Big Brother 08 - Week 1 Recap

One week down and so many highlights. Hmmm, it's hard to infuse that sentence with the oodles of sarcasm it was meant with.

Let's see:

Malibu and Rebecca discussed implants. Who woulda thought?

Terri was voted out on the morning of Day 2 to no one's surprise after the boys ganged up on her.

Terri had her revenge and kicked Nobbi out to the kombi van.

Nobbi didn't take it well.

Dixie missed her mum and had a cry. On Day 2!!!!

The boys (minus Travis) formed the Spa Mafia.

Saxon revealed he's really an arsehole.

The Spa Mafia activated Operation Sparkles and kidnapped Malibu's toy unicorn that she can't sleep without.

Dixie cried again.

In Friday Night Live, Rima broke her leg and was taken to hospital; Saxon and Alice were disqualified when their space ship prop broke through no fault of their own; Nobbi won the night and was awarded $20,000...in Zimbabwean Dollars.

David turned 33 and had a party.

A hidden kitchen was revealed, and the housemates gained access after answering 9 out of 12 questions about thmselves and the house correctly (they needed 7).

Bianca got upset when other HMs stole her bread.

Sparkles was found! Dixie was framed. The Spa Mafia remained successfully unsuspected. Maybe now the Sparkles saga is over we'll get to see some more stimulating action from the house.

Nobbi is still banished from the house proper, and is still seething over Terri's housemate hand grenade. Nobbi's attitude has in fact, led me to start referring to him as Knobbi. He's missed a golden opportunity to ingratiate himself with viewers. Having his own story line in the house so early is a potential goldmine, allowing him to make use of the precious air time.

Unfortunately Knobbi has far from shined, and he is certainly more unpopular than he could or should be (or at least I thought so until I saw Big Mouth - more on that next week). Compare his situation with Bianca for example. I had a hard time trying to remember her name until the garlic bread incident. And can I just say, had people been stealing my bread I'd have been annoyed too.

So now we get to Sunday night's (Day 8) offering: The Gatecrashers.

Has Big Brother ever been so overhyped and underdelivered? If not, this one gets very, very close.

Firstly we saw Jackie O still has trouble dressing, though her dress led to speculation from some sources that she might be pregnant. Kyle's tic was less noticeable, and I must say I am enjoying his irreverence.

Last week's Launch Show microphones had obviously been put through the wash a couple of times and were now significantly smaller.

Rima sent the HMs her regards from hospital, almost dwarfed by the Coke can she held.

We were also treated to highlights from the week which included footage like food crashing off the end of the conveyor belt. Why wasn't this stuff in the Daily Show? The highlights were much more exciting than stupid Princess Sparkles.

On to the new housemates, or "Web Mates" as they were dubbed. These were the three most voted for people on the internet.

First up was Barney, a part time life guard. The girls were rather impressed when he entered the house.

The reactions of the girls were significantly more muted for the entrances of Nathan and Michael. Interestingly, despite being the most popular of the "Web Mates" in the voting stakes, Michael was the only one not interviewed on stage. It seems the law has been laid down to the producers about running overtime and his on stage interview was cut to save time.

Then came the highlight, or more accurately the lowlight, of the night. After all the hype, party boy Corey Worthington was brought on to the stage and then sent into the house as a house guest. Expecting a smart arse, arrogant, self-absorbed bad boy, what we got instead was a bland, inarticulate 17 year old, who by all rights should have faded into obscurity 10 minutes after the house trashing fiasco died down.

This guy would never have made it past the first stage of Big Brother auditions. He must have one hell of a PR machine.

So, rather inevitably, Corey's entrance to the house (bizarrely sans trademark sunglasses) was more of a fizzer than when Fizzy McFizz drank a fizzy drink and found out it was flat.

The highlight of the evening was easily the return of Nanna Terri. Ostensibly sent back in as a house guest to chaperone bad boy Corey, Terri's main role, however, is to stir things up after Channel 10 spent all that time promoting her. And stir things up she did. Knobbi was far from delighted to see her and made such a show of it that the other HMs felt compelled to give him hugs. Sheesh. Grow up you tosser.

At the conclusion of the show, the new voting system was unveiled. Instead of HMs nominating, and the public voting to evict, it's now the other way around. The public vote for their favourite housemate Idol-style, with the housemates then deciding which of the three least popular HMs is evicted.

It's a big departure from the normal voting mechanics, and I'm not sure I like it. It was tried as a one-off last year, but even then the public were nominating who they wanted to put up for eviction, not who they wanted to save (on that occasion the public voted to nominate Daniela, Billy, Zach and Travis, with Daniela begin booted unanimously by the other HMs).

I could speculate why the producers have decided to do things this way. It's certainly a boon for HMs like Knobbi who are popular inside the house but hated on the outside. Giving housemates the ultimate decision to boot someone is also hazardous ratings wise if the public's favourites are evicted.

But then again, if they try enough new things maybe they'll eventually find something that will actually live up to the hype.