Big Brother 6 (UK)

Updated on Nov 17, 2023

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Big Brother 2005, also known as Big Brother 6, was the sixth series of the British reality television series Big Brother, in which a number of contestants live in an isolated house trying to avoid being evicted by the public with the aim of winning a large cash prize at the end of the run.

The series launched on Channel 4 on 27 May 2005 and ended on 12 August 2005, lasting eleven weeks, at the time the longest the programme had lasted (subsequent series extended the duration to thirteen weeks), Davina McCall returned as host for her sixth consecutive year. Thirteen housemates entered on launch night with an additional three being introduced in Week 4, this was the first series where late entry housemates survived public votes and made it to the final. Anthony Hutton was chosen as the winner on Day 78, receiving £50,000, Eugene Sully who finished second received the other half of the prize money due to a task on Day 76.

Makosi and Craig returned in 2009 to compete in a task for a few hours, in 2010 Makosi was a contestant in Ultimate Big Brother. She entered on Day 1 and became the second Ultimate housemate to be evicted on Day 11. Anthony also returned as a guest to have a picnic date with Makosi. The Big Brother eye for this series was also used for the Serbian Big Brother series, Veliki brat.

Pre-series

The first reports of this series were announced in March 2005 when Channel 4 confirmed that Big Brother would return for its sixth series in the summer of that year. Within that announcement the company revealed that host Davina McCall, Big Brother's Little Brother presenter Dermot O'Leary, and Big Brother's Big Mouth (called Big Brother's EForum the previous year) host Russell Brand would return along with the show. Soon after, Channel 4 programming director Kevin Lygo told the press that Big Brother 5's evil theme would not return despite its success the previous year and that the programme would be renewed for 2006 and beyond.

In April, Channel 4 confirmed that Big Brother 6 would start on 27 May 2005, in keeping with the tradition that Big Brother UK would start in late May. On 30 April 2005, Channel 4 revealed the eye for the series, a sliced mirror of alternating black and blue strips, in reality two eyes on top of each other. This helped fuel rumours about two houses, an idea that although never coming to fruition, was put into practice during the 2003 series of Big Brother in Australia. On 9 May 2005, Channel 4 began airing countdown bumpers, starting at eighteen days rather than the usual ten days before the launch; subsequent series began airing countdown bumpers ten days before the premiere. Channel 4 contradicted itself two days before the launch show, confirming that Big Brother 6 would, in fact, be evil. The broadcaster also told the press that there would be thirteen housemates with a theme of "unlucky thirteen," inspired by triskaidekaphobia.

Auditions

For the second year, open auditions were used to select housemates.

Eye Logo

The eye logo appeared to have two eyes in one, with one eye being black and the eye in the foreground being blue.

Broadcasts

Davina McCall returned as host of the live shows, such as launch night, weekly evictions, finale and other live shows where there may be a twist. Nightly highlights were broadcast on Channel 4, narrated by Marcus Bentley. Dermot O'Leary returned as host of Big Brother's Little Brother weekdays on Channel 4 and Sunday lunchtime. On E4, live coverage once again dominated its daily and nightly schedule, Nominations Uncut and Diary Room Uncut also returned. Big Brother's EFourum – introduced in the previous year – was revamped and its name changed to Big Brother's Big Mouth, the show was much less formal than EFourum, and Brand displayed a much more comedic persona whilst hosting.

Prize money

The winner stood to earn £100,000, however two days before the final, housemate Eugene was given a choice to take £50,000 and leave the winner with the same amount, or leave the money and therefore double the prize fund to £200,000. He took the money which meant eventual winner Anthony won the same amount as Eugene.

Post-series

E4 broadcast a programme titled What The Housemates Did Next, which included all housemates rather than just the finalists.

The House

The House for Big Brother 2005 was a radical change from the oppressive and angled house from the previous year. House designer Patrick Watson described the design as "[A]spirational and yet not wildly practical." Although the House is still quite small, light pale colours and high camera angles give the viewer the impression that the House is larger than it actually is. Watson also revealed that he accomplished this by extensively utilising mirrors for an airier and cooler atmosphere. Channel 4 described the House as the boldest one at the time and Watson stated it to be complementary to "iPod neutrality." Pictures of the House were released on 24 May 2005, revealing the outdoor shower and pool. There is a row of three outdoor showers that replace the need for a complete bathroom; a sink and toilet are inside despite having an outdoor sink. The tiled floor leads onto the wooden deck of the pool, this year a circular pool positioned in a corner of the garden. The other side of the showers leads towards the slightly elevated glass-box lounge that originally had mult-levelled green couches but were eventually replaced with low orange ones. More pictures were released to the press later in the day. These depicted the exterior of the Diary Room, this year a chaotic web of sliced and angled mirrors giving housemates a distorted reflection of the rest of the house. These pictures also showed that the house was composed of one main, column-free, airy room with cream-coloured carpeting on which the dining table rested and an elevated kitchen containing a row of yellow cabinets. For the first time, an American-style refrigerator was utilised, giving the housemates more space for food and located next to the store-room. However, the glass wall that allowed housemates to view the bedroom from the living area was disguised as a mirror to ensure that viewers would not be able to count how many housemates would be in the House. Finally, only a few days before launch night, pictures of a loft in the garden leaked to the press. On Day 1, it was shown that it was painted green rather than the pink shown in the pictures.

The Secret Garden

The Secret Garden was first used on Day 29, when Big Brother contestants Kinga Karolczak, Orlaith McAllister and Eugene Sully secretly entered the house, minutes after Roberto Conte was evicted. For several days, the three housemates had to live in the Secret Garden, with only Makosi knowing their existence. The Secret Garden was decorated like a jungle, and the three secret housemates were initially only supplied with fig leaves to cover only the main essentials of their bodies. This created the idea of an Adam and Eve style jungle. With Makosi's help, they had to steal clothes and food from the main Big Brother House when the other housemates were asleep, and to make sure that the other housemates did not find out about them. The secret housemates were forced to live in the garden for several days. At the end of their stay, Makosi who had to choose two of the three secret housemates to enter the main house. She chose Orlaith and Eugene, although Kinga re-entered the house after Orlaith walked out on Day 65.

Housemates

13 housemates entered the house on Day 1. In week 5, three other housemates entered the Secret Garden. Makosi then chose two of them to enter the main house, Orlaith and Eugene. When Orlaith voluntarily left weeks later, Kinga who was the third housemate from the Secret Garden re-entered the house.

Notes

^Note 1 : Makosi was told on Day 1 that the housemates who received the most nominations that week would be immune from the first eviction. She was therefore given the secret mission of trying to get the most nominations that week. She succeeded in her task, receiving the most nominations along with Roberto and Sam, who were now immune. She then had to nominate two housemates to face eviction, as all the other housemates' nominations became voided. She nominated Mary and Craig.

^Note 2 : As punishment for Vanessa discussing nominations, all housemates automatically faced eviction and their nominations were voided. Had this not happened, Derek and Sam would have faced the public vote.

^Note 3 : As punishment for discussing nominations, Craig, Derek and Roberto were banned from nominating.

^Note 4 : As punishment for discussing nominations, Anthony and Maxwell were banned from nominating. After Roberto's eviction, three new housemates entered the secret garden, where they secretly lived alongside the original housemates. As Makosi was on a secret mission, she had to evict one person from the secret garden, the other two entered the house. Makosi chose to evict Kinga, and Eugene and Orlaith entered the house.

^Note 5 : Big Brother set the housemates a task, telling them Big Brother would lie to them twice. Big Brother told the housemates that the week's nominations were optional. This was the first lie. As always, nominations were compulsory; those that did not nominate would face the public vote. Only Anthony, Craig and Kemal nominated - saving them from the public vote. Big Brother then told the second lie by announcing that the housemates up for eviction were Anthony, Craig and Kemal, when in fact they were the only housemates not up. On eviction night, Makosi and Vanessa were announced to have received the most votes and the remaining housemates had to decide who to evict. Vanessa was evicted with 6 votes, with only Kemal voting to evict Makosi.

^Note 6 : Instead of nominating those that they wanted to evict, the housemates had to nominate those who they wanted to stay in the house, with the two or more housemates with the least nominations facing the public vote.

^Note 7 : After Orlaith walked, Kinga entered the house. She was instantly set a secret mission in which she needed to get at least one person not to nominate her. If one person failed to nominate her, she would gain immunity and would definitely appear in the final week. She passed her task as none of the housemates nominated her.

^Note 8 : There were no nominations in the final week. There was also a mid-week eviction. The housemate who had received the fewest votes from the public (to win) by Wednesday night would finish in fifth place, leaving four housemates in the final. This housemate was Craig, leaving Anthony, Eugene, Kinga, and Makosi in the final four.

Accusations of bullying

Throughout Week 2, Lesley Sanderson began bullying Sam Heuston, threatening her with violence, hiding her belongings and making negative comments about her. After Sanderson threatened to be 'waiting' for Heuston when she gets out, Big Brother punished her and she apologised. [1] [2] [3] Derek Laud was also verbally aggressive towards Heuston the night Sanderson apologised to her.

Orlaith McAllister quit the show after claiming Laud bullied her. [4]

Violence

Roberto Conte threw food over Maxwell Ward's head during a heated argument.

Derek Laud comments

Laud claimed fellow black housemate Science was the 'first black person to ever make him want to join the BNP.

Sex and nudity

Big Brother 6 featured a vast amount of nudity, mostly from female housemates. In Week 5, Maxwell Ward and Saskia Howard-Clarke engaged in sexual acts in the communal bedroom, resulting in Ward throwing a glass of water over Kemal Shahin, who protested about the noise the pair were making.

Makosi Musambasi claimed she got pregnant in the Big Brother jacuzzi, after having sex with Anthony Hutton. Hutton claimed he and Musambasi never had sex, but she said otherwise. It was not until they were reunited on Ultimate Big Brother five years later that Musambasi realised she had been mistaken and apologised to Hutton. [5]

Kinga Karokzak masturbated in the garden with a bottle, which was not shown in its entirety on the highlight show. [6]

Davina/Makosi interview

One of the most controversial interviews throughout the show's run was McCall's interview with Musambasi on the live finale. The interview was conducted outside the studio, with the crowd greeting Musambasi with a hostile reception. McCall appeared unimpressed with Musambasi and quizzed her over her pregnancy claims, when Musambasi protested her innocence, the crowd began chanting 'LIAR, LIAR, LIAR!!' and eventually 'OFF, OFF, OFF!!'. McCall told Musambasi she was amazed by her lack of remorse for her behaviour in the house, further prompting the crowd to chant. Over 450 people complained about the interview [7].

In 2010, Musambasi competed on Ultimate Big Brother, during this interview, McCall apologised to her and promised to be nice to her this time. [8]

References

Big Brother 6 (UK) Wikipedia

(Text) CC BY-SA

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