Big Brother Australia 2003

Big Brother Australia 2003 was the third season of the Australian television series Big Brother Australia. The season lasted 87 days, starting on 27 April 2003 and ending on 21 July 2003.

This season was the most complicated series to date with housemates starting in two separate houses - a "round house" and a "square house". Housemate Benjamin Archbold was sent in first and spent the entire first day by himself. Other housemates were progressively admitted. On Night 22, all Housemates were locked into their respective bedrooms and a construction crew spent the night merging the two houses and revealing the hidden swimming pool and kitchen that had been in between the two smaller houses. Housemates were released into their new combined house on the morning of Day 23. Later in the day, a bathroom linking the two bedrooms was revealed. In the Square house (which was on the right of the compound) were Belinda, Jaime, Irena, Carlo and Claire with Vincent and Saxon joining later in the week. After Ben entered the Round house on Day 1, Joanne, Regina, Chrissie, Daniel, Patrick and Leah were progressively admitted over the first week. The cameras were completely hidden for the first time in this series. Previously some cameras were visible to housemates and at times housemates were aware of the camera tracking their movements. On Day 68, Anouska Golebiewski who was the first to be evicted from Big Brother UK 4 series showing at the time. She was brought in for a little over a week. The biggest star and eventual winner of Series 3 was Regina Bird. Reggie earned public admiration with her unique down-to-earth charm, strong work ethic and naivete. Chrissie and Daniel came second and third respectively.

New programs

Two new shows were introduced:

• UpLate hosted by Mike Goldman. Mike Goldman was best known for doing the voiceovers in the daily show. UpLate was broadcast late at night showing live vision from the house with minimal editing. Often the footage was simply of the housemates sleeping.
• The Insider hosted by Tim Ferguson was a panel-type show with additional gossip and discussion about the show. Frequently that week's evicted housemate would be one of the show's guests.

Opening sequence

The Tower of Terror is displayed, and the logos of Dreamworld, Big Brother Australia, Network Ten and a map of Australia turns into a housemate-selection machine. We go through the orange bedroom, through the blue bathroom for a shower, through to the blue control room, to the edit section where footage from the diary room is being edited to be shown on the Big Brother Australia yellow stage. We then go to the purple kitchen, and three housmates are up for nomination the red housemate gets the most votes. The pink dining room is broadcast to a person on the internet at home. After eighty-five days, a winner is selected.

Incidents

A noteworthy incident of Big Brother 2003 involved housemate Belinda Thorpe in what was later dubbed "Belindagate". After a night of drinking, an intoxicated Belinda confided in housemate Carlo that her younger sibling had been involved in the murder of a homosexual man [1]. The information was not immediately revealed by Belinda as she whispered it to Carlo and house microphones did not pick it up, however after she left the room Carlo passed the information on to the other housemates. The incident sparked a legal crisis for Endemol Southern Star and Network Ten as the identification of a minor involved in a court trial is illegal in Queensland, the state where Big Brother is produced. Within seconds of this information being revealed the live Internet feeds were cut and left blank for several hours. Users watching the feeds began discussing the incident on the official website discussion boards. Moderators began deleting these messages but could not keep up with the large amount being posted and eventually the messages boards were closed down. They were re-opened for a short period before being closed again permanently. As a result there were no official message boards during the following 2004 series. The closure of the boards led to the title "Belindagate". The information spread out to unofficial Big Brother websites and several days later the show producers acknowledged the incident. An edited version of the nights events was shown on Big Brother Uncut, except in Queensland where it was cut entirely. Brett Jensen, the fifteenth original housemate (a policeman) left lockdown before BB3 began. Tamara, a travel agent and the sixteenth housemate, appeared on the Launch show but did not enter the house as she was a decoy for the public. Both were from Queensland.

Nominations table

The first housemate in each box was nominated for two points, and the second housemate was nominated for one point.

•     Housemates living in the round house
•     Housemates living in the square house

^1 The top five housemates with the highest votes were up for eviction. Belinda, Irena, and Saxon from the Square House, and Ben and Leah from the Round House. ^2 Belinda and Carlo from the Square House were up for Eviction, and Daniel and Leah from the Round House were up for Eviction. ^3 In a special round of Nominations, Ben, Claire, Jaime and Regina were not permitted to vote. The other housemates had to vote for a housemate to evict, and Jamie received the most votes.

External links

• Behind Big Brother Archive - Season 3; Updates, Daily Shows and Diary Room Visits

Sources

• Big brother 2003