I'm A Celebrity 2013: Cast Assessment

Well it is once again November, and in the world of television this means an influx of largely gentile and family friendly Reality TV shows to grace our TV screens, but this time Stricltly Come Dancing has begun shedding itself of it's dregg contestants and build up steam towards it's finale whilst the X Factor desperately attempts to cling on to there's in a desperate claim for tabloid inches, for most people however November in the Reality TV world largely belongs to I'm A Celebrity: Get Me Out Of Here. It's hard to believe that what started out as a overly simplified and Britified version of the classic series Survivor has managed to last 13 years on our airwaves, but that is what a comforting format and the family friendly humour of Ant and Dec managed to do for you, yes I do have some grievances with IAC, but it is welcoming enough and enjoyable enough television during the winter weeks, and with the 13th series just around the corner I think it's worthwhile that I check out this years batch of desperadoes looking to kick-start their career.

The one thing that I will begin with when looking at the cast is in all honesty a compliment, the argument could be made at this stage of a Reality Show's career the pulling power of the show and the demand for celebrities to appear can greatly be lowered, Celebrity Big Brother 12's cast of scripted reality rejects and unknown models (as good as they were) being a testament to that, yet IAC has in my eyes still managed to bring about a cast which does have some pulling power, with some names in particular really causing an excitement and interest which may have been lacking, so in this regard casting can be considered a success. However it has been noted in the past be it on IAC or on other reality shows that star power is not everything, more often then not in reality shows it is often the biggest names that fail to light the airwaves and instead falling to the last minute desperation signings who turn out to be the true stars of the show. Added to this I do have grievances with some of the potential entertainment factor of those cast, whilst other series' even pre show had names like Janice Dickinson and David Van Day who you knew could be amazing television nobody seems to fill that role of this group, and when also bear in mind that those expected to go far are some of the duller contestants pre show it does make me nervous that the series may run out of steam.

But general analysis over, let us look at our desperadoes:

Alfonso Ribeiro

For most people of my age it has been Alfonso which has caused the most interest and excitement, the character of Carlton Banks was in all honesty one of the most entertaining characters on television in the mid nineties, stealing the show in what was for all extensive purposes a glorified Will Smith vehicle, and the fact that his 2013 appearance on Graham Norton to do 'the Carlton dance' shows he is still a cult figure, so should Alfonso be anything like his character then we should have a potential contender on our hands. The big problem is however is that I don't think this will be the case, I am left with the feeling that people may have built up such a strong aura over Carlton that when they see Alfonso as the normal, middle aged man he is now that a lot of people will be underwhelmed in the same way a lot of people did with the similar Dustin Diamond during the recent Celebrity Big Brother. Alfonso does seem a pleasant enough chap, and a potentially MORP run in line with his pre-show status should in my eyes make him reach at least the middle stages, but  I cannot see him coming close to winning, even though he will be one which my heart will certainly be wanting to.

Amy Willerton

Amy is the biggest blank canvas going into this series, simply because myself and the British public at large know so little about her that it is hard to make a real assessment, this may be seen as an obvious detriment, as it means she will be coming in with the smallest fan base, but it in a strange way may also be a benefit to her. Whilst characters such as Alfonso will have to live up to pre show hype which they may not come close to Amy will have no expectations aside from being blatant eye candy, and as a result may take a lot of people by surprise should she come across as a decent girl, added to her chances is the fact that in past years we have seen eye candy contestants such as her make up for shortcomings in the personality department to go far, such as with Jessica-Jane during her series of the show. The one major shortcoming however for Amy could be her pre-show associations and the perception of those with the audience, namely that of Katie Price. The British public have been known to judge people as guilty by association, and should this side of Amy be brought to the public's eyes it could spell trouble for her. Also there are elements of her that could see her as an outside bet as the perennial trialist for the series. There is an outside chance of her going far, but the safe money is on her being an early boot.

David Emmanuel

IAC David's have always been known for being some of the best characters in the show's history, David Gest's crazy stories and name-dropping made him a cult figure in the show's history whilst David Van Day showed himself to be a fantastic, hammy and thoroughly entertaining villain, and on paper this newest David does have some elements to similarly shine, he too is notorious as being a bit of a name dropper himself and his demeanor could allow him to become somewhat of the grumpy old man of the camp. There are however two big issues which I have with David which make him skeptical as to how well he could do within the show, the first is that being one of the oldest contestants of the series David is going to struggle the most with the conditions, which in the process could limit the amount of entertainment and potential fun factor he may provide, we saw in previous years how the boisterous Colin Baker suffered in the conditions to the detriment of his success in the show, whilst the other is that I question how endearing a character David may be in the show, some of the camp's OTT characters in previous series were able to do so by maintaining a likability and pantomime quality within their actions, and I question whether or not David will be able to do this. This added with the likelihood of him being this year's 'medical grounds' contestant could see his stay in the jungle being a short one.

Joey Essex 

Unfortunately for myself Joey is my winner pick as of day one, and when you dissect his character it is very easy to see why, a cocktail of contrivance, endearing stupidity and good lucks which will directly appeal to the all important Tween demographic and you have somebody who on paper could be unbeatable, as well as this there is a also a real possibility of Joey due to his Towie connections being a contender as this year's perennial trialist, which if so will guarantee him more airtime and more opportunity for him to showcase and advertise himself to the audience. If there is a warning sign in regards to Joey it is that a lot of this was thought of during Mark Wright's IAC series two years ago, and yet despite a large amount of publicity and promotion from the producers he ended up losing out in the end, and with this year's potential Dougie Pointer coming in the form of Kian we may see the same again. As well as this there is also the perception of Towie from the casual audience, one which is largely negative and resulted in the backlashes of other Towie members such as Amy Childs, Kirk Norcross and Mario Falcone in their respective BB series, and with Joey being one of the more divisive Towie characters in the first place what is to say that the same may happen to him? In spite of this though he has to be considered the early man to beat.

Kian Egan

In my write-up on Joey I touched on the possibility of Kain being the Dougie Pointer to Joey's Mark Wright, and when you look at Kain on paper there is certainly a large number of factors which could lead him to being one of the strongest contenders to win, even though in all honesty I feel a lot of those are down to outside interests rather then Kian's own potential contribution to the show. It has been well established in the past that ex-boyband members have fared remarkably well on Reality Show's such as this, crossing over generation lines to appeal to the tween audience and to the housewives vote, both of which in a show such as IAC bare an utmost importance, and as a result even without much work I can see Kian making the later stages of the show quite easily. The question from that point however becomes how much further he can get, as I don't know about you but I don't seen Kian being that especially fun a character, hell I would even say that there is a probability being somewhat of a misery guts in camp, but the lucky break that he has though is that his pre-show fan base and appeal with the voting demographic is so large that even the most minimal amount of positivity should still see him being around to the end.

Laila Morse

No, this isn't Pink in 30 years time, this is the person who I have down as being potentially one of the show's biggest characters of the series, although whether that character is one which is positive or negative remains up in the air, although I do lean towards it falling on the latter side. Laila does have a lot going for her as a character, she is boisterous, seems quite up for a laugh as well as being relatively outspoken, and I can see a lot of people having the impression of her being a big fun-time grandmother figure, yet I actually feel what we actually have is somebody who could see themselves as somewhat of a grumpy battleaxe figure, while this may be a good thing from an entertainment point of view considering that batlleaxes are some of my favourite IAC archetype of year's past it is not going to be something which is going to win you favour with the public unfortunately. Even if she doesn't fall into this trap though the other worry Laila has is the potential to over-egg her entertainment pudding to the extent that the public end up being sick of her ala Rosemary. Either as a villain or as a try hard hero I don't see her lasting that long.

Lucy Pargenter

I'm probably covering my basis here with Lucy, and that is mainly because of the extreme ways in which her character could go, personally I lean towards the more positive side with her, but it will take two episodes before I can truly assess her. Lucy does have elements about her which can point to her being a success on the show, starring in a popular ITV show in Emmerdale she is going to appeal to a large amount of IAC's audience as both show's have a major crossover appeal in regards to audience, plus her character of Chas Dingle is one of the show's more popular ones which is going to help her in that regarded, as well as this being an ITV show she is going to receive a lot of support from many of ITV's sister shows such as Loose Women and This Morning, and we saw with Anthony Cotton how their support helped to prolong a rather unlikable character further in the show then he deserved to be. However Lucy does have an issue in regards to personality, whilst I certainly see her as a positive figure in the show I don't see her as one which is going to be that prominent within the show, dare I say under the radar, so for that reason she could also see herself being the supposed 'shock' early boot of the series. As I mentioned it will take a short while to suss Lucy out fully, but once we know the outcome of whether she's very short term or a potential finalist will be obvious.

Matthew Wright

Now I am going to take a minority and controversial opinion on this one in saying that I don't have that big of a problem with Matthew Wright, I find his hypocrisy surrounding Reality TV somewhat of a turn-off but on the whole I found the guy witty and intelligent, but I've always been known to pick the wrong side when it comes to Reality TV contestants and Matthew is going to be another example of that as I just don't see him being that relatable to the public and feel that a lot of his short-comings are going to see him as a target in the show regardless of how he comes across in the show, similar to what happened to Kilroy back in his series. That for me is a real shame as well because Matthew has elements which could be positive in the show, he seems very enthusiastic and I can imagine him being quite witty, plus I also picture him being somebody who would very likely try really hard in trials, which is apt as I have him as a contender for being this year's perennial trialist. Unless Matthew is absolutely outstanding in their I just don't see him and the British public taking off, and as a result he could be one of the first to go if not the first, but then again I said the same thing about Carol Thatcher...

Rebecca Adlington

Talk about getting your timing wrong. Had Rebecca Adlington of competed in IAC in the aftermath of London 2012 then this would have been locked up, she would have won the series and in my eyes it wouldn't have been a close contest, a year on however the shine from the Olympic games has worn off and now Rebecca will have to be judged on her own merits, and whilst I think there are aspects of her which could see her go far I don't believe she is the lock to win that she could have been. The main thing Rebecca has going for her is her physical skill, she is going to have a lot of people expecting her to be a fearless challenge dominator, and as we have seen with David Haye, Martina Navratilova and Fatima Whitbread challenge dominators have proven popular with the public, added to that Rebecca does seem to be a sweet pleasant girl, albeit maybe not the most exciting and I can imagine the British public finding her endearing when given the chance, the worry I have is that I don't think Rebecca is going to create herself enough chances to showcase that, she isn't an OTT character capable of airtime hogging, and I do have fears that when the opportunity comes for her to showcase her challenge skill and personality it may be too late.

Steve Davis

Being a big sports fan I am naturally going to want Steve to do well, but I do feel that there are a lot of people who have him down as a contender when even I know this isn't going to be the case. Steve is for me just not exciting television in my eyes, even back in his prime in the 1980's the guy was somewhat of a hate figure namely because of how dull he was, and I can't imagine 20 years time doing his entertainment potential the world of good, in all honesty if I was to see Steve break out as a character it could potentially be as the resident camp grump in a similar vein to Joe Bugner. What Steve does having going for him though is that veteran sportsmen have seen surprisingly good performances in years past in spite of not having the performances in the show to justify it, both Jimmy White and Willie Carson were largely under the radar and dull characters and yet both got themselves top five finishes, and it is a strong possibility of Steve receiving a similar bounce especially considering that arguably his star shone brighter then those two back in his prime. Look for Steve to make it to the later stages even if his personality arguably doesn't warrant it.

My finishing predictions (excluding the inevitable new arrivals):

1) Joey

2) Kian

3) Rebecca

4) Lucy

5) Steve

6) Alfonso

7) Amy

8) Laila

9) David

10) Matthew

Agree of disagree with my predictions? Don't be afraid to comment.

Ranking The X Factor Winners

For my next ranking I will be dissecting (unfortunately not literally) the yearly Simon Cowell production line known as The X Factor. Whilst I admit that the X Factor does not top my list of preferred Reality TV Programming I do find some redeeming aspects about the show on a whole, it certainly is enjoyable Saturday night entertainment and a number of the acts to come from it have been decent enough performers, but for the purposes of this I will be focusing solely on the nine previous winners of the show and judging them from both a likablity point of view as well as a entertainment and vocal perspective as well. Prepare yourself clubs for a sea of MOR pop coming your way, as I get this ranking up and running:

 

9) Leon Jackson
The X Factor 4

When I started contriving this ranking in my head a few days ago I admit that I was still rather unsure over the final placings of many of those within the poll, however when it came to the contestant that would be last there was really only one choice, as Leon is arguably not only the worst winner in TXF history but also arguably one of the worst in the history of British Reality Shows, and based on his performances and persona it is easy to see why; dreadfully dull whilst at the same time lacking a real quality in his performances to make up for it. The fact that he is also arguably responsible for one of the biggest robbages in Reality TV history is another black mark to add alongside him.

For me any great Reality TV winner has to be one of two things, or preferably both. The first is to simply be an entertaining presence in the show, this is television after all and we certainly can't expect to be educated and informed on TV shows such as this, whilst the second is to simply be so impressive in your competition environment that it helps to compensate for any shortcomings you may have in the personality department (as another contestant in this list does). When it comes to Leon however neither of these characteristics can really be implied, first off the guy was incredibly dull in terms of personality and in his off stage persona, part of this I admit is down to the format of the show not allowing for it's performers to showcase personality traits in detail but that hasn't stopped others in the past from being able to do the same thing so I have to put Leon at fault for that. In terms of performance as well Leon is far below par, vocally he wasn't very strong and his song choices often consisted of Michael Buble style dreary ballads which came across as monotonous and dull, and when he did attempt to break away from this style his shortcomings as a singer were exposed, most noticable in a shambolic week one performance of 'Can't Buy Me Love' which arguably should have seen him shown the door at the first opportunity.

The other flaws with Leon weren't of his making, but they do affect his perception of him as a winner, after two years of slow build TXF finally broke out as a hit show with it's third series, and a big prominent and exciting winner was needed to capitalise on the hype that surrounded season 4, something which Leon's win certainly didn't do, whilst the other factor was simply who he beat in the final, Rhydian Roberts was for me a rare achievement in the world of competition reality shows, a novelty act that was able to back up his fun and showmanship with fantastic vocal skill and ability as well as having a massive stage persona which managed to endear him to the viewer, and for Leon to triumph over him in spite of very little skill and redeeming qualities on his own part left a lot of viewers with a sour taste in their mouths. I can defend Leon by saying that he was a nice kid who meant well but being nice is not enough to justify winning a reality show, especially a competition show such as this. Vocally weak and lacking much personality, Leon was a lock to be my least favourite X Factor winner.

 

8) Steve Brookstein
The X Factor 1

When it comes to assessing Steve as a winner of The X Factor I feel like I have to give him some kind of leeway when it comes to judging him, he was after all a contestant in the first series and as a result not only had the show's format been fully perfected but he was also in a field which was rather weak, but it does not for me hide the fact that Steve was still a very poor winner, even for the time of his victory in 2004, lacking in vocal strength, rather dull to watch and listen too and with the feeling overall of being more of a Butlins cabaret act then a credible musician, his status as the first winner and some of his personality traits do redeem him somewhat and save him from last place, but he was still very poor and another black mark in terms of X Factor winners.

There is certainly enough ammunition to justify this low placing for Steve. In terms of his vocal skills Steve was an incredibly weak performer to the extent that I would even consider him to be worst then Leon, with a singing voice more akin to a local pub singer then music's next supposed superstar, this was not helped either by his rather poor stage persona and song choices which consisted of dreary ballads which alternated between being either dull or incredibly cheesy to watch, and when compared to more contemporary and entertaining acts from that series such as Rowetta or Tabby Callaghan it made his entire persona feel incredibly dated. As well as this Steve is also falls victim to the same faults as Leon in being perceived as robbing a far superior act in the finale of the series, in this case in the form of G4, whilst it is quite popular these days to rather dismiss the genre of popera as a rather naff haven of hormonal housewives you have to remember that at the time the genre was very niche and not yet exposed to mainstream audiences, and as a result G4 came across as something unique and quirky as well as solid vocally, and their win would have in my opinion offered the franchise the unique, extra-special winner that the show was marketed to try and find, rather then the cheesy balladry of Steve which has in many ways become the template for any winner of the show.

Where Steve does redeem himself however comes in the form of his personality, as unlike Leon he actually had one which showed itself during the show. Whilst recent series of The X Factor have seen it's contestants become increasingly inoffensive, soulless and almost puppet-like in their behaviour within the show Steve was refreshingly blunt and vocal about any criticism given to him and not afraid to voice his own opinion at times, something which he continues to do about the show to this day, as well as this he also gave the impression of being someone who was disliked by the judges and producers and somebody who they actively attempted to root against, which in many ways made him the first X Factor protest vote as well as the only arguably X Factor protest vote to win the whole thing. As well as this I also have a soft spot for Steve's win due to the fact that a show such as The X Factor which was so heavily youth orientated could be won by somebody who was middle aged for once, but by this point I am really pushing it to find positives about a winner which simply didn't have the qualities to be a winner of a show like this, and his return to a pub and club singer should honestly come as no surprise.

7) James Arthur
The X Factor 9

Now I fully expect to get some grief for my decision to eliminate James this early in my ranking, but I've always had issues with James as a contestant in the show and as an eventual winner, albeit for different reasons then the grievances I have with the X Factor's other successes, namely in his persona as a character within the show and some of the production influences that helped to bring about his eventual victory. I will confess that it was close between him and two others for this position, but it was that lack of likability that pushed James below the other two.

Most of the time when I'm judging contestants on a talent based show such as this my mine focus on judgment is around technical ability and skill in the show's genre (in this case singing), yet in the case of James I feel like a lot of this gets overshadowed simply by how unlikable I found the guy, James certainly wasn't offensively awful in the way that someone like a Conor McIntyre or a Russell Hantz was but I felt with him there was this underlying negative side to him which made him come across as rather big headed and self confident in a way which wasn't endearing as a viewer, not helping the matter either was the fact that the guy was also away from the stage dreary and a bit of a misery guts, which once again helped to hinder any attempt for me to root for him as well as many others during the majority of the season. It was a shame that these personal traits were such a dampener of James because as a performer I have to say he was quite good and certainly a darn sight better then compared to the likes of Steve and Leon, and some of his performances I can hold as particular standouts such as his version of Let's Get It On which arguably acted as his breakout moment, yes he still lacked the quality to be worthy of the 'music's next superstar' tag that the show warrants it's winners but he was good and by the time of the final 4 probably the strongest singer remaining in the competition. Another factor however that I feel harms James as a winner however was somewhat of an artificialness that came with his victory and the production influence that came with that. James' fan base during the early weeks had been solid but not enough to make him a front runner in the votes, yet during the controversial final 5 week which saw Ella eliminated production resorted to basically berating and slagging off the public for allowing James' near elimination to happen and as a result saw an upsurge in James' votes which would never have happened if not for the producers' influence, yes it denied us the horror of an inevitable Christopher Maloney win but it does taint James' win somewhat. James was solid enough as a performer, probably leaning on the above average, but the negative traits of his are just too much for me to ever warm to him and the reason why he's this low down in my ranking.

 

 6) Matt Cardle
The X Factor 7

Once again it is another rather dull MOR male which has seen himself eliminated in this ranking. I have to admit that the approach that I have taken in this writeup on Matt has had to change a bit based on the criticism and backlash that he seemed to have gotten from the rest of Sucks as a winner, something which has in all honesty rather taken me by surprise. Whilst I don't stand by some of the views expressed by Matt that he was this almost spawn of satan figure that some like to paint him as I will confess that he was rather dull and at time big-headed about his abilities, but still a singer who was very solid and not deserving of being placed with the dreggs of Leon or Steve, for me him placing as the middle contestant in the 'OK but flawed' category of winners feels particularly apt for him in my opinion.

Let us first begin however by addressing some of the issues with Matt and understand why there is such a poor perception of him as a winner, firstly beginning with his stage persona and personality. For a lot of people including myself Matt suffered from similar issues which thrawted James as a winner, namely in a lack of likability and warmth as a performer, as well as at times coming across as big headed and overconfident in how good he actually was as a singer, whilst he was strong, which we'll get to later, he certainly wasn't anything special even by X Factor standards, as well as this I was often left with the impression that Matt was at times rather too joyless and overly serious about the whole experience to ever truly warm to, although it does present itself otherwise The X Factor is at it's centre light-hearted Saturday night entertainment and yet Matt treated the whole thing as a humourless gamebot who appeared to look down on anyone who dared to treat the show with fun, something which was demonstrated with his attacks on the brilliant novelty act Wagner calling for his ejection from the show, and when compared with the warmth of other acts from that series, be it Rebecca, Mary or Wagner himself Matt is left looking both dull and cold as a contestant. However what redeems Matt for me as a winner was him as a performer, as Matt was in my opinion very strong and certainly one of the best of series 7 purely from a stage point of view, showing a great deal of diversity, good technical skills and a decent vocal to go with it, if at times a bit whiny for his role in the show of moody indie pop rocker, a role in which he did IMO far better then James in comparison. I also feel that compared to James Matt also stands in better regard with me because of the quality of his opposition during his series, whilst James was saddled with the status of only winning because of being the best of a bad bunch by it's end Matt pretty much dominated series 7 and did so against one of the strongest fields in the recent history of the show, beating the likes of Rebecca  and One Direction, likable acts such as Wagner and Mary and producer pets Katie and Cher, and yet in spite of this I was never left feeling that Matt had robbed any of those of the win, yes he certainly wasn't my favourite contestant that series, but I didn't resent him in the way that I did with Leon beating Rhydian or G4 losing to Steve. Being someone who Cowell was rooting against also works in his favour. I am certainly not a Matt supporter (his version of Many Of Horror is enough to confirm why), but neither do I feel he deserves the grief some have given him here, and that's why he's my number 6.

 5) Joe McElderry
The X Factor 6

And with this elimination comes the final of the three winners which I was continually chopping and changing up until the last minute. When putting this ranking together initially I had Joe in seventh place behind both Matt and James in this ranking, but as I begun to think about it more I realised that I had overlooked many of the positives aspects about Joe as a contestant and that in hindsight I was arguably quite harsh about him as a contestant initially and that especially as a performer there were some considerable positives. He still isn't what I would consider a great winner by any means (and this writeup will explain why) but I respected and understood why he did win and don't hold him back for it in the way I would someone like Leon or Steve.

Let us begin however by stating the major considerable positive trait when it comes to Joe as a winner, namely in his technical ability as a singer. Watch any of Joe's performances during the live show's of the series and you will find that the guy was nearly always pitch perfect during any of his shows, yes his song choices and vocal strength were maybe lacking somewhat and certainly not to my tastes but considering the tools that he had to work with he made full use of them and really showed his skills and professionalism, I'd probably go as far to say from purely a technical point of view Joe is arguably one of the best TXF winners ever, added to this he was also quite a decent guy who seemed polite and pleasant enough, which was one of the main reasons why he ended up ahead of Matt and James in this ranking. Unfortunately for Joe though the positives ended there, and his high technical skill ended up masking a number of flaws with him as a winner which stop him from entering my positive side of this ranking. Quite simply for a show such as The X Factor which sells itself on finding performers with that extra something that makes them special Joe was just simply too bland both as a performer and as a personality to ever have the so called X Factor. His song choices were incredibly dull and cliched and often resorted to churning out the same overplayed ballads you hear on any MOR radio station, whilst attempts to try and go in a more contemporary direction (as shown in the farcical attempt to use him to cash in on the High School Musical market with his version of 'Ambitions') ended up falling flat on their face.Whilst as a personality Joe came across at times as almost robotic, soulless and little more then a yes man to Cowell's regime, this not being helped by any means by the inclusion of Jedward, Olly Murs and Stacey Solomon in that series, all three of which oozed charisma and showed up Joe's charismatic shortcomings plenty-fold, sure he was a nice kid, but in a similar vein to Sam Evans being nice is nothing if you can't bring anything else to go with it. The main question that comes with Joe's win is can one very significant positive trait be enough to nulify many negative traits, and the answer IMO is somewhere in the middle, Joe was great technically, but he was never a pop star and quite simply didn't have The X Factor which the show looks for, his current career as a stage performer is far more apt for a singer of his type.

 

4) Little Mix
The X Factor 8

Little Mix are a bit of a strange one to judge for me as winners, they came during a rather strange era of transition for the franchise which I feel the show has not yet truly got out of and arguably fell victim to a weak series which aided their win, but I feel that far more positive traits surpass the negatives associated with the girls, they were quite strong singers which showed great progress during their time together, they were pleasant enough as a foursome and also did so much in showing that anyone could win the show, especially when you bare in mind the perception of girl groups in the X Factor up until that point.

Let me begin however from stating that The X Factor 8 has a good claim of being one of the worst series of the show so far from a production point of view, from chosen novelty act Goldie leaving the process even before the live shows, four acts leaving the show in the first week which isolated more fans then it did win them, the decision to keep Frankie Cocozza around backfiring on production when news of his off-show antics emerged and the potential farce of Amelia Lily winning the whole show in spite of having previously been voted out. Baring all of these in mind the show desperately needed a winner which didn't necessarily need to be the best singer, but more then anything a good feelgood story which would gloss over the series' faults and show that all of these production issues were all worth it, and that is in my opinion what Little Mix proved to be. You have to remember that prior to Little Mix girl groups in the X Factor (particularly those which had been manufactured) had often been restricted to early week fodder to be disposed of in the early weeks, with the farcically overpushed Hope being the only exception up until this time, and for Little Mix to exceed all of these expectations and not only make it to the end but win the whole thing was a great underdog story that is rather overlooked. And looking at the girls from a musical and performance point of view it isn't hard to see why they proved so much more popular then their girlgroup peers, they weren't as overtly sexualised in a way that wasn't isolating the core demographics of the voting audience and allowed for their positive personalities to shine through during their shows, coming across more then anything in their on and off screen personas as humble and appreciative about their whole experience, I also felt that of all of the winners Little Mix were the act that in my opinion most grew as performers throughout the live shows, in the early weeks they were certainly solid but nothing special admittedly and yet by the time of the final had grown into a professional troupe that had felt like they had been performing for years. In terms of weaknesses for the girls the argument could certainly be made that their win was somewhat by default, series 8 as mentioned was a bit of a mess in terms of production and the final cast was also rather tedious, Marcus Collins felt like nothing more then a weaker Joe McElderry whilst Amelia winning as mentioned would have been a severely tainted premise, so the suggestion might be that Little Mix benefited from a weak series, but I am willing to give the girls the benefit of the doubt in this regard, the show had been wanting a group win for a long time, and I'm glad it went to a set of very pleasant and decent enough girls.

 

3) Shayne Ward
The X Factor 2

On paper Shayne should be somebody who I dislike as a winner of the show; another example of the horribly drawn out and tedious MOR balladeer who manages to win over both the housewives and teens, all accompanied by a persona which was never that exciting or rootable, especially when compared to those that he was competing with in that series, yet when all of his character attributes are put together the end product isn't the disaster that you would expect, far from it in fact as what we got instead was a solid all rounder who was able to show the flashes of pure brilliance that made you think that there was a possibility he could have made it as a marketable pop star.

Let us first begin with Shayne as a technical performer, and in many ways he was very similar to Joe McElderry in being someone who more noted for strong technical skill as opposed to outright vocal strength, in the process hiding what was at times a whiny vocal with near pitch perfect accuracy, where the two differ however was in the type of work which Shayne performed compared to Joe, whilst Joe got locked in a sea of mummy pleasing ballads Shayne was much more diverse and able to show his skill in very different scenarios, being pitch perfect on a ballad is hard enough, but to do it on a complex, upbeat number takes real skill, and Shayne in my opinion showed this, the standout example being a version of 'I Believe In A Thing Called Love' which could have been an absolute disaster but passable down to Shayne's skill as a singer, and the moment for me which told me that he was going to win. In terms of persona Shayne was also fairly decent, nothing to write home about in terms of charisma but pleasant enough and lacking the arrogance and self entitlement of the likes of Matt or James. Shayne also is in good standing for me as a winner due to his status as a winner in regards to the X Factor franchise and the competitors he beat in his series, whilst series 1 was all about the show trying to find it's feet TXF2 was the breakout series that started to win over the public, and after Steve's lackluster stature as a winner the show needed someone to succeed which had the gravitas and skill to be sold as a potential star, and in my eyes Shane on the show managed to deliver that perception to the audience, yes his post show career wasn't the strongest but that didn't entirely matter to production at that point. As well as this Shayne managed to win against what was in my opinion a strong cast, Andy Abraham was a weaker singer then Shayne but arguably the most rootable contestant the show has ever had, Brenda Edwards was a great journey contestant and combined it with strong diva vocals whilst Chico emerged as the first breakout novelty act, and yet they were all left in their wake by the skill of Shayne, and I feel that at the end of the day nobody really resented him for doing it. Shayne lacks the vocals, gravitas or post-show success to compete with Alexandra or Leona, but he is IMO a strong winner who has unfortunately found himself somewhat overlooked by the TXF community.

2) Leona Lewis
The X Factor 3

 Well I think we all knew that it would be a double diva top two in this ranking right off from the start, the only question really was which of the two it would be which got my seal of approval as the best X Factor Winner, that quite obviously has gone to Alexandra but I don't want to use it as any indicator that Leona is in any way an inferior contestant that should be looked down on people, far from it actually. Leona is for me the first true superstar of the X Factor franchise, the contestant which helped to create the perception of the show for casual viewers that it was more then just glorified karaoke and that real stars could come out of the show, and came at a time when the show had really built up momentum and needed the mega-success that she provided, and whilst there were some issues with personality that ultimately was the reason behind her silver medal placing her skill and talent was very impressive and sees her as my number 2.

Let's begin with Leona from a technical and performance aspect of the show first and in doing so we start with by far the strongest aspect of the girl, even though I am a straight male who likes his indie music and doesn't buy into the hype of the X Factor as a show I will be the first to admit that Leona was amazing, vocally she was nearly always pitch perfect and combined this skill with a very strong diva vocal which made her more often then not the star of the show with her power ballad displays, yet in the process never succumbed to the temptation to fall into Mariah territory and overemphasize and enunciate for the sake of it, some may call this boring on her part I personally consider it a sign of professionalism, and truth be told Leona's ballads were so strong that she never really needed to go OTT in her performances anyway, as well as this Leona had a humility and likability about her which was endearing to us as viewers, she was never in any way exciting but you could see that there was a good person there and one which never felt as if she was big-headed about herself, which was refreshing for a diva balladeer such as herself. Plus purely from a personal point of view I loved Leona because she proved to be the only person that stopped the awful Ray Quinn from winning series 3, and anyone who manages to achieve that has to be give praise from myself. If I had to find faults with Leona as a singer it would be that she did somewhat play it safe with her song choices by sticking with ballads but also at times I found her rather cold and difficult to warm to, and felt that I could never actively root for her in the way that I could with the likes of Alexandra for example, part of this may of been down to her status as the untouchable day one victor but part of it may have been down to her personality or more specifically her lack of it, yes Leona had humility but I could never say she was ever that exciting a person, if anything though I guess we can use this as an indicator of how good she was as a singer that it never proved a fatal flaw in the way it did to someone like Joe. Leona however deserves praise as a singer and as a reality TV winner, and whilst her star has waned with the flop of her second album you cannot deny that she was for a short while a megastar, as well as being one of the first major success stories of TXF and for that I compliment her and place her here in this ranking.

 

1) Alexandra Burke
The X Factor 5

When I started pre-planning this ranking it was always my intention to have a Leona and Alexandra top 2, and based on the high standard that both had in the show comparative to the show's other winners that was no surprise, but which of the two I would choose as my winner was a much harder decision and for a long time I did tease with having Leona in top spot due to her stronger vocals and her status as the first X Factor superstar but the more I thought about it the more I realised that between the two Alexandra was the better all rounder between the two, yes she wasn't as good of a singer as Leona but I felt that in nearly every other aspect, particularly those in relation to her relation with the audience, she was far superior and the main factor which swayed me in the direction of Mrs Burke.

The first key aspect I want to bring up in regards to Alexandra as a winner is the one which in my opinion most worked to her favour when putting this ranking together, which was her growth throughout the show and her storyarc which transfixed me as a viewer, whilst I definately felt that Alexandra certainly had positive traits as both a performer and as a singer during the show's early stages there was never anything about her which made me think that she could emerge as a realistic contender to win, the ballads were still shaky and she at times lacked a true star power, but as the series went on I found that Alexandra more so then any other X Factor contestant showed a massive growth in confidence and skill that made me endear to her and get behind her story by the end of the show, and to see the shy girl of the early weeks transform into a powerful Diva holding her own against Beyonce was a great storyarc and a great TV transformation. I felt as well what added to Alexandra's endearing stature as a winner was also her status somewhat as an underdog within the show, partly fuelled by her early season anonymity but also due to the support of the producer and public pets that she overcame against all the odds, be it the godawful housewives favourite Eioghan, producer's pet Diana or the late season juggernaut that JLS became by the end of the show, to see Alexandra succeed in spite of these was refreshing to see. As a performer Alexandra also impressed me, as I mentioned she wasn't up to Leona's balladry levels but she wasn't a slouch either by any means, very strong vocally and engaging as a performer but arguably showcasing much more of a warmth as a person through her performances in a way in which Leona never did, I also felt that Alexandra was also much more of a risk taker then Leona when it came to her song choices as well, while Leona at times got stuck in the safe hole of MOR balladeering Alexandra at times wasn't afraid to go for some upbeat numbers which in the process showcased her abilities in much better ways then what Leona never did, and this upbeat tempo is arguably the direction she focused herself on in her post-show career to great success. Alexandra for me is a great example of a great Reality TV all rounder, not the best performer, singer or underdog story, but rather somebody who achieved all three at such a high standard that I cannot ignore her for it, and even though her version of Hallelujah was unforgivable I am willing to overlook it and consider her my best X Factor winner ever.

Big Brother 14 Series Assessment

Secrets, Lies and Expanding Winkies

So another year over with and another 9 weeks of my life to look back over at with a mix of nostalgia, regret and fondness, and when it is all and other with do I think that Big Brother 14 was worth it, well that certainly depends in my view on which way I look at the show. There’s no denying at all that Big Brother 14 has been the strongest of the Channel 5 series to date, but it was still a fundamentally flawed series which at times let it’s drawbacks show a touch too obviously for my liking, this doesn’t mean to say that I dislike the series though, quite the opposite, this is a season which belongs with the likes of 9, 10 and 13 as a higher tier season, albeit one that is still too flawed to ever reach the gold arches of being a so-called classic.

Firstly we shall begin with some of the positives about this season, namely in particular some of the breakout stars of the season whom I feel have the potential to be considered full on allstars when discussed in the future. Gina and Dexter, both as a unified entity and as individuals, were absolutely fantastic television, and for a large majority of the show helped to carry it into being some of the most entertaining weeks of television this summer. Gina in particular was my preference between the two, with her Derek Laud meets Nikki Grahame hybrid personality Gina showed herself to be snarky, funny and managing to brilliantly walk a fine line of being ridiculous and over-the-top without ever being too overbearing about it, and added with her storyarc of being one of the most obvious first boots ever to being at one point a realistic contender to win made her the most engaging housemate of the series. Dexter too had a lot of great points as well, at first I dismissed him as another Sezer clone who would come and go in early weeks and yet he showed himself to be strangely rootable with his Alan Partridge mannerisms and goofy demeanour, whilst he did somewhat descend into Siavash territory by the later stages the product on the whole was thoroughly satisfying and earned Dexter a lot of my respect as a television viewer. Supporting members of the cast also delivered well in the show as well, whilst not ever leaving up to the ‘new Noirin’ prediction I gave her at the start of the season Hazel was a great contributor herself and proved to be a good foil for Gina in their feud, Callum was a revelation in going from a cautious and cynical game-bot overly sure about his outside perception to unravel to become one of the most unpredictable and offbeat characters of the show whilst Charlie Travers was able to escape her mothers shadow to become an unlikely central point of the show as the centre of affection in the Dexter and Callum feud, a brilliant piece of strategic manoeuvring which I don’t think gets as much credit as it deserves.

Some of the storylines from this season I also felt were particularly strong as well, and arguably at times had more depth and layers to it then what was comparatively seen in Big Brother 13 which descended into a rather basic ‘us vs them’ storyline. Not only did this give us the much lauded Ginxter alliance but also saw Gina and Hazel’s series long feud, the Dexter, Charlie and Callum love triangle beautifully mechanised by Charlie as well as sub-stories like the twins’ feud with Dexter, Sam and Gina’s live feed friendship and the random Sophie vs Sam feud which seemed to catch nearly all highlight show viewers off guard when it was brought up at the many face to face nominations. However one gripe that I will bring up in regards to the storylines of the series was that at times they did become too dominant for their own good and in the process strangle and slow some of the momentum of the later weeks, but at the same time they did culminate and end at the right time and prove for more fitting arc endings then they did in BB12 and BB13 comparatively (arguably because of the introduction of vote to evict).

But it is with the mention of vote to evict that I bring up some of the flaws of this series, beginning with the re-introduction of this much maligned process. Whilst the damage done with vote to evict wasn’t as bad as I had initially feared at the start of the series it still managed to show itself at times and in the process hurt the show, losing Dan over Sam and Sophie being the obvious example of this, and losing these bigger characters at times did cause a major slowdown of the show by it’s end, and the inclusion of the likes of Sam, Sophie and the twins in the later stages of the process does in my opinion highlight the issues with the process, in saying that however it was incredibly lucky that the Gina and Dexter alliance formed in the early stages and in the process allowed the public to turn VTE on its head and in the process keep them around in the show far longer then their obvious early boot statuses indicated.

However the biggest gripe for this season came in my opinion in the winner of the series, was it a series defining character that helped to carry the show in the show? Far from it actually, in fact it was actually someone who helped make me question the attitudes of the voting public and how casual viewers interpret this show that I love so much. I certainly don’t by into the perception on some internet forums that Sam was some vicious, vulgar yob (bare in mind this is the same show that cast Conor McIntyre) but there is no denying in my opinion that he is a thoroughly undeserving winner who has in the process robbed a far more deserving contributor to the show of their much more deserved win, almost akin to an extra in a Hollywood movie being rewarded the Oscar for best picture over the lead actor. It has also made me wonder about how the casual viewers of the show interpret Big Brother as a show, and what the show means to those casual viewers. As a hardcore, die-hard and at times overly analytical viewer I am left wondering because of Sam’s win what is the point of getting so emotionally involved in the show, digesting every bit of entertainment and storyline only to have the casual voting audience deciding their winner on such superficial and shall reasons? Sam is certainly more likable then some other winners that the show has had, but simply because of his irrelevance and lack of contribution to the series he has to be considered one of the worst winners ever.

It’s a shame as well because I do feel that the series is one of the better outings for the show, and certainly the best of the civilian Channel 5 era so far, whilst I do feel it was a bit more inconsistent in quality then compared to Big Brother 13 the highs of this series were Everest bound, with everything from Dexter and Gina in the safe house through to Daley’s ejection being some of the most compelling television going. Whether the series manages to hold the test of time I’m not sure, but what I am sure about is that as of now this series gets my hearty seal of approval.

7/10

Too Many Tweets...

Why Twitter's tween audience and their voting patterns leaves me fearing the worst...

Being a Reality Television fan as well as a regular attendee of television and media related forums I will almost inevitably find myself faced with a discussion topic which has become much more frequent in recent years, that topic in question being the power and influence of the 'tween vote' and the supposed mass onslaught that would subsequently come from fans using social media such as Twitter and Facebook. Whilst I have seen the 'tween vote' being utilised in reality television I find however that the power and influence largely depends on one key influence in particular, albeit one which makes me worry not only for the motives and workings of the younger television viewer but also for the future attitudes and ethics of Britain as a nation. 

Whilst a tween vote is to be expected for mass media programmes such as Reality Television what I have found from watching these shows is that the tween vote is only to be taken fully into account when the voting is in a negative guise, whilst in a positive guise the influence of the youth is rather lackluster and also calls into question issues of lethargy within the tween audience. The first two series of Big Brother saw Channel 5 introduce positive voting, encouraging it's audience to save housemates as opposed to the normal tradition of voting negatively to evict them. Whilst the later series of the show during the Channel 4 era had seen this tween vote out in force during these two Channel 5 series the influence of the vote swung away from the tweens and towards an older, more mature and arguably more avid show fan base. This was demonstrated with the voting trends during the show as the first two Channel 5 series, as Aaron Allard-Morgan, two contestants who appealed to the older voting demographic, proved victorious in their respective series, this being in spite of the tween vote's dislike of both and preference to more tween friendly contestants such as Jay McKray and the Insiders alliance in BB12 and BB13 respectively. Similarly another example of this was seen in last season's series of The X Factor in which contestant Christopher Maloney saw himself as a regular victim of abuse from twitter followers online, and yet for the first seven weeks dominated the phone voting to save by a large margin, whilst tween-friendly contestants such as Union J found themselves regularly within the bottom two, depsite being most ideally placed to pick up the twitter vote.

The evidence above obviously points to the tween vote proving more influential in a negative voting environment compared to a positive one, but this in turn also leaves me concerned with the way that television is perceived from a younger generation of viewers. Why is it that users of social media feel so comfortable demonstrating their passion for a television show in a negative manner and yet are so lethargic when it comes to expressing it in a positive manner. Yes Twitter is a media form designed around impulse but from my own explorations of the medium it seems largely devoid of positive input from it’s young users, even when Channel 5 were implementing the vote to save voting method the calls from this tween audience would be to get the designated villain of the week out despite the voting method making this an almost impossible task. The judgement of a younger generation when it comes to television has thanks to twitter and increasingly negative, cynical and at times verminous experience.

In the process this makes me question where Britain will stand in regards to our judgements within society in the future, thanks to Twitter is Britain now destined to be a nation devoid of demonstrating positive views on something? A nation where we judge based solely on negative traits and where ‘the best’ of something is in fact the least worst? These twitter tweens who judge solely on negativity could one day be the doctors and lawyers of our future, and if they judge based by the same aggressive and negatively orientated means that they do on Twitter Ido have worries for the work ethic and agenda of Britain in the future.

Top 10: Most Underrated Big Brother Housemates

Nearly over 200 housemates have graced the walls of Britain's most famous house, and whilst most of the mainstream can easily remember BB stars such as Jade Goody, Nasty Nick Bateman and Nikki Grahame to name but a few, a large number of fantastic contestants have found themselves criminally overlooked, partly down to being overshadowed by other housemates or for the stigma that came associated with the series that they appeared in. This list is designed to highlight to the reader the ten contestants whom I feel a most overlooked and underated in the Big Brother community, I want to stress this is a personal list which some may not agree with, but I will try and talk you around to my line of thinking. With that being sad let us begin:

10) Faye Palmer (Big Brother 12)

Now most of you right now will be thinking how can Faye be considered underrated when she was arguably the second most popular contestant of Big Brother 12? Well I have reason to feel this way and it largely stems from the reasons why Faye's fan base was established in the first place. Whilst Faye's popularity in Big Brother 12 cannot be denied I am often left feeling that the primary reason for Faye's support stemmed largely from the fact that she was considered an extention of Aaron as opposed to her own merits, which I feel is a real crime as in my opinion Faye was the contestant in Big Brother which demonstrated the most depth and grew the most as a character during the course of the series. We have to remember that by week one of the show Faye was a largely overlooked and forgotten character within the show, and yet by the time she departed in week 8 had established herself as the most important female of the series, whilst I do admit that her relationship with Aaron gave her the pedestal to garner this growth Faye carried this on and generated this complexity through her own merits. This was also helped by bringing Jem in during week 4, whilst I dislike Jem as a character and disagree with the decision to cast her the relationship between the two sisters was compelling to watch, especially as Jem's paranoia over Aaron took over and left Faye torn between the intentions of her sister and her showmance partner, which continued to build her depth as well as a report from the audience. An argument could be that Faye was made to look good due to being in a weak series but that doesn't change what a great contestant she was, and somebody who deserves more praise on a BB12 rewatch.

9) Sylvia Barrie (Big Brother 9)

I want to stress that I in no way like Sylvia as a person, and the likelihood is that she would be somebody who I would look to avoid if I met her on the outside world, but in the BBUK community I like to judge people based on the character that they are portrayed as on screen, and in my eyes Sylvia played her role as the bitchy villain superbly, but due to being surrounded by more prominent villains is often overlooked. The early stages of Big Brother 9 saw a conveyor belt of villains come and go through the house with an alarming regularity, of these Alexandra De Gale and Jennifer Clark would gain much notoriety, with Alexandra being ejected for her threats and Jen for helping to cause the defining moment of the series in 'spit-gate'. Sylvia however is dismissed and forgotten by most casuals, her only real status being that of Alexandra's lackey during her reign of terror, but in my eyes Sylvia was just as evil and just as prominent a villain as Alexandra was, she stirred trouble with much regularity and helped to cause some early drama such as her argument with Mikey over him putting on her underwear and her overreactions to pretty much every situation was as compelling as it was infuriating. She picked up Alexandra's baton and carried it on well, and whilst I do feel that the public made the right choice in getting her out in week 3 before she began to get tedious I felt that she was a great early season villain who deserves more recognition.

8) Anton Murphy (Big Brother 12)

There are two primary schools of thought when it comes to Big Brother fans over Anton Murphy, the first was that he was a farcically weak villain in what was one of the poorest seasons of Big Brother in the UK, whilst the other is that he was an irritating try hard who failed in his attempt to try and become the next Victor Ebuwa, these two accusations I can't deny, but I feel that these flaws make people forget some of the more positive aspects of Anton, mainly in how unintentionally funny he was. I've always loved unintentional humour, especially when it comes from Reality TV shows, and in my eyes Anton delivered this in spades, every boastful comment and positive statement that he made about himself, be it  his prowess with women or how great of a strategist he was was nearly always immediately followed by something which contradicted that and left him looking foolish as a result, arguably making Anton Big Brother's own version of the Bad Luck Brian Meme, added to this was the mini-feud with Aaron in which Anton played the accident prone, Wille E. Coyote style villain to perfection, nearly always being left with smoke on his face (figuratively speaking) as every attempt to show up Aaron was countered or backfired on him. Anton doesn't deserve the venom of other BB villains, he was light-hearted enough and whilst the Victor wannabe act was cringe-worthy it wasn't worth getting too wound up about.

7) Emilia Arata (Big Brother: Celebrity Hijack)

 In all honesty I could have put any of the Celebrity Hijack contestants on this list, as the E4 exclusive series was incredibly overlooked and arguably the closest thing we will get to an old school Big Brother series in this day and age, but I went with Emilia as underrated arguably for the same reasons why I consider Faye underrated, namely in the amount of depth and storyline generation that came from her. Firstly there was the relationship between herself and her circus performing boyfriend Victor, as in my eyes Victor would come across as overprotective over his sister which in turn led to an interesting depth and engagement to Emilia's character. As well as this Emilia was also involved in a relationship with Jeremy, which I consider one of the most engaging and enjoyable relationships in the show's history, it may have been not as passionate or intentionally romantic as some other relationships but it was complex, sweet and very engaging to watch, and Emilia was a large part of the reason for that. The celebrity hijack contestants were all overlooked characters, but Emilia stood out the most for me by far, I would have loved to have seen how well she could have done in a proper series.

6) Mario Marconi (Big Brother 9)

The status of Mario Marconi to most casuals is as a goofy unlikable buffoon who proved irritating to the masses and helped to stifle the growth of his girlfriend at the time Lisa, who herself would go on to be a breakout character in Big Brother 9. Whilst I do understand some of these grievances with Mario I also feel that people overlook a lot of the positive sides of the character as well, as once his unbearable week 1 side departed the show we were left with one of the most hilarious and deluded characters the show has ever seen. Mario was for all extensive purposes Big Brother's version of David Brent, always trying to be seen to do the right thing but always making a fool of himself in the process, such as his health and safety warnings over the house due to his care over blind housemate Mikey, which left him looking like a clown in the process as well as his delusions of grandeur over the 14 million fans that were supporting him outside of the house, it left Mario as an unintentionally hilarious goof figure which was brilliantly fun to watch, and combined that with cringeworthy antics with Lisa which helped to add the cherry to the cake. But for all the buffoonery I also felt there was a good person behind Mario, he always looked out for Mikey because of his disability and he was one of the people to come out positively over Spit-gate. He likely would have gotten irritating had he of stayed longer, but his five weeks in the show were great fun and Mario was a wonderful character.

5) Federico Martone (Big Brother 4)

The myth that is perpetrated around Big Brother 4 was the moment that the show found itself on the way to becoming the worst series of Big Brother ever was the moment in which Jon Tickle lost his place in the Big Brother house as part of the controversial week 4 double eviction, but whilst Jon's departure was fatally damaging to the series I felt that as much of the reason for the series' failure came down to losing Federico along with him, and in some cases arguably more so. For the first four weeks of the series Fed was the dominant villain figure within the show, a sleazy womaniser who would often cause controversy over his comment about women, whilst I don't agree with Fed's comments it made for a great antagonistic figure for the show to root against, which is essential in any Big Brother series especially one as passive as Big Brother 4. But Federico also combined this with a funny side which led to a rather strange endearment towards him, his flirting with Big Brother in an Avid Merrion accident were funny moments, as was the way in which he would inadvertently lose nearly every shopping task for the housemates. Fed isn't the greatest housemate ever, but Big Brother 4 suffered through his loss, arguably more so then it did with the loss of Jon.

4) Karly Ashworth (Big Brother 10)

During Big Brother 10 it was nearly impossible to speak positively about any of the so called 'Team Pretty' alliance, but now that the smoke has cleared I can finally confess how much I loved Karly during that series. Sure Karly had a bitchy and catty side in the house, as well as being one of the main instigators of the resent towards Freddie, but I found her a lot more appealing and likable then any of the other members of the group, and certainly more engaging then the likes of Kris, Charlie or Lisa as well as lacking some of the pure venom that would come from the others.. Karly added this with some great funny moments which defused a lot of grief that may have been directed at her , she could talk at 200mph and her inarticulate ramblings, especially those in the diary room were rather funny and quite snarky as well, and was beginning to build a bit of a core fan base before her eviction in week 6, one which I consider one of the most underrated BB evictions ever. Karly both delivered as a snarky tweener as well as a great villain to root against, but because of her low placing and the more vile behaviour of other BB10 villains has criminally become lost in the shuffle.

3) Lea Walker (Big Brother 7)

Big Brother 7 has become somewhat of an Allstar series when it comes to recognisable and famous housemates, being home to the likes of Nikki, Aisleyne, Pete, Glyn, Imogen and Grace to name but a few, but for me one great name thatalways gets overlooked criminally when it comes to that series was Lea, a housemate who had an amazing amount of complexity and intrigue compared to any other contestant in the series, watching Lea at times wasn't the most enjoyable thing in the world, but the one thing it never was with her was boring. The most amazing thing when looking back at Lea as a housemate was just how many storylines she had during her 6 week stay in the house, firstly as one of the many women fighting over Pete's heart as well as her fantastic relationship with Richard (aka Dicky and Dolly( which saw them take up the mantle as the house parents, along with this was also her feud with Aisleyne and the almost Mrs Robinson like relationship between herself and Glyn. On top of this however Lea also had a weaker and more sensitive side which was engaging to the viewer, here was somebody who was deeply unhappy with herself and saw herself as this almost tragic figure, at times I did consider whether it was right for Lea to be cast in the show, but it made the moment when she left the house to unanimous acceptance such a brilliant one and completed her story arc brilliantly.

2) Ahmed Aghil (Big Brother 5)

This placement is not one based on complexity or depth, nor is it one based on how good he was as a protagonist or an antagonist. The main reason why Ahmed Aghil is number 2 on this list stems simply on how entertaining he was, think of any of the iconic and funny moments of that series and nearly all of them will revolve around Ahmed in some way, be it his smashing of the plates in reaction to the wake-up alarm, his attack on the mannequin that the housemates had built, his diary room rant against Marco ("I hate him!") and his disruptive behaviour during the boot camp task which in the process helped to make it one of the most iconic tasks of all time Big Brother history. Ahmed nearly always had a way of stealing any scene in which he was involved in during that series, and when this was a series which included Victor Ebuwa that has to be considered impressive. Ahmed's lack of relevance to the story of the series and his comparative lack of involvement in the Jungle Cats vs Lipgloss Bitches does mark him down a bit, but in some ways he didn't need to be massively involved, he was light relief with some great fun moments as well as a fantastic villainous side that he demonstrated during his boot week. Amazing, Hero, Mega, Easy and Delirious, Ahmed said it about himself and I am in full agreement.

1)Sree Desari (Big Brother 10)

Being the most underrated housemate from the criminally overlooked Big Brother 10, Sree was always going to be a contender to win this ranking, but what tipped the scale fully in his direction for me was that when looking back over these contestants three themes really stood out for me for being great contestants; relevance to the plot of their series, complexity and depth as well as unintentional hilarity, not only did Sree contain all these but he had them in droves, he had one of the most compelling and car crash showmances in the show's history, was an incredibly important character during Big Brother 10's early stages and managed to be as infuriating as he was intriguing to watch, and managed to do all this in only 4 weeks. Sree's relationship with Noirin was pure car crash television, amazingly compelling and engaging but all at the same time leaving you with this mix of sympathy for Sree because of his lack of awareness over the relationship and annoyance over how clingy he got around her, topping this off with the delusion that he was a womaniser who could pull most women in the house. Sree was also great from a social standpoint too, walking a fine line as somebody who desperately sort association with the house minority and saw himself as part of that but was in relaty as much of an outsider as those he was targetting himself. It made for a character that was rather complex and dynamic, and when you take into account how much Sree did and how important he was despite being in the house for such a short time I am left baffled why he doesn't get more recognition, and that is why I consider Sree Big Brother's most underrated housemate.

Top 30 Worst Big Brother Production Decisions or Twists (Part 3)

Well we come to part three of our trawl through the worst of all things Big Brother, listing the twists and production choices that production should all out avoid come Big Brother 14, 20 of these twists have proven infuriating enough, so it goes to show how badly mishandled and controversial the top 10 must be. With that being said we shall begin. Brace yourselves people, this is going to be a bumpy ride:

10) The double eviction in week 4 causes Jon and Federico to be evicted on the same night (Big Brother 4)

Now I do understand that Big Brother 4 was a much more innocent time in the franchise's history and the likelihood was that this double eviction was planned weeks and months before the series actually took place, but that cannot defend the fact that this was a terrible production decision which ultimate proved to be the final nail of the Big Brother 4 coffin. Even from an early stage it was obvious that Big Brother 4 was proving to be an underwhelming experience, with Jon and Federico being the only contestants providing anything in the way of entertainment value, Jon through his lovable nerd qualities and Federico through his status as a roguish antagonist who was beginning to build something of a fan base, so the idea of having a double eviction with both facing the public vote was almost show suicide from production, as due to the flaws of vote to evict it would guarantee that at least one of the two (or both as it proved) would be leaving the show, and in the process leave behind a chasm of entertainment which the first few weeks had proven the other housemates could not fill. A double eviction in any other week of BB4 would have been fine, but to have it on a week where your two biggest characters were nominated was simply entertainment suicide.

9) Conor is not removed following 'epilator-gate' (Big Brother 13)

This for me was a disgusting moment, and one that for me should have been dealt with almost immediately, and the fact that production failed to do so in my eyes showed incompetence from production, insane amounts of favouritism towards Conor as well as sending out a terrible message to viewers of the show, were production trying to imply that the threatening of sexual abuse to a woman was an OK act? because that was how it came across to me and many other Big Brother viewers. Had Conor of been a larger and more prominent personality within the show I could have understood Channel 5's reasoning for keeping him around, but the fact was that up until that point Conor was a largely irrelevant and unpleasant figure within the house who was in all reality rather disposable, and his loss wouldn't have made little difference in the story of Big Brother 13 up until that point. The failure to remove Conor ended up leaving a dark cloud over what was a rather good series, and the fact that it was Conor himself who ended up winning £50,000 as part of the controversial White Room twist left us feeling that there was injustice that somebody who had behaved so vilely was being rewarded for his actions.

8) Live Feed is axed (Big Brother 10)

This production decision didn't have much to do with influencing the quality of the overall series,in fact I would go as far as to list Big Brother 10 as one of my favourites, but the cancelling of Live Feed helped to play a massive part in isolating a large amount of Big Brother's casual audience and in turn arguably helped lead to the show's axing by Channel 4. In my eyes as well as the eyes of many others Live Feed is one of the most essential aspects of Big Brother as a franchise, and eliminating it also eliminates one of the main selling point of the show which is the idea of the public having the ability to watch over the contestants at any time. As well as this axing live feed also led to a stagnation of press interest within the show, which in turn led to a lack of interest from the casual audience and as a result dented Big Brother 10's ratings, causing it to become the least watched series of the Channel 4 era.

7) Live Feed is axed... again (The Channel 5 era)

Quite obviously this has much in common with the previous entry, but ranks much higher namely because of the stubbornness of Channel 5 over the issue and the lack of logic in their decision. Channel 5 would have seen that the axing of live feed by Channel 4 for Big Brother 10 led to a significant hit in terms of the ratings, as well as how much the series regained a large amount of lost audience following it's reinstatement for Big Brother 11, so to decide to once again axe this factor of the show, and moreso then that eliminate it entirely, lacked logic and common sense on behalf of Channel 5. As well as this the decision to axe live feed came into conflict with Channel 5's claim that they wanted to incorporate social networking within the show, as the involvement of a live feed within a series would have been beneficial to social networking through buzz generated on Facebook and Twitter respectively. As well as this it generated cynicism against Channel 5 as a broadcaster as it not only went against their claims of interactive live feed coverage but also left the show open to a level of manipulation and distortion unseen previously, as the cover-up of Rylan's departures during CBB11 showed.

6) The all-female launch night (Big Brother 8)

In some ways I can respect this for being one of the few attempts during Channel 4's later era of embracing Big Brother's status as a social experiment, but in spite of that however this twist proved to be a major mistake and one that was unneeded following the negativity of Shilpa-gate. The main reason for this twist being a disaster stemmed from the way it alienated the target audience of the show, Big Brother had known from voting patterns and viewer feedback of how resentful the voting public were to women, and particular more image conscious women which dominated the launch cast, so to have a house full of females isolated the important core audience of the show, added to this was the fact that having a primarily young all female cast also limited the diversity and social intrigue that Big Brother as a franchise thrives on, which further hampered the casual viewer's desire to tune in. The other major issue stemmed from the motive of the all female launch night in the first place, had the twist been played out in a much more psychological way focusing on the incorporation of men into a hostile male environment I feel that the twist had a lot of potential to be engaging and interesting, but instead it's real reasoning was to try and create a shallow squabbling match between the women over Ziggy, which in itself failed.

5) Jayne is punished for persistent rule-breaking by having everybody BUT HER put up for eviction (Big Brother 7)

This for me is a perfect example of production focusing on short term fixes to solutions without thinking about the long term impact that their decisions may have. The decision to punish Jayne in this way was incredibly flawed from both a social context and from an entertainment context was incredibly flawed from the outset. In terms of the former production would have known from Jayne's self orientated behaviour that a punishment such as this was never going to make any impact or influence her behaviour positively, the major grievance however was from an entertainment context however, by punishing Jayne in this way it guaranteed that a much more important and relevant character would be leaving the show in her place, with the likelyhood being that it would be one of Aisleyne or Nikki, both of which had massive fan-bases and were engaged in a major feud with each other. Whilst I do believe Jayne added some much-needed energy into BB7's mediocre middle stages the fact that a major character such as Nikki was sacrificed to protect her was a major misjudgment from production, especially as Jayne never built any kind of fan base and was out anyway the week after.

4) The Halfway House (Big Brother 8)

This was just a farcical mess to watch throughout the week, and was arguably the most painful week of Big Brother that I have ever had the displeasure to have witnessed, particularly from a production point of view. The idea of doing a second 'other house' twist after the failure of Big Brother 7's 'house next door' was in itself a poor decision, but the way in which production chose to continually move both the main housemates and the halfway housemates around with twist after twist to manufacture the ideal result from themselves stemmed of cynicism, blatant manipulation and bias, as well as being incredibly unfair on the halfway housemates who were left with no real chance to prove themselves as housemates. While I may have understood this amount of manipulation for a significantly important character none of the current BB housemates at the time provided us with anything similar to that, BB8 had proven to be a disaster and the idea of five new faces freshening up proceedings over some of the series' deadwood would have been a welcome change, and for production to choose to keep their current crop and dispose of two of the newbies almost immediately made me question just what the point of the whole exercise was. This twist was badly organised, incredibly unfair and ultimately pointless.

3) The Goody family enter the house (Celebrity Big Brother 5)

I know the term 'fatal mistake' is thrown around far too frequently these days, but this is one of the biggest examples of a fatal mistake that I know of from a television context, a decision which ultimately led to the single biggest controversy in UK television history and in my view led to the death of Big Brother as a franchise. Even before 'Shilpa-gate' erupted however the decision to bring the Goody family into the house was riddled with flaws; it was incredibly biased towards Jade and her family as it caused an obvious voting bloc which could control the house proceedings, it damaged the positive and largely highbrow ethos of the CBB5 house at the time and in the process pushing the show incredibly downmarket whilst also partially causing the departures of Donny and Ken, two of the show's biggest characters up until that point. The twist also led to a major over-promotion of the family both on the show and in the show's advertising, shunning the other contestants in the process; Jackiey was attempted to be portrayed as a lovable rogue figure in spite of none of the British public buying into it whilst Jade was given almost Rylan-esque levels of coverage and a golden protaganist edit, and it was Channel 4's insistence with sticking with this edit that led to their reluctance to deal with the bullying of Shilpa which in turn caused the media outcry over her bullying that followed. Even without Shilpagate the Goody family's entry would have made this list, but the fact it caused something as fatally damaging at Shilpa-gate locks it this highly.

2) Despite previously being evicted Nikki is allowed to return to Big Brother 7 with a chance of winning (Big Brother 7)

Now I know that Nikki Grahame is one of the most divisive and controversial contestants ever, as well as one of the biggest personalities the show has ever had, but there cannot be a denial that the decision to allow for her return proved to be one of the most single-handedly damaging moments in the franchise's history. Firstly you have to think about the time that this twist was taking place, Big Brother was at the time still one of Britain's biggest TV shows and still held somewhat in high regard from a credibility point of view, but following this twist nobody could truly ever trust the Big Brother franchise in this same manner, be it TV regulators or fans of the show itself, and led to a massive fall in voting revenue as viewers were scared off voting in eviction through fears of a similar stunt taking place. From an entertainment point of view it was a dud too, as Nikki was too aware of what made herself popular first time around and attempted to replicate that on her return, making her tantrums and rants appear very contrived and false, and harming her popularity in the process. It says a lot when producer Phil Edgar-Jones considers this twist the worst decision he ever made in his career.

1) The quadruple eviction (Big Brother 11)

It's quite appropriate that the worst BB twist ever should also be the last BB twist, as it is a tribute to how poor and how manipulated and badly constructed BB became, it is also a twist which shows my eligibility points clearly, it was poorly planned, it made people question the integrity of the programme and it was severely detrimental to the show on an entertainment value. The simple question that needs to be asked was what was the reason for this taking place in the first place? Production had in their hands what could have been one of the greatest Big Brother finales of all time with the strong and obsessive fan bases of Josie, John-James, Corin and Sam Pepper going against each other in an all-out tour de force which would have proven exciting for the viewer as well as generating incredibly amounts of revenue for Channel 4, and yet production for some reason chose to sacrifice this by utilising the double eviction and getting rid of Corin, John-James and Sam Pepper in one clean swoop and in the process give Josie one of the easiest victories ever in one of the most tedious finales of all time, in the process also exposing major favouritism and bias from production. Whilst in retrospect it could be seen as the move which cause Channel 5 to impliment vote to save during their era it came at the cost of what could have been one of the great BB nights, and for that reason I consider it the worst production decision ever.

So that is the list ladies and gents, 30 of Big Brother's worst moments have been scoured and scorned over and Channel 5 now have a checklist of what not to do come Big Brother 14, fingers crossed that we don't see a repeat of any of these and instead enjoy a great series of Big Brother.