Big Brother Betting: The weekly task analysed... and Jennifer is on borrowed time

Big Brother 11 / Mike Norman / 29 June 2008 / Leave a Comment

"Mystical" Mike Norman has ben watching the events in the house closely over the last week, in particular the weekly task. This is what they've done to the betting...

For a chance to win another luxury shopping budget, the housemates, or seven of them to be precise, had to take part in a task that involved recreating OK Go's hit music video 'Here it Goes Again'

To gauge the enormity of the task, take a look at the video first; http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=pv5zWaTEVkI

That video took OK Go months to rehearse and 17 takes to get right, Big Brother wanted four housemates to learn and perform it within 30 hours or so. Dale, Stuart, Sylvia and Rachel were selected for the treadmill part, except that Rachel hurt her finger about an hour into practice and had to be replaced by Rex. Dennis was to be the choreographer, much to his wild excitement, Lisa was to be the make-up artist, and Jennifer, who of course couldn't leave Dale and Stuart in a room with Sylvia, was to be the costume stylist.

The now evicted Sylvia the Snake I was fine with; she slithers from housemate to housemate spreading gossip so easily that dancing between the men she stalks would be a doddle - perhaps slipping on her own saliva would be her only danger.

It was Dale and Stuart I was initially worried about. At some point I expected them to say hell to the treadmill dancing and instead rip off their tops, flex their torsos, and have a run-off to see who was the more macho. I attributed similar doubts to Rex and half expected him to exaggerate the 'calories burnt' reading so that he'd have a plausible excuse to spend another week in the kitchen cooking restaurant type meals from potatoes and chickpeas.

But it was Dennis who would eventually become the villain, getting himself a stint in jail for talking about nominations at a time when he was getting his dancers to perfect their routine. He would become an even bigger villain later in the week.

Despite looking like a few of the Village People had invaded the local gym, the housemates version of 'Here it Goes Again' was quite enjoyable to watch (he says blushingly), and even more important, it was adjudged to have been a success - you can take a look for yourself here; http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=0jUGdU5nYG4

So to the fall out, and if the previous two weeks of passing food tasks are anything to go by then I suggest that the housemates fail miserably next week. Last week it was Alex, this week it was Dennis, the common factor being that they were both removed from the house for unacceptable behavior.

Dennis allegedly spat at Mohamed during a row that started when Rex smudged pizza on the picture of Stuart that Jennifer had painted earlier in the week. Are you following? Well it all started when Stuart entered the house last Friday. Jenny said that he wasn't her type (I've heard that before), Sylvia moved in on him, Jenny got jealous, Stuart chose Jenny's painting as the best, Sylvia got jealous, Stuart, Jenny and Sylvia took part in the food task together, they won the task, they got some alcohol, had a party, got drunk, Rex did his pizza thing, Jenny cried and....... god knows how Dennis and Mohamed got involved because E4 pulled the plug on the live streaming, such was the offence that the blazing row apparently could have caused to the viewers.

As the battle for fame continues, it's Rex and Jennifer who are in vulnerable positions from here on in. Both will pick up nominations on Monday because of how fellow housemates perceived their roles in the 'Massacre at Midnight' saga, and I'm afraid the days of Rex cooking to preserve his stay in the house are well over. Jennifer seems to be the central point of every argument between the alpha males and as soon as she is up for eviction, the public will vote her out.

It's no surprise to see Jennifer ([3.95]) and Rex ([4.5]) heading the '3rd Eviction' market and I see no harm in splitting your stakes between these two if you must play at this stage - at least one, if not both, will be up for eviction next week.

Surprisingly, Mari-halo is winning a lot of support in the house (as well as having fan clubs out of it) after his initial rocky first few days. Along with Lisa, he appears to be the man they all turn to for advice and sensible chat, which should see him win many friends and have a prolonged stay. He could be a dark horse in the 'Top Male' market at odds of [8.6] as Rex ([10.5]), Darnell ([2.54]) and Mohamed ([10.5] continue to isolate themselves from the others, and Luke ([4.6]) and Michael ([6.8]) drift in and out of favour.