The Winner is… Jamie!

There you have it, the end of BB06 and Jamie was the winner.  I’m glad that someone interesting with a real personality won it this year.  He really did contribute to the drama in the house and for that reason, I think him a worthy winner.

Camilla did put her heart into it and showed her true character.  She was the mouthpiece for the other housemates when they wouldn’t speak out against new personalities, in particular, Perry.  I do think she would have been extremely difficult to live with, but she also was a major contributor to the drama and interest in the house.  I think the final three were all worthwhile finalists.

This year’s grand finale show was a massive effort.  I think it is the biggest production yet.  It was nice to see all of the former housemates come back to watch the show with Jamie and Camilla.  The dramatic lovers reunion with Jamie and Katie was as well staged as their farewell kiss.  The drinks in the house were a nice touch too, but for the housemates it would have seemed far too short a time.  It was more for the benefit of the viewers.

The announcement of the winner was shifted back into the house this year.  I think they must have realised that the way they did it last year was a disservice to the runner up.  I think it is better in the house… we get to watch the winner pace around the house in hysterics!

John and Ashley weren’t invited back to the grand finale which must have made them feel awful.  I know I would feel like crap if that was me.  I’m glad that their ejection from the house wasn’t excluded in the season recap.

The Underneath the Radar cover version that Danielle performed with the aid of the housemate dancers was fun.  It would have taken a lot of guts for me to go out dressed like Gaelan and Dino!  Rob was funny with his cheerleader skirt too!  I bet Krystal was pissed off that she missed to opportunity to sing instead of Danielle.

It was also good that the Friday Night Games people got to make an appearance on the final show.  They have been a big part of the show this year and should be acknowledged.  I can’t believe last night was the first time that Gretel Killeen and Mike Goldman have appeared on camera together.  Is it just me or did Gretel seem to have a kind of arrogance toward Mike as if she thinks is the true star of the show.  Mike works a lot harder each series with his voiceovers, Up Late and Friday Night Games.

So, all in all, it has been an interesting season.  As I have mentioned previously, I think the actual show would have been more interesting if the housemates had have been more diverse and Big Brother was more cheeky than mean.  There were a lot of good points, with the addition of the one hour weekend recap on Sunday nights before the eviction show.  The added dimension of the 2SAVE votes was also good.  I thought it was a pity that Adult’s Only didn’t make it to the end of the season.  Next year, if there is a series, AO should be more personality than sex driven… but make sure the humorous montages are retained!

Finally I would personally like to thank all of visitor to Brad’s Big Brother Blog.  It has been an interesting ride for someone with very little previous success in blogging.  I have had over 57,000 hits since the start of the series.  I would also dearly like to thank all of the regular commenters… you most of all have made this worthwhile.  It’s nice to talk about Big Brother and to me, discussing it is what it’s all about.

All the best,

Brad.

Ashley and John – Saga Continues

As I walked in the door at home last night, I was greeted by Channel 7 News (no not their hard biting current affairs program) to find them doing a story on the Big Brother incident.

They actually showed the footage (with blurs), but without any of the context.  They proceeded to inverview a rape counsellor, show sound bites from the Prime Minister and short words from Ashley (Michael) and John’s (Michael’s) fathers.

Channel 10 aired the interview with Ashley, John and Gretel Killeen last night at 9.40pm.  It didn’t really say much that press releases hadn’t already said.  I guess it just confirmed that Ashley and John are still alive and not incarcerated.

What I find hypocritical is that Channel 10 is in a position where they have to explain the incident without actually saying what happened and vowing never to show footage that you had to originally see at 4am on the Internet, while Channel 7 and apparently Channel 9 show what happened while the family eat dinner.  I know which I think is more irresponsible.

The only thing I can add is that I think by not saying what happened exactly, people’s imaginations are left to assume an act far worse than what actually took place.

Nominations Show – Michael

He is the only housemate to continue to make waves after being evicted from the house.  I was surprised how upset and defensive Gretel Killeen became when Michael talked about how the footage of him and David was edited to make it look more suspect than it actually was.

At least they actually showed the complete footage at the end of the show.  But I am sure what we saw last night was at a different angle and not as prone to interpretation.

Stay tuned tomorrow for the Nominations write up.  Remember, don’t vote for an under the radar person.

It Will Blow You Away

So much for the Australian First. It was pretty weak I think.

Wow! (sarcasm), they put the housemates through a piss weak lie detector with questions that were in poor taste.

Over at behindbigbrother.com, the forums are full of people annoyed at the weakness of the promise of a 'twist that will blow us away.' The cynical view is that it's another excuse to get people to spend more money on voting. As suggested, we can easily send a message to Big Brother that this is a load of crap and boycott the vote.

Behind Big Brother also has an entry on the much lower than stated reliability of voice stress analysis as a means of lie detection. Gretel Killeen stated that the tests were 90% accurate in the interests of fairness to perceived lying from the housemates. But according to the American Polygraph Association the results are no better than chance.

The more I think about this, the angrier I get. Big Brother is an interesting show if only they stop trying to pump up the viewers all the time and just let us observe and enjoy the interaction of the housemates.

The sixth series certainly feels like the producers are taking Big Brother to it's natural conclusion.

Eviction Eyewitness

I have a special treat from Ryan, one of our regular guests on BBBB. He was fortunate enough to be at eviction show number two and see Karen leave the house with his very own eyes.

His report of the action behind the scenes follows…

EYE WITNESS REPORT

The whole BB experience was very interesting, first of all having to line up for about 30 mins outside before the show.  Once inside got our seats and we had a few people dresssed up in outfits in our row, it didn’t take long for the crew of BB to take them from their seats and put them in the front row! Lucky bastards!!! Mike Goldman was the rev up man in between breaks and offering bribes to get the crowd to go nuts, it seemed to work as I almost lost my hearing! As you said (BBBB) it was no suprise that Karen was out and she was just as boring on stage as she was in the house.

The funny thing about the whole show was that you didn’t have much interaction with Gretel and what you saw was very mechanical, Mike was much more fun and down to earth. It comes across on screen as if Gretel is a god, how wrong could it be!!!

Overall it was a fun time but would’nt do it again, you can see a lot more on the box.

Thanks Ryan!!