In BB1 it was pretty much like that, but they just wanted normal people that could be interestign and entertaining for 9 weeks

BB2-3 were deliberately picked to 'up the ante' after the Nasty Nick drama so BB could be more like a soap opera

BB4 was 'back to basics'

BB5 was like a soap opera on crack

But BB6-10 were blatant attention seekers, fame hungry wannabes etc

I think BB11 is msot like BB5. The HMs are still abstract and picked to be entertaining but nowhere near as loud as the BB6-10 lot

You cant just "stick 'em in the house"

Number 1 they need to see howthey react with other people and get to know them as characters to see if they would be good tv

And number 2 they could be rapists or murderer

So your idea fails

And BB1 wasnt like that either. They advertised in newspapers and online and auditioned thousands of people before eventually picking the final 10

they could still be rapists and murderers anyway.

Obviously it was a social experiment so the producers had to consider who to stick in the house based on how HMs would interact (and that's why Ruth Wrigley deliberately didn't want to put black people and Nazis in the same house) but generally speaking, it was early days and so I think the BB1 HMs were average people you could expect to see on the streets.
And although there were audition processes, again, it was early days, no one knew what to expect from the show so it was pretty much trying to whittle down willing participants who seemed naturally entertaining

I didn't hear the convo the OP is on about but by the sounds of it and his post, he is clutching at straws!

The housemates are hand picked by BB in order to have some conflict in the house. The only thing I didn't understand is why they dragged 80 people down to the show when they knew exactly who was going in. Seems a tad unfair unless they were all in on it - that seems logical. Mario's entrance would have been more credible if the tombola box was see through and they proved that there were other names in there. Somehow, I think Mario was meant to go in. He didn't struggle with any of those tasks as the 'Mole'. Still great fun to watch.

He means actually pick people off the streets not have average people from the streets theres a difference.

And fruit cake they go through a rigorous audition process an have loads of physycological tests before they make it in the house in order for the producers to get rid of anyone unstable or phsyco so no its not the same as getting randomers off the streets

I guess we're supposed to assume the first 13 were already picked and 14th genuinely could have been any of the other 86. Maybe Mario was just genuinely godo at his task, and picked at random, and that woman standing behind the tombola on launch night really did ensure there was no fix. However, my only concern with if Mario had been evicted is, why wasn't Saturday's show live? And why wasn't Davina on hand to interview him in case he did leave? I can't remember if Davina was on stand by for when Kinga left the secret garden but she was there for Jonathan's interview in BB7 and the night Chantelle could have been evicted from CBB4

Wow conspiracy theorists really get carried away huh?

Ever think of this - Rachel told her friends she was going into the house, meaning she probably was, she could be. Maybe stating it with determination that she was. Being positive.

Also note the genuine shock and surprise of people when they were picked. Can people not accept that for the first time ever the short listers found out at the same time as the viewers? It is actually a possible thing to do. It... is... not... impossible.

Oh right. In which case, yeah - that's a very bad idea