Big Brother 2007 (UK)

Big Brother 2007, also known as Big Brother 8, was the eighth series of the British reality television series Big Brother, airing on Channel 4, with a number of closely associated programmes also airing on E4. Hosted by Davina McCall, the series launched on 30 May 2007 and ended 94 days later on 31 August 2007, making it the longest running series of Big Brother in the UK. Ratings for this series were at their lowest at the time, with the series averaging 3.8 million viewers.

This was the first Big Brother series to air in the UK since the highly controversial Celebrity Big Brother 5, as a result, a number of strict rules were applied to avoid a further controversy. A number of changes had been made to the show, including the omission of text message voting, and a reduction in the cost of calls to vote for evictions from 50p to 25p. At least 10p from each vote was going to charity.

The launch night was unique in that all the housemates who entered were female, with the male housemates arriving sparingly over the first two weeks. An additional five housemates (three females, and two males) entered the house in Day 59. They went to a new house next door called "The Halfway House".

Controversy hit the show on Day 8, when Emily Parr was removed from the house in the early hours of the morning after calling Charley Uchea a nigger; although she did not use it in an argument and the two appeared to be friends, a decision was made to remove her immediately.

This was the only non-celebrity series - until Big Brother 14 in 2013 - to include housemates over the age of 50 and at the time featured two of the oldest housemates. As of 2014, Lesley Brain remains the oldest ever non-celebrity housemate.

Brian Belo won the series, beating bookies' favourite Amanda and Sam in the final vote, he won £100,000, the same amount as third place finalist Liam McGough, who received this money in Week 3.

None of the housemates this series were selected to take part in Ultimate Big Brother, however, Amanda and Sam returned to the house to partake in a shopping task.

...
Wikipedia