I saw yesterday's Star today, it's not something I normally see and now I know why. One of their columnists made the assertion that Kate won Big Brother due to a betting coup. Apparently millions of text votes were sent in using stolen mobile phones. The Star's own polls showed the housemates going out in the reverse order they did, ie, Kate first out, then Jonny, Alex with Jade as the winner.

And all the tabloids keep going on about it being a shock result.

Although not a gambler, I did go on the various bookies sites from the E4 interactive, to look at the odds, and Kate was favourite throughout the entire week, her odds on the last Saturday was as low as 5-1 on, with Jonny second favourite, but nobody really close at all. As the week went on, Jonny's odds went to rank outsider, reaching 25-1 at one point, and Kate always remained favourite, but went out as far as 6-4 on the Thursday. Jade's and Alex's odds shortened, suggesting the money, if anything, was switching to those two.

By Friday Morning, Kate had shortened to 6-4 on, Jonny still 20-1, Jade 5-2, Alex 3-1. By Friday afternoon this was Kate 2-1 on, Jade and Alex both 4-1, and Jonny 12-1.

Kate's odds were always too short for a betting coup. Jade, Alex or Jonny would have been a better target.

Now my theory:

Kate won because she won a large female vote, and because on the last night, she and Jonny came across better than Jade and Alex. Their speeches were generous to their housemates and not self-centred. Their "posh dance" routine was hilarious, especially when they worked their "knee dance" into the waltz, and a large number of people left voting to the last minute. That is also why Jonny finished second.

Obviously loads of people had their favourites, but there were a load of "floating voters" who left it late, and no matter how it was edited (as I had seen E4 the previous night) Kate and Jonny were going to come out looking better than Alex and Jade on the final C4 show before the vote.

One other little thing: perhaps the people who voted for Kate and Jonny did not see the point in lobbing their pennies at various "opinion polls" with 0900 numbers. When the crowd was shown in all its glory at the start of last Friday, I had a feeling that it was the Kate and Jonny show, because that's what the crowd, as a whole, seemed to want.

[KateRules]

I couldnt agree more oldgit....Kate won over the female vote end of. She is an attractive young girl who is flirty with the lads which usually NEVER gains support of the female vote.I believe that Kate appealed to women cos they thought "yeah, kate is just like me really,I'd flirt with them if I had chance and I'd have a laugh like that" Basically women voters stopped seeing her as some sort of competition and instead she represented girl power for 9weeks.Women didnt resent her for flirting cos they knew anyone would flirt with Alex and Spanky if they had the chance. Also if Kate went around wearing mini skirts and loads of make up that would've gone against her but she barely wore any makeup.

Furthermore she was one of few who were willing to have a laugh and laugh at themselves.Viewers didnt buy into this playing to the camera nonsense because anyone who played to the cameras wouldnt get absolutely lagging to the point of unconciousness and burp and fart etc etc

Kate won over the females cos she is honest,kind,funny and was herself.Its hard winning over female voters if you are attractive and flirty so Kate obviously must have some special qualities to do it.Basically she stopped being disliked for being attractive and started being liked for representing all whats good about girl power

Oldgit I'm a gooner too

[KateRules]

Actually this girl power thing might sound a bit cheesy but I know for a fact that a lot of women started to want to see a girl win just so it could be proved they can do it

Also,women could identify with Kate when she lost Spanky and the obvious upset she suffered that week.When she broke her glasses with PMT and also when she gambled her place on the rich side for the sake of the group won the female voters over because they can relate to all that, and then she stopped being seen as a flirty blond and instead a normal girl who goes what normal people go through. Also, the night she went to the rich side and had the infamous fall and strip thing showed that she is very funny and all this culminated in Kate being the deserved winner..there were no fixes she was more popular than all of them..end of

Hi Katerules, it's great to be a gooner at the moment (except for Tim but we'll gloss over that). You should get an Arsenal avatar on this site, perhaps a little pic of Freddie, who is Kate's favourite gooner!

I must admit to being a bit cynical at the beginning, because I could see Kate fluttering her eyelids to get her own way. But she did not. She got stuck into more than her fair share of the housework. After saying that she had never cooked a "proper" meal, she just rolled her sleeves up and got on with it.

I loved it when Spencer was holding up the cushions for her to box. Alex had been winding her up earlier, and as her fists thudded into the cushions, she panted: "Right, where's Alex?".

She never showed any airs and graces when Sophie walked in but was her friend when she needed one. And she was never involved in any serious bitching or plotting. (Unless you count plotting with Jonny their latest bit of silly fun).

I loved the way she started "tagging" Jonny when he was down, by which I mean winding him up by slapping or poking him, and running away until he chased her, I really think that brought the real Jonny back.

Yeah, she got drunk, she flirted, but she's a young woman and she knows how to have fun. In the last few weeks her double act with Jonny kept us entertained. Apart from the falling over bit, I liked it later, when, with about 10 layers of clothes, she entertained the poor bedroom with a mock striptease.

She is feminine and very pretty, but sporty and tomboyish at the same time. Up for a laugh. How many girls would react to Jonny scooping her up and throwing her in the pool fully clothed by just laughing her head off?

More and more girls go to football matches these days, and not just to admire the players' legs! Women's football is the fastest growing sport in the UK at present. Kate represents this kind of trend. Girls can look at Kate and say: "Sod all this girly stuff, I want to be like her". I work with a few youngish women, and that's how they seemed to look at Kate, having originally not liked her because they were a bit jealous.

At the end I didn't see much to choose between her and Jonny, but overall I'm glad she won. And I'm glad the girls out there voted for her. It was well deserved, and ... stuff the newspapers!

[KateRules]

Yes, forthcoming season should be good with Gilberto coming in as well I'm more a Henry fan than Freddie but either way suits me

I remember watching RISE on about day3 when her gym instructor came on said she'd use her looks to stay in the house so initially I wasnt keen.I have to admit I took a shine to Spanky very early on.However, I started to warm to Kate when she and Alison broke the table and when she cried when Alison left.However,I started to think Kate was really wicked when Spanky left and how she struggled that week but never moaned and just dealt with it.She gained a lot of sympathy from the public when Alex picked Jade over her and when she failed the task to bring the bars down. Also, many people started to feel quite disturbed by the amount of bullying Sophie was getting so I think Kate earned a lot of respect by standing by Sophie when it would've been easier to jump on the bully bandwagon

Her humour,impressions and entertaining behaviour did her no harm at all.I think she is the all round ideal housemate.Jade was a bitch, Alex a moaner,Jonny was'nt always himself when he retreated into depression mode but Kate has always been herself and still remains level headed

[KateRules]

As for the tabloids, the Jade craze will soon die out.BB will lose its entertainment value in a few weeks and we'll know everything there is to know about Jade so that she has nothing to tell in a few weeks.I think if she saturates the media too much then there'll be a backlash of some sort.Afterall, the British media is famous for building people up then knocking them down.

I think Kate is being wise in staying out of the media for a while.On the official site I read that minutes after leaving she was approached by tabloids but turned the offers down.Also tonight she said she wants to talk to OK and not tabloids cos she probably knows how fickle they are.Jade is making her money but at the same time pressing the self destruct button. She might be labelled the "Real" winner but it'll change soon when people get fed up.

Kate definately has the potential to have a good showbiz career while Jade lacks the intelligence,looks and charisma to have a long term career there,but fair play to her now for raking it in.Tabloids are fickle and Kate is doing well in staying away from them