Big Brother 3 was the third
series of Big Brother UK. The
series started on 24 May 2002,
and ended on 26 July 2002.
Big Brother is a reality show
shown on Channel 4 in which a
number of contestants live in an
isolated house trying to avoid
being evicted by the public with
the aim of winning a large cash
prize at the end of the run.
The third series saw two early
walkouts, by housemates Sunita
Sharma and Sandy Cumming; Sandy
surprised his fellow housemates
as well as the production team
by urinating in a bin, scaling a
wall and escaping over a roof
whilst the rest of the
housemates watched the England
vs Brazil World Cup Quarter
final match (It was latter
claimed by Sandy to be the "Most
exciting thing to happen in the
house"). Sunita was replaced by
Sophie Pritchard, and Sandy by
Tim Culley.
Also this year the house was
split into two for a time: those
on one side had more luxuries
and better food than those on
the other. A weekly task, shown
live on Saturday nights,
determined which housemates
lived on which side of the Rich
House / Poor House divide. Kate
Lawler and Jonny Regan spent
more time on the poor side of
the house than any other
contestant, which may have
fostered sympathy for them from
the viewers.
Jade Goody was has since become
a celebrity in her own right
began her TV career as a
housemate in this series,
gaining notoriety for her
apparent lack of general
knowledge. Amongst other things,
she thought that Sherlock Holmes
invented the toilet, that Rio de
Janeiro was a person and that
East Anglia was a foreign
country.
Tabloid newspapers took an
instant dislike to Jade. Within
the first 10 days of the start
of the series, The Sun had
nicknamed her Miss Piggy,
installed her as favourite for
eviction and branded her a "big
mouth". TV presenter Graham
Norton was an early driving
force in the campaign against
Jade with monologues in his chat
show focused on her rather
porcine features ("Jade is
afraid to eat fruit. She thinks
if the others see her with an
apple in her mouth, they'll
roast her").
The hate campaign launched
against Jade had so much
momentum that The Sun branded
her Public Enemy No 1. Jade was
hot favourite to be evicted and
yet on July 8th, The Sun
published an article in which it
accused Big Brother makers of
toning down its coverage to show
a quieter Jade — and a bitchy
Adele Roberts 'amid fears Jade
may crack up or try to sue when
she leaves the show and learns
how viewers see her.'
Channel 4 denied that they
manipulated the coverage of Jade
to keep her in the house.
Nevertheless, that week many
opinion forming Channel 4 TV
shows (RI:SE, SO Graham Norton)
made a U-turn and campaigned to
keep Jade in the house and evict
Adele. Graham Norton began to
champion Jade saying "Jade may
be a stupid pig but she’s by far
the most entertaining person in
the house - and at least she’s
not evil like Adele. The
following week, Jade was saved
from eviction again when
nominations were cancelled and
PJ was evicted after having to
draw lots.
As a result of Channel 4's
alleged pro-Jade campaign,
public opinion changed towards
Goody and she eventually came
4th and enjoyed success as a
public personality after the end
of the series, admitting in Sky
One's show Why reality TV is
good for you that she is a
millionairess.
Alex also became a popular
figure due to his obsession with
cleaning the house, and ended up
in Domestos commercials, singing
along to KC & The Sunshine
Band's hit That's the Way (I
Like It), following a famous,
in-house incident in he sang
along to the song to a camera as
a door closed.
By far, the largest fad in the
house was a game called Follow
the Van. In one of the weekly
shopping deliveries was a
fluorescent Mystery Machine van,
from cereal brand Sugar Puffs'
Scooby Doo promotion. It was
finally revealed on the reunion
show that it involved following
the van with your lips, and
kissing where it came into
contact with someone.
The eventual winner of the
£70,000 prize was Kate Lawler,
who went on to co-present
Channel 4's breakfast TV show,
RI:SE; she also dated footballer
Jonathan Woodgate and is now a
DJ. Two other housemates, Sophie
Pritchard and Lee Davey, later
got married and had a child, but
separated in 2006.
The final of this series drew 10
million viewers, the highest
ever audience for a Channel 4
programme (excluding feature
films).
Source: Wikipedia
