Celebrity Big Brother 2012 – A Review

All in all it was a series of few surprises. The bad-girl bitch character was first to be evicted and the women were picked off one by one. No man was evicted until day 19 when it would have been physically impossible for both Martin and Lorenzo to stay. It’s pretty safe to say, this is a man’s world and the pattern of female eviction looks set to run on and on. And on. And on.

What then were the series’ big surprises? In my mind there were two: firstly the early exit of Eastenders’ ostensibly popular Cheryl Fergison over human calculator Prince Lorenzo and secondly the transformation of Bet Lynch AKA Julie Goodyear ‘from grandma to gangsta mama’ as The Sitch so eloquently put it. So what happened exactly?

For me, Cheryl’s eviction was the biggest shocker. I can only assume, to be blunt, that the ‘cuddly woman’ vote landed on Coleen’s side and left Cheryl without a decent wad of support. I had thought that her laddish humour and apparent lack of obvious feminine sexuality would excuse her from the traditional female fate but alas it seems there wasn’t enough lady love from the public to share between two nominees and Loose Woman Coleen was simply more popular.

As for the leopard lashings of Corrie’s arch-tart, Julie, I think perhaps we might have spotted that one coming a little sooner. Actress or no, there was something altogether too convincing about her performance with Cheryl on opening night and the admission of the latter that she had been intimidated by Julie might have been an early clue. As Coleen’s sister (one of the many ‘Nolans’) pointed out on BOTS, people in the business are aware of reputations and Julie is apparently known for having a difficult one. She was also simply too saccharine sweet with all the troubled youths from the start and the hero act started to show cracks as soon as it became apparent that Julie could be bothered no longer. To anyone who laid Julie in the early to mid stages I doff my hat.

One of the hardest to call throughout was Harvey and he eventually fell, unsurprisingly I suppose, in the boring last-placed-finalist slot. After entering to boos because of his loverat rep, he then came across as very humble and endearing, not to mention painfully handsome. I thought he was a dark horse. However, after turning things around and showing us all that he was Mr Nice Guy, he started to show a slightly ugly and (I have to agree with Lorenzo here) chauvinistic side to his personality. The expression ‘bros before hos’ springs immediately to mind.

Other than that, the public reacted to the housemates largely as we all expected. There wasn’t a great deal of dispute in the comments section and there was only one surprise outcome for Cheryl. The Situation proved more popular than I initially expected but unsurprisingly his appeal was too narrow for a top 3 finish. Julian, Coleen and Martin made for a typically British final trio. Martin’s broad fanbase was cancelled out by his inherent dullness, whilst part-time Nolan, Coleen wasn’t quite up to following fellow Loosey Denise to the BB crown. In the end, it was an obvious win for Julian, a long-standing celebrity who wears both housewives favourites and acid-tongue hats.

What did you all think of the eventual outcome? Were there any shocks or was it plain sailing all the way? How have you bet this series and how will you bet in the future? Is the value in the win market, or lurking within evictions?

As ever, let us know!