Big Brother 2003, also known as Big Brother 3, was the third series of the Australian reality television series Big Brother Australia. The season lasted 86 days, starting on 27 April 2003 and ending on 21 July 2003. The season was the most complicated to date with housemates starting in two separate houses - a "round house" and a "square house". Housemate Benjamin Archbold was sent in first and spent the entire first day by himself. Other housemates were progressively admitted. On Night 22, all Housemates were locked into their respective bedrooms and a construction crew spent the night merging the two houses and revealing the hidden swimming pool and kitchen that had been in between the two smaller houses. Housemates were released into their new combined house on the morning of Day 23. Later in the day, a bathroom linking the two bedrooms was revealed.
Contents
- New programs
- Opening sequence
- Incidents
- Reggie
- Chrissie
- Daniel
- Patrick
- Vincent
- Jamie
- Kim
- Saxon
- Joanne
- Claire
- Ben
- Belinda
- Leah
- Carlo
- Jaime
- Irena
- Nominations Table
- Notes
- References
In the Square house (which was on the right of the compound) were Belinda, Jaime, Irena, Carlo and Claire with Vincent and Saxon joining later in the week. After Ben entered the Round house on Day 1, Joanne, Reggie, Chrissie, Daniel, Patrick and Leah were progressively admitted over the first week. The cameras were completely hidden for the first time in this series. Previously some cameras were visible to housemates and at times housemates were aware of the camera tracking their movements. On Day 68, Anouska Golebiewski who was the first to be evicted from Big Brother UK 4 series showing at the time, was brought in for a little over a week. The winner of Series 3 was Regina Bird. Reggie earned public admiration with her down-to-earth charm and work ethic.
New programs
Two new shows were introduced:
Opening sequence
The Tower of Terror is displayed, and the logos of Dreamworld, Big Brother Australia, Network Ten and a map of Australia turns into a housemate-selection machine. We go through the orange bedroom, through the blue bathroom for a shower, through to the blue control room, to the edit section where footage from the diary room is being edited to be shown on the Big Brother Australia yellow stage. We then go to the purple kitchen, and three housemates are up for nomination the red housemate gets the most votes. The pink dining room is broadcast to a person on the internet at home. After 85 days, a winner is selected.
Incidents
An incident of Big Brother 2003 involved housemate Belinda Thorpe in what was later dubbed "Belindagate". After a night of drinking, an intoxicated Belinda confided in housemate Carlo that her younger sibling had been involved in the murder of a homosexual man. The information was not immediately revealed by Belinda as she whispered it to Carlo and house microphones did not pick it up, however after she left the room Carlo passed the information on to the other housemates.
The incident sparked a legal crisis for Endemol Southern Star and Network Ten as the identification of a minor involved in a court trial is illegal in Queensland, where Big Brother is produced. Within seconds of the information being revealed the live Internet feeds were cut and left blank for several hours. Users watching the feeds began discussing the incident on the official website discussion boards. Moderators began deleting these messages but could not keep up with the large amount being posted and eventually the messages boards were closed down. They were re-opened for a short period before being closed again permanently. As a result, there were no official message boards during the following 2004 series.
The information spread out to unofficial Big Brother websites and several days later the show producers acknowledged the incident. An edited version of the nights events was shown on Big Brother Uncut, except in Queensland where it was cut entirely. Brett Jensen, the 15th original housemate (a policeman) left lockdown before Big Brother 3 began. Tamara, a travel agent and the 16th housemate, appeared on the Launch show but did not enter the house as she was a decoy for the public. Both were from Queensland.
Reggie
Regina Bird, known to her housemates as Reggie, from Cambridge, Tasmania, entered the House on Day 3 as part of the housemate introduction week. Reggie emerged as the winner of Big Brother 2003. She won the hearts of the viewers due to her good-natured Australian personality. After the show, she left Tasmania, her husband, her job as a fish and chip shop owner, and moved to Sydney.
Chrissie
Chrissie Swan, from Melbourne, Victoria, was the runner up of Big Brother 2003. Employed after leaving the Big Brother house by DMG Radio to start a new breakfast radio show at HOT91.1 on the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, but moved back to Melbourne end of 2006 saying, I miss home, I miss my mum's cooking and I miss the cold. [1] She now works the breakfast shift at Vega 91.5 FM. She is expecting her first child with her partner of one year in December 2008. Chrissie became and continues to be a popular television personality in Australia. After a successful stint as a regular host on the Channel ten Circle show she is now hosting Can of Worms weekly on Ten - a moral dilemma show.
Daniel
Daniel McInnes is from Adelaide, South Australia. McInnes is now pursuing a career in film and television, landing a role as an extra in ABC TV's ANZAC Girls.
Patrick
Patrick Flanagan, from Sydney, New South Wales. He works for Dolby Labs in Business Development, wrote articles on Big Brother 2004 for the Canberra Times. Flanagan lives in Bondi, Sydney with his wife Amanda and son Toby.
Vincent
Vincent Amato is from Melbourne, Victoria. Amato works at an engineering company in Melbourne.
Jamie
Jamie O'Brien, from Melbourne, Victoria. Travelled the country as a judge for a Mr Gay Oz competition, before finishing a law degree. He works as an entertainment lawyer.
Kim
Kim-Marie Drury, from Armidale, NSW, was evicted on Day 57 in a double eviction with Saxon. Kim was involved in a small scandal as result of a joke she told in the house about Aborigines, and was forced to leave her home town to escape the fallout.
Saxon
Daniel Small is from Central Coast, New South Wales. Evicted in a double eviction, Saxon is remembered for crying "I want my mum" when the pressure of being nominated got too much and for dating Big Brother host Gretel Killeen, 19 years his senior, after being evicted. He spent a few years travelling Australia after the show enjoying the clear appreciation from the female population before jumping into Investment Banking. Recently did work with Michael Kors in their Global campaign for their most recent men's fragrance.
Joanne
Joanne Hams (née Ashton) is from Adelaide, South Australia. She regularly poses in Ralph magazine. Hams Was evicted with an Australian Big Brother record 86% of total votes, which was the largest eviction percentage at that time. This was beaten by Michelle Olsen in 2007 who had 92% of the total evict votes.
Claire
Claire Bellis is from Queensland. Bellis continued with her PhD studies at Griffith University, Gold Coast.
Ben
Ben Archbold is a former undercover police officer. Benjamin is the Solicitor Director in Charge of our firm and responsible for Practice Management. He also heads the Criminal Law Practice Group.
Belinda
Belinda Thorpe is from Queensland. Thorpe left the house voluntarily. She has a daughter, born in 2005, named Nicole. She went to Park Ridge State High School, Park Ridge Queensland, and worked at Luppinos (Hairdresser) in Browns Plains, Grand Plaza Shopping Centre.
Leah
Leah White was known for being one of the younger, louder housemates, which caused her nomination and then eviction.
Carlo
Carlo Melino received a lot of bad press during the series as one of the most disgusting Big Brother Australia housemates of all time. This was due to many incidents including urinating in the outside garden, bathing in the outdoors laundry trough and attaching a dish cleaning brush to his penis.
Jaime
Jaime Cerda, from Melbourne, is a keen skateboarder. He is now an actor/improvisor with many short film and theatre credits.
Irena
Irena Bukhshtaber was the first housemate evicted from the House.
Nominations Table
The first housemate in each box was nominated for two points, and the second housemate was nominated for one point.