Tell Me About It
Welcome to 'Tell Me About It'. A place where two unlikely friends, Claudia and Jaya, educate each other on newsworthy stories, pop culture and unfiltered anecdotes from their lives. No subject is off limits, and all is discussed with a very open mind. So sit back, relax, and let us...tell you about it!
Tell Me About It
The Untold Story of Big Brother and the Lore That Shaped Reality TV
Join us for the very first episode of Tell Me About It!
We’re starting off this new season with a bang, diving into the mother of all reality TV shows - Big Brother. We spill the tea on the latest season with Chris and Jojo, unpack its wild origin story, reflect on the BB moments that shook the world, and discuss the rise and fall of the infamous reality star Jade Goody.
We also dig into an important conversation about contestant welfare in this modern age. And of course, we celebrate the unforgettable TV gold Big Brother has provided us over the years - Who is she?! Where did you find her?! Let us... tell you about it.
She shoved a wine bottle up her vagina.
SPEAKER_00:Excuse me? Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:How much of it? Girl. Hello and welcome to Tell Me About It. I'm Claudia. And I'm Jaya. And this is a podcast where two best friends talk all things current affairs and our version of pop culture. Now, on to the podcast. So, Claudia. Yes, Jaya. Did you watch the latest season of Big Brother? No, but I've seen the memes and the drama. Girl. Tell me about it. But first. Always first. How are you? So for those of you that don't know what this is or might be new here, this is the part of the podcast where we ask each other how we've been because we believe that it's important to check on the people you love.
SPEAKER_05:I am feeling really good. I've just been away for Easter. So I've been back at home, spending time with family,
SPEAKER_02:spending time in the sun, spending time with friends. And it was honestly the break that I knew that I needed. Yeah. But it was a really nice time. And I feel a lot more energized now. being back and oh that's good ready to go how are you i feel like our easters were the opposite of each other because i was out every day and every night
SPEAKER_05:yeah
SPEAKER_02:or surrounded by people at all times and i felt drained i hate that after that like it's it's nice to socialize every now and then but also like i do need my recharging moments which i haven't had a lot of recently yeah but hopefully they'll be coming soon yes like i was so busy that I didn't even get to cash off on any of my programs that I've been watching I know and you are the big brother queen I know and you didn't even watch the latest season I literally my mum's been catching me up she's been telling me all the tea and like you I've seen a lot of stuff online as well I yeah
SPEAKER_05:TikTok has been my kettle and it's been pouring all the tea
SPEAKER_02:okay
SPEAKER_05:so I've seen what the fuck was going on
SPEAKER_02:between Jojo and Chris and like we need to talk about it damn there were a lot of hot takes from the people that were in there this season. I think the most controversial character would have been, what was his name? Fucking, I don't know. This bitch. And I don't think we need to know. Okay, well that bitch. We all know who we're talking about. Got sent home a bit too late. Like, after a few strikes. People did say this. Yeah. That was another big thing. And then actually, towards the end Jojo had like a realisation about her sexuality and no longer identifies as lesbian now just queer which was a moment as well because I feel like a lot of people or like many people don't realise like how much of a journey people go through in terms of their sexuality like you don't just once you've I guess decided on a label for yourself doesn't mean you need to stick to that label I think it was a good moment for to be televised for people to see that like it is a spectrum and it's as you grow it grows with you it changes sometimes and it's a nice moment between like her and Danny Beard she spoke to about it and obviously he's a seasoned queen so like he's probably been through similar journeys and yeah there's a bit of a voice of reason for her which was nice yeah it's interesting how it kind of came about and like watching that journey well that's the thing but i feel like you really go through it like people don't realize how much it does to you to just be in that environment but it was kind of crazy to watch her in that setting yeah i feel like she
SPEAKER_05:came across more human Because it's like fully vulnerable stripped back.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I did wonder like when she first went in, like American reality TV is very different, I think, to UK. I think with Americans, the louder, the bigger, the more performative you are, the more you stand out. Maybe people might gravitate towards you. But in the UK ones, I definitely think. that the more authentic, the more real and the more relatable you are, the further you go and the better you do. And I think I wasn't sure whether she would recognise that coming into a UK show rather than doing the American one. And I think, yeah, maybe potentially the other housemates around her displaying just more honest, down-to-earth kind of natural versions of them, she kind of realised, I'm just going to be myself. And then people have ended up really liking her.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah, so I watched her exit interview and she literally said, you know, she was nervous about going into that sort of thing she was nervous that it was in a different country and
SPEAKER_02:she wasn't sure if people were gonna like her or resonate and she's like I had this whole idea of like kind of who I was gonna be like I brought outfits I've never worn in my life and then very quickly realized this isn't gonna work like who am I kidding it's just it's not a place to do that it's like
SPEAKER_05:you're watched 24 7 yeah so you just gotta be you but yeah now I'm just curious to see what happens post Big Brother House
SPEAKER_02:for her
SPEAKER_05:To be honest.
SPEAKER_02:Because her
SPEAKER_05:partner? We've
SPEAKER_02:all seen the TikToks. The letter that came through as well. Yeah. That was a moment. I know. I know. It's going to be more tea to come, I guess. It never ends with this show. Never. I love Big Brother just in... I know you do. In general. I know you do. I've always loved it. I know. It's big in my family household. Like... We have always been a big brother family. Yeah. So I've grown up watching it very heavily. Yeah. And so it's just like inevitable that I would be a fan. Yeah.
SPEAKER_05:My family hates it.
SPEAKER_02:Really? It's so funny.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah, they do. I mean, we obviously, I grew up with the Italian version kind of. on in the background which we'll get to it but i feel like it's a lot more just trash
SPEAKER_02:tv more trash more trash and like in my parents eyes it was always like why would you watch that it's like you're losing brain cells kind of thing so i was never like huge on the big brother train but i've had my own journey with it yeah and i'm is a world of its own. Yeah. Like it's just its own beast. Yeah. So I've got some notes on like the origin and I think you're gonna be sure. I'm not gonna lie. I'm excited. I'm getting out the full ride. Getting out the old specs. I was gonna say obstacles but not quite. I mean my eyesight is an obstacle. The concept was first developed in the Netherlands. Yeah. The original company that It came from was Endemol. This guy called John, John Demol, working at Endemol. Sorry, no, I just
SPEAKER_05:started. I thought you said John, John Endemol.
SPEAKER_02:No, it was John Demol Jr. working at Endemol in 1997. And basically what came to mind was an experiment that had happened in 1991. Okay. In America. Yeah, of course. Called Biosphere 2. What? So this on its own could be a whole fucking episode because seriously, insane moment in time. Oh. So the whole experiment was that they stayed there for, I can't remember, two years.
SPEAKER_04:That is
SPEAKER_02:crazy. In this like replica Earth space. system the group was actually started by this dude who he was like i can't remember his name but basically the means of how they got to build this dome and fund this whole project was that this like millionaire maybe even billionaire but i think millionaire like texas cowboy like joined the group and they were like oh we want to build this like ecosystem and he was like take my money what so they ended up doing that recorded the whole thing and basically what came out of it was every single one of them went fucking crazy i mean yeah i'm not surprised they kept like video diaries and like filmed themselves talking to the camera being like i'm in a fight with this person i hate this person they all ended up arguing fighting the whole time and they barely had rations to eat because they miscalculated like how long it would take to like grow a vegetable and they had barely any fucking water but they stayed in there for the whole two years who made them did they get paid like I think they were just so dedicated to the experiment that they just fucking stayed for no damn reason. When unemployment really hits, you're like, you know what? Honestly, they had nothing better to do. Wow. So the experiment in its goal, to see if we could survive on a different planet or whatever, was a fucking fail. But what they did gather information on, I guess, is human interaction, human behaviour. So basically, that is what Endemol took inspiration from and they were like the fact that they all went fucking nuts was super entertaining and we're gonna turn that into a show we gotta monetize this we gotta monetize this bitch so that was like the initial crux of like the show basically wow they launched Big Brother in the Netherlands the year later it's crazy that it wasn't the US first in my head because I feel like they're always the first they do entertainment really well especially the over the top so I'm surprised yeah it's an interesting one
SPEAKER_05:yeah
SPEAKER_02:Do you know why it's called Big Brother, like the origin of the name kind of thing? I actually do. Do you want me to tell you? So the name actually comes from the George Orwell
SPEAKER_05:novel 1984. Basically, this Big Brother looks over all these inhabitants and monitors their behaviour. And
SPEAKER_02:it does this through a camera to kind of try and suppress their free will, which is really dark. It's a dystopian theme. It's so dystopian.
SPEAKER_05:And the tagline of the novel is Big Brother is watching you. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So that's
SPEAKER_02:where the inspiration comes from. And that's literally what the show is. Exactly. And it's just kind of this recreation of like society as like a social experiment within this confined space. But how crazy is that? It's such an interesting, like... idea yeah i guess and um so there was the novel and then there was a movie as well yeah movie actually came out in 1984 and was named 1984 so i can imagine that's pretty spooky to watch
SPEAKER_05:oh i
SPEAKER_02:love that and then in the movie there's like a personification of the surveillance which is big brother yeah creepy spooky disgusting disgusting so for anyone that hasn't seen the show yeah should we give a little kind of run through the format do it okay so In this show, the contestants are renamed housemates. Yep. And housemates basically all live together in a specifically designed house that is isolated from the outside world. And they're continuously monitored by cameras, microphones and Big Brother.
SPEAKER_05:Can I like add to that for a second? Yeah. I brought this up last night. Every time I've seen a Big Brother house, it's a fucking eyesore. Like it's so bright. The decor is appalling. It's like, it's so... fake looking it's like it's not a house that anyone would feel comfortable in and like I guess it's
SPEAKER_02:designed for that purpose but like have you ever noticed like whenever I've watched it I'm like fuck I could not last a day without lighting it's overstimulating but it's it's a set, it's a studio, it's a stage. I don't think they want them to be relaxed and feel comfortable. They need them to be on edge at all times. It's a game show.
SPEAKER_05:I kind of deeped it. It looks like the lighting is so bright and I'm like, wait, maybe that's the
SPEAKER_02:point. So I'll touch on that in a bit. Basically, what they wanted to do, similar to the Biosphere 2, was get people from all walks of life who wouldn't naturally meet and put them in a space together. Uni. Uni. uni is a game show it's survival out there literally literally oh my god yeah so right and then they also um survivor the game show was big at the time and what they took from that was that the contestants on that show would vote someone off yeah every time so they took from that they said that the housemates will nominate but the audience will evict yeah and then obviously there'll be one person left and they'll win a cash prize yeah so that's the kind of format of it And yeah, like I said, the year later, so 1998, the first Dutch Big Brother was aired. It was kind of like people were talking about it, people were enjoying it. What made it blow up was that two of the young, hot contestants ended up having sex on it. Yeah. And that's when the ratings went through the roof. And that's what propelled it to have enough success to then go on to be made in other countries like the US and UK. Have you ever watched the US version? No. So it's actually quite different. So, you know, I was saying before, like, I never watched the UK one. Never really watched my, like, Italian one. But I did go
SPEAKER_05:through a phase for, like, three years straight. I think I was probably 17-ish. Okay. Where I religiously was, like, obsessed with Big Brother US. That's
SPEAKER_02:fun. It's just really random. I think I probably started watching it because there was a season where Ariana Grande's brother went on it. And I was like, what? and I just watched it and then I was like wait this is crazy it was like addicting it was such a drug but their format is a little bit different because
SPEAKER_05:obviously it's still all of them in a house and there are challenges and stuff but how it works is every week like it's a lot more strategic and like about gameplay rather than like okay just chilling in the house um so every week there's like a head of household which decides who gets put up for elimination then they do more challenges for them to win a veto which is like basically
SPEAKER_02:like a protective shield for them not to be sent out every season every week but like Every season?
SPEAKER_05:Yeah, I mean, there's always, I think every season, there's twists and turns and like their tagline
SPEAKER_02:is expect the unexpected because there's always some twists. But when I watched it, that was the format. And then instead of the public voting them out,
SPEAKER_05:it's
SPEAKER_02:them. Like they vote each other out. Yeah.
SPEAKER_05:So it's
SPEAKER_02:a lot more
SPEAKER_05:about they
SPEAKER_02:form alliances and they like
SPEAKER_05:lie to people.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. Actually, I did read that it was the UK one that introduced the audience vote. Yeah. So I think every other big brother does the inside vote out.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. I think both ways can fuck you up in different ways.
SPEAKER_05:True. It was so fascinating to watch people play the game. Like you could tell they're like, I'm playing the game. I want to stay to the end. And then when it's like seven-ish housemates left or something.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_05:they when they get evicted they get sent to a separate house which is like the judging house okay and then from then on they get to watch the show as it happens so they get to watch what's happening so that at the very end where there's two people left the judges choose the winner which are like their past housemates so they get to find out if you've been
SPEAKER_02:lying to
SPEAKER_05:them
SPEAKER_02:and like it's so good it's like really fucked but yeah so it's purely them it's like there's no audience vote at least when I watched it so that's the US version so it's a lot more yeah strategic I think that's exactly how the rest of them are also how long does the UK one last usually it differs like over the years they've had a range of amounts of housemates yeah do you want to hear something crazy
SPEAKER_05:because I read this and I was like I don't
SPEAKER_02:know Gasping.
SPEAKER_05:No. On the German version of Big Brother,
SPEAKER_02:there
SPEAKER_05:was season five and six were particularly a standout because season five went on for a whole year. No. Yeah. And it had 59 housemates along
SPEAKER_02:the whole course of those 365 days. What the hell? Yeah. It won the Guinness World Record for the longest uninterrupted reality television show.
SPEAKER_05:I read this. I was like, who
SPEAKER_02:decides this? Why? Absolutely not. A year. That is too much. That's like 11 months too long. True.
SPEAKER_05:Like,
SPEAKER_02:I needed to tell you this because I was like, what? That is insane. Jesus. Quite similar to that OG experiment. Half the time. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, God. Horrible. Too far. They did win a million euros, so... A million? Yeah. One of them. Two. Yeah. A million? Yeah. I mean, minimum, I'd want a million. Yeah, fair play. In exchange for two years of my life. Oh, yeah. Truman Show who? I wonder, like, what the ratings were, like, from beginning to end, because
SPEAKER_05:you're literally watching... Like, I don't know if you've got, like, the 24-hour broadcast channel.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah. Like, I know the Italian one had it, and it's like... You could literally watch
SPEAKER_02:someone constantly. Like, that's really fascinating. Yeah. I think it was season seven at one point. Yeah. They realised that, like, thousands of people had tuned in just to watch them sleep. The live feed. Oh, my God. The live feed of them sleeping. That's kind of weird. And I'm like, that's Big Brother. That's crazy. Like, that's not even entertainment. It's creepy. Is it, like, company? Like... God, I don't... Honestly, I couldn't tell you. So crazy. Yeah. I've got some notes here on just like very key moments starting from season one. Yeah. Okay. All the way through. Back to the beginning. So I want to take it all the way back. Okay. Because it was season one is so famous.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:And it's truly rooted in British culture at this point. So basically, it started on the 18th of July 2000 on Channel 4. Immediately became a hit. Everyone was talking about it. The winner was a guy called Craig Phillips. There's a famous bit where he first comes out and Davina's like, you're the winner. Like, can you believe it? How many votes do you think you got? And he was like, oh, well, I've got about like... 30 like friends family so probably like 60 maybe a couple votes each yeah and she's like for you to win you accumulated 3.5 million votes and he was like what the show got so big that you could go through the big brother website at the time to get like information to vote blah blah the uk big brother website became the biggest website in europe oh People were invested. It was big. It was huge. Damn. The fucking theme song spent three weeks in the top ten on the charts, the music charts. Three
SPEAKER_01:weeks. What's even, what's the... Do you recognise that?
SPEAKER_02:No. Oh, my thing is there. That's a fucking club mix. This is on speed. Wow. This. No. This is it.
SPEAKER_01:That
SPEAKER_02:will always be in my mind. I've never heard that in my life. Wait, but when you're watching the American one, is it different? I was just going to Google it. Yeah,
SPEAKER_05:this is the US one.
SPEAKER_02:And you recognise this? Yeah.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah. This is the bit where everyone turns around and is like...
SPEAKER_02:They don't have that in the UK one. Yeah,
SPEAKER_05:this is the intro and everyone's like... you
SPEAKER_02:know yeah the American presenter is like an icon as well she's like so robotic but she's I think she's been doing it the entire time oh wow she's very like yeah she's over it Davina why people loved her was because she was so she was very silly
SPEAKER_05:yeah
SPEAKER_02:very goofy yeah but amazing at the same time like so good at her job yeah good at creating like tension drama like she's just yeah nice person and then also the a lot of the props from season one house yeah got sold in auction and the diary room chair went for 50 000 pounds wow 50 000 from the first season from season one wow and then also do you know heat magazine yeah heat magazine was about to die and then they did like an interview with one of the contestants yeah and that did so well that it actually fucking saved it saved heat oh my god he would then catapult the storylines and talk about the show in their magazine and it was like a symbiotic relationship whoa yeah the rest of time well done heat something notorious that came out of season one yeah was a character his real name was nick bateman okay anyone that has the name bateman yeah Creep. Crazy. But he got nicknamed Nasty Nick. And a lot of people still recognise, like, my mum has told me about Nasty Nick before, but I've never looked into him because I'm like, okay, Nasty Nick. But she's like, it was a big deal at the time. And I'm like, what happened? What'd this bitch do? So basically, you know how you were saying that, like, the house is like an eyesore? Yeah. It's so bright. It's so coloured. It's too intense. Season one was not like that. It was kind of just like a normal house. They even had chickens in the garden. Oh, okay. They were allowed to bring in two books each and a musical instrument. A musical instrument? There was a guitar. That is rogue. Yeah, just to keep them stimulated. And a key point is that they also had an on-set psychologist or counsellor. Okay, yeah. So every time that maybe someone would get upset about something, they could literally go off to speak to this counsellor. It wouldn't be filmed or confidential. Resolve whatever they were feeling, however they were thinking. And they would come back and they would be fine. So actually there was kind of no conflict in season one because they actually had things to entertain them, keep them simulated and a counsellor to speak to. From season one? Okay, that's quite like how we're thinking. Okay. But then people were like, we're loving the show, but it is a little bit boring. Yeah. In comes Nick. Oh God. He is this, like, rich, posh boy psycho. Oh, God. And basically what he did from the very top was he befriended every single person. Yeah. And then he would secretly be going behind literally everyone's back and talking about them to each of the other housemates to get them to be like, oh, they're not good, they're not nice. Yeah. Turn them all against each other. He also... Did this whole fucking fake story. Like all of the housemates were sat in the seating area, the living room. Yeah. He told a story completely made up about how he had a fiance or a wife who died in a car crash. He then said when he got out of the show, he was like, oh, I didn't think they'd air it because the producers and everyone knew that that never happened. Did they? I was just telling, yeah. So the audience... everyone outside the house knew it was a lie nobody in the house knew it was a lie so they just they showed him telling them all this story and he's like oh they won't show it because they know it's not true they obviously did show it and then he got sympathy from like all of the housemates they all trusted him entirely that is horrible psychotic then obviously big brother has a rule you're not allowed to discuss nominations or whatever So he realised that there was a few blind spots where the cameras couldn't see in the house. He would hide bits of paper under his bed or something, and he'd pretend to drop something with another housemate. They'd both bend down. The paper would have a name on it, who was the person who he was telling the other housemates to nominate. So they'd bend down for a second. He'd be like, this is the name. Then they'd come back up, and then they would vote this person out. What the fuck? He literally was game-playing hard.
UNKNOWN:Oh!
SPEAKER_02:And obviously the audience all knew that he was manipulating, playing, like, lying. But obviously no one in the house did. So it was like, they all literally loved him. And he was the only housemate to never get a nomination.
SPEAKER_05:Why does that always happen? How crazy is
SPEAKER_02:that? Oh my God. What eventually happened was the winner, who went on to win Craig... He finds these bits of paper with the names on it and he's like, what the fuck is this? Realises that Nick has been playing this game, playing everyone against each other. He then goes to the diary room and he's like, look, this is what Nick's been doing. He's been cheating the entire time. He's telling people who to nominate for, blah, blah, blah. The producers, they said to him, look, why don't you gather your thoughts together? decide what you want to say say it in the morning confront him in the morning the reason they did this was because they then changed all the set up of all the cameras so they were directly facing the main dining table where they were all going to sit they set them up so they could like zoom into each of their facial expressions their eyes get all of the juicy content basically and when Craig did confront him the very next day he was like guys I need to tell you all something Craig is fucking cheating and manipulating all of us they caught it all and it made TV gold and it literally fucking spread like wildfire and the viewings just went so rocketed and that's when it became a fucking show yeah now the show begins they eventually kicked nick out so even to this day he is the only housemate to be evicted who never got nomination it's so good it's kind of iconic it's fucking iconic so that's what happened damn season one immediately and then because of how successful That was the, was it the next year? Comic Relief were like, oh, let's do a celebrity version for charity. So that was pretty quick, pretty immediate. I thought it came like ages after. No, because it was such a success. They were like, let's get on this. It was so successful they decided to continue with the celeb one as well. So that's how that was born. It was originally just like a little charity fund thing.
UNKNOWN:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:People love seeing celebrities and that kind of thing because it's so different to their usual environment. Oh, yeah. It's so interesting to watch because there's no escaping. It's 24-7, baby. It's 24-7. Exactly. So then season two of the normal people one or the civilian version. Civilian. Civilian version. That's when the iconic eye logo came about. The original Big Brother house was in bow. In East London. I know. But then they lost their lease on that building. So that's when they moved over to the iconic studio. Yeah. Big, big production house that we kind of all know today. Yeah. That's when they started redesigning every single year because they had the money, they had the budget, they had the space. They... also introduced their live entry nights and eviction nights. They didn't have those before, but now they had a big enough audience to do that. And they also introduced the seasonal themes. So this was the first ever theme they did, which was rich and poor divide. So there was a gate running the whole way through the middle of the house. One side was a rich side, one side was a poor side. That was super interesting.
SPEAKER_05:I didn't know they did this.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. This season specifically made... television history season three yeah okay randomly um this is just a side note this was the season that allison hammond was on yeah as a civilian as a civilian wow went on to be a queen
SPEAKER_05:yeah what an icon
SPEAKER_02:uh this was the season that gave the world jade goody how much do you know do you know at all who jade is not really no I think I've probably seen pictures, but couldn't tell you. Okay, so you're about to find out because there is a lot to say about Jade. Okay. Basically, Jade is noted as the first ever... big star to come out of reality. Not scary, but very important. Imagine being the first ever big reality star to come out of TV. God, no. UK TV. No. Like, imagine. The toll that takes. It must have been a lot. So basically, she entered into the Big Brother house aged 20. She was super young. Whoa. Yeah. She was raised by her single disabled mother.
SPEAKER_04:Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_02:And she had a drug-addicted pimp father. Oh, God. And the press basically branded her as like... everything that was wrong with britain at the time oh my god yeah uh it was very much like very classist like thinking that she was like lower than everyone else just because of the way she sounded the way she looked like it got very very vicious very quickly in terms of her the press and their opinions of her and the what they spread about her as well so she was called and this is like very this is like a very famous thing she was called the most hated woman in britain at the time just because of she was being who she was like who she naturally is like she's very loud very gobby ran around the house naked was like curvier like just an average girl yeah and because of that there was like hate campaigns against her who's got the time honestly these fucking the press are just especially in the noughties like we spoke about this oh my god that's a whole other topic in the Britney episode it came up a lot of like The press in the noughties, especially against women, was just awful. Terrible. No empathy, like just blood sucking vultures. Yeah, exactly that. It was really disgusting. Eventually, somehow, someway, the public ended up falling in love with her. Oh
SPEAKER_05:my God.
SPEAKER_02:When she came out, she was like, I was just myself.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:and like you will love me for me and she was like so happy but she didn't know at the time obviously that they'd been saying all these horrible things oh my god but big brother was the first show in britain to uplift like the reality star and to birth like the reality star okay and that just changed the celebrity world flipped on his head yeah because you can now become famous in for not being famous. Yeah, just being on a reality. So a lot of psychologists work behind the scenes at the Big Brother house and a bunch of them warned the producers at the time that they were really scared for when Jade left the house and scared for her safety when she came out. But when she did end up leaving, her celebrity respectability became really clear because she'd won over the public. She gave an interview in heat.
SPEAKER_05:Heat, hooray.
SPEAKER_02:Exactly. It's like the psychologist was like, This is bad. This is really bad. But because she won everyone over, she was an immediate celebrity. Like a top, top celebrity. That is actually crazy. So she didn't even know that she was hated. She could hear the crowd outside and they would like cheer for her and stuff. So I think she did kind of gather that there was like a shift, but I don't think she knew the scale of it. Yeah. Damn, what a story. Jade's achievements were like... really remarkable because of where she came from and where she ended up yeah she remained in the public eye way past like the perceived like sell-by date of the average reality star and on top of that she turned coming fourth on the reality show by the way she didn't even come top three which the best ones never win though exactly yeah fourth on the show uh into a multi-million pound business i mean love that well yeah i feel like nothing can prepare you for what you go through during an experience like about like any reality show just people knowing who you are and to that scale is just like I don't think humans are supposed to know what that feels like like even celebrities it's just like no it's not normal I was looking into this because I was wondering like what are the actual ethics behind it like do they actually care about the contestants mental health and obviously you mentioned they've got like they had counseling from the very beginning and I looked up and
SPEAKER_05:I
SPEAKER_02:think this kind of applies to all shows but contestants before going on they have to go through like an intense sort of basically like an intense mental checkup to see if you're actually stable enough to go into it they've got like counselors on screen off screen like any moment post like after care almost and they actually implemented this
SPEAKER_05:law well it's called the duty of care liability i don't know if you've heard of this yeah which is basically just to ensure their well-being and it's like you can get in a lot of trouble if you don't if you don't apply to it duty of care protocols
SPEAKER_02:included a comprehensive welfare package for each housemate uh training on respect and inclusion for the show general support from like mental health professionals and then a complete social media blackout ahead of the show
SPEAKER_04:Oh, okay. Yeah,
SPEAKER_02:which obviously this must have been implemented more recently where social media was more prominent and more cutthroat. But
SPEAKER_05:yeah, I read that it was implemented in 2023, just this law. Obviously they had the mental health professionals, but it's a very... recent thing which i find quite insane considering the history of like certain contestants on big brother and just other reality tv shows
SPEAKER_02:yeah
SPEAKER_05:it's like you should have maybe thought about this a little bit sooner
SPEAKER_02:yeah i don't think they understood the impact it could truly have on someone i think the main reason that they passed that law really recently as well is due to the incidents yeah that happened with love island contestants which is obviously awful when that was so prominent and it Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Really toxic. I'm glad they have it now. Better late than never. Yeah, better late than never. And like moving forward, I don't think we'll ever get rid of it ever again. I think this is it. This is it for now, for good. Yeah, it's really interesting that obviously this law has just come through, but then Big Brother had a counsellor on location for contestants to speak to. But after the success of like Jade Goody season... they realized that they needed they needed to like up the ante again because of how big jade was they were like we need more stars more drama stupidly the very next season which was season five they fucking got rid of the counselors are you serious rid of them because it caused more conflict in the house better tv oh why they really nearly had something and they just Completely got rid of it. Honestly, the 2000s were brutal. Brutal. Damn. Yeah. That actually led to one of the biggest moments in Big Brother history. What? A singular night named Fight Night. Oh, Jesus. Yeah. Very crazy. Big Brother, basically, they, you know, I said they started having themes. Yeah. The theme of this year was Big Brother Goes Evil. Oh, my God. And this was because I actually skipped season four because everyone skipped season four because it was so fucking boring because they all just got on. Right. And lived happy lives. so then that's why for season 5 they introduced the famous siren that wakes them up in the mornings I honestly there's so many little things I would choose not to go on the show for and that is one of them awful yeah awful I'd be angry all the time me too eventually basically two girlies got fake evicted and went into a secret room they didn't really have any power but they did get to watch everything that happened in the house after they got fake evicted and then if they didn't like certain things they could cause a bit of like havoc so like they heard one housemate calling another housemate a slut so they put itching powder in her top and then she was just itching for the whole episode they are in this secret house secret room for a long time just hearing the other housemates just chat the most shit about them getting riled up And eventually they get put back in the house. Yeah. On this like Halloween night.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:And you know the silver like lid things that you put on platters and then in every fucking horror movie there's like a head under them. They basically appeared under one of those like under the table and it got lifted and it's just like them two. The shock horror. The shock horror. And this basically caused like the biggest conflict in Big Brother history. Why? So they confronted everyone that's chatted shit about them. Yeah. It eventually got physical. Girls, guys, fucking everyone was brawling. Big Brother had to cut the visual footage but they kept the audio footage. So they were just showing like a clip of the garden while you can hear all of the housemates fucking fighting. Audience members literally called the police and was like, can you go and check on Big Brother housemates? There is some shit going down. Big Brother got in a lot of trouble over that. Even some like psychologists that were working behind the scenes like quit after that night. Oh shit. Because they were like this is unethical. Yeah it's too much. This is too far. Yeah yeah yeah. Basically one of the the girlies got taken into a separate room for a good few days and then eventually Big Brother had to kick her out because I think she's the one that started the physical brawl. And then apparently she had to sign an agreement once she left the house that she was not allowed to talk about that night. Oh how crazy.
SPEAKER_05:It's
SPEAKER_02:like Fight Club.
SPEAKER_05:Rule number one, we don't speak of
SPEAKER_02:it. Fight Night. Exactly. So Fight Night is a fundamental, famous night in the Big Brother lore. Whoa. Yes. Damn. Very crazy. Oh my God. One good thing that did come out of that season was that there was their first ever transgender winner. Oh, yay. A trans woman called Nadia and everyone loved her. She was so funny, so free. Yeah. She actually never told the housemates that she was trans, but the audience knew. But it was a really big moment because it showed Just a trans person just living a normal life. Having friends and laughing and fighting. Fighting and living that life. Yeah. And yeah, so first ever trans winner. I love that. Which is great. And this was in 2004.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah,
SPEAKER_02:so that was quite progressive at the time. Very progressive. Yeah. Really huge. You then go on to season six where another very, very infamous moment happens in Big Brother. And in British culture, I would say as a whole, it's a fucking moment. There was this character. Her name was Kinga. Okay. She came in late. And she wanted to, you know, get some of that limelight. So she shoved a wine bottle up her vagina.
SPEAKER_00:Excuse me?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. How much of it? Girl, I did not look at the footage. I don't know. What do you mean? some of it at least what was the context she literally was like being loud and rowdy on a night where they had had like a lot of alcohol or something and um one of the other housemates was like if you're gonna make noise do it outside so she literally just grabbed the wine bottle went into the garden laid on the ground and shoved it up her i honestly don't know why nobody does yeah okay i should open uh closed honestly don't know was it a screw top was it a cork I could not tell you. I've got so many questions. Look it up after, bitch. I don't know. Oh, my God. I didn't look too deep into that one. Too deep. Too much. Oh, God. Oh, my God. I know. So crazy. And then we move on to celebrity... Sorry, not celebrity. Regular Big Brother Season 7, which is noted by many, I think including myself, as the best season ever of Big Brother. Whoa. This introduced us to very, very famous in the reality show world, Nicky Graham. Yeah. And also we had Pete, who had Tourette's.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Which was also a very interesting watch. Pete was actually the first ever person on a TV show with Tourette's outside of a documentary.
SPEAKER_05:Whoa.
SPEAKER_02:That actually gathered a lot of awareness for Tourette's and showed people maybe something they'd never seen before. I like when shows are actually conscious of casting contestants that are realistic members of society. Oh yeah. I think it was also the first time a lot of audiences had seen multiple neurodivergent people. A gorgeous thing to watch. And Pete actually ended up winning, which is fabulous. It's actually funny because Nikki got evicted via public vote and then they actually put her back in the house a couple of weeks later and that gathered like or gained thousands of complaints because people had spent money to vote to evict her and then they just fucking put her back in and it's like, people wasted their money on this vote. I mean, yeah, fair enough. I'd be pissed. I get it. Not because they hated her, but because they felt cheated by Big Brother. So that was really funny. But those complaints were actually nothing compared to what was about to come. Jesus Christ. It never stopped. I feel emotionally drained. Four of them. Honestly. Basically, in 2007, more celebrities gone in. Bunch of different people. Jade Goody gets put back in as a celebrity. Wow. She made a comeback. She made a fucking comeback. This time she went in with her current boyfriend and her mum. The same mum. All of them went in? All three of them. As celebrities? As celebrities.
SPEAKER_05:Okay.
UNKNOWN:Okay.
SPEAKER_02:Fucking weird. Anyway, alongside that, a Bollywood star slash activist called Shilpa Shetty also went in. Jo, one of the S Club 7 peeps, went in. And then I think like a glamour model, Danielle, was in. And then a few other people. But those are like the main characters of this season. And basically some shit was going on and it became evident that there was bullying going on in the house. So Jade... Danielle and Joe were like three mean girls. Oh my God. And they were bullying Shilpa.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:But where it turned into a real problem was when a lot of their comments became racially driven.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:So it became really global because obviously she was a Bollywood star and the news of this person that like India idolized and loved was getting bullied by these British people it became a real like race riot kind of situation like one of the most famous kind of things that they said was like I think Shilpa made everyone like a curry or something one night she was quite sweet she was like regularly cooked and was just like a nice person one of them was like this is why everyone in India is so skinny because they don't cook their food properly and then they're sick all the time which is just really weird a weird thing to say like it's so insulting like damn you don't know the difference you don't realise your privilege of being in a class world country do you you don't realise that people are living on the streets bitch like it's not about the curries they're cooking like it was just a really weird thing to say and then they started saying a lot of just weird shit like that and it was just very obvious that they were like pointing out her differences because she was from India. And I think one of the girlies even said like, why doesn't she just fuck off back home? And it got really bad. And then basically this gained 44.5 thousand complaints over the whole series which is the second most complaints a tv show has ever gotten oh my god what's the first one some jerry springer episode okay fine so is this like people writing in and complaining so it was calls it was emails i watch some really fucked up reality sometimes but like i would never think to be like i can call them and complain yeah And 44 point whatever thousand people did that. I know. Crazy. So Shilpa ends up going on to win. The show. Icon. Jade gets evicted. She has this interview and it's like very serious, very dark toned interview of Davina basically being like, what the fuck have you done? Like the country fucking loved you and you've ruined it. You've actually killed everything you worked for. Oh God. And it was just insane. tense so from then the show ends whatever she offers one jade is fucking in the pits she then somehow agrees to go on the india big brother to reconcile long story short she goes on the show she finds out that she gets diagnosed with cancer during the show oh my flies back to england and dies a year later oh yeah Fucking intense. How did she get diagnosed on the show? She heavily documents her last year of life. And there's actually a thing now in the medical field that's called the Jade Goody effect, where because of how much she documented her journey, the level of women coming in for checkups of cervical cancer raised significantly. Oh, wow. And a lot of people were saved from that, obviously, which is a great thing. But it was just a whirlwind. She definitely made an impact. Yeah.
UNKNOWN:Oh, my God.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. Anyway, that was that. After that, Big Brother actually announced that they were going to get axed. It had all gone too fucking far. Oh. And after that, they were like, right, well, we're not going to bring it back. But in the contract, we have one more civilian Big Brother, one more celebrity Big Brother and a final season of Big Brother. So that's when it started to come to an end and they got real crazy with it. They tried to, you know, make it a lot more upbeat, brought back like very loved characters from earlier seasons. All got a bit crazy, having a bit of fun. They had this whole fucking parade show moment of like, R.I.P. Big Brother. Oh, my God. R.I.P. There was fucking funeral moment. There was the Davina moment. It was best bits. It was highlights. It was this big ass parade. And then literally like a year later, Channel 5 were like, we bought Big Brother. It's coming back. Never mind. And then Channel 5 had it for a while. And then we get to Celebrity Big Brother 17. We're skipping ahead a bit now. All I need to say is... David's dead. I've recently been introduced to this and I can't believe I've gone without it my whole life. It is fucking TV gold. It's phenomenal. It's like golden TV timing. Everything, the stars aligned. Everything worked out for this magical moment to be born. Just weird fact about that season. One of the other celebrities that was in the house at the time, you're never going to fucking guess. Who? Andrew Tate. Ew! What? Literally, who, what, why? Was he in the house when that was happening? Okay, so I think he'd been kicked out at that point. So he went in as an athlete and then they kicked him out because they were like... He was a piece of shit from the very beginning. Yeah, like he broke the rules or something. Once he had gone out of the way, David's dead came along and that's when it really
SPEAKER_05:got started.
UNKNOWN:Wow.
SPEAKER_02:I love it. It's iconic. She can never move on from that moment. And it's like she was going through this grieving process while simultaneously creating one of the biggest TV moments ever. Ever. Anyway, that brings me to... Well, that's the best TV Big Brother moment ever, period. Ever, ever, ever. So this one, I'm going to end it. Funny thing, I did see that... Do you know... You're asking for it. You're dying for it. It was the 20th anniversary of that moment recently.
SPEAKER_05:Wow. How fitting.
SPEAKER_02:So good. I
SPEAKER_05:didn't even know that was from Big Brother, but it's one of my favourite meme moments. This brings me so much
SPEAKER_02:joy. I actually cannot, and there's a million other moments, but we cannot go through them right now. God no. Maybe one day. Yeah, maybe one day. Anyway. Well, that was a whirlwind. I needed to tell you about it. And you did.
UNKNOWN:And you did.
SPEAKER_02:So that's it for this week's episode of Tell Me About It. Don't forget to subscribe and leave us a five-star rating and review if you enjoyed listening. You can follow us on all our social media and watch the full episode on YouTube now. Thanks for listening and see you next week. Bye!