• I noticed for the first time that the 2 webmates who were in the house for 2.5 milliseconds didn’
• The final 3 are in the backyard on the couch watching the action again.
• Votes close at 7.45pm (coverage started at 7pm) with votes to evict. The HM with the lowest eviction figure will be the winner. The first reveal of the figures complete with names had Ben on 39%, Terri on 30.2% and Rory on 30%. That would mean (if they stayed the same) that Rory would win under this voting system. They say that they aren’t going to show the faces again.
• The winners from the previous years were wheeled out with Sara-Marie standing in for BB01 winner Ben who wanted no truck with the program.
• Gretel made an appearance via a pre-recorded piece dressed in character from the Rocky Horror Picture Show where she is currently appearing as the Narrator.
• Highlights from the last 24 hours after the eviction of Travis and Alice.
• Voting order has changed (7.22pm). Percentages not shown.
• Update from the HM’s life on the outside that they have missed while in the house.
• The outside world news with Sandra Sully.
• As of 7.35pm, the percentages are  29.4% for Ben, 30.4% for Terri, Rory 40%. So under this scenario, Ben would win. So in about 30 minutes, Ben has gone from last to first and Rory going from first to last.
• Kombi highlights
• Saxon, Travis, Kombi on stage under the banner of “Team Kombi”. That’s funny, I thought two of the main members of the Kombi mafia are still in the house!
• 2 minutes until lines close then ad.
• Paris/Cherry highlight snippets
• Lines closed (announced at 7.47pm, due to close at 7.45pm).
• Generation Y snippets
• Paris, cOreY and Cherry onstage later joined by Terrence. He loves Gen Y now, he says.
• Mike backstage with Rebecca and Rhianna. HM’s warming up for dance number.
• Grenade, cOreY, Mole, Ollie, Pamela, fake double eviction highlights
• Dixie 180, Alice & David on stage. Dixie has a breakfast radio gig in Broken Hill
• Ollie is back in the house. He was in a doghouse in the sandpit and came out on cue. Ollie and HM’s go back to the couch.
• HM dance routine. It was actually quite good!
• Mishaps snippets
• Renee/Nathan and Ben/BeeYUNKA snippets
• Nathan, BeeYUNKA and Renee on stage. BeeYUNKA has turned down an offer (at least $20K) to pose in Zoo. Nathan has a girlfriend now (not Renee).
• First eviction time (8.23pm), to be announced after an ad break. I wonder if they are going to do the “record announcement in ad, play it after the ad then bring them on stage” caper again. Yes, they did.
• Announcement time. 3rd place is Ben, who is now evicted. It’s down to Terri and Rory.
• Ben interview/packages
• Ben and BeeYUNKA on stage.
• Another Ben package
• Ben’s prizes including a mobile phone so he can see into the house. Why bother? Terri and Rory will be out soon in a matter of minutes, peanuts! The only different prize that Ben got for coming third was some spending money at Westiefield.
• Loved ones going into the house. J says that they haven’t seen their loved ones for 3 months. Enter Terri’s daughter and grandson. Rory’s mum and brother enter. About 3 minutes later, they leave.
• Mike, Bree and Frysie are on a different stage outside the house and say that Terri and Rory will enter the stage shortly. Looks like they are going the announcement from stage again.
• Rory highlights
• Terri highlights
• Both HM’s with their coin in front of the eviction doors. They are leaving the house. No announcement yet, they are going to do it on stage again. Man I hate that!
• Out to Mike, Bree and Frysie on a stage just outside the house with a small audience.
• Evicted HM Guard of Honour, R & T off to the eviction stage. 9pm.
• Final 2 on the eviction stage with JOK. Announcement must not be far away. Show due to end in 24 minutes.
• Terri highlight package
• Rory highlight package
• Rory/Pamela highlight package
• K says it is the last BB ever, J says it is the last one for now
• 9.16pm. Prizes announced. Runner up gets a holiday to China, usual 3 Mobile gear, $20K Westiefield voucher.Winner gets $250K, Vietnam holiday, 3 mobile prizes.
• WINNER IS TERRI! TERRI WINS. OLDEST HM AND NOW OLDEST WINNER. Loved ones on stage followed by evicted HM’s.
• 8 years of BB tribute after the break.
• Excellent tribute for the show and then fade to black with BB’s voice saying that it’s time to go for now.

Well, that’s it! The end of BB for 2008 and who knows how long. I’ve been following BB from the start, online heavily since 2004, blogging in 2007 and 2008 and podcasting in 2008. It seems like a suitable time to thank everyone who I have interacted with online about BB. There are too many to mention but it’s been an interesting ride. And for this year, I’d like to thank my ETTDR podcast co-hosts Drue and Ben for their support and the fun that we had on air.

I am ill at the moment but I want to do one more ETTDR episode and then that will be it. I’ll post when that will be when I get better. You don’t want to hear me at the moment and I don’t want to give Ben and Drue any germs!

Goodnight BB, goodnight HM’s and goodnight interweb!

On Sunday night, Travis and Alice were evicted leaving Ben, Rory & Terri in the house.

• Alice chose Rory then changed her mind and picked Ben.
• Ben chose Alice.
• Rory chose Alice.
• Terri chose Travis.
• Travis chose Terri.

Rory is the first person saved. Terri is saved second, followed by Ben. Alice is then evicted. Alice then goes to the BB plane and does her hand grenade. Both Cherry’s hand grenade (the eviction of someone, Alice) and Alice’s grenade were announced by BB. BB says that there are still too many people in the house. This is really screwing with the HM’s heads. This is great in that respect. This must be how Travis gets evicted as seen in the spoiler at the start of the show. WHY do they do that!

Here we go again. Travis does a 30 minute speech (so it seems) and selects Terri again. Terri selects Travis again. Rory describes the situation as inhumane but later picks Travis. Ben does exactly the same thing that Rory does and picks Travis. It’s time to do the save – save – evict thing again after a commercial. As predicted, Ben is saved and there will be someone else saved, Rory. Next person will be Travis evicted, needless to say because everyone else voted for him. Get on with it, BB! Why are they acting surprised, especially Ben? Travis is devastated. After recording of his message, Alice and Travis meet up and BB tells them they are not indeed evicted. The two “evictees” return to the backyard and Rory is mightly annoyed. He later tells BB in the DR that he is mightly annoyed about the whole thing and that he finally realises that BB has control.

So there is 5 HM’s to go and this time next week, it will be game over, moles!

I first read the news on In the Diary Room and that post sent me off to Behind Big Brother. The message is simple – there will be no Australian BB next year. JOK didn’t save it, Carson didn’t save it, cOrEy didn’t save it, Peter Powers didn’t save it and Pamela Anderson didn’t save it. Not even Captain Possimistic could save it.

Declining ratings and sponsorship led to the decision that next week’s finale will be it for Australian BB. And while that is sad for me as a long term fan (since day 1), I can understand the decision. You may have heard my frustration at various points during Erk to the Diary Room this year due to this year’s HM’s and how far away from the original BB format we have gone.

I’ll have some great memories of various seasons and various people over the years and I have had some awesome interactions with people (mainly online) who were also fans of the show. The show also taught me a lot about how different people react in different conditions and generally I’ve enjoyed watching.

I hope to have a final podcast episode or 2 with Drue and Ben ASAP to wrap up this season and then we’ll get called to the Diary Room for the last time.

Goodnight, Big Brother. It was nice knowing you.

• Most of the Sunday DS and eviction show were about Pamela
• There was a silent dancing challenge (that looked like fun) that BB called a draw after 10 hours. Rory and Alice were still dancing on a small spot while blindfolded and listening to a few songs on a phone and headphones. Terri danced for 2 hours with no music. The prize were a couple of care packages from home. Cherry especially with some help from Ben and Terri tried to sabotage the competition after they were out and Travis didn’t believe it when he is disqualified. I don’t know how BB expected the HM’s to hear him with headphones in.
• Eviction show fairly neutral. A few DR pieces.
• All HM’s up for eviction after Paris’ eviction on Sunday. One HM was shown with over 50% of the vote at the start of the program.
• First HM saved was Rory. Next person saved was Terri. Third person saved was Alice. It’s now between Ben, Cherry and Travis. I think Travis is gone here. Fourth person saved is Travis. Oh well, there goes that theory. I now think it’s bye bye cardboard Ben. Commercial. It’s between Ben and Cherry.
• Next evictee is Cherry (50.5%). Now that is a bit of a shock for me. Paris backlash, maybe? Tweens and teens get their revenge?

Erk to the Diary Room episode 13 – 32 minutes

[Right click to download episode]

Welcome to this episode of Erk to the Diary Room. It has been a big week inside and outside of the BB House. Unfortunately, Erk could not be joined by co-hosts Drue & Ben. I’m sure that the episode would have been a lot better with some debate and further discussion about the issues but I (Erk) thought it was important to get an episode out at least updating you with what is happening. Hopefully in the next episode, Ben & Drue will be back and we’ll have a discussion about some of the events I talk about.

In this episode:

• The evictions of BeeYUNKA and Paris
• Pamela Anderson goes into the House
• Nominations
• FNL
• Betting, eviction and sex tape scandals
• Ben (the HM, not the co-host) off the rails?
• Who will win?
• What happens now?

• BB lines the evictees up in front of the door. As we know, Cherry saves Cherry from eviction. BB adds Paris and Alice to the list. Only Travis and Cherry are sitting on the couch.
• There are 3 evictees that are very close together. Who will go? Who knows? There is not one clear evictee according to the faceless graph.
• They intro’ed Pamela and then she disappeared eventually. Then it was back to eviction talk. I wonder how long this thing is going on for as it is 8.25pm and no one has been evicted and Pammy’s not in the house yet. (looks) We have another hour to go yet!
• HM friends and relatives including Eric (more on him later)
• First person saved is Alice, then Terri. Commercial.
• Paris is evicted (27.9%) -Erk says WOO HOO! K says “the next person to go is OH NO, OH NO, ” then reads her name.
• Eventually, BB poses Pamela in the window and Terri and Alice are the photographers. Alice and Rory think that it is really her, Cherry isn’t sure. Ben doesn’t seem to know either. Then Pamela goes to the DR and Rory gets called there. Needless to say, Rory is a bit starstruck but happy at the same time. Rory takes Pam into the house and introduces her to the HM’s.
• Now all the HM’s are up for eviction as the HM’s go and have dinner.

This year more than most, the answer (sadly) is no. While some of the “celebrities” have been images on a wall, one woman behind the glass was a Paris Hilton lookalike. So much so was Cherry impressed by her that while he is snuggling under the sheets with the house’s version of Paris, he went to the DR and asked BB if the “window girl” would be making a reappearance and if not, can he have her phone number?

This of course is leading up to the upcoming entry of C grade celebrity Pamela Anderson who in 30 minutes or so, will be on my TV heading into the house. There’s about 2 weeks to go, who else can we have in there? It just goes to show what desperation the BB producers need to go to if they need celebrities to enter the house, especially so close to the end.

EDIT: On the DS, they’d just had someone dressed up like singer Amy Winehouse. Add that to the list!

EDIT EDIT: On the DS, BB has just told Paris and Alice that they can have their hair professionally cut, coloured and styled. Unless they have robot hairdressers, there’s another person or so that will have inter-actions with the HM’s! But in the end, this didn’t happen because Cherry didn’t buy it for them. Then BB offered a deal – haircuts etc for the treadmill (I laughed hard at that!) and Alice and Paris said no.

• Rory: Paris (2) I do not want her to win. Most irritating. Cherry (1) I don’t think it is fair for an intruder to win.
• Alice: Cherry (2) for some reason about saving her last week and wanting him to be up so he has to save himself (I think that’s what she meant). She then changed her mind and nominated Rory (2), I feel most uncomfortable and intimidated around him. Ben (1) hasn’t been up for nominations and is a threat to me.
• Ben: Alice (2) inconsistencies with things she has said to me. Is she being strategic to me? Cherry (1) because he is chasing Paris while he knows that she has a guy on the outside. Ben thinks this is a dog act and disrespectful.
• Travis: Terri (2) interrupts me (Erk – FFS Travis, get a new reason!) in conversations. Rory (1) questions my opinions and says that I sugar coat stuff.
• Paris: Rory (2) because during the mole task, he lied to me. BB asks “why are you singling Rory out?”. Terri (1) because she is the biggest competition in the game and she gets the biggest cheers from the crowd. Paris thinks that Terri is going to win.
• Cherry: Ben (2) for strategic reasons. He is laying low. Rory (1) for strategic reasons, great competitor. Lucky to escape evictions when BeeYUNKA and Terrence were evicted.
• Terri: Rory (2) we had conversations where this week where Rory said my opinions were wrong and Terri believes that is arrogant of him. Cherry (1) for strategic reasons. He is an intruder and an original should win. She also didn’t like some of his comments on the previous night’s game.
• FINAL TALLY: Rory 8, Ben, Cherry & Terri 3,  Alice & Paris 2, Travis 0.
• Cherry saves Cherry.
• New evictees are Rory, Ben, Terri, Alice and Paris. So that means that the only people not up at Cherry and Travis.
• Lines close at 8.15pm Wednesday night in conjunction with the BB Pamela Anderson special.

• The mole task was completed and as we knew, there was no mole. Rima revealed it, recorded a farewell message and left. BeeYUNKA reacted badly, possibly signing her eviction papers this week.
• Cherry won FNL again this week. There were a couple of good games this week including watching Travis and BeeYUNKA reverse parking a golf cart. Travis’ reverse parking = EPIC FAIL.
• It was revealed on the Sunday DS that Cherry and Paris are starting to “get it on” in typical BB fashion with a late night snuggle. But what guy can snuggle with a girl who has the guy cuddling in one arm and cuddling a plush unicorn in the other?
• It’s pretty clear that channel 10 want BeeYUNKA gone this week. With the eviction show, you can see in the first few minutes that any nominated HM spoken about in a bad way usually goes. Even after the lines closed, there has been a heavy anti BeeYUNKA bias.
• Has Cherry got one hand on the winner’s trophy, especially as though he has got in with Paris?
• The Nobbi van has had yet another makeover. The best bit for me was placing people’s hands above the doors and spraying them with paint so you can see white hands.
• The whole backlash in relation to last week’s events on Big Mouth continue. As an example, there have been 144 comments (at the time of writing) on Tim Brunero’s site Oh Brother in relation to this and comments have been coming in all week. Normally a popular article might get 20-30 comments before things move on. There has been similar reactions on sites such as BBBA.
• K got Travis to remove his jeans in the DR to see his hairy upper legs but his shaved lower legs. Travis didn’t need TOO much persuasion!
• First person saved is Terri. Second person saved is Travis. That leaves Rory and BeeYUNKA. Bye, BeeYUNKA (after commercial!)
• BeeYUNKA evicted (46.8%) and she isn’t even wearing her glasses or a top with lots of cleavage!