Big Brother 08 - Week 5 Recap

Week 5 in the Big Brother house started with a bang as two Housemate Hand Grenades were lobbed into the house.

Nathan made Travis the early bird, meaning Travis had to rise first every morning and make BB breakfast.

At the other end of the day, David's grenade fell on Bianca who became nightwatchman (nightwatchwoman?). She has to take BB a glass of milk and a snack every night, ask him how his day was, and tell him a story if he wants one.

On with the highlights of one dog of a week:

Early on Monday morning (Day 29), the HMs were woken by the sound of barking dogs. They were told this week's task involved them each staying in their own dog house for as long as possible.

Nobbi didn't even try the task. Party pooper.

Rory was disqualified and then he and Nobbi began terrorising the other HMs by spraying the hose on them, among other things.

It was an amusing task though, and one that the BBUK house did a few years ago with surprising success.

Ultimately, after 11½ hours, Ben quit the task making Alice the winner.

Alice then met her reward, a Seeing Eye puppy she had to care for and train. After checking his mouth like any good vet, Alice named him Ollie.

Bianca had her first, but by no means loudest, fight of the week when Malibu told Bianca she had a split personality.

Ollie became the first dog to push the Diary Room button (This was a caption during the Daily Show. I have to say I do, mostly, like the funny captions the producers add during the shows).

Rory poured cordial on the floor and told Terri it was dog pee she had to clean up.

Dixie threatened to leave because she was sick of washing.

BB called all the HMs to the Diary Room and told them that had BB been imposing fines for breaking HM guidelines, they would have amassed $82,000. They are told the fines would count from now on.

We finally got to see the vending machine the HoH has been selecting goodies from each week. Alice declined to choose Malibu's shoes and instead chose Ben's personal photos as well as the obligatory chocolate.

Nobbi gave Travis the world's worst haircut. And Travis liked it!! What is wrong with that boy?

Ollie became house counsellor.

On Day 31, Knobbi got his "K" back by reverting to his nasty ways and telling Travis he has no sex appeal.

The hypnotism special aired between the Day 31 and Day 32 Daily Shows but (without being nasty - and oh I am so tempted) that type of television doesn't appeal to me so I didn't bother watching it.

On Day 32, Lords of the Manor Knobbi and Rory pontificated about yet another HM: Alice.

Ollie is very cute.

As punishment for his filthy mouth, Knobbi had to clean all the windows in the backyard. In pouring rain.

The kombi sprang multiple leaks, forcing Knobbi to evacuate and finally spend a night inside the house, though not in the bed with the others but on the floor between the doors and the shutter. BB is so evil to Knobbi. It's fantastic because Knobbi deserves every bit of it.

Bullying in the BB house reached new heights on Friday when Ben, Knobbi and Rory teamed up to mislead Travis into thinking Alice hated him. Then, to add injury to insult, they later burst in on Travis while he was on the toilet and sprayed him with shower gel. Seeing this bullying go on unpunished is incredibly frustrating, especially given the rumours that it might have been shower cleaner, not shower gel.

Some of the "shower gel" got into Travis' eye, and he later left the house during Friday Night Live.

On the subject of FNL, the theme for this week was A Day at the Races. After watching a boring race on TV, the HMs played soccer while wearing binoculars the wrong way round. Amusement was had by all.

Renee was declared champion after weighing herself down with as many clothes as possible, and she took Dixie to the strategy room.

BB updated the HMs on Travis' condition and told them he was being treated at a medical facility.

Ben cried with remorse over what he had done to Travis. Sympathy for Ben? Only from those morons Knobbi and Rory. Pathetic weasels all of them.

Rory and Alice had a joint birthday party involving another pash-fest in the spa.

Alice and Ollie passed their dog task, allowing Ollie to stay on indefinitely.

Knobbi set out to prove he really was top dog by pranking Rory by putting pegs on Rory's hair while he was sleeping.

Finally we reached Eviction Show #4. Mike Goldman hosted with Jackie O in place of Kyle who apparently was unwell, though speculation was rife that Kyle's commitments to Idol auditions on the same weekend were really what was keeping him away.

I've heard and read a number of sources saying that Mike Goldman should replace Kyle permanently. I disagree. Kyle may not be everyone's favourite, but his acerbic wit on the eviction shows is just what the show needs to pep it up.

During the eviction show we were introduced to the three intruders entering the house.

Rhianna (25) is a single mum (she has a 6 year old daughter); Cherry (his real name apparently) is a 22 year old student/surfer; while 51 year old Terrence is a loud, brash auctioneer.

On to the eviction voting. The bottom 3 HMs this week were Dixie, Bianca and Alice. Renee saved Alice, and her seat was taken by Knobbi. Oh please let Knobbi be evicted came the cry from The Giggling One and me! Alas, it was not to be. The voting turned out like this:

	Dixie	Bianca	Nobbi
Ben	2	1
Brigitte	1	2
Terri	1	2
Rory	2	1
Alice		2	1
Travis	2		1
Nobbi	2	1
Renee		2	4
Bianca	2		1
Dixie	2	1
TOTAL	14	12	7

Yes, we have another kamikaze. Just like Rebecca two weeks ago, Dixie voted for herself and was evicted. I guess it goes to show how great a place to be the house is this year.

Rhianna, Cherry and Terrence then entered the house. Knobbi, semmingly insecure about his position in charge of the house, called a meeting of his homies Ben and Rory, and reassured them they were still his boys. It never ceases to amuse me how predictable the HM's reactions to intruders are year after year.

The big event of the night was not the entry of the intruders, though. Instead, it was the rowdy heated argument between Bianca, Renee and Alice. Bianca, ever sensitive about her boobs, had a yell-fest with the other two girls - particularly Renee - after they suggested she get a breast reduction.

The argument spilled out from the kombi to the backyard where Bianca and Renee had to be held back from each other.

Ultimately, Renee came away from the argument as the loser. Not only did she pick up a second strike from Big Brother (she had earlier been given a strike (along with Ben, Knobbi and Rory) for discussing nominations) but she has plummeted from favourite to win the series to favourite to be evicted next weekend. Her uncouth behaviour and unwarranted attack on Bianca may well see her leave sooner than anyone thought.

While we're on the subject of evictions, the producers have decided to return to the old ways and give the ultimate power of eviction back to the people. Starting from this week, the HMs will nominate and the public will evict.

One can speculate why they changed the format. Perhaps the public have got over the novelty of the new voting system and just aren't voting in the numbers they were before, thus reducing the money it pulls in. Alternatively, and more cynically, the current system isn't kicking out the housemates the producers wish to leave the house. I'm not sold on the latter view. I think the former is more likely.

But I won't care soon. Only one more day before BBUK starts. Can't wait!
 

How disappointment!

Awaiting me when I arrived home tonight was a box from FRP Games.

Woohoo! The Pillars of the Earth Expansion had arrived!

Eagerly opening the box I discovered that waiting under the fluffy white stuff inside was not, in fact, The Pillars of the Earth Expansion, but The Pillars of the Earth.

Yes, they sent me the original game instead of the expansion. Nice, but wrong. And I already have the original game.

I've sent a nice email (well, nice-ish and peppered liberally with exclamation marks) to FRP Games and asked if they would kindly send me the expansion as I had ordered (I doubled checked and yes, I did order the expansion).

So all that excitement for an anti-climactic ending. Let's hope they rectify the situation quickly.
 

Pillars Expansion on its way

The Pillars of the Earth is undoubtedly my favourite board game this year. The expansion, which extends the game to a maximum of 6 players has been out in Germany for a while.

Now the English version has hit the ground, at least in the US, and courtesy of the interweb my copy shall be making its way over the Pacific to me in the next couple of weeks.

Am I excited? You bloody bet I am!
 

Big Brother 08 - Week 4 Recap

Week 4 was a time for song and dance. Well, dance mostly. And more petulance from Malibu.

Looking at my notes I find that there are two things that stick out. Both feature Malibu, but are at opposite ends of the spectrum. While for the daily show for Day 21 I've simply noted "Malibu is SO STUPID!!!", my quote of the week also comes from the amusing blonde. On Day 27, having endured a week of disco dance practice with Travis, Malibu spoke about Travis to BB in the Diary Room: "He's like one of those dolls where you pull the string in the back and he just says one of his stupid lines." So true.

Let's reflect on the rest of the notes I made...

Dixie and Bianca celebrated Rebecca's departure.

In her farewell message Rebecca passed her Head of Household armband to Alice, gave a serve to Dixie and Bianca for being bitchy (PKB¹ Alert!), then threw the third Housemate Hand Grenade at Dixie, giving her the job of the Big Brother Mobile Washing Service.

On Day 22, BB woke up the HMs to tell them about their So You Think You Can Dance task for the week. The HMs were divided into six partnerships.

The wannabe "couple" in the house, Nathan & Renee, were partnered for the waltz; Ben & Bianca were given the tango (setting the scene for Bianca to feel a little frisky); Malibu & Travis were given disco; Terri & David had to learn the German slap dance; Alice & Dixie got to do hip hop; and Rory & Nobbi became a boy band.

Much of the dance focus was on Nathan & Renee as they continued to flirt throughout the week. The other HMs thought they made a cute couple. I agree.

Wednesday night's show saw a flashback to the early hours of Day 18 when Carson Kressley re-crashed the house to make over the rest of the HMs: Bianca, Dixie, Travis (to whom Carson gave the advice "If you meet girls in church, they're not going to put out"), Nobbi, Rebecca, Nathan, Alice, and David.

Carson decided that Renee was the most improved of the HMs he made over so he gave her and Dixie a trip to New York. Dubbo Girls in the City?

Back to dance practice, and we found that Travis and rhythm do not go together.

In a challenge to get some of her belongings back, Big Brother gave Malibu rose-coloured glasses that she had to wear at all times with a matching attitude.

Malibu tried to be positive but she wasn't aided by Rory's antagonism. When BB later gave the HMs the choice of what to return to Malibu, Rory led the charge to give her nothing. In the end, Alice, as HoH, decided to give Malibu some makeup for having a "red hot go".

Malibu became even more depressed, especially with Travis' "dancing".

Bianca flirted with the boys. She needs some lovin'.

Nathan assisted Dixie with the laundry, and as a result Dixie was punished by having to wash the giant bedsheets, while Nathan had to cheer her on.

In Scout Night at FNL #4, Alice and Terri made it to the final two. They had to play a Yes/No guessing game to guess the item BB had stolen from the house. The correct answer was "hub-cap", but Alice and Terri were woeful, and despite clues from BB were unable to guess it correctly. In the end Alice won by default after Terri guessed "hoop".

Alice therefore became HoH for the second week running. She chose to take Nobbi to the strategy room to give him some time in the house.

In the final daily show for the week, Dixie advised Big Brother that she was getting back pain from doing all the washing because her boobs weigh 4.3 kilos each.

Big Brother was unsympathetic, and Dixie related this to the other HMS. Unfortunately, she misquoted him a little, and after finding this out, Bianca went a little psycho.

The HMs finally performed their dance routines for two of the So You Think You Can Dance judges.

After earlier worrying that she had no groove, Dixie did really well in her hip hop routine with Alice.

In fact all the HMs did a great job. Malibu was no doubt miffed after Travis got all the praise from the judges after their disco number.

After a week without nice food, the HMs were told they passed.

Eviction Show #3 started with the revelation that it was a double eviction. I was therefore expecting more than 3 HMs to be up for eviction, but it wasn't to be. 3 were put up, and only 1 survived.

Before the voting commenced Kyle had a few words to say to Nathan. Apparently he was speaking for many other people when he called Nathan a dog for stringing Renee along. Sometimes I like it when Kyle speaks his mind, but that was inappropriate and uncalled for. Kyle, you are a dog. And a mangy, filthy, flee-ridden one at that.

With Terri in curlers, Dixie in her nurse uniform, and Travis with a drawn on lipstick smile (he apparently edged out Malibu as the dumbest housemate and his award was to be made up by her) the HMs didn't appear to be taking things too seriously. Things changed somewhat when they were advised it was a double eviction.

The bottom 3 housmates this week were David, Nathan and Alice. Alice chose to save herself, and she was replace by perennial nominee Rory.

Voting went like this:

	Nathan	Rory	David
Dixie	2	1
Travis	1		2
Brigitte	2	1
Ben	1		2
Terri	2		1
Bianca	1		2
Nobbi	2		1
Renee		2	1
Alice	4		2
David	1	2
Nathan		1	2
Rory	2		1
TOTAL	18	7	14

Evictee number one for the night was Nathan who was hounded mercilessly on stage by both Kyle and Jackie. It brought back the days of Gretel's post-eviction interviews with her least favourite male housemates - particularly Jamie last year.

Now I like going the snark. I do say some potentially nasty things about HMs when I blog, but I don't do it particularly nastily, and not on stage in front of the whole country. Kyle went back to his weasily ways, and I thought Nathan acquitted himself very well, easily coming across as the better man.

David was then evicted, reducing the number of male HMs to 4 (with 6 women). The rumour mill (aka Behind Big Brother) is pointing to intruders entering the house in the not too distant future.

There's also a hypnotism special later this week (filmed earlier last week) where HMs get to act like prats. I have my own views on hypnotism, in that it's not the voodoo it's portrayed to be, so I'm not looking forward to the show. You have to be a willing participant to be hypnotised in the first place, and in a house full of extroverts, there is plenty of willingness to act like a complete tool. Heck, they don't need some tacky TV personality to tell them they're getting sleepy in order to look like fools. Locking them in a house for weeks on end is more than sufficient.


1- Pot. Kettle. Black.
 

Big Brother 08 - Week 3 Recap

It's the end of Week 3 and Knobbi is still in the kombi. I'm actually quite impressed that BB has kept it up so long. Usually these things last for a day or two, but Knobbi's punishment continues unabated. The guy has quit his whining for the most part so, for now, he becomes "Nobbi" again.

And what juicy highlights came to our attention up the vacuum thingy this week?

Saxon's farewell message was played and he delivered the 2nd Housemate Hand Grenade. He chose Malibu to lose all of her possessions indefinitely.

Malibu: "What does indefinitely mean?"

Malibu did not take it well. At all. She vented her anger by whacking the TV monitor with her shoe and telling everyone she wanted to leave the house so she could bash Saxon. Gold.

Rory, David, Alice and Renee were chosen to travel on Big Brother Airlines and went into the "plane" for a few hours before arriving, to their delight, in "Bali" (aka that yard with the trees and pool on the other side of the wall).

I'll just say here, kudos to BB for this one. Taking HMs already locked in a house and then locking them in a tiny plane for hours was genius. Perfect for the type of conversations we like to watch on Big Mouth. Now back to Malibu...

...who threatened to go on a hunger strike.

BB revealed the weekly task - standing in the back yard catching cricket balls in the Big Brother Test Match. This one was a nice idea, but unfortunately the housemates' enthusiasm for this task was lower than Lowy McLow set a world record in the limbo.

Malibu went through with her threat and did go on a hunger strike.

Not wanting to talk to BB, Malibu took Dixie in to the Diary Room to act as a go-between. This resulted in one of the funniest scenes ever to come out of the Big Brother house. Here's an exerpt:

Malibu and Dixie are in the Diary Room chair.
Malibu: Tell him I don't feel comfortable wearing other people's clothes, so could I have some pillow cases with holes and a head hole cut in it.
BB: Dixie, could you please tell Brigitte that Big Brother will get back to her.
Dixie: Brigitte, Big Brother said that he'll get back to you.
Malibu: Hmph!
Dixie: Brigitte said "hmph!"
BB: Thank you Dixie. And Dixie, could you tell Brigitte Big Brother said "Thank you Brigitte."
Dixie: Big Brother said "Up yours."

Dixie rocks!

BB gave Brigitte a pink pillow case which she made into a dress.

Corey showed his maturity by throwing flour on the sleeping Malibu. He must fancy her.

Malibu retaliated by squirting sauce in Corey's bed.

Malibu stated that 40% of Americans are called Erik.

Carson Kressley crashed the BB house and dressed Terri, Malibu, Ben, Corey, Renee and Rory. I can't wait for him to come back next week and dress the gayest "not gay" person in history, Travis.

Dixie decided to get fit.

Malibu and Dixie visited the Diary Room again:

Malibu and Dixie are leaving the Diary Room.
Malibu: I'm going to Big Brother's house and stealing his stuff.
Dixie: You are in his house.
Malibu: Well then I'm stealing his stuff.
Malibu grabs the large pot plant sitting outside the Diary Room and drags it with her.

David finally decided it was time to play the "I escaped from the Exclusive Brethren" card.

Renee admitted fancying Nathan and it became a house talking point.

Rebecca turned 23.

Corey finally left the house!!!!!!!

Corey finally left the house!!!!!!! (I just had to say that again!)

Corey and Nobbi won $60,000 for the winner's prize money by matching answers in BB's "Which HM is the most..." quiz.

In FNL #3, Big Brother rigged the final spelling Bee round so that Rebecca would win. She became HoH.

Rebecca chose to take Malibu to the strategy room. Bwahahahahahaha! Who would have thought "Malibu" and "strategy room" would ever go together?

Ben on Malibu: "I may have an annoying personality, but at least I have one."

Finally we saw some snogging action when Alice pashed Ben druing a truth or dare session in the spa.

Travis does nothing to dispel gay rumours when he recoils at the dare of kissing Dixie.

And lastly, before we get to the Eviction Show, it's time for the Big Brother word of the week. BB often introduces words that aren't part of normal every day vocab, but become commonly used inside the confines of the Big Brother compound.

And that word is "cut". As in, "I'm not cut" (I'm not angry) or "I didn't want to cut her up" (I didn't want to make her angry). There's been a fair amount of cutness between the women in the house, that's for sure.

The producers dragged Travis' mum on stage to defend him during Eviction Show #2. She wasn't particularly convincing.

The bottom 3 HMs were Ben, Rory and Travis. Returning the favour from last week, Rebecca saved Travis only to be nominated herself as the 4th least popular housemate.

Here's how the voting went down:

	Ben	Rebecca	Rory
David	2	1
Brigitte	2		1
Terri	2	1
Nobbi	1	2
Bianca	1	2
Alice		2	1
Dixie	1	2
Nathan	1	2
Renee	1	2
Travis	1		2
Ben		2	1
Rory	1	2
Rebecca	2	4
TOTAL	15	22	5

Yeah, you read that right. Rebecca the stupid bimbo voted for herself. It wouldn't have made a difference even if she hadn't but good riddance I say.

Interestingly, the whole "Revolve" thing was given the heave ho after the backlash against it last week. Instead, Kyle and Jackie O just read out the name of one of the non-evicted housemates and then announced the evictee.

And just to prove exactly how live the Eviction Show really is, Rebecca appeared on stage immediately upon the doors of the house shutting behind her. Whatever will they think of next to piss us off?
 

Big Brother 08 - Week 2 Recap

What with weddings and a conference we've been behind Big Brother-wise here up the vacuum thingy, but having now caught up, it's time to dissect week 2.

Corey the brat surfaced when he was told he must share a locker with Terri.

Terri had to look after Corey but he hid and the other housemates told her he escaped.

Big Brother made a mess in the garden.

Dixie snored.

Bianca's dislike for Corey began to show. Her fellow HMs told her to chill.

Asked why she was spending so much time putting on make-up, Malibu replied it was because she was on TV.

Corey chose chocolate and soft drink over a hair straightener.

Bianca confronted Corey over her dislike for him, and for some unfathomable reason tried to enter into a rational debate with the thickhead.

Big Brother made more mess in the garden.

Malibu declared she thought Barney was hideous because he wouldn't stop smiling.

Saxon revealed his anti-culinary skills when he demonstrated he didn't know how to make porridge. That's no how ye make porridge.

Big Brother gave Corey the opportunity to kick out two "web mates". He refused.

Big Brother then gave the eviction power to Corey's minder, Terri.

The HMs were told Terri would kick two web mates out at sunrise. Knobbi (still in the kombi) found another reason to hate Terri.

Pretending to be a ninja, Rory was put in his place by Big Brother who informed Rory he wasn't qualified. I like the new, funny Big Brother.

At dawn on Day 10, Terri chose to evict Michael and Barney. Sheesh! I had Barney in the sweep you dozy cow!

Terri was made a fully fledged housemate again.

Rebecca told BB she wanted to leave, and had a cry.

Dixie also had a cry after she was accused of stealing food.

Dixie stated she was sick of living with "a bunch of wankers" and wanted to go home.

Corey surprises everone by actually being entertaining with a pretty decent Mr Bean impression.

Big Brother made yet more mess in the garden, complemented with raining confetti.

Rebecca and Dixie agree to be soldiers and not go home.

Nathan was voted as Mr Big Brother 2008.

During FNL #2, BB revealed the prize for winning was to become Head of House (an idea "borrowed" from BB USA) with extra voting powers on eviction night.

After being dragged around a course by Rory during FNL, asked by BB if she was OK, an exhausted Terri answered "I haven't decided yet."

Nathan was victorious and became HoH.

Ineligible to vote in the upcoming evicition, Nathan's reward of entry to the Strategy Room (and what a fizzer that has been) and extra voting powers were promptly taken from him and handed to FNL runner-up Travis.

Knobbi became mother for a day to celebrate Mother's Day.

The HMs were informed they passed the Cleaning Task and won food.

Saxon got irritated no one was taking his alien conspiracy theories seriously. Awwww.

Bianca took on Corey in another verbal stoush and soundly trounced his puny white arse. Corey was, of course, to stupid to realise this.

Phew. Deep breath.

And so to Eviction Show #1, where Big Brother revealed that the bottom 3 housemates, as voted by the public, were David, Rebecca and Saxon.

Rebecca was saved by her pal Travis, and the housemate with the 4th least amount of votes, Rory, slotted into her place. What that meant was the tradition of a woman being evicted first would be broken with three blokes up for the chop. And I couldn't be more pleased.

The HMs then voted on who to evict. The voting went like this:

	Saxon	David	Rory
Renee	2	1
Bianca	2	1
Ben	1	2
Alice	2		1
Nobbi		2	1
Brigitte	2		1
Dixie	2	1
Rebecca	2		1
Travis		4	2
Saxon		2	1
David	2		1
Rory	1	2
TOTAL	16	15	8

So UFO Boy was sent to the stars. His mode of departure was "The Revolve" - a giant turn table divided into three sections - one for each nominated housemate.

The idea was that the device would turn, and the doors would open revealing the saved housmates. Unfortunately, any suspense was totally lost when Big Brother announced "David" and Rory walked back in, thereby telling us immediately which housemate was evicted.

"The Revolve" was a momumental flop. I can see how it sounded like a good idea in a brain storming session during pre-production, but the execution was comically anticlimactic.

Both I and The Giggling One are enjoying this season more than last year. That view is not least due to the new found sense of humour being injected into the show. I can't see why so many people are criticizing it. It is sooo much better than last year. I just hope it continues to grow.
 

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.