3rd Parties Releasing Spoilers

The problem with sponsorship is that sponsors want to get everything they can for their buck, without thinking of the event they are sponsoring in the first place. Examples:

3 Mobile have been BB's telecomms sponsor for the past few years. Last year they prematurely leaked housemate photos and names. This year they prematurely leaked the length of the series, by placing images on a server, whether made publicly accessible or not, was going to be trawled for information, no matter what they did.

You're not out of the woods yet, 3 Mobile-- not by a long shot! They have also leaked, through terms of one of their competitions, that the first Eviction this year may not be until week 4 of the show. Therefore if any evictions occur before week 4, HMs will know they are "fake evictions".

Channel 10 have advertised that a HM will be introduced on SYTYCD this week. With other HMs not yet in lockdown, if this is part of a twist, the others will know something is up with one of the HMs this year.

Dreamworld, "Home of Big Brother", have announced, before lockdown, that they are selling tickets to a special live show on the first Sunday, and given away its name, "Gatecrashers". Bit of a giveaway that someone will be entering the house that day, so the HMs again will not be surprised when it happens. If there is a second house this year and that is what it's about then when HMs do not enter the house on the first Sunday, HMs will have an idea that someone gatecrashed something!

BB might be thinking by this stage that they would be better off without sponsors, if all they are going to do is ruin the surprises of the series. Maybe a longer lockdown period next year? Or give less information to the sponsors before the series. Or just forbid them to publish such information.

House Sneak Peek

As usual the OS has provided pics of objects and patterns from the new house. It's always a great teaser, and fun to guess what things are. I went through with a friend last night and here's some of our guesses:

1. Grass, obviously, but not real grass. Possibly on the ground in the backyard, but who is to say this isn't whacky wallpaper or a table top or something strange.
2. The bullseye pic looks like it is painted on concrete. It could be a games area in the backyard, but may just be the theme of the whole backyard. Regardless, it is somewhere outside.
3. This one is obvious. The water tanks from last year along the back wall of the garden have been painted sky blue. This makes them less prominent, so maybe less focus on the "green house" of last year.
4. Well, it is rope surely, but made into what? Our guess was it is a person made out of rope. Looks like arms and a head and a torso. Looks like the patio area of the backyard possibly.
5. Another obvious one, a shower head, and it's outside. They have had a shower by the pool in previous years so maybe that's it. What's the glass structure in the background though? A new back area of the house? A greenhouse? Also, we've seen pics of the pool in a separate backyard. Is this part of that area?
6. Dumbells in the gym.
7. This was interesting. At fiest it looked like a wall art made from leather stools, but then we thought what if it is the top of the Diary Room chair? A grey wall and the DR chair made out of tops of stools in red, white, and blue.
8. A floor. Kitchen or bathroom.
9. The wall from whatever room the floor is from in the previous picture.
10. Wall art. Looks like melted toilet seats! Could be anywhere really. Bedroom, living room, "rewards room" (if they have one), diary room.....
11. Now first guess was this was either the emergency ward or the BB chapel! Later we thought perhaps the diary room door, or a door to somewhere else. Defintiely a wall or door given the angle of the lighting and the reflections of lights, but there looks like there is something behind it.
12. A ceiling or a floor. Probably the same area that pic 11 is from. Very dark though.
13. Carpet, but could be on a wall or anything in the BB house. This may be the bedroom colour this year.
14. This is last year's eviction corridor-- light bulbs behind fabric. But where is it this year? Looks like a wall somewhere. Could be the eviction corridor again!

So let's see how many are right on launch night!

Official Website

Yesterday the official website was launched. Surprisingly, it works quite well. My signin from last year worked first shot.

Strangely, when I signed in I had a gold crown next to my name, which I would have thought meant I was signed up for VIP, but I have not done so yet. Is this a bug, an anomaly in their database, or do they just love me? Regardless, I think I'd better sign up properly anyway.

They have provided some good teaser videos, slideshows and stories to kick off with. It's good to have some content on there for the launch. Looks like there are a lot of spaces where more information will appear after the launch, e.g. the very vacant looking header bar. Also there are a lot of menus missing that will have to appear later, like the Diary!

Navigation is a bit dodgy. I'm sure I'll get used to it, but things have moved around a lot. The top menus seem out of logical order. This again may sort itself out later.

But thank goodness that horrible dark gloomy website of the last 3 years is gone. This one is very bright and clean and spaced out nicely. It looks a lot easier to read. The video player is also greatly improved on last year, and my video capture software works perfectly with it, so I'll be able to grab copies of all the videos they put up. Last year it was way too tricky!

SYTYCD Housemate Preview

New ads are promoting a sneak preview at one housemate during this week's final performance show of So You Think You Can Dance.

I wonder if whatever this promo is was planned for Rove that night and was moved after Kyle's on-air sook about Rove.

Regardless, why are we being treated with this preview. It is one of 3 things:

1. A genuine preview of a housemate, possibly obscured from full view in some way, just because they're being nice? (I DON'T THINK SO!)
2. Someone who will be part of a twist, e.g. a mole (but isn't that too obvious?)
3. A publicity stunt. The "housemate" will be someone or something other than the obvious.

If they were really going to say "hey, here's a housemate", wouldn't it make sense to make it one of the 3 the viewers voted in, and if it was a viewer's choice, wouldn't it make more sense to introduce all 3 on the show? Or maybe they will introduce the 3 viewer's choice HMs on different Channel 10 shows throughout the week.

84 Days

Sounds like ths series will only run 84 days this year. The 100 days of the last few years was a bit of a magic number-- 84 just doesn't sound as good.

But it is a good solid 12 weeks, and assuming this is the year BB proves itself all over again, it is probably reasonable that they reduce the length back to where it used to be in the first 4 seasons. BB needs to build up its character as a new show and whatever it takes to do that and ensure many more series, I will live with.

I'm hoping they don't overdo the HMs though. If the rumoured 18 are to enter in the first week, this leaves no room for intruders. It would actually be really refreshing, and prove the format even more, if they had a year with no intruders. Firstly because HMs will expect them and have bets every week that "this is the week", and also because it will prove the strength of the characters they put in to begin with. Of course if the original HM casting is screwed up then this will ruin everything.

CALENDAR UPDATE
Also, the Calendar at the top of this page has been updated with the Day numbers from 0 to 84, with the finale presumably falling on Sunday July 20. Just click the "Google Calendars" logo to import my Calendars into your Google Calendar account. This will automatically update your schedule with all the BB TV shows and events I add as the series goes on.

Promos Ramping Up

At last the TV promos have gone up a notch and now introduce the new hosts Kyle and Jackie O, and what seems to be the theme of the promos for 08, "I Don't Think So". The ad is set to the Kelis track of the same name.

The full 30 second ad airing on Channel 10 now also includes the phrases:

• New Hosts. Same Show? I Don't Think So!
• New Attitude
• Dynamic Housemates
• An X-tra Cheeky Show "Big Mouth"
• Seen It All Before? I Don't Think So!

We'll come back to some of those phrases after Week 1 and see if they were right!

FNL Tickets on Sale to Public This Year

BB has come to his senses and will sell tickets to be in the live audience for FNL this year.

Previously the audience for this show and Monday's Nominations shows have been limited to about 100 invited guests. From what I've heard they were friends and family of Dreamworld employees and BB cast and crew, and all tickets were allocated at the beginning of the series.

This year fans will be able to buy tickets from the Dreamworld website. This has previously only been done for the final FNL of the year, and tickets went for $15 in 2006, and I think about $20-25 in 2007. Hopefully tickets will remain in the affordable category this year, and plenty are made available.

I will defintiely be making this part of the agenda for whatever weekend I manage to get up there this year for an Eviction show.