Four unlucky celebrities are facing a miserable “back-door” eviction this week, after a surprise nomination pitted housemates against one another.
In dramatic scenes Sunday night, Big Brother split the famous group into men and women, with each team having to nominate two housemates each – four in total – for possible eviction.
The ladies chose John Barnes and Daniel O’Reilly (AKA Dapper Laughs), with Ann Widdecombe explaining she’d chosen the former footballer because: “We thought he was a bit heavy-going in discussions.”
As for Daniel, Ann added that: “We felt maybe he shouldn’t have been quite so ready to accept the escape route that I offered him.”
The lads then took a turn, revealing they’d nominated Ann Widdecombe and Amanda Barrie.
Shane Lynch criticised the women, saying: “With Ann, it’s only one way, one road,” and blamed Amanda for: “not being part of the general group in discussions, how things are spoken about.” But he did add sheepishly that Amanda is a “lovely-hearted person”.
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Comedian Daniel took his nomination badly, shaking his head, storming off, and telling Jonny Mitchell that Ann had given a [bleep] stupid reason”.
He later visited the diary room, where he said: “As soon as you get nominated you realise they’ve chosen you. You run over all those reasons why.
“I’m insecure. It did get me down. Whenever there is tension I crack jokes and I realise that might become annoying.”
But the viewers’ sympathy fell at the feet of Ann and Amanda, as they slammed the male housemates for being ageist…
“The men, with the exception of Wayne (Sleep), are blatantly ageist,” wrote one show fan on Twitter.
Another said: “Seems to be a running theme of BB that younger male housemates will always nominate older female housemates.”
“Bit of ageist voting going on there methinks #cbb,” echoed a third.
And another postured: “Are the men threatened by the older stronger women?”
The two teams will now face a series of challenges throughout the week, starting last night with the housemates forced to hold up a feather, without bending their arms.
The girls came out as the triumphant winners, with Ashley James and Jess Impiazzi lasting an impressive 47 minutes.
And if the boys continue to lose the challenges, we could see John and Daniel facing the ultimate humiliation, with backdoor eviction.
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That means no chance at a public vote, and certainly no adoring (or, indeed, booing) public waiting for them out the front.
This latest twist followed Friday’s eviction, where journalist Rachel Johnson and former police officer Maggie Oliver became the second and third housemates to be evicted.
On Sunday, reports claimed that Channel 5 were set to axe the show.
Show insiders reportedly told The Daily Star: “There have been conversations between the execs about not renewing the contract for both Big Brother and Celebrity Big Brother.”
But The Sun later insisted Channel 5 already has another series lined up for later this year.
Surely with high drama like this, this show is going nowhere.