Big Brother 8

[Milky Tears]

Big Brother 8 (now sponsored by Virgin Media) should be due back for a 13 week run in the next few weeks.

I think Russell Brand has quit BBBM and Big Brain has been dropped for this run. Will Dermot O'Leary have time to do this series as well as The X-Factor later in the Summer? Will they bring in Justin Lee Collins?

"Smoking ban hits BB House", according to The Sun

The Oooh, Aaah Daily Star reported that there would be "OMG!! Topless Sunbathing In Big Bro House!" Well, they printed some guff about Big Brother punishing housemates by taking away their clothes (bikini tops, according to The Star )

The same newspaper claimed that this year's series would split the housemates into two groups of Saints and Sinners:

Welcome to the Sin Bin
29/04/07

THIS year’s Big Brother wannabes are to be exposed as “Saints and Sinners” in the most controversial series ever.

Security on the Channel 4 show has been tightened in an attempt to keep secret plans for BB8 under lock and key.

But the Daily Star Sunday exclusively obtained a trailer for the show based around “the eight deadly sins” – the traditional seven plus one extra to tie in with the eighth BB series.

An insider said: “The 14 hopefuls are going to be pushed to their absolute limits. They won’t know what has hit them.”

We can reveal bosses are hoping to split the wannabes into rival groups they have nicknamed “Saints and Sinners”. And they want to expose the housemates’ true natures with:

LUST: A spa has been added to the bedroom in the hope it gets housemates spilling out of the tub and on to the mattress for racy romps.

GLUTTONY: Housemates will be starved of food and cigarettes more than ever in an attempt to get them squabbling.

GREED: Secret tasks will be doled out forcing housemates to double-cross and back-stab their friends to gain treats which they won’t be able to share.

SLOTH: Lazy housemates who sleep or sunbathe too much will be put up for eviction as punishment.

WRATH: Tricks will be played on contestants and fake rewards offered to ensure tempers flare.

ENVY: Friendships will be put under strain when some contestants receive preferential treatment solely to cause friction.

PRIDE: Housemates will have to tell the public why they should win, while their rival housemates watch from the sofa.

HUMILIATION will be dished out, which will include some of Big Brother’s meanest punishments yet, with former friends and partners brought in to stir things up.

The show will be under close scrutiny when it returns to our screens.

The race row between Celebrity Big Brother bully Jade Goody, 25, and eventual winner Shilpa Shetty, 31, led to calls for the programme to be scrapped earlier this year.

But despite coming under fire, BB bosses want to make the latest series as edgy as ever.

Our insider said: “There is a huge amount of interest in BB8 after the race row.

“But instead of playing it safe bosses want to capitalise on the extra publicity and make sure this is the best series ever.”

The Daily Star Sunday can also show you exclusive pictures.

Ariel shots taken over Elstree Studios in London show the Big Brother house and garden with what appears to be another secret room under construction.
Designers have been working on the house for months to give it a top-to-toe makeover.

And they have drafted in psycho-logists to make it a house of horrors.

It is believed there will be oppressive decor and smaller rooms.

Big Brother is tipped to kick off on June 1.

Also some Daily Star guff about how this year's show is set to be a "Gayfest"

It's coming soon...

[Wayne]

I'm going to write to Al Qaeda.

[Pip Madeley]

It was interesting for the first couple of series, but Big Brother really needs to die.

[Alex]

Apparently the whole "8 Deadly Sins" thing is a load of nonsense, someone made a fake advert and put it up on youtube (http://youtube.com/watch?v=-lPgBgUGv9A) and the Daily Star believed it to be real and bought it hook, line and sinker, which is quite funny really. That also suggests that they made up the "insider" quotes too, which is quite poor, but unsurprising really I guess, when I worked on it there was a whole load of nonsense printed in The Sun which was absolutely and completely untrue.

I read shortly after this year's Celeb BB that they were going to try and put more intelligent, civilised people in the house this year, after Shilpa Shetty won the public's hearts, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was a mix of the same old types who will no doubt argue and shout a lot.

I'm pretty sure I say this most years, but I like BB when it's genuinely funny, like a lot of BB2 (Brian mostly, admittedly) and BB5 (Michelle's stalking of Stuart, Victor's diary room visits) were. I wish they'd put some genuinely funny people in there, but I doubt that will happen. If it's another group of people who say "I'm crazy and wild and I'll shag anyone, me" and then sit there and sunbathe for the whole time, I think I'll not bother with it.

[Milky Tears]

Confirmed launch night is Wednesday 30th May at 9pm.

http://press.channel4.com/listings/l...7_22/index.htm


Clashes with The Apprentice!

Channel 4 have also just started showing the break bumper Big Brother eye flash thingy.

[Jason Thompson]

Big Brother is the worst program on TV. It isn't reality TV, it's a psychology experiment that no true psychologist would get past an ethics committee. It's bunging people together who absolutely will clash, possibly in very unpleasant ways, and deliberately engineering situations that will cause such clashes, and letting a voyeuristic viewing public take pleasure from watching people having emotional breakdowns. How can that ever be qualified as entertainment?

It started off as an interesting idea. Now it's degenerated to the lowest common denominator and really needs to be shelved. It's already well past its sell-by-date.

[Si Hunt]

It's actually a good point - how is it "reality", people arn't trapped together and forced to play moronic games in real life.

Watch this? I'd rather draw lines on Frazer Hines.

Si.

[Paul Monk]

I'll probably watch a bit and either get bored like last year or get hooked.
I suspect I'll be bored cos it's all really predictable now.
The Daily Star are saying that the eye is a clue. One half of the house will be made to live in a 1950's terraced house whilst the other half live in a 2007 house. A bit like Life on Mars according to the paper.

[Dirk Gently]

Big Brother is the worst program on TV. It isn't reality TV, it's a psychology experiment that no true psychologist would get past an ethics committee. It's bunging people together who absolutely will clash, possibly in very unpleasant ways, and deliberately engineering situations that will cause such clashes, and letting a voyeuristic viewing public take pleasure from watching people having emotional breakdowns. How can that ever be qualified as entertainment?

Welcome to Varos.

[Paul Monk]

They haven't started killing each other yet though!

[Dirk Gently]

Slippery slope, thin end of the wedge!

[Milky Tears]

It's been a busy day today: Davina on Paul O'Grady, Big Brother 8 Press Pack Release and first look at the new house.

Press Pack info

Davina On The Couch will be a ratings smash!

Digital Spy's First look at new 'Big Brother' house

[WhiteCrow]

I wonder what kind of freak show it'll be this year.

I don't intend to watch but I'll bet I'll be pulled in by it - I really hated Nicki last year, and she really strikes me as symptomatic of the vacuuous wannabes who are so desparate to appear on this program.

[Milky Tears]

The usual hints/rumours/guff that appears the morning of the launch:

Press Association Release

"Ex-lap dancer in Big Brother house

A member of the Women's Institute, a political protester and a former lap dancer are among the housemates on Big Brother 8.

Hours before the Channel 4 show kicks off once again, Big Brother has released some tantalising clues about this year's contestants.

They include the oldest housemate yet, a nanny and a relative of a Premiership footballer.

Two have children, nine are single and three have never been on a plane.

One was a child prodigy - she could read by the age of two.

And this year's house should be spick and span - one of the housemates is a cleaner.

This will be the first time a Women's Institute (WI) member has appeared on the show.

The WI were best known for their old-fashioned "jam and Jerusalem" image until a group of them famously posed nude - a stunt which became the subject of hit film Calendar Girls, starring Dame Helen Mirren and Julie Walters.

All will be revealed about the housemates in the live launch show at 9pm."


A relative of Kieron Richardson, according to The Sun


http://static.sky.com/images/pictures/1541061.jpg

Wayne Rooney, according to The Daily Star.



I bet there's already an "OMG!! IT'S LAUREN HARRIES!!" thread over on Digital Spy!

[Alex]

Two blonde twins! This could be the best big brother evaaaaar!

[cullsoft]

Sadly, I (and others at work) have been "forcefully asked" to watch BB by one of my workmates/supervisor, so she has someone to talk to about it. :P

All I can say so far is that the house is going to prove... interesting. And the twins are immediately looking to be amongst the most annoying people on television to my knowledge. O.o

EDIT: Make that perhaps the most annoying people in the entire history of television. I feel myself cringing at the very mention of the word "pink"...

[Dave Lewis]

I thought the twins were bad enough, but that Charley already needs shooting. I predict an early murder in this year's BB.

[Dave Tudor]

Yay! They're all women! Except, perhaps, for Tracey...

They're all a bit much of a muchness, though....

[Matthew T]

I'm at work and missing it.

[Dave Tudor]

To be fair, it's good they've got some comparatively older people in there (is Lesley the oldest housemate to date?) and there are a few 'characters' in there, who seem to be the most popular, certainly with the crowd. This could actually be quite fun this year.

[Alex]

I'm a lot more optimistic than I was about last year's BB, there seem to be a lot less "I'm loud and I wanna be crazy but actually I'm dull and boring" types already, and then men haven't even gone in yet so we've still got quite a few housemates to see.

Wikipedia has this to say about when they're arriving:

Men will enter the house on parachutes next tuesday and will bring that weeks rations. The task will be to catch the men on a trampoline. At least one man is famous, but has not been on the show before. The house also contains 2 secret isolation booths that will be used for tasks and punishments (replacing the Big Brother 6 Naughty Step).

Edit for Dave:

[Milky Tears]

Is this already the hairiest house ever?

[Alex]

I've worked out how to get Pip interested in the show again!

[Lord President]

I would rather have bowel surgery for thirteen weeks than watch BB!

[Paul Monk]

I watched the Apprentice instead.