Big Brother (Australian season 9)
Big Brother Australia 2012, also known as Big Brother 9, was the ninth season of the Australian reality television series, Big Brother. It was the first to air on the Nine Network who signed a deal with Southern Star Group in September 2011 to broadcast the show. The season began with a pre-recorded launch show on 13 August 2012. Benjamin Norris was announced the winner of the ninth season on 7 November 2012, making him the first openly gay person to win Big Brother Australia. Benjamin proposed to his boyfriend, also named Ben, during the show's finale.
This season introduced Sonia Kruger as the new host of Big Brother. Mike Goldman continued his role of providing voice over narration for the show. The production was based at the same compound, located within the Dreamworld theme park, that had been used in all previous series of Big Brother Australia.
Production
After four years off air, the Nine Network confirmed on 9 September 2011 that they had signed a contract with Southern Star Group to air the series in 2012; the first time a broadcaster other than Network Ten has broadcast the show in Australia. In September 2011, when the location of the Big Brother compound had not yet been officially confirmed, Queensland Premier Anna Bligh stated that she would do everything possible to see the show return to the Gold Coast. A spokesperson from Dreamworld, the original home of Big Brother, stated on 21 September 2011 that nothing was locked in but that the theme park would welcome the return of the show. In December 2011, The Daily Telegraph reported that Fox Studios Australia and Warner Bros. Movie World had also expressed interest. In an interview ahead of the season launch, Kruger suggested that Big Brother would be family friendly and air at 7.00 pm.Several days after the news Big Brother was to return, Southern Star Group announced on their casting website that they would be accepting pre-audition applications for people who were interested in participating on the season. The official Facebook page for the show, as directed to by the Southern Star website, was opened on 15 September 2011. On 22 February 2012, it was officially announced that Big Brother would return to Dreamworld in 2012. Auditions began on 15 March, and took place in all major capital cities, as well as Gold Coast, in April and May 2012. More than twenty thousand people applied to be on the ninth season. The Official Big Brother Australia website reported that 14 housemates would be entering the house after going into lockdown on 4 August.
Format
Big Brother Australia is based on the international Big Brother series produced by Endemol in the Netherlands which began in 1999. The show's name comes from George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, which revolves around a dystopia in which dictator Big Brother is the all-seeing leader. The series generally constitutes 14 or more contestants who live in an isolated house for several months. Housemates are at all times under the control of Big Brother, a rule enforcing authority figure who monitors behaviour of the housemates, sets tasks and punishments and provides the mechanism for contestants to make external requests. Each week, the housemates will cast votes to nominate two other housemates for eviction using five nomination points inside the Nominations Room. These points can be allocated however a housemate wishes. Housemates are not permitted to discuss nominations. The three housemates with the most nomination votes will be nominated. The viewers will then decide which of the nominees is evicted. This process continues until only one housemate remains to win the grand prize of $250,000.This season each of the original fourteen housemates entered with a secret. The task in the first week was for the female housemates to match up the male housemates with their secrets. The secrets were that: one has the IQ of a genius, one became scared of birds after an emu attack, one has been fired from every job he's ever had, one hasn't had a girlfriend since he was 11, one was a juvenile offender, one has dated more than 100 women, and one is a multimillionaire. The following week the girl's secrets were revealed for the male members of the house to solve. The secrets were that: one had Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, one was a champion weightlifter, one is a high school dropout, one was a nude protester, one used to be an emo, one was a hand model and that one is a member of a royal family.
The House
The purpose-built house was located at Dreamworld on the Gold Coast, Australia.Rooms/Areas in the house included:
- Diary Room
- Nominations Room
- HMAS BB/ "Captain's Quarters" – Housemates were granted access to "The Captain's Quarters" along with a sauna and a pool as a reward for winning the "Captain's Challenge". They were able to invite along one housemate of their choice.
- Backyard
- Living room
- Kitchen/dining area
- The utility room, a regularly renovated room that has been used as six separate rooms:
- * The parlour
- * The man-cave
- * A cafe
- * A Switzerland-style room.
- * Also, the hallway to the utility room was used as part of "The Factory" task.
- * A zen temple
- Bedroom, along with storage shelves to store the housemates' possessions
- Bathroom
- Secret executive bathroom, accessed via a secret door in the bedroom disguised as a shelf
- Gym and fitness area
- "The Naughty Corner" – A small room that housemates were sent to if they had broken the house rules. Fellow housemates were able to see into the room via a window that could change from being opaque to transparent. On Day 71, Estelle was called the nicest housemate, and thus got to go into the revamped corner, now called 'The Nice Corner.'
- Outdoor entertainment complex/outdoor pizza oven
Housemates
On launch night, ten housemates entered the house on Day 0. The seven women first entered through a room called the parlour for a secret task, but later entered the house. Two more male housemates entered the house on Day 2, two via a live special, and two more revealed on the next day's show. After Week 5's and Week 6's nominations, a female and male intruder entered the house. Ava entered on Day 29, and Sam entered on Day 36. Unlike the original fourteen housemates, no intruders are keeping a secret in the house.| Name | Age on entry | Hometown | Secret | Day entered | Day exited | Result |
| Benjamin "Ben" Norris | 32 | Victoria | "I have been fired from every job I've had" | 3 | 87 | |
| Layla Subritzky | 24 | Brisbane/Hambleton, England | "I am a member of a royal family" | 0 | 87 | |
| Estelle Landy | 24 | Morwell, Victoria | "I was a high-school drop out" | 0 | 87 | |
| Michael Beveridge | 26 | Brisbane/Wollongong | "I have the IQ of a genius" | 0 | 85 | |
| Zoe Westgarth | 23 | New South Wales | "I used to be an emo" | 0 | 85 | |
| Sam Wallace | 21 | Gold Coast/ Tamworth, New South Wales | 36 | 84 | ||
| Stacey Wren | 24 | Sydney | "I was a hand model" | 0 | 77 | |
| Angela "Angie" Murray | 21 | Gold Coast | "I was a champion weight lifter" | 0 | 70 | |
| Josh Moore | 28 | South Australia | "I have dated over 100 women" | 0 | 60 | |
| Bradley Darke | 19 | Coraki | "I have Ornithophobia as the result of an emu attack" | 0 | 56 | |
| Ava David | 29 | Victoria | 29 | 51 | ||
| George Baramily | 25 | Western Australia | "I am a multi-millionaire" | 2 | 42 | |
| Ray Baxter | 25 | Brisbane | "I was a juvenile offender" | 3 | 35 | |
| Sarah Wentworth-Perry | 30 | Wagga Wagga | "I was a nude protester" | 0 | 28 | |
| Ryan Buckingham | 22 | Victoria | "I haven't had a girlfriend since I was 11" | 2 | 21 | |
| Charne Louise | 31 | Gold Coast | "I have Obsessive Compulsive Disorder" | 0 | 14 |
Weekly summary and highlights
On Day 0, Michael, Sarah, Angie, Zoe, Layla, Josh, Charne, Estelle, Stacey and Bradley entered the Big Brother house. The women all entered through the parlour, while the men entered through the main entrance. A special secret task was given to the female housemates entering the parlour on Day 0. They must match up seven secrets to the seven male housemates throughout the week. The female housemates can only discuss these secrets inside the parlour. To ensure immunity for the first week, all of the secrets must be matched correctly without the males knowing. After the task announcement, all the females entered the House.On Day 2, George and Ryan entered the House. The women watched them enter from the parlour on the television screens. Benjamin and Ray, the final two male Housemates, entered during the late hours of Day 2. Shortly after entering the house, Ray was sent to the "naughty corner" for calling Big Brother an inappropriate name. He had to write the term "I must not call Big Brother naughty names" fifty times on a chalkboard and after writing many lines he wrote "I must not call Big Brother naughty names 50 times", thinking this would get him out of the penalty sooner.
On Day 3, housemates were set their first weekly task that kept them on their toes. Throughout the day, housemates had to dance to music being played by Big Brother to pass.
Upon passing the task on Day 4 at 1:15 pm, housemates were given a new gym and a generous food budget.
On Day 5, Bradley celebrated his 19th Birthday with Big Brother organising a surprise Superheroes party for him. Bradley was given a Batman costume with B-Rad written on it. While Big Brother distracted Bradley in the Diary Room, the other housemates got dressed up as superheroes and set up the backyard for the party. Later that night Ryan and Estelle were seen sleeping together and kissing. Ryan talked about it briefly the next day but Stacey told him to not tell Bradley.
On Day 7, the girls were asked to correctly match the seven secrets with the seven male housemates. The females were given four "lives" or chances but failed to guess all seven correctly. This means the male housemates will be immune from Day 8's nominations. As soon as the females had finished guessing, Big Brother announced that the Parlour was no more and the males were invited to the "Man Cave", the newly renovated Parlour. Upon entering, the males were told by Big Brother that like them, each female housemate had a secret. The task for the week would be to correctly match each secret with each female housemate. Correctly matching the secrets would mean automatic immunity for all male housemates at the following week's nominations.
On Day 8, Housemates learned they would have a total of five nomination points, to divide between two women. It was revealed later that night that Charne had received the most votes, with Estelle and Layla behind her. These were the three nominees for the week. Housemates were also given their weekly task this day called the Road Trip Task. They would have to complete a 3627 kilometre trip in a motorbike and side-car. Success will give housemates a luxury food budget. That afternoon while Michael is cleaning the fish tank, he hears a voice who claims to be Surly, the fish in the tank. Surly gives Michael the task of hugging each housemate within 10 minutes, without them realising something is going on. Michael completes the task, returns to the bathroom, and Surly tells Michael to go into the Bedroom and "find the multi-coloured spiral ornament on the back wall. Grab hold of it and turn it slowly, a quarter turn to the right to be precise". Michael follows the instructions and inside is the Secret Executive Bathroom. It has a bath, shower, champagne, bath soaps and dressing gowns. Michael enjoys a bath before returning to the house.
On Day 14, the men failed to match the women's secrets, thus giving the women immunity from nominations for the week. They were only allowed three strikes, as they had broken part of the rules for the task. During the live eviction, Charne was the first evicted Housemate. She received 24% of the public vote to save. Estelle received 27% of the public vote to stay, and Layla received 49%.
On Day 21, the nominees of the week risked eviction in the closest voting tally in the Australian series. With 32% of the public vote, Ryan was the second housemate to be evicted from the Big Brother House. Benjamin narrowly escaped eviction with 33%, and Bradley with 35%. Ryan was given a final influence to the housemates called the "Nominations Super Power". He gave the power to Estelle, giving her a mystery advantage for the next round of nominations. Before the end of the eviction, Sonia slipped a fake twist to cause paranoia into the House. She sneaked a line after talking to the real House that there is a House 2 who just finished their eviction. In reality, there is no House 2 and there are only actors pretending to be another set of housemates.
On Day 28, the eviction was clear-cut with Sarah being the third housemate to be evicted. Sarah gave her "Nominations Super Power" to Benjamin. Sarah was given 18% of votes to save, Bradley was given 32% and Ray was given 50% of votes to save. The next day intruder Ava was entered into the house.
On Day 29, housemates must act as animals in the Big Brother wildlife documentary. The housemates wake to find the backyard has been done up like a jungle. A new Big Brother voice – "The Narrator", who sounds like David Attenborough, addresses the housemates. "You are all about to become animals starring in the Big Brother wildlife documentary. This week we will observe you as you struggle to survive within the confines of the Big Brother house." HMs must keep up with The Narrator during the task to pass. Josh is told of the secret intruder and is set a secret mission on the basis of it.
On Day 30, the new lately intruder Ava is introduced into the house. Josh hits on her like mad and the Angie/Josh/Estelle triangle gets weirder and weirder.
On Day 32, the housemates are infuriated at Estelle for keeping them from getting to know the new intruder. Ava does not give a good impression when housemates are forced to give up their luxury items for her.
On Day 33, housemates joke that Ava and Estelle are becoming a lesbian couple. Angie is not handling her potential eviction very well.
On Day 34, housemates have a trivia night, but sore loser George's behaviour causes all HMs to be punished.George breaks the white board and then is punished for this.
On Day 35, Ray is evicted from the Big Brother House. Josh and Ava take their relationship to the physical level with a long pash session in the pool.
On Day 37, the girls speed date new intruder Sam, who enters and mixes up the guys. Layla re-evaluates her friendship with Angie and begins to dislike her.
On Day 39, a game of truth or date ends in a huge fight between Angie and Layla. Sam leaves a hickey on Angie's neck and later she demands to be let out of the house.
On Day 40, Layla and Angie make up after their fight last night. Bradley is given a makeover by Big Brother and Michael does a nudie run.
On Day 41, Ben comes up with a new term for everyone in the house – "meepers".
On Day 42, George is evicted. Sam gets worried that his "fun" with Layla will cause jealousy and conflict in the house.
On Day 44, Delilah, the dog, enters the house as the "17th housemate". Surly is upset at the new-found attention to Delilah.
On Day 45, housemates continue to party while Sam unknowingly works in the Big Brother factory. Ben receives a secret tasks via a mobile phone.
On Day 46, Sam finds out this week's task has been a sham. Michael gets new hair rollers for Layla while Josh and Ava get even closer.
On Day 48, there had been no eviction on this night, as the NRL Finale was broadcast. This also left housemates questioning as to why there was no eviction, with theories that a natural disaster had occurred outside of the house.
On Day 49, housemates must accept misleading deals from Big Brother for their weekly task, and spend $1,000 by accomplishing these tasks. Confusion reigns when the normal Sunday eviction does not take place.
On Day 50, Sam expresses his dislike of Bradley. The housemates reject a meat-based task offer because Ava is a vegetarian.
On Day 51, Ava is evicted and the 'real Josh' returns to the house.
On Day 53, Angie feels on the outer with all of the housemates. Layla discovers her relationship with Sam is moving into friendship territory.
On Day 54, housemates discuss the logistics of Sam fitting into the house.
On Day 55, Sam and Layla's relationship deteriorates further when he jokes about kissing her friends.
On Day 56, Bradley is evicted.
On Day 57, Nominations begins again! This time Josh has the superpower of correctly guessing which housemates are nominating who. With his correct guesses, he receives superpower points to help him nominate. Josh's point tally is eight in total.
On Day 58, Big Brother left the building for some time. He returned and issued all housemates that they have broken some clear rules and are not penalised for this but given a warning for next time.
On Day 59, the weekly task continued. Layla won a new Holden Volt after versing against Benjamin and Angie on a Big Brother quiz. The Blue team have won the Kitchen and the Red team have won the bedroom. This night also introduced the new Switzerland Alps room where the one member from each team could only be allowed to talk.
On Day 60, Josh withdrew from the competition after receiving some tragic personal news from his parents on the night of Day 59. It has been announced by Big Brother that the Red/Blue task in the House has been cancelled and Live Updates from the Big Brother House on the program website and social media accounts have been paused for the day. There will be no Big Brother Eviction this Sunday night; instead Big Brother will show extended footage from the weekend and celebrate Josh's time in the House. From Monday, Live Nominations will continue as scheduled.
On Day 61, the housemates first find out about the cancelled eviction. Estelle can hardly contain herself. Angie is also quietly elated. Sam, well, Sam shows no emotion- as usual. They are told the game returns to normal on Monday but Big Brother words it odd- as if next week's process could be altered. Benjamin is actually very upset about all this, saying he would be devastated if he went before any of the other three. He does not think "they" bitch about them as much as they think before calling them deluded psychos. Michael reads out the instructions to a task- to act out a live sitcom! They have to re-enact important times from the house. A laugh track is played in the house every time Big Brother is amused. Josh's farewell message is then played after this event happened.
On Day 62, the housemates are in the backyard. Angie and Layla discuss how they love to think the relationships they enter will end in a fairy-tale. Benjamin calls Sam a combination of Ryan, George and Ray. Michael, Benjamin and Stacey seem to have formed an alliance against the "Meepers". They are outnumbered! For clarification, a
"meeper" is someone who starts a mindless conversation for no good reason. Josh gives Michael the Nominations Super Power.
On Day 63, Angie, Benjamin, Estelle, Layla, Sam and Zoe are all up for eviction. Another Challenge was sprung against the housemates that they would have to look after an 11-year-old boy named Jed for one week.
On Day 64, The house is a mess and Layla is complaining about it in the diary room. The other housemates relax outside and talk about how Layla, or her alter ego Shaniqua, has taken over the kitchen. We then meet Big Baby... and its wonderful nursery. Housemates are told about the task. Everytime she cries, housemates have 30 seconds for two of them to be by her side and comfort her. The housemates soon find out that the baby can burp, soil its nappy... and vomit!
On Day 65, Big Baby is crying and Michael and Benjamin go to tend to it. It is "Father's Day" in the house. The girls must cook for the men. Big Baby continues to keep the housemates at bay for the rest of the morning. Michael and Angie talk about Estelle's weirdness. Estelle is outside making two swan statues kiss! They also talk about Sam. Sam and Estelle also have a little "conversation" of their own! Big Brother seems to get bored of Michael and Angie's conversation and interrupts it by telling them their job with Big Baby is finished. Layla and Angie are called to the diary room. There are a couple of uniforms for them to wear. Big Brother has decided that it is time Layla became a true blue Australian. Angie must be her coach. Layla then passes her test and Benjamin is dressed up as a fairy for Big Baby.
On Day 66, Angie is struggling with her new sugar-free diet. Estelle and Layla later go help out Big Baby in its morning routine. Yesterday was Father's Day. Today is Mother's Day! The girls take Big Baby to mother's group. The boys wonder how the girls are all still here. In mother's group, the girls talk about loving and loving themselves. Zoe says she does not love herself, but is starting to. Meanwhile, Benjamin talks about his experience sitting next to Meryl Streep in a cinema. It is time for the captain's quarters challenge. Outside, waiting for the housemates, is a makeshift laundry with dirty clothes and pegs. But this challenge is all about the pegs- the housemate with the most pegs on their face by the end of one-minute wins. The winner, with 22 pegs is... ANGIE! She takes Stacey with her! Benjamin is OK about losing, saying he is happy Stacey got to go in. Stacey and Angie enjoy the room. Benjamin comes to the diary room to tell Big Brother he is having a bad day as he is the last person to not have gone into the captain's quarters despite being a previous peg face champion!
On Day 67, Delilah is trying to wake Michael up. Zoe's Pumbaa doll is still missing and Benjamin and Estelle start the day on rocky ground. Sam must have told Benjamin that he stole Pumba because Benjamin knows. Angie and Stacey are waking up to their final day in the captain's quarters. Benjamin, despite never winning a captain's quarters challenge and getting all stroppy about it yesterday, wants today to be positive. He is in the diary room confirming his feelings yesterday was because he never seems to win at anything. It is time for the results of this week's task! They have passed this week's task!
On Day 68, it is a Friday. Layla and Sam are obviously getting close. They talk about each other in the diary room before requesting a date. Big Brother needs to stop being a push-over! Layla and Sam's date request is fulfilled with a candlelit dinner for two in the bedroom! Safe to say Benjamin is a little touchy over this. Oh well; Layla and Sam agree he is their least favourite housemate.
On Day 69, Zoe is given a very special remote. She is able to pause, rewind, fast-forward and/or mute her fellow housemates. Stacey is called to the naughty corner for singing songs. Her punishment is to dress up as a clown. It is more of a punishment for Layla, who has a fear of clowns.
On Day 70, Angie is evicted. Over the following week, the housemates are assigned a task to ignore "unwelcome guests", including ordinary people and housemates from past series and even the present, who try to provoke the current housemates. They eventually fail the task after numerous times where the dog, Delilah, jumped up on intruders and sat on their laps. After Angie was evicted and then they had to say goodbye to another housemate Jed. After being in the house for a week and having the time of his life, Jed had to leave but before that he got to decide if the housemates had past their second challenge. Jed decided that the housemates passed.
On Day 71, Housemates will nominate for the final time. However, their friends and family will help them out with it!
On Day 72, Mike Goldman is narrating... inside the house! Later, Layla is forced to clean Delilah's doggy box. All of a sudden, BB04's Ryan Fitzgerald enters the house. He pretends to be annoyed that everyone is ignoring him. He begins to give Layla and Sam a hard time. It has been a while since Fitzy came to visit. The housemates are chilling in the backyard. Oh, Mike Goldman returns... with BB01's Pete Timbs. He is followed by BB02's Nathan Morris. And all of a sudden, here comes the winner of Big Brother 2003, Regina! BB04 winner Trevor and his brother-from-another-mother Paul come to cause a stir. BB05's Vesna and Tim also enter.
On Day 73, There is a set of letterboxes in the backyard with letters to be delivered to each housemate. Sam has been told he has been invited to the temple, yet another incarnation of the parlour. Zoe meanwhile receives a clean-up notice from the Big Brother council. When Michael begins to clean the bathroom, we see just how disgusting it is. I am almost bloody vomiting here! No unwelcome guests have yet entered...until now when Goldilocks and the three bears come for breakfast.
On Day 74, housemates are woken up early for the Today weather bulletin as part of the "ignore the unwelcome guests" task. Meanwhile, Stacey goes to the diary room to see it is been trashed by a "ninja's party". A drunken ninja is asleep on the couch. He scares the hell out of Stacey! Afterwards, it becomes clear these guys have failed the task. They get the results: it is a FAIL. But before that, some big panda offering free hugs comes in. They all had fun regardless. Later, Layla thinks Benjamin's jacket has been invented to get people to save him. Meanwhile, Benjamin and Stacey talk about Layla outside. They then begin to talk about being nominated. Layla admits she can no longer look at Benjamin.
On Day 75, Sam and Estelle are working out, and it looks heated; but in a way Layla may not be happy with. It looks like its Sam doing the flirting with Estelle, but in the bedroom later, Zoe and Layla blame Estelle for being the flirty one. Later, Sam and Layla discuss how jealous Benjamin is over their relationship. Big Brother challenges the housemates to a running race with housemates aiming for the lowest lap time around the pool. Big Brother is in a nice mood. He sends Sam and Estelle to the nice corner. There is a nice pamper pack waiting for them. Layla is... having a good time watching this. She goes to Big Brother later on to tell him how she feels about the whole thing.
On Day 76, Big Brother has a letter for Michael. He has got a Thai dinner for two! Who will he take? It seems it is between Stacey and Estelle. He takes Estelle as Stacey is detoxing. Zoe seems very annoyed at Estelle's actions. After eating their Thai, they retire to the garden lounges for alone time. Zoe goes to join them.
On Day 77, Stacey is evicted, with Estelle receiving the most votes to save anyone in the series so far. Sonia reveals that the public will now vote for housemates to win, and those with the fewest accumulated votes for them to win will be evicted over the final 10 days.
On Day 78, the housemates have been hiding a few secrets; as has Big Brother. Tonight; they're going to do a trade with Big Brother. To gain valuable information, they're going to have to dish out juicy information about themselves! Sonia reveals that housemates will be tempted by news they want to hear. If they take it, they will have their own secrets aired to the house. Later on, it is time for their last weekly task. Based on the BBFM task a few weeks ago, and a BBTV task used in Celebrity Big Brother UK earlier this year, housemates must partake in various television projects in the goal to be entertaining.
On Day 79, it is the spookiest night of the year and for the first time in Big Brother history, Halloween befalls the house! What spine-tingling consequences will it bring? It is the wee hours of the morning and a ghost walks through the house to spook the housemates.
On Day 80, Estelle and Michael seem to be snogging together. Estelle finally leaves his bed and returns to her own. Housemates awaken for fifteen minutes of hot water. Zoe admits she woke up in fits of rage when trying to find Estelle and where she was sleeping. Benjamin then tells the girls that this is not the first time Estelle has been in his bed. The incident continues to be the talk of the morning. Benjamin is later shocked to find out he has just revealed privileged information given to him by Michael. Ben also wins the final captains challenge.
On Day 81, the housemates in the captain's quarters wake up for breakfast. It is a beautiful spread. The housemates are all soon reunited in the main house. Estelle is all over Michael again. Zoe continues to go on about it in the lounge with Benjamin. It is the final program for BBTV. And guess what: it is the world news! They have to speak the news in their respective languages. Task results: PASSED! Benjamin and Michael are allowed to go to the nice corner. The girls have a girl session in the back yard. Nothing too interesting. Layla thinks Zoe called her a man eater. The guys talk strategy. Benjamin and Michael leave the nice corner. Michael comes to the diary room to tell Big Brother he likes Estelle. Maybe after her last eviction save, he is latching onto her? Popularity? He is a genius after all! Estelle and Michael then spend some quality time in bed together.
On Day 84, Delilah is given a new family and Sam is evicted.
On Day 85, Michael and Zoe were evicted, leaving Benjamin, Estelle and Layla fighting to win.
On Day 87: The Finale, Estelle was evicted, placing third place and was awarded $5,000 dollars from KFC. Second place went to Layla. She won $10,000 dollars and also received the keys to a Holden Volt she previously won in a weekly challenge.
First place went to Benjamin and he won $250,000 dollars and a brand new Holden Cruze. He also proposed with a diamond to his boyfriend, also named Ben.
Josh's departure
On Day 59, Josh was called to the Captains Quarters, where he was taken out of the house to see his parents. They told him of the sudden death of his only sibling, Toby. Josh spent the night outside of the house, where he made the decision to stay with his family and not return to the house.On Day 60, housemates were informed of the situation, and said their goodbyes in the early hours of Day 60. Out of respect for Josh and his family, Big Brother turned the cameras off for these goodbyes. As a result of Josh leaving, voting lines for eviction were closed—with any votes cast prior being invalidated—and the funds donated to the Salvation Army; a choice by Josh and his family. Also, the weekly challenge was ended prematurely and live feeds from the official website were paused. The upcoming eviction was also canceled, instead replaced with Josh's return to say thank you to the public for their support which was followed by the routinely used 'highlights' show.
Nominations table
This series, housemates were allowed to distribute five nomination points between their two nominations, with a maximum of four points to be allocated to one housemate. The three or more housemates with the most votes face the public vote to save. In addition, nominations are now held in a sound-proof chamber inside a Nominations Room, as opposed to the Diary Room.Nominations Super Power
From Week 4 to Week 11, the Nominations Super Power was as a weekly twist to nominations. It was a special secret power given to a chosen housemate by a previous week's evictee. The Nominations Super Power gives an advantage to one housemate for nominations in a given week. The most recent evictee decides on which housemate they would like to have the power, without knowing what that power is.- In Week 4's nominations, Estelle was able to view the current nominations tally as it stood before she nominated.
- In Week 5's nominations, Benjamin was given two sets of five nomination points to distribute for the week, giving him the power distribute ten points over four housemates.
- In Week 6's nominations, George was given the right to view the nominations tally board as the housemates nominated, and saw the points distributed on the board as they changed and swapped. He was also given the right to select one housemate of his choice and get rid of the nomination. The two people they nominated points were removed from the board
- In Week 7's nominations, Layla was only permitted to give one nomination but it could be for any reason at all.
- In Week 8's nominations, Estelle was given the opportunity to listen in on the nominations of two housemates, thus influencing her subsequent nominations.
- In Week 9's nominations, Josh was given the opportunity to win up to 16 nomination points to nominate as many housemates as he wished; he had to guess who each housemate would nominate and for every correct guess he would receive one point.
- In Week 10's nominations, Michael was given the opportunity to select someone's nominations, cancel them out and replace them with exactly the same as his.
- In Week 11, Layla was the Final Housemate to nominate and was able to view the nominations tally before she voted. Additionally, she had full control over her points. Additionally, she was able to talk with her father who could give Layla advice about her nomination.
Special shows
Throughout the series, some of the shows aired as specials; apart from the launch, daily shows, nomination shows, eviction shows, and the final.Live Special
"Live Special" was a live daily show that was broadcast on Day 2 in which the final four male housemates entered the House. Two were revealed live, and two were revealed on the next day's daily show.A second Live Special was broadcast on Day 63 to replace what was supposed to be the eighth eviction of the season, but was cancelled due to the sudden departure of housemate Josh on Day 60. Along with the regular highlights from the past few days, there was also clips reminiscing about Josh's time in the house.
The New Housemates
"The New Housemates" was a live daily show that was broadcast on Day 3Secrets Revealed Live
"Secrets Revealed Live" was a live show that was broadcast on Day 7. The parlour twist was revealed to all the housemates, and the female housemates had to correctly match all the males' secrets without failing four times. The females failed to match the final secrets belonging to Benjamin and George, and so the females were to risk being nominated for Week 2. After the task, the male housemates were set the same task for the new week, and began to evaluate the females' secrets in the renovated parlour called the man cave.Live Nominations 4 / Intruder Alert
The "4th Live Nominations" was the nomination and intruder special that was broadcast on Day 29.Intruder Incoming
"Intruder Incoming" was a live daily show that was broadcast on Day 37Live Josh Special
"Live Josh Special" was a live special where instead of an eviction that was broadcast on Day 63.Little Sister Special
"Big Brother's Little Sister" were two special episodes broadcast on Day 65 and 79 where Big Brother's "Little Sister" asked the housemates questions sent in by the viewers.Big Secrets
"Big Secrets" was a live daily show that was broadcast on Day 78Ratings
The launch ratings for this season were up significantly from 2008 as the opening night show reached 2.1 million viewers at its peak and averaged at 1.6 million viewers, the franchise's highest ratings since the 2003 series.Ratings are rounded to the nearest ten thousand. Shows on GO! are not included in official averages. Figures in bold include consolidated viewing figures.