Teen Big Brother: The Experiment

Big Brother
Teen Big Brother (2003)

Teen Big Brother was a United Kingdom spin off of the popular television programme Big Brother in which teenagers inhabited the house. The show was presented by Dermot O'Leary.

Overview

Featuring eight 18-year-olds, it was broadcast between 13–17 October 2003 on Channel 4 and E4. Trailed as 'The Experiment', Teen Big Brother was originally shot in advance over the course of ten days between 30 July to 8 August, to air in 2003 as an educational item, screened as part of Channel 4's 4Learning programming. The tasks were created so as to promote such values as cooperation and team spirit, and topics like politics and religion were discussed. After editing, however, the footage was felt to be compelling enough for a more mass-market time slot, so the show was moved ahead to October 2003 and formatted to be shown over one week (five episodes).

Teen Big Brother was different from the original Big Brother UK series in a number of ways. Since it was pre-recorded, the contestants themselves and not the audience decided which housemates were to be voted out. At the end, the eventual winner of a grand prize was decided by group decision (a cash prize was replaced by a round-the-world trip). No alcohol or cigarettes were allowed. The basic premise of the show, however, remained the same, and no special treatment was made for the housemates.

On Day Six/Seven, Jade Dyer and Tommy Wright became the first Big Brother UK contestants to have sex on the show in its history. According to The Independent, this was the first real-life sexual act shown on British television (although nothing explicit was seen; the two were under bedcovers). This sparked controversy in the British media and comment on teenage safe sex education.

Paul Brennan was voted the winner, and selected Caroline Cloke to accompany him in sharing the prize of a fully paid three-month round-the-world tour. A programme about the tour was mentioned on the final episode, and was to be broadcast on E4 a few months later, but never was due to lack of interest. In addition he won a period of work experience selected for his interests, with a New York fashion designer.

An edited version of Teen Big Brother – The Experiment was eventually broadcast in January 2004 as part of 4Learning's morning schedule and was designed with formal curriculum teaching in mind. The incident featuring Jade and Tommy did not appear in this edit.

Housemates

Paul Brennan

Paul Brennan was voted as the winner of Teen Big Brother on day 10, meaning he won a trip around the world.

Caroline, Tracey and Jade voted for him to win Teen Big Brother. Since September 2009, Paul lives in Belfast and has established himself in the adult film world. In a recent television interview Paul quelled rumours of a rift between him and transsexual business partner, Belfast model agency owner, Tracy Hall. Paul lives with his long term partner and local makeup artist Michael Curran. Paul and Michael recently announced their plans for a civil partnership with a view to adopt it is rumoured that wedding guests would include local celebrities Louis Walsh, Julian Simmons and Daniel O'Donnell.

Caroline Cloke

Caroline Cloke came second. Paul chose her to go on the trip with him.

Tracey Fowler

Tracey Fowler came third, she received one vote from Tommy.

Tommy Wright

Tommy Wright came joint fourth with Jade, receiving no votes to win.

Jade Dyer

Jade Dyer came joint fourth with Tommy, receiving no votes to win.

James Kelly

James Kelly was disqualified from the competition, meaning that he could not win Teen Big Brother. He did, however stay until the final day and despite being unable to win himself, he was able to vote for another person to win.

Shaneen Dawkins

Shaneen Dawkins was the second housemate to be evicted on day 8, she was nominated against everybody except for Caroline. The housemates had to nominate one housemate they wanted to save, she received no votes and left the house.

Hasan Shah

Hasan Shah was the first housemate to be evicted on day 5, being nominated against Shaneen. He has since gone on to do various acting work, notably being the face (and voice) of Chilli Talk calling cards.[1] along with other film and TV work.

Summary

Day 1 Entrances Caroline, Hasan, Jade, James, Paul, Shaneen, Tommy, and Tracey entered the House.
Tasks As a test for the housemates, Big Brother blocked the toilet and the housemates had to unblock it themselves.
Day 2 Tasks Big Brother set the teenagers their shopping task, that would determine their budget for the next 8 days. Housemates had to fully crew a simulated flight from London to Birmingham without crashing. Housemates gambled 75% of their shopping budget on the task. They failed the task as they crashed on landing.
Day 4 Tasks Today, all housemates were split into pairs and each person had to teach something personal to them to their partner in 5 hours. At the end of the 5 hours, Big Brother tested them on their new skills. The pairs were Shaneen/Caroline, Tommy/Hasan, Tracey/James and Paul/Jade. Everyone passed the task and they won two food hampers.
Day 5 Exits By a vote of 4 to 2, Hasan was the first housemate to be evicted from the Teen Big Brother House.
Day 6 Tasks
  • At 18, the housemates's personalities are defined by what they wear. Big Brother provided every housemate with a boiler suit and they were only allowed to wear this suit and underwear. Housemates were also only allowed a toothbrush, one toothpaste and a bottle of shower gel each until further notice.
  • During the day, Big Brother set housemates a series of mini-tasks to challenge gender stereotypes. Housemates would be eliminated if they lost their match and in the end there would be one winner of the task.
  1. Tracey and James played a game of basketball to challenge their aim and accuracy. James theoretically should have won due to the stereotype, but Tracey won the game.
  2. Tracey and Jade were challenged to build a tower of building blocks, with the tallest tower winning. Jade won and picked Tommy to challenge her in the next round.
  3. Jade and Tommy had to play a game of tag. Jade won the game.
  4. Caroline defeated Jade in a test of awareness but the details of this task are unknown, other than it involved watching something on the plasma screen.
  5. In the final challenge, Caroline faced Paul at answering a series of questions to get the combinations of a number of safes. The person to open the most number of safes (Caroline) won the task and her reward was to be pampered by her fellow housemates with various beauty products and exemption from the eviction process in the next round of nominations.
Day 8 Tasks Today, housemates had to paint a group portrait to test their interpretation skills.
Exits Shaneen was evicted on Day 8, receiving no votes to save in the nominations.
Day 9 Tasks
  • On the morning of Day 9, Big Brother ordered the housemates to clean the House thoroughly.
  • In the afternoon, housemates were required to form a pop group and write and perform a song in Spanish. Housemates passed this task and won a party.
Day 10 Punishments James was disqualified because he had received 3 official warnings from Big Brother. Big Brother allowed him to stay until the end, since it was the last day.
Exits The final 6 exited the House with Paul as the winner and Caroline as the runner-up.

Nominations table

Day 3 Day 5 Day 7 Final
Day 10		 Number of
votes received
Paul Tracey,
Hasan 		Hasan Jade Caroline Winner
(Day 10) 		4
Caroline Paul,
Jade 		Hasan Exempt Paul Runner-up
(Day 10) 		0
Tracey Paul,
Shaneen 		Shaneen Tommy Paul Third place
(Day 10) 		2
Jade Hasan,
Tommy 		Hasan Paul Paul Fourth place
(Day 10) 		3
Tommy Jade,
Shaneen 		Shaneen Tracey Tracey Fourth place
(Day 10) 		3
James Hasan,
Shaneen 		Hasan Tommy Caroline Disqualified
(Day 10) 		1
Shaneen Hasan,
Tracey 		Nominated James Evicted
(Day 8) 		7
Hasan Shaneen,
Paul 		Nominated Evicted
(Day 5) 		8
Nomination
note		 1 2 3 4
Up for
eviction		 Hasan,
Shaneen 		Jade,
James,
Paul,
Shaneen,
Tommy,
Tracey 		Caroline,
Jade,
Paul,
Tommy,
Tracey
Disqualified noneJames
Evicted None Hasan
4 of 6 votes
to evict 		Shaneen
0 of 6 votes
to save
Jade
0 votes
to win		 Tommy
0 votes
to win
Tracey
1 vote
to win		 Caroline
2 votes
to win
Paul
3 votes
to win

Notes

^Note 1 : Housemates were required to nominate two housemates for eviction.
^Note 2 : Hasan and Shaneen received the most votes from Day 3, so the rest of the housemates voted for who they wanted to evict.
^Note 3 : Each housemate had to choose someone to save from eviction, and the housemate with the fewest votes was evicted. Also, Caroline was exempt from nominating after winning a task..
^Note 4 : Each housemate was asked to vote for who they wanted to win. James was disqualified from winning, although he could still vote. Big Brother asked Paul, who was the winner, to choose another housemate to share the prize, he chose Caroline.

References

  1. ↑ "Take the ChilliTalk Challenge". YouTube. 2008-11-12. Retrieved 2010-09-12.

External links

Preceded by
None		 Big Brother UK Special Edition Winner
Series 1 (2003) 		Succeeded by
Big Brother: Celebrity Hijack

Coordinates: 51°39′23″N 0°16′02″W / 51.65639°N 0.26722°W