Big Brother is watching you. Photo Credit: Tim Shapcott http://www.flickr.com/photos/chinashopbull/373858627/
Celebrity Big Brother is back – the show that brought us such memorable moments as George Galloway pretending to be a cat returned to screens last night at its new home on Channel 5.
“It is not a social experiment any more,” said presenter Brian Dowling in The Guardian. “It’s a prime-time entertainment show.”
Big Brother brought in 5.1 million viewers, easily trouncing the BBC and ITV and giving Channel 5 its fourth highest viewing figures of all time. Channel 4 axed the show in 2010, after 10 long years, due to declining ratings, but it was bought by media tycoon Richard Desmond, whose empire includes OK! and The Daily Star, which declares itself, “YOUR OFFICIAL B BRUV PAPER”. The show will run for 3 weeks before “civilian” Big Brother begins.
“Big Brother might be watching but most of us won’t,” sighed Michael Hogan at The Telegraph.
In Thursday’s launch, host Brian Dowling, a former Big Brother survivor, welcomed 10 “celebrities” to the revamped house. The stars include TV alumni Kerry Katona, Amy Childs, fresh from The Only Way is Essex, and Jedward, and the wives of famous men, Sally Bercow, wife of Speaker John Bercow and Pamela Bach, former wife of David Hasselhoff. Then there are the even more unknown celebrities, such as paparazzo Darren Lyons, model Bobby Sabel and Waterloo Road star Lucien Laviscount. Are these big names enough to maintain viewing figures? More importantly who has bigger hair, Jedward or Kerry Katona? And what is Sally Bercow doing?
- ‘Scraping the barrel’. “It appeared that Richard Desmond’s cheque book had failed to lure the A-listers that the Channel 5 owner promised,” quipped Adam Sherwin in The Independent. He claimed that there was a late withdrawal from the show, “believed to be R&B star Bobby Brown, viewers were instead presented with Bobby Sabel. Bobby who?” Michael Hogan said in The Telegraph, “[T]he barrel-scraping cast of ten contestants had a definite whiff of last minute pull-outs and parachuted-in reserves. The majority are notable only for who they married or for taking part in other reality shows.”
- Jedward to win? “Surely Jedward have to be an early tip to win? They’re the only ones most people will have heard of, which is tragic in itself,” said Heidi Stephens in The Guardian. Such is their importance in the house that The Telegraph revealed, “[T]he pair apparently have a clause in their contract to exempt them from any task that might involve cutting their trademark vertiginous quiffs.”
- Sally Bercow vs The Establishment. Bercow has courted controversy before, appearing dressed in a bed sheet for the Evening Standard, but this move may prove even more disputable. When asked about the motivation behind her appearance she said, “I want to stick two fingers up to the establishment who think it’s the kind of thing I shouldn’t do,” reported The Daily Mail. Apparently the Speaker is “not exactly chuffed about it”.“She’s the new Michelle Obama. Not,” snarked Jan Moir in her column in The Daily Mail. Her actions could have serious repercussions, Will Heaven noted in his blog at The Telegraph, “she will humiliate her husband and turn him into even more of a joke figure in Parliament.” He warned “[F]or the Tories especially, this may prove to be an irresistible opportunity to replace him.” However Heidi Stephens was kinder at The Guardian, noting, “I quite like her, mainly because she is the only one not speaking entirely in vowels. GO SALLY.”
