Peter Black's Freedom to Differ

Emma is evicted

In tonight's Big Brother live eviction, Emma was evicted.  Big Brother Producers, Endemol Southern Star issued this statement:

Because Housemate Emma had been nominated and faced possible eviction tonight, last night, with the full support of her family, Emma was told in private that her estranged father had passed away.

Her brother Matt conveyed this news to Emma in the company of Big Brother’s resident psychologist.

That meeting will remain private.

Big Brother has taken advice from the psychologist, with the full support of Emma’s family, that she be told of her father’s death last night so that she would have time to process the news in the event she was evicted tonight.

Big Brother also wanted to ensure Emma had sufficient time to consider whether she wished to go on stage with Gretel during tonight’s Live Eviction show.

Emma was offered counselling and was given the option to leave the house immediately if she wished.

She chose to stay and will again meet with the psychologist and her family tonight.

Fans will recall that Emma’s late father and her family had requested that she not be informed of her father’s passing.

Big Brother was unaware that Emma’s father had passed away until several days after his funeral.

Big Brother understands the concern the public has expressed for Emma’s welfare.

This has been a very difficult situation in which there has been no perfect answer.

Big Brother has held Emma’s best interests paramount at all times and in doing so has drawn on the advice of the people best placed to give it – her family.

Like all Emma’s supporters, Big Brother looks forward to hearing Emma tell her own story.

Read it here.

ABC to ALP

A hysterical segment from The Chaser last week:

The latest Big Brother promo

The latest Big Brother promo courtesy of The Chaser:

The Chaser breach Big Brother security?

From Behind Big Brother:

We hear a rumour the team from The Chaser were involved in an “incident” at the Big Brother house Friday morning.

Apparently the incident involved getting messages into the house.

Fans of BB and The War on Everything are suspecting the Surprise Spruiker was involved. We’ll be watching the ABC Wednesday night to see.

Thanks to zuiko

Read it here.

Australian Big Brother is news in the US

The latest Big Brother controversy, surrounding the death of Emma's father and her family's decision not to tell her, has made news in America, with FoxNews dedicating a segment to the story:

Read more at Behind Big Brother here.

The latest Big Brother controversy

The latest Big Brother controversy surrounding the death of Emma's father and the decision not to notify Emma of her loss, has attracted quite a bif of media attention over the last 24 hours or so.  Emma's brother has written a response that has been posted on the Big Brother website:

Emma was aware of the possibility that our dads impending death may occur whilst she was in the Big Brother production. Our dad had been ill for a considerable amount of time and wasn’t taken from us suddenly; the family did have time to prepare themselves.We reassured Emma that, in the event that this did happen, grieving our dad’s death when she was released from Big Brother would be no less meaningful or significant than when he actually passed away.

I personally spent the last week of dad's life by his side and one thing he was absolutely certain about was the fact that he didn't want his death to impose either negatively or positively on Emma's Big Brother experience.

He made us promise him that no-one would notify Emma of his death. He was adamant and clear in expressing this request. He also requested that his death remain private from the Big Brother ‘hype’ but unfortunately due to the indecency of the person who leaked the information to the media we have been unable to honor this wish.

Emma and I have maintained a close friendship for many years. We have previously and recently in 'lock down', discussed the possibility of dad’s death thoroughly.  I can confirm with absolute confidence that Emma has prepared herself and her views have been considered in the family’s decision-making process.

People may cast their own views and opinions but these people are not privy to Emma and dad’s relationship. We as a family wouldn’t want to interfere with anyone else’s family affairs especially in their time of sadness so we’re stunned by the reaction of so many that have based their opinions on a total lack of knowledge of our family’s internal workings. As Emma’s family we know her very well and are confident we have made the right decision.

Our dad was extremely proud of Emma’s achievements so far on Big Brother. He would watch her each night proudly from his hospital bed heckling rivals and laughing at Emma’s wicked attitude and antics. Without you guys and this Big Brother experience he wouldn’t otherwise have had this opportunity and insight into his daughter’s life, thank you.

Rest assured that the family has made arrangements to postpone dad’s final service until Emma departs the house to ensure Emma is still given the opportunity to participate.  As you are aware the funeral has already taken place however the family will reconvene with Emma to lay dads ashes to rest.

On behalf of Emma’s family including Tim [her partner], we sincerely thank the Big Brother production team for supporting and respecting our family’s decision. Our family is not familiar with all this media attention and we are extremely grateful and appreciative of Big Brother's discretion and tact in dealing with this issue.

Regards
Matt (Emma’s brother)

I have bolded what I think is the most important paragraph in this letter.  This was a family decision and we should respect that decision.  And this should be the end of the matter.

Big Brother UK

With Australian Big Brother ratings down on previous years, Behind Big Brother shows us what Big Brother UK is up to:

Big Brother UK will be starting it’s 8th year in less than a week and before the entire behindbigbrother.com staff abandon this website to go watch we thought we would show you want BB looks like when its run with a fresh and bold outlook.

Read more about it here.

Has Big Brother jumped the shark?

Behind Big Brother guest blogger Molli thinks that Big Brother has jumped the shark:

And then we come to yet another special and I fear that this is where BB jumped that proverbial shark and began to leap a dolphin and whale simultaneously. The oh so anticipated Golden Key contestants. SO far the only highlight to this debacle has been Rilly’s avatar which keeps on amusing me every time I look at it. The whole episode was a set up from start to finish. How can these four, out of the countless others we saw represent the Australian public? And to be chosen by searching through a container of lollies? My mind has been boggling so much it’s beginning to spin itself out of existence.

I often wonder whether Gretel sees the idiocy in the things that BB does and whether she has any say at all. I’ve often thought her to be an intelligent woman but feel that her voice just doesn’t get heard. She can’t seriously be happy with the wasted chances and opportunities that seem to slip through the production teams fingers.

And now we have a new set of intruder’s set to enter on Tuesday night. Puhleaze!! We have only had three evictees so far and they are going for another ratings grab by bringing in new people.

And I think Molli may well be right when she explains what's gone wrong:

Yet BB is pushing the specials and seems to believe that just watching people interact is not enough. It is BB it is! The housemates provide us with the entertainment. We will watch them on the couches, bitching in the chill out room, cooking the dinner. The basic pared back BB is what we all seem to be longing for. The days of yore seem to be talked about more and more these days. The first BB where we watched them doing nothing and then the third series where we watched housemates enter alone and deal with the fallout from joining houses together.

Read more here.

Big Brother housemates online

Behind Big Brother has posted some housemate links:

• Hayley Interview;
• Bodie’s myspace;
• Emmacornell.com;
• Emma’s myspace;
• Billy’s myspace;
• Support Thomas myspace;
• Bodie’s modeling page.

You must watch Big Brother!

Ok.  I'll admit it.  I watch Big Brother (well, at least the evictions) and follow the going-ons in the house on the Big Brother website and Behind Big Brother.  I've even gone to a couple of live evictions.  I've been following the show since year one, day one.  And I enjoy it.  I find the relationships, the characters, the politics, the games Big Brother plays and even Gretel Killen entertaining - and occasionally even insightful.  Most of my so-called "intellectual" friends and colleagues consider that there must be something wrong with me (even though most are also able to follow a conversation about the show quite easily).  However, I refuse to apologise for it.  Big Brother isn't meant to change the world, but it is good TV.

And last night's episode of Big Brother was great TV - we got to select two new housemates, a relationship in the house were revealed, the reason for the mysterious White Room was disclosed, and Mr X was introduced to Australia and the unsuspecting housemates.  If you have no idea what I'm talking about or think that this all sounds silly, then you are missing out.  This season has been set up as possibly the best Big Brother ever.  The housemates are older and more diverse (although still ridiculously good looking), the house has adopted a positive environmental stance, and most importantly, the first two episodes have shown that this season's Big Brother has a wonderfully wicked sense of humour.  The housemates - and us - have absolutely no idea what Big Brother will throw at them next.  Now, that is good TV.

As many of you reading this post will just dismiss it as a rant from a tragically deranged fan, may I suggest that if you are a reality TV sceptic you should read an excellent piece in one of your so-called "intellectual" magazines, The Atlantic Monthly by Michael Hirschorn, "The Case for Reality TV: What the snobs don't understand".  Read it here.

So if you want to know what all the fuss is about, then you should watch this season of Big Brother.  And enjoy it for what it is - good TV.  Don't be embarrassed and don't apologise for it.  After all, you don't have to tell people that you watch it ...

Big Brother returns to TV tonight

Big Brother returns to Australian TV at 7pm tonight.  Today's News Limited papers have the official list of housemates (see The Sunday Mail's report here), but they also contains reports that the names of the housemates swere prematurely revealed after an internet hacker claimed to have obtained the names from "a glitch in a Big Brother-related site" (see The Daily Telegraph's report here).  However, as with previous years, the fan website Behind Big Brother, seems to have the most information on both the housemates and the alleged hacking.

With respect to the alleged hacking, Behind Big Brother claims that "We have spoken to the person who found the images and the site was not hacked, the images were left on a public WAP page that Three Mobile users could access freely."  Read more here.

Behind Big Brother also has details from the launch last night, including attempts by the producers to stop live updates leaking out.  Here is some of the information revealed by the site:

• 12 Housemates have entered the house, with 2 more to be chosen from the public (1 male, 1 female) via SMS vote. The male “choose me” group consists of Zoren, Cruz and Harrison. The female group is Kara (18, admirer of Paris Hilton), Susannah (30, fraud analysis) and Demet (pronounced ‘Demi’, is a belly dancer).
• The Big Brother house has a phone, but they did not specify what this is for
• The housemates are not very “worldly” as promised by producers - almost all of them are in their early 20s. One is over 30.
• ... the producers did all they could to stop our updates from the launch. During an ad break Mike Goldman offered prizes to anyone in the audience who dobbed in people using mobile phones. Security guards and police patrolled the venue. They stopped filming twice for approximately 10 minutes each time to try and catch people using mobile phones, and warned they would not continue if our updates didn’t stop. One person was ejected from the auditorium for using a mobile phone however this was not a BBBA staff member.
• Eventually the producers banned the use of mobile phones completely, as well as regular digital cameras. Gretel tried to stick up for people with regular digital cameras but the producers would not budge.

Read more here.

Big Brother is coming!

Crikey previews Big Brother:

Lock up your turkeys. Network Ten starts Big Brother next week with over 17 hours of broadcasts in what can only be described as an orgy of overkill. But what will the housemates be competing for as Ten revealed yesterday that there will not be a cash prize (after a starting prize of $1 million last year) and no cars given away on their exit. The viewing audience will have the chance to vote two people from a pool of almost good enough candidates into the house (democracy?) and Ten has been running a competition with a candy company that will see a number of people with a key flown to the Gold Coast. One of the keys will fit a lock that gives them entry into the house. This series will be watched very, very closely by regulators, morals groups (such as Family First) and advertisers given the poor publicity last year and the equally appalling performances in the Celebrity BB in Britain. Ten has a lot riding on this, including the possible sale of the network. Ten wants a nice, safe and non-controversial start so intending buyers can see the revenue and earnings potential of what is the biggest and most expensive TV production in this country. From the relatively sedate 90 Minute (though it's sure to run over) opening on Sunday night, to four hours on Friday, Ten will be back to back with the program many viewers have been waiting months to see and others having been hoping will be banned. The Australian Communications and Media Authority's report on Big Brother and reality TV, started at the direction of the minister after the infamous "turkey slapping" incident in last year's series, has gone to the Communications Minister, Senator Helen Coonan. It will be up to her when to release it. -- Glenn Dyer

Read it here.

Also, you can check out the Big Brother website here.

Big Brother already attracting controversy

Australia's politicians and media are getting ready to scrutinise every minute of Big Brother this year:

MENTAL health experts will closely study how a Big Brother housemate suffering mild obsessive compulsive disorder is treated when the new series begins later this month.

Producers have revealed one of the contestants has the disorder but have not indicated how the person and their disorder will be portrayed ...

Host Gretel Killeen said she was surprised the unknown housemate's condition had been revealed, but said the show always tried to reflect society ...

Killeen also said she felt the show was victim of a vocal "minority" last year over the "turkey slapping" incident and others which led to a review of the television industry's code of conduct.

Producers have acknowledged the climate has changed and will tone down the controversial series - including axing the weekly Uncut adults-only version.

Read more here (from News.com.au).  And rest assured that on behalf of all of my loyal readers, I too will make the sacrifice and watch Big Brother closely this year ...