Weekly Summary
Trailed as "Big Brother turns evil", it was controversial from the start. The house was smaller and more claustrophobic; there was one bedroom in which each mattress was removed every time a housemate left, along with a loud noise to wake the housemates in the morning; and the prize money of £100,000 was reduced if housemates failed their tasks. Big Brother promised tougher challenges as well as surprises to test the minds of housemates. The Big Brother producers were initially criticised for choosing contestants specifically to boost ratings, opting for people that were openly gay (Marco, Daniel and Kitten), a transsexual (Nadia), a former asylum seeker (Ahmed), and a person who claimed to be bisexual (Jason, although he later revealed that this had been a fabrication to improve his chances of being selected). Becki, however, was in fact bisexual. This feeling soon dissipated to a large extent as the personalities of the housemates overshadowed these issues. One of the main twists to Big Brother in 2004 was the fluctuating prize fund. Housemates could either win or lose money depending on how well they completed the task. As the winner, Nadia received £63,500, meaning that the housemates lost £36,500 during the 71-day run of the series.
| Week 1 | Tasks | On Day 2, the housemates individually nominated who they thought was least deserving of their suitcase. The majority of the housemates chose Kitten (who was also deemed to have nominated herself by refusing to nominate). Only five housemates did not vote for Kitten not to receive her suitcase; Nadia and Ahmed voted for Michelle, Emma voted for Victor, Daniel voted for Marco and Stuart voted for Ahmed. |
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| Punishments | On Day 5, the rebellious housemates (especially Kitten) decided to move the refrigerator into the bedroom, but were disciplined for their actions. Kitten broke all house rules bar one (physical violence) in the first week, and received the maximum of three formal warnings. After her third warning, she was informed that because of her behaviour, one housemate would be evicted on Friday, and this turned out to be her. | |
| Prize fund | The housemates lost £9,000 during week one. Kitten was ejected from the Big Brother house, but she refused to leave. Big Brother decided to drop £1,000 from the prize fund for every second that Kitten remained in the house. She stayed inside the house for 9 seconds and the housemates lost £9,000. At the end of week one, the prize was £91,000. | |
| Entrances | Marco, Ahmed, Jason, Daniel, Stuart, Victor, Vanessa, Emma, Kitten, Michelle, Shell and Nadia entered on Day 1. | |
| Exits | On Day 8, Kitten was removed by Big Brother because of her constant breaking of the rules. Though technically an ejection, on the programme it was counted as an eviction. | |
| Week 2 | Tasks | On Day 9, the task involved Stuart's knowledge and Jason's strength. Stuart was required to answer general knowledge questions in the Diary Room while Jason had to spin a turntable on which the rest of the housemates sat. On Day 10, the housemates were told of the first week-long task: Big Brother Food to Go, a 24/7 fast food challenge. The housemates failed the task. |
| Prize fund | During the task on Day 9, Big Brother decided that Ahmed had not abided by the task rules, and Big Brother decided to take £1,000 away from the prize fund and the housemates (Stuart's knowledge) lost £5,000. The total after week two was £85,000. | |
| Twists | During the eviction night on Day 15, the housemates believed Michelle and Emma were evicted, but instead they were taken to the Big Brother Bedsit, where they could see and hear what was going on. This was originally supposed to happen on Day 8, but postponed because of the removal of Kitten. | |
| Exits | Michelle and Emma moved to the Big Brother Bedsit on Day 15. | |
| Week 3 | Tasks | The housemates were set a football task to coincide with the Euro 2004 championships that were occurring at the time. As a reward for passing the task, the housemates received their shopping budget, and were allowed to watch an England football game from the tournament. In the bedsit, Emma and Michelle were set tasks by Big Brother for their other housemates, including baking a cake with chili powder, choosing a housemate to only receive cold showers for the week for which they choose Victor, and to choose which housemate would be given a football shirt filled with itching powder for the weekly task, for which they choose Vanessa. They also got to choose which costumes housemates would wear at a party during which they would return to the house. |
| Incidents | After Emma and Michelle's return to the house, scenes of aggression and violence erupted now known as "FIGHT NIGHT" resulting in on-site security staff having to enter the house for the first time in the show's history. Some viewers of the live feed also called the police; after a short investigation, a joint statement by Hertfordshire police and producers Endemol said that they were satisfied with steps being taken to ensure housemates' safety and well-being. Police were also reportedly questioning each contestant as they left the house. A psychologist on the show resigned, claiming that his warnings that Endemol's deliberate selection of housemates likely to cause conflict would lead to the fight went unheeded. | |
| Prize fund | Prize money dropped to £77,000. | |
| Week 4 | Tasks | On Day 25, housemates were given a papier-maché task in which they had to create a unique housemate sculpture. Later, Ahmed tore it down. |
| Punishments | As a result of the fight on Day 20, Emma was moved back to the bedsit and then removed permanently on Day 23. Victor, Jason, Nadia, Vanessa, Marco were given a formal warning. | |
| Prize fund | Task was cancelled due to the removal of Emma over Fight Night. Therefore the prize fund stayed the same at £77,000. | |
| Exits | Emma was ejected on Day 23 and Vanessa was evicted on Day 29. | |
| Week 5 | Tasks | On Day 30, Big Brother gave the housemates a task involving unscrambling words displayed by the other housemates and resisting an electric shock. The housemates weekly task involved them becoming hippies, and they had to write their own songs and live the life of hippies. |
| Twists | New housemate, Becki, was given a task by Big Brother to kiss one of the housemates on both cheeks, and that housemate would be up for eviction. This became known as the "Judas kiss". She chose popular housemate Michelle to face eviction, and Becki became unpopular. The Sun (United Kingdom) newspaper employed a plane to fly a banner over the house stating "The Sun - Only Becki nominated Michelle!" | |
| Prize fund | Victor failed to solve one anagram which spelt "Bankrupt" in the task, thereby losing £3,000, leaving a prize fund of £74,000. | |
| Entrances | Becki entered the house on Day 31 as Emma's replacement. | |
| Exits | Marco was evicted on Day 36. | |
| Week 6 | Tasks | Housemates weekly task was based around going back to school. Housemates had to attend registration in the morning, and were set several mini-tasks based on school subjects. They failed the task after Nadia misspelled "balloon" in a spelling bee task, causing the housemates to protest as English was not her first language. |
| Punishments | The housemates staged a silent protest after failing the shopping task, and in the afternoon started to rebel against Big Brother. Michelle decided to steal the Diary Room camera and unsuccessfully attempted to incinerate it using a match. As punishment for this, Michelle was given her "first and final warning". Daniel, Shell, Stuart, and Nadia were also each issued warnings because Daniel, Shell, and Nadia helped Michelle steal the camera and Stuart gathered the hay that Michelle tried to ignite. Stuart was also individually punished by being made to watch a video of the cowboy hat he had cherished being burned outside of the house. | |
| Prize fund | Prize money dropped by £2,500 to £71,500 during a farmer/cow task. | |
| Exits | Becki was evicted on Day 43. | |
| Week 7 | Tasks | Big Brother gave the housemates a boot camp task. Jason and Michelle were selected as sergeants while the rest of the housemates were privates. In the Diary Room, Jason and Michelle were told that if the privates passed the task, then they would be up for eviction, and if the privates failed the task, then the two sergeants would be nominated. The privates passed, and all six were automatically nominated for eviction. On Day 48, the housemates participated in a dating service. |
| Prize fund | The prize money remained at £71,500. | |
| Exits | Ahmed was evicted on Day 50. | |
| Week 8 | Tasks | The housemates were set a wedding task, and Shell and Victor were chosen as the bride and groom. Nadia was the bridesmaid, Daniel was the best man, Jason held the service and Michelle sang at the service. The housemates took part in all traditional events of a wedding including a hen and stag night, and the service itself, but failed the task on the first day. The wedding became memorable for sparking the argument between Shell and Victor, and for Michelle's rendition of the song "Pie Jesu" at the service. |
| Prize fund | Prize money dropped to £56,500 after a fish-guts task. The housemates could have won the £15,000 back if Michelle (who is a vegetarian) drank a glass of fish milkshake or £5,000 if anyone else did, but it was thrown away amid speculation that it was not a good idea healthwise. Later on that week, three people failed a task, losing £1,000 each, resulting in the prize dropping further to £53,500. | |
| Exits | Victor was evicted on Day 57. It was reported that before the argument between Victor and Shell, Jason was considerably far ahead in the votes, but Victor had overtaken him in the aftermath of the fight. | |
| Week 9 | Tasks | The housemates were weighed, and were then chained together in pairs based on their weight. Daniel and Nadia, the heaviest man and woman were shackled together by the foot, Jason and Michelle were chained together by the arm, and the lightest man and woman - Stuart and Shell were shackled together by the waist. Housemates were made to stay shackled together except for when they were in the diary room or in the bathroom, and had to apply each other's makeup and brush each other's teeth, as well as competing in mini-tasks, including making pottery and writing a short story as a pair, typing only one letter each at a time. Housemates passed the task. |
| Exits | Michelle was evicted on Day 64. | |
| Week 10 | Prize fund | Housemates were given a chance to win back £10,000 by drinking shots, some of which included fish guts. Their total was then £63,500. |
| Exits | Stuart was secretly evicted during a party on Day 69 having received the least votes to win at that point. He was not given a chance to say goodbye to his fellow housemates, who all initially felt that he had won the series after hearing the crowds reaction to him when he left the building. | |
| Finale | Nadia, as expected by all the bookmakers (she was favourite for six weeks), won Big Brother (UK) 2004 with 74% of the vote. She was greeted by an adoring crowd who chanted her name.
Final vote breakdown: |
Read more about this topic: Big Brother 2004 (UK)
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