[Mickey2009]

Briffa could be right..

Briffa's blog NOTW.



I suppose I should be used to it by now, but even I was stunned by the "punishment".
Marcus asks to be nominated, Siavash refuses to nominate. And the punishment is... everyone is up for eviction, and it's vote to save. What kind of punishment is that? Did Marcus and Siavash look shocked, appalled, guilty?
Siavash was thrown a bit in the diary room, but he wasn't given enough time to reconsider even if he'd wanted to. I remember Charlie was given time for a rethink when he'd tried the same ploy earlier in the series. But BB gets what BB wants.

If they'd stuck with the normal nominations as usual it was going to be Marcus v Bea, but, like I predicted yesterday, BB were itching to save Bea, and now they've gone and done it by the crudest means possible.

Not surprising, and quite rightly, that David, Lisa, and Rodrigo were furious at the duo yesterday when all was explained. Why should they be put at risk? We had vote to save in the first week this year, which got rid of the hapless Beinazir. Otherwise it's only ever been done once before, in BB7. Then, with everyone except Jayne up, Nikki got accidentally kicked out on a vote to evict. Later in that series there was a paired eviction. Pete and Richard were coupled up, and BB, not wanting to repeat the mistake and have a favourite removed, made it vote to save, and Pete was duly protected.

Aside from the brutal injustice of it, voting to save also gives BB a huge advantage in the editing. With the LIVE FEED reduced to the night time already that's never been easier, but by Friday BB will know exactly how popular each and every housemate is, down to the nearest percentage point. How easy will it then be to manipulate matters to get exactly what they want?

What I don't really get is why this is considered such brilliant scheming anyway. Noirin's eviction last week got the biggest audience for a Friday of the series. If they really wanted big viewing figures they'd be trying to get rid of the "big" characters instead of saving them. Marcus, Siavash, Freddie, and Bea would go over the next few weeks, leaving the final to be contested by those who can't manage a full-length interview. I mean, who's going to stay up to see half an hour of Hira or David being grilled by the panel?