Big Brother News
Big Brother 8 - BB 8 Commentary Diary
Week one: FNL summary, Week two: other news
BB news, rumours, gossip and commentary
Author: Ridge Rogue
Continued from week 2 FNL summary here.
May 2008
Commentary about week 2
May 9th, 2008 at 12:54am, EST, by Ridge Rogue
In this update, I'd like to briefly offer some thoughts about what has transpired this week on BB. Obviously I haven't gone to much trouble here lately because this series is quite boring, and this is only the second week. I'll start my comments here with some discussion about Big Mouth on Monday.
Big Mouth discussion
I read in TV Week on Monday that some of the crew don't like Tony and Rebecca in the Big Mouth hosting role, because they are wrong for the target demo. I can't believe they were silly enough to get involved in this rubbish myself, and I see this show being axed well before the series ends.
Big Mouth started out as a bit of a boring gabfest, because there's nothing to talk about except Corey. The extremely poor ratings the next day showed how low the public's interest in this is. Even the uncut show rated higher in previous years. Anyway, the guest was Chrissie Swan and all they talked about was a handful of topics about a few of the HMs and they spread that out over an hour. They threw in some shots of a naked Nobbi as well, and that and a bit of swearing is all the uncut action they had. I did tell readers here 6 weeks ago that any uncut footage would be a fizzer because of what I knew about the cast.
Danger Zone rubbish
One of the other minor topics discussed was the introduction of the "Danger Zone" on the daily show. Ooh, scary, kiddies! I think my regular readers will know what I think about this nonsense, but I'll spell it out for the newbies. This is a load of crap, because there's no independent verification of any of this being true. All five of those in the bottom five of the voting might not be, because it could be all false and the eventual evictee could be someone completely different that was not in the bottom five for the whole week. We'll soon see if this is right. We've seen it all before in the past where the show has lied. I don't see any reason why this is different.
Barney a celeb already
Anyway, moving on and I also read in TV Week on Monday that Barney was on '1 Vs 100' and I remember that now. I don't recall how much money he won, but I remember an easy question he got and he couldn't answer without the mob's help (or at least that's my vague recollection). Both Barney and Nathan have auditioned for BB for four years running. Now they finally get in and immediately face the boot. The public wasn't too happy about that, judging by comments in forums.
2 HMs evicted!
After the daily show on Wednesday night (the one that said it was 'Day 1' when it wasn't), there was an extra half hour of the show. In this 'Crowded House' special, it was Corey that was given the opportunity to kick two gatecrashers out. He declined because he actually has a heart and BB said he respected that. As much as I love her to bits and all, Bianca has been a jerk all week when it comes to Corey. She thinks he represents being a stoner and alcoholic just because he threw a party. Now she thinks he has no courage because he declined to accept the opportunity to vote out two of the three publicly voted auditionees.
I guess she thinks that if he didn't have the guts to tell 500 gatecrashers at his summer party to p** off, it's no surprise that he couldn't choose two gatecrasher HMs to evict. Is there a difference between having courage and having a heart? So, instead, Terri took up the alternative offer of evicting the two HMs, and she was reinstated as a HM once she got rid of Michael and Barney. By the way, guess which band is rumoured to be making a special appearance on BB in early to mid June while they're touring in Brisbane?
So with that decision to evict two of the public's choice out of the way, this series now turns to the first eviction. Before we get there, though, this now seemingly unnecessary FNL show has to come first. Why, I don't know when the winner doesn't have any voting power in the evictions, but I suspect that money will have a lot to do with it soon enough.
Gatecrashers show summary
May 5th, 2008 at 03:54am, EST, by Ridge Rogue
Daily show
I'd like to provide a summary of and a few interesting points from the daily show and gatecrashers borefest last night. The first point was that BB did indeed lie to the HMs on opening night, like I've said here all last week. There was the Terri twist and there are hidden rooms. The kitchen is one of them, and this was revealed after a little quiz BB gave the HMs over the weekend. The weekly task required the HMs to be observant, although they didn't know it until BB told them over the weekend.
They were tested on their observational skills in the quiz and only needed to get seven questions right in order to win access to the hidden kitchen. Each HM went into the Diary Room (which has the silly flashing lights again this year) and they were given multiple choice questions. They got nine correct in the end and won access to the kitchen (next to the lounge). The bitching soon began when Bianca made garlic bread and everyone kept taking it straight away.
Really the only other big storyline arc over the last week, apart from the food situation leading up to the HMs winning access to the kitchen, was the Princess Sparkles one. Big whoop! The guys hid the stuffed unicorn in Dixie's locker (of course - it's the usual racism Australians are known for, so some viewers have said in forums) and Brigitte found it on the weekend. And this was the big drawcard for the viewers this last week? I don't think so! And the low ratings proved it.
Gatecrashers
The gatecrashers special was set to be quite a night of surprises but it was a bit of a bore in the end. I think most of the action from it this week will come down to how Terri treats Corey. That's their big storyline arc for this week. It may improve the ratings but only mildly I think. Anyway, the show started out with all of the names and photos of the HMs in the opening credits, like they do on other reality shows. This is industry standard around the world, of course, but in case you didn't know, it takes the BB Oz production company years to catch up (all eight years so far). But good on them for finally catching up!
So the first point of business was to deal with the whole Rima situation. The hosts glossed over the topic of the nude photos to see if they could exploit a mention of that to catch viewers flicking around the channels. Then they mentioned that Rima broke her leg and Kyle said what most fans have been saying about this show for years: they don't put much thought into some of these situations. The HMs were shown a message from Rima from her hospital bed. She said she was in pain, as you'd expect, and I just think this situation came down to deliberate negligence on the part of the producers and I hope she sues. They have a duty of care regardless of what she signed in her contract. The legal remedy for their negligence is a lawsuit.
Then the hosts started talking about the gatecrashers. When they mentioned that Corey was going in, the crowd booed twice. So they started off with the person that was the third most popular online auditionee vote and that was Barney. A video montage backgrounder about him was shown and he came out on the stage and had a quick chat. Jackie tried to make him out to be a total rapist just about, and he defended his reputation as well as he could, given his obvious nerves. She then chatted to the HMs while Barney made his way down to the house, and one person she talked to was Nobbi (stuck outside, of course). He was asked what message he would give to Terri and he said: "Go jam yourself!" Little did he know what was coming, and neither did the censor for that matter (because Nobbi went off when she turned up later and the bleeping was quite an extended one).
So, Barney went in to join the party BB threw for the HMs, and then Nathan was introduced. He seems like a bit of a dufus and many HMs ignored him when he entered the house (they were still fawning over Barney). He was the second most popular online auditionee. The top spot went to Michael - the guy we revealed here in the forum weeks ago. He was not even given a welcome on stage, just thrust into the house instead, and Ben recognised him saying that he'd been to one of his concerts. At this point, the hosts mentioned that eviction voting was merely to save your favourite HM, and they later said the lowest three voted HMs would be put to the HMs as a group to decide whom to evict. That's the "revolutionary" change this year. Seen it all before? Yep, part of it's been used on BB U.S. (sort of).
Now we move on to Corey and then Terri and her secret mission. Corey mentioned he was staying a minimum of 10 days. That's because all guests and gatecrashers are immune from the voting this week. But there's also snap evictions and the Crowded House special that can be used to get Michael back out in time for his concert tour in a few weeks. So Corey was paraded before the booing crowd and then sent to the house (not wearing his glasses) in a Subaru WRX - with a blonde bimbo bikini model opening the door for him first. He's a brave kid that one, but 10 days won't be enough time to change the public's opinion of him. We all know that the daily show will be edited accordingly and will probably ruin his reputation even more in some way.
All they need is for Terri to be suitably instructed by BB on ways to contrive situations that will get the party boy to behave badly and the public will remain convinced that he's not an angel at all. We can all see this coming a mile away. The reason is that Terri was given the mission of being Corey's guardian because of his age. She hates him and jumped at the chance to "look after" him. He wants to change the public's opinion of him but a bit of selective editing will screw that up quite well, I'm sure. Poor kid!
All they need now is to bring in his look-alike, Warrick Capper (Celebrity BB 1 HM) and Corey can get some tips from the master at this (and we'll have an unofficial Celebrity Big Brother series on our hands at the same time with him and Michael already being celebs). So that was the big ratings stunt gatecrashers show. Boring, but I'm ready for some Big Brother Chaos now, so bring it on!
Rima out, gatecrashers revealed by paper!
May 4th, 2008 at 01:34am, EST, by Ridge Rogue
Bye Rima!
Rima Hadchiti has left the building. She actually broke her leg on Friday. She has left the house for a few weeks, according to media reports. A lot of people wondered how she could possibly compete on FNL and now we know. This series isn't going very well at all, is it?
Gatecrashers
The gatecrashers were revealed yesterday in the media. One of them was first exclusively revealed in this site's forum weeks ago, and I posted some more information about him (Michael) a few days ago in an update here. The other two are Craig and Nathan (the nate08.com guy). I checked our top 100 thread in the forum and Barney is 33 from WA and described himself as "Competitive, Eccentric and Random"; Michael is there and described himself with all the points I mentioned in a recent update; Nathan is 26 from SA and described himself as "Unpredictable, Real, Energetic". So now you know even more about them.
My opinion of the BB house
I promised I'd comment on the house, and since I've started posting photos of it in the gallery, I'd thought I'd comment now. Rodney has done a good job again this year, but not quite as good as in some previous years. I think the colours are dull and boring in some parts of the house this time. The bedroom is the most obvious example. The change room and shower area could've been combined into one area, but I bet there's more to that than meets the eye at the moment. Anyway, I'll post some more pix of the house in the gallery soon. There's obviously some hidden rooms that BB lied to the HMs about not existing, so those will be interesting to see. Apart from all that, the place is OK but not quite as good as in previous years. I'll get used to it, I guess.
FNL summary: Nobbi wins!
May 3rd, 2008 at 02:13am, EST, by Ridge Rogue
Firstly, I'd like to wish David a Happy 33rd Birthday for yesterday! Secondly, I'd like to say that the lovely Bree looked mighty fine tonight, but I wish they'd get that darn microphone out of the way :)
Now, to today's update and I'll be providing FNL summaries once again this year, and this is the first. The theme for last night's show was an out of this world space one, and Nobbi won, taking a trophy of a globe of the planet and a grand prize of $1 (in the form of a cheque for $20 000 Zimbabwean dollars). He was pissed off but it's because he entered the house earlier when he is banished to the yard and the Kombi.
So, again this year, FNL consists of the usual boring kiddy games. The HMs were all dressed as aliens tonight, and BB was fixated on Uranus jokes all night. I should point out that the theme for most FNL shows this year will suit at least one of the HMs each time. The doc hates bugs, for example, so you can expect her to "enjoy" a bug night soon enough, while tonight was right up Saxon's alien alley. When Japanese game night comes around, they'll probably exploit Nobbi suitably with games from some of those Japanese game shows. You can see the pattern.
Anyway, the first round tonight involved BB setting up his first Uranus joke. The HMs had to sit on balloons filled with "alien slime" and burst them. The last one to do so was to be excluded from the games, but BB revealed after they'd done it that he was joking. In the games arena shortly after, he asked them to grab a towel from a BB ninja. He instructed each to dry Uranus. Get it? Yeah, it's a silly one, of course, but the kiddies watching would've found it quite amusing (well, those under, say, 5 or 6 would've).
The first official game for the night involved a slightly slippery moving ramp that the guys had to hang on for dear life to in the first part of the game, and then the gals had their chance. Every so many seconds, the ramp was tilted a bit further. The last guy and the last girl remaining would go on to be the captains of the teams they would choose to compete in for the rest of the night. These people ended up being Saxon and Alice (the doc who will face her fear of bugs in an upcoming episode).
The teams were: Alice, Travis, Rebecca, Bianca, Dixie and Rory. And then the others made up the other team. Earlier, when Rima walked in to the games area, the FNL audience laughed. She soon injured a toe falling down the slippery ramp and wasn't seen again for the rest of the night. Teams chosen, the next round could begin. I was reading the summary at the OS (because people sometimes tell me each year that I do a better job at these FNL summaries, believe it or not) and the next round was completely skipped by their writers (I looked and looked and couldn't find any mention of it - I must be going blind).
It was the space invaders round. Members of each team had their legs tied at the ankles when they had to hop through moving planets pushed from either side by the other team (like a fooz ball game, Ryan said at the hosting desk). When the first person made it to the other side of the universe, they would shout: "I'm a star!" and the next team member would hop through. Alice's team was first and took 2 minutes and 30 seconds. Saxon's team did it in 1 minute 18 seconds and progressed to the next round.
Saxon's team split up into two teams consisting of David, Renee, Ben in one, and Saxon, Brigitte, Nobbi in the other. In the next round, it was an alien versus predator round. The HMs in one team (dressed as fat aliens) had to get three dreadlocks off the head of the predator and place them on the X Files cabinet of drawers. HMs from the other team were inside that predator costume and had to try to prevent the others grabbing each dreadlock. The teams would then swap roles and the fastest group won. Saxon's team went first, and then David's team had their go, but lost by 5 seconds to Saxon's team.
Saxon's team of three needed one more person, which meant it was time for another Uranus joke from BB. He instructed all the eliminated HMs (except Rima) that they each had to do this race on Uranus (by sitting on a disk). The first person to shimmy backwards on the slippery surface to the finish line would be back in the games. That turned out to be Alice. She and the other three formed teams for the next round, consisting of Saxon and Alice and then Nobbi and Brigitte.
The next round was won by Nobbi and Brigitte when Saxon made an illegal move, disqualifying him and Alice immediately. The two had to collect stars floating underneath them while Saxon pedalled his bike (a spacecraft design) and Alice was hanging on a ladder construction underneath to grab the balloons (shaped like stars). Saxon made the mistake of grabbing a star and broke the bike in the process. So, Nobbi and Brigitte won by default.
The last round saw Nobbi and Brigitte competing in a race to see who could collect goo and fill up their Milky Way bucket with the most goo in three minutes. This involved an obstacle course, as usual, and plenty of potential for slipping and sliding around whilst collecting the goo in their outfit to carry it to their bucket. Nobbi won by a small amount and his prize was a dollar and trophy. Big whoop! The pre-series promos asked viewers if they'd seen it all before and then said: "I don't think so!" but I beg to differ. And that was the first FNL in what has been a really boring week of Big Brother so far. Many people are complaining while the apologists for the production company are trying to fool the public with spin. It's not working and that's that! I'm Ridge Rogue. Say hi to your girlfriend for me :) Back Sunday night!
Continues back to third diary page (covers week 1 of BB08).