Big Brother (British TV series) series 10


Big Brother 2009, also known as Big Brother 10, is the tenth series of the British reality television series Big Brother. The show followed a total of twenty-two contestants, who were isolated from the outside world for an extended period of time in a custom built House. Each week, one or more of the housemates were evicted by a public vote. The last remaining housemate, Sophie Reade, was declared the winner, winning a cash prize of £71,320.
The series launched on Channel 4 on 4 June 2009 and ended on 4 September 2009, lasting 93 days – the joint-second longest British edition of Big Brother to date. Davina McCall returned as presenter for her tenth consecutive year. Sixteen housemates entered on launch night, with an additional six being introduced in later weeks.
Big Brother 10 was watched by an average of 2.5 million viewers. It was the lowest rated series of the show since its inception, becoming the first series to draw an average of less than 3 million, and remains the lowest rated series of Big Brother to be broadcast on Channel 4. During the series, Channel 4 announced that it would not be renewing its contract to show the series with Endemol once it expired in 2010, meaning that the subsequent eleventh series would be the last to be broadcast on Channel 4.

Production

Big Brother 10 was produced by Brighter Pictures, a division of Endemol. This series of the programme had been confirmed since 2006 as part of a £180 million contract between Endemol and Channel 4. Phil Edgar-Jones was the creative director of the series whilst Sharon Powers was the executive producer. Open auditions for the programme, which were confirmed during the final of Celebrity Big Brother 6, began on 3 January 2009 in Edinburgh and ended on 7 February in Manchester. Internet auditioning via YouTube, which saw 2,600 apply, ended on 3 February 2009. Auditionees were subjected to three interviews with various producers, additional meetings with a psychologist and a psychiatrist and a final "talk of doom", in which they were warned about the negative impact that appearing on Big Brother could have on their lives. In the weeks preceding the series, the selected housemates were put into "hiding" with no access to the outside world. Housemates were offered aftercare from the production team for up to six months after they left the programme.

Eye logo

The programme's logo, the Big Brother Eye, is based on a black, purple and blue thumbprint and was released on 11 May. It was designed by Daniel Eatock. From 19 May, Channel 4 began uploading teaser clips to the official Big Brother UK YouTube channel; these were also aired during commercial breaks on Channel 4 and its related channels. The series was sponsored by Lucozade Energy and the promotional break bumpers were created by M&C Saatchi and are based upon a 'little brother versus big brother' scenario. The programme began on 4 June, with a 95-minute special programme which introduced the initial 16 participants, and was broadcast on Channel 4 and E4 over a period of 93 days, concluding with the final on 4 September.

Broadcasts

The main television coverage of Big Brother 10 was screened using daily highlights programmes, narrated by Marcus Bentley. These episodes summarised the events of the previous day in the House. Alongside these highlights shows were spin-off programmes, Big Brother's Big Mouth and Big Brother's Little Brother, that commented on fandom, cultural reaction to the events within the House and included interviews with celebrities, former housemates and family and friends of housemates. On Fridays, a live eviction programme was hosted by Davina McCall in which the evicted contestant left the house and received an interview from McCall and two guests. For 2009, BBLB returned with George Lamb presenting five weekday evening programmes and one Sunday edition per week. Big Mouth was also fronted by McCall and was broadcast on E4 on Friday nights for an hour after the main eviction programme.

Interview panel

In a change to normal eviction interviews this series saw McCall and the evictee on a panel joined by two celebrity fans or psychologists, joining them were:
The panel was not used for the finale, however, Judi James made a recorded segment about each finalist. The panel format was scrapped for the following celebrity and regular series, where McCall interviewed the evictee in the traditional format.

House

As with each series since Big Brother 2002, the programme was filmed at Elstree Studios in Borehamwood, Hertfordshire. A total of 27 editing suites, staffed by over 300 members of the production, were situated in the "George Lucas Stage" to produce the programme. In the 18 May issue of Star magazine, aerial photographs of the House were published, showing the garden under construction. Official pictures of the House interior were released by Channel 4 on 1 June, showing the entrance stairway, living room and garden. The entrance stairway had images of insects on its walls whilst the garden and living room had a science fiction theme; the former included a bus stop as the designated smoking area. On 3 June, Metro published an image of the Diary Room, which has a multicoloured chair and wall pattern. There was also a shipping container-based bathroom, a sitting room with red sofas, a wood panelled kitched with purple, black and white fittings and a bedroom with splats of paint covering the walls. The house contained 44 cameras, 75 two-way mirrors and 57 fixed microphones, as well as individual microphones for each housemate.

Format

The format remained largely unchanged from previous series. Housemates were incarcerated in the Big Brother House with no contact to and from the outside world. Each week, the housemates took part in a compulsory task that determined the amount of money they were allocated to spend on their shopping; if they passed, they received a luxury budget and they were allocated a basic budget if they failed. Housemates were instructed to nominate two fellow housemates for eviction each week. This compulsory vote was conducted in the privacy of the Diary Room and housemates were not allowed to discuss the nomination process or influence the nominations of others. On Day 68, Big Brother changed the rules to allow housemates to discuss nominations until further notice. The two or more housemates who gathered the most nominations per week faced a public vote and the housemate receiving the most votes was evicted from the House on the Friday and interviewed by Davina McCall. Housemates could voluntarily leave the House at any time and those who broke the rules could have been ejected by Big Brother.
In a change from previous series, Channel 4 announced that it would no longer donate any of its income from the premium-rate telephone lines, by which viewers vote for whom they would like to see evicted or win the programme, to charitable organisations. The broadcaster said that the current economic downturn is to blame for this decision and that the change would bring Big Brother into line with other programmes of its kind, such as The X Factor and Strictly Come Dancing. The format of the live eviction interview programme was altered for this series. Unlike previous series in which McCall interviewed evicted housemates by herself, she was instead joined by two guest panellists to "interrogate" the evictee. Panellists included former housemates, journalists, psychologists, and fans of the programme. A new rule was added to the programme at the start of the series; "fake romances" were not permitted.

Housemates

Big Brother 10 saw 22 contestants competing to win. Sixteen participants entered the House on Day 1 and an additional five housemates entered the House on Day 44, followed by one other on Day 56.
NameAge on entryHometownDay enteredDay exitedResult
Sophie "Dogface" Reade20Nantwich, Cheshire193
Siavash Sabbaghpour23London 193
David Ramsden28Dewsbury4493
Charlie Drummond22Newcastle193
Rodrigo Lopes23Leeds 193
Lisa Wallace41Birmingham190
Marcus Akin35London186
Rebecca "Bea" Hamill24Bristol4479
Frederick "Freddie/Halfwit" Fisher23Market Drayton172
Hira Habibshah25Dublin 4465
Isaac Stout23Cleveland, United States5658
Nóirín Kelly25Dublin158
Tom Oliver27Northampton4453
Kenneth Tong24Edinburgh 4450
Karly Ashworth21Fife144
Kris Donnelly24Shrewsbury137
Sree Dasari25Hatfield 130
Angel McKenzie35London 123
Cairon Austin-Hill18London 116
Sophia Brown26London19
Saffia Corden27Nottingham18
Beinazir Lasharie28London 14