Danny all outstayed their welcome, it would make sense for one of them to reach the final but for all three was just dull. Chloe is a nice girl but she was just also quite dull in there up until the final week, and my memory is forever tarnished now that I can only think of Ellie.

I have a love/hate thing with Marc, he irritated me so bad at times in there but I do think he was completely necessary in there (so long as he was away from Helen). Simon is absolutely horrific though and I'm not wasting more time on him.

The Time Warp was a really great idea and it was amazing to see Nikki, Brian and Aisleyne all back, just a shame about the witch. It did become very odd during those two or so weeks though because, as you said, it was very much the Time Warp housemates show and the others were all extras. The Jade eviction therefore felt quite overlooked in the grand scheme of things.

As I always say, the first two weeks were absolutely brilliant for me but the mixture of dodgy voting and constant twists (plus the witch) does tarnish the series for me. Not a classic by any means but not the worst.

Posted by: jafetsigfinns 11th August 2017, 03:32 PM

"if you've been to Tenerife he's been to Elevenerife"

Wait, wasn't it Lateysha from BB17 who said that? Or was she just quoting Adjoa when she said it?

Posted by: Liаm 11th August 2017, 03:33 PM

Quoting Adjoa

Posted by: Parallel Reality 12th August 2017, 09:17 AM

IIRC didn't Shievonne say it originally??

Either way - ICONIC quote

Posted by: Liаm 26th June 2018, 01:12 PM

Ok I'm gonna bring this back as I'm in a BB mood with US coming up, but I'm gonna skip to the international bits and review a few of the best US, Canada and Aus series, let I'll do CBB after that as a sort of run-up to the CBB we're getting soon!

Posted by: pippa 26th June 2018, 04:30 PM

Is anyone else missing Big Brother UK being aired over the summer.
The last couple of weeks i have the feeling of this should be Big Brother time.

Posted by: Liаm 28th June 2018, 03:49 AM

Big Brother US 14

Without a doubt the best series of BBUS I've seen (BB10, BB11, BB13, BB14-19) This kicked off in style with a coaches twist that saw 4 of the best players of all time in Janelle Pierzina, Mike "Boogie" Malin, Britney Haynes and Dan Gheesling return. Initially they picked players for their "team" and as veterans of the game who knew what it took to do well (and win the cases of Mike and Dan), they taught their proteges all they knew. There was also one of the most unfair eliminations in BB history that very same day, as Dan's team lost the HOH competition and one of his choices would be sent home by him - that was the infamous Jodi who fans have always hoped would return somehow. It's a bit of an in joke but she seemed to have potential. Janelle and Britney instantly wanted to work together as did Dan and Boogie.

Things weren't going well for Dan as he lost Jodi on Day 1 and Kara in the next eviction, leaving him with only ditzy Danielle Murphree, who was hiding the fact she was a nurse to not seem a threat. After a few evictions, the game really heated up as the coaches had the opportunity to enter the game properly if they reset the game - all bar Mike chose to do so and they all entered. Naturally, this was going to paint a target on their backs, so Janelle (*the* comp beast of BBUS tbh) and Mike (he controlled basically all of BB7) were disposed of before jury - the latter at the hands of his ally and teammate Ian. That was where Ian really came out of his shell as more than the awkward nerd that was no threat. And this was because of Dan taking him under his wing, which defined much of the rest of the series. I absolutely loved seeing Ian grow like that, he played a blinder of a game and it was amazing to see such a superfan really revel in EVERY aspect of the game, even being on slop (he snuck in a showmance too, kind of, sneaking in a bit of one with Ashley), and making friends with the Big Brother legends he'd idolised in Dan and Britney.

Of course the two best moments were courtsey of the Big Brother king Dan Gheesling - any who has seen this season knows that I am talking about Dan's Funeral and Shane being backdoored. Dan's Funeral is one of my absolute favourite moments of ANY BB in any country, absolutely outstanding. For those who don't know, watch the video below, but Dan found himself on the block with his closest ally Danielle, and with Dan's biggest rival Frank as HOH they looked to be absolutely f***ed. Unassuming floater Jenn had the veto though and all it took was a little Dan magic... In front of everyone, without even briefing Danielle, Dan launched into a tirade about Danielle being "dead to him", leaving her in tears. This was to procure sympathy for Danielle, so that people wouldn't vote her out. Playing a social blinder with both Frank and Jenn, Jenn pulled him off the block with the veto and Frank replaced him with another huge target - fellow veteran Britney who was after Frank. Without a doubt I'd say that that is the best move anyone has played in Big Brother history, I was in total awe watching it unfold and it just shows what a brilliant player Dan is to squeeze out of such an impossible situation. Backdooring Shane was also pretty iconic, similarly Dan looked kinda f***ed as his fate was in Shane's hands and he would have evicted Dan over Ian who joined him on the block. Danielle had the veto but she couldn't take either off as this was final 4 and she'd have to risk Shane in doing that. So Dan promised her that he'd evict Ian if she took him off the block... She did, and he didn't. Danielle had basically been walked all over for his game but she STILL voted for him to win, because Dan convinced her it was best for their game in getting to the final 2 (where she would have won over him), which was true tbf.



Interestingly, Danielle is hugely symbolic of how much of a different experience you have just watching BBUS and actually *following* it. When you're in the community as I have been since BB16, you follow all the stuff that happens on feeds (albeit second hand, I don't watch the feeds), you kind of live a whole experience with the rest of Twitter/Reddit/whatever. The "casual" lenses viewing Danielle would give you an image of a sweet Southern girl, besotted with the typical hot jock as if she's the cheerleader at high school. She was a bit of a doormat for Dan's game, but held her own winning a couple of compeitions. She almost seemed a bit too naive and "nice". And that's because she was an utter psycho! I was shocked to read all this had happened as I wasn't part of it all then. Lie after lie about her family (supposed abusive parents, for example), her health (multiple accidents, cancer, which was treated with "special chemo that didn't cause hair loss") and her abilities (being fluent in Spanish and Chinese for one). People who knew her have said that she plucked things that happened to people she knew and was pathological enough to apply them to craft her own lies... It's so odd that they never touched upon this in the main show (Janelle mentioned it I remember but to an average viewer it'd look like she was being petty as Danielle was the HOH who got her out) and painted Danielle so differently, the original Raven x



A huge strength of this season was the cast, not just the iconic coaches (even though I wasn't a fan of Boogie) but we had a huge range of people. You had the young nerdy Ian, initially seemingly the most awkward kid who couldn't function and interact, rock chick lesbian and perennial floater Jenn City, the season's high school esque showmance couple Danielle & Shane, and America's Favourite Frank, who was one of the best physical competitors in BB history and won competitions seemingly at the exact right second when he was in danger, keeping us all on the edge of our seats. Adding the masterful gameplay of Dan, Janelle and Boogie's rivalry, and the comedy genius of Britney was only going to boost this season even more. This is a great starter season for BBUS I'd say, or an easy older one to delve into if you are watching the current series and want something a bit more.


BEST


Dan - The best player in BB history. Someone like him going on a future season should be a huge target, but he managed to get 2nd yet again (and really only didn't win because of a hella bitter jury)! Every little move he made felt masterful and I was always hooked on what he was gonna do next.


Britney - A QUEEN, as a person she is possibly my fave to ever do BBUS. Her diary rooms were hilarious, she just had such a vibrance, intelligence and a way of carrying herself that I loved, as well as a great social game. It's a shame she had to be ousted by Dan's Funeral but I couldn't be too mad given how masterfully Dan did it.


Ian - Adorable naive little awkward nerd... Nope, comp beast and BB winner! Ian was not here to play, and his nerdy demeanour made sure that people kind of overlooked him as a threat until it was too late and he'd really set himself up. As I said, I loved watching his journey and he is my favourite winner along with Dan.


WORST


Willie - aggressive awful twat. Next.


Shane - SUCH a bore, v v v typical "hot" jock. At least his showmance partner was entertaining for being so awful.


Joe - loud and annoying and totally pointless.

Posted by: Liаm 29th June 2018, 03:36 PM

Big Brother US 15

Not gonna properly cover this as I don't have the passion to do so and go back through it all but this one does need to be touched upon!

Things started off solidly with the MVP twist, I thought that was an interesting way to give America a bit of power to influence the game without ruining the actual format too much, they pretty much did it perfectly. It was interesting to see who America was disliking or liking at points.

Almost immediately on feeds though, contestants Aaryn, Spencer and GinaMarie in particular caused furore with racist comments, such as "go make some rice" towards an Asian-American houseguest and "watch you say in the dark you might not be able to see the bitch" about a black housguest, and homophobic comments such as "nobody will vote for who the queer puts up", as well as Spencer's vile child porn """jokes""". This was initally sort of covered up and not shown on the actual show, but they later aired some of them so that America as a whole, nto just the live feeders, were aware. This caused a huge furore in which a petition calling for Aaryn (the worst offender) to be removed from the game received tens of thousands of signature, but she was allowed to continue until she was evicted (which meant 70 whole days of putting up with her...). Her eviction interview is one of the best/worst ever simultaneously, Julie grills her but she seems to have no remorse beyond a superficial apology that felt more like "I'm sorry you were offended" rather than "I'm sorry I was an ignorant idiot".

Steer clear of this one tbh, even without the above being covered on screen much, it wasn't a great season and knowing about it in detail as I watched after BB16 and read up on the controversy that I was vaguely aware of, just made it worse.

Posted by: Liаm 14th September 2018, 05:59 PM

Ok I'm terrible at this lmao, gonna do CBB after BBUS as we've had the blow it's being axed today </3

Big Brother US 16



The first US series I watched live, not the greatest of introductions but it still hooked me in!

The first big difference of this series compared to others was the addition of a third weekly competition, Battle Of The Block. Instead of the single HOH that previous seasons had, this season had two, each getting two nominations. The nominees would go head in head, in teams of 2, to overthrow the HOH who nominated them. If a team won the BOTB, they would be guaranteed safety along with the reigning HOH, and the HOH who nominated them would be overthrown and susceptible to nomination at the veto ceremony - so winning HOH initially didn't guarantee safety all week and you be evicted that week. On paper it was good to shake up the game, and there were some great moments (I still howl at Caleb trying to throw a BOTB so they could get Frankie out but Frankie somehow won the BOTB on his own when it was a big rigged thing that had to be tilted to get a ball across a course that needed both people tilting it properly) as a result, but it undermined HOH a bit and just became quite tedious. This season also brought back America's Player from Big Brothers 8 and 10, making a "Team America", except the first houseguest chosen (Joey Van Pelt) was evicted before the team was assembled and challenges rolled in Tbh I tended to just forget about it, the challenges weren't that exciting or game changing, it worked much better in BB8 when Eric was America's Player and he had to do everything America voted for.

The cast this season was quite good, the no-hopers mostly went early (other than Victoria ). Joey blew up her game week 1, Devin went crazy with his week 2 HOH and Paola was always going to be the one who was super annoying and an easy early target. Whilst this was one of those predictable steamroll kind of seasons with the Bomb Squad/Detantors running the show, at least those on the outside actually tried against and put up a fight them unlike those from BB19 and this current series. Nicole in particular was easily my favourite and whilst she had a flawed game that was a bit emotional she really tried to make those big moves and tip things over. There were a few times when potentially things could tip over, and it was a shame that it did just stay predictable for most of it in the grand scheme as Nicole, Donny etc. would always get thwarted by BOTB or something But at least those steamrolling were mostly not that bad, save for the terrible Frankie Grande and Christine, who was obviously bottom of the hierachy and would be cut first anyway. Cody, Derrick and Caleb weren't the most exciting houseguests ever but they were rootable enough and not that nasty or anything. Derrick is objectively one of the best players ever, Cody is possibly one of the worst though given he could have won taking Victoria to F2 given she did f*** all for the whole time and existed as nothing more than a perennial pawn I think the problem this season had, and it's something that plagues BB recently, is that it had the top 2/3 or so great houseguests you could really root for and then the bottom couple of awful ones and then the rest were just kind of there, even if they played good games you just didn't really care for them as people.


BEST (also the America's fave top 3, for ONCE it was right other than Nicole not winning!


Nicole - a far cry from her boring stint on BB18, Nicole was easily my fave this season. She was great at comps and always fought even if it seemed hopeless because she was outnumbered and on the wrong side, she had the balls to make moves and shake things up just not necessarily the right approach, but she used the experience to learn from it and go on to win BB18. I just wish she had the fire she had in BB16 in BB18 but I did respect that she played the game very differently to avoid the pitfalls of what she did wrong in BB16.


Zach - a really fun houseguest, totally over the top but brilliant to watch! From his showmance Zankie to calling Nicole a fruit loop dingus (an enduring iconic catchphrase tbh), he always brought the entertainment. He'd be one of my top picks to return, he was a bit unpredictable and messy to stand a chance in BB16 but imagine him learning from it and coming back with a polished game on top of his natural charm??


Donny - you just could not hate him, not the greatest player but he tried, and he was just so likeable and that's something you always need. Such an obvious AFP but can't grumble, it was deserved.

WORST


Frankie - he somewhat redeemed himself by being really good in CBB, but good god he was ATROCIOUS on this season, and I think it was a more accurate portrayal as of course 24/7 live feeds uncover everything. From saying lesbianism was a "choice" (as a gay man that's a.... choice of an "opinion"), making rape jokes about Victoria and being utterly deluded and arrogant (thinking being a """"social media mogul""" made him more famous than his sister, oh yeah that little known pop singer ARIANA GRANDE, granted at this time she was only just taking off having released Problem, but still he's only known for her)... He wasn't a bad player at all, winning 5 HOHs (including ones he was dethroned for) which is a tied record with Demetres from BBCan (although Demeteres technically holds it as he couldn't be dethroned), but he is easily one of the most unlikeable to ever do BBUS.


Christine - backstabbing adulterer and total snake, I had 0 respect for her when she completely turned on Nicole in exchange for bottom billing in a boys club alliance, and then pretty much cheated on her husband with Cody to claw for a bit of clout and relevancy. Her being chucked out over Victoria and being booed by the audience (I believe she had the worst boos ever) was so satisfying, she was so nasty about evicted houseguests on feeds too. Just a nasty piece of work, such a fall from grace as I found her quite likeable with Nicole but she sold all her integrity to get a bit further in the game. There's playing the game and cutting people for your own good and being ruthless but owning it, and there's just being two faced and nasty.

Posted by: JosephAvery 14th September 2018, 10:26 PM

BB16 was so disappointing. Derrick was a well-deserved winner but it was really quite boring to watch. Nicole deserved better (and I'm glad she got it in BB18 even if she wasn't as good then). Frankie was unwatchable

Posted by: Cody Sabathy 14th September 2018, 10:59 PM

Zach is actually my fave of BB16 but for some reason tumblr seems to hate his guts. He’s easily the most entertaining person of the season (if not of recent big brother seasons)!

Top 3: Zach, Nicole, Hayden (idk I just find him charming and down to earth).