Insider dishes dirt on Big Brother's secrets
06:00 AEST Mon Apr 28 2008 By ninemsn staff
A giant bed, a conveyer belt for food and a "dwarf contestant" are some of the secrets Big Brother has been trying to hide in the lead-up to its 2008 debut, an insider says.
Big Brother returns for its eighth series tomorrow night, hoping to reignite the excitement it generated in its early days.
The show's producers have already unveiled several contestants, including a Pauline Hanson supporter, an Aboriginal health worker and notorious teen Corey Worthington.
But a source close to the show told ninemsn the show's big shock tactic would be the introduction of a little person into the house.
In addition, the housemates will not be given food to cook for the first week and will instead be fed meals shipped into the house on a conveyer belt.
Nor will the housemates have their own beds — they will instead be forced to sleep next to one another in one giant bed.
The reality TV series has floundered in recent years with ratings steadily declining.
In an effort to stop the decline, Ten has replaced the more mature Gretel Killeen with shock jocks Kyle and Jackie O.
The duo have been extensively publicised in a new campaign I Don't Think So, which promises that the show will be different from ever before.
The producers have already revealed a 21-year-old Aboriginal mental health worker Dixie, a Pauline Hanson-supporting grandmother Terri, and 20-year-old professional horse rider Travis as housemates.
Notorious party punk Corey Worthington will add extra flavour as an intruder.
Meanwhile, at least one contestant - a young Afghani Muslim - has already pulled out.
"There isn't (a Muslim), there was," Big Brother executive producer Virginia Hodgson told News Ltd.
"We had chosen an Afghani Muslim guy as one of our housemates. He couldn't proceed for personal and family reasons.
"He hasn't been replaced (by a devout Muslim)."
The Up Late show has been canned, while a new panel style discussion show Big Brother Big Mouth hosted by veteran presenters Tony Squires and Rebecca Wilson will be a new addition on Mondays.
The popular Friday Night Games will continue with Ryan "Fitzy" Fitzgerald, Mike Goldman and Bree Amer.
Whether the show can reinvent itself has become a big focus of discussion.
A leading TV expert, Dr Jason Sternberg from the Queensland University of Technology (QUT), said he believed that Big Brother was dying a slow death because it wasn't new any more.
In 2006 the then prime minister John Howard called for the show to be dumped after the infamous "turkey slap" incident in which housemate Camilla Severi was pinned down while two male housemates rubbed their crotch in her face.
The show has received complaints and in 2005 the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) found it had breached its code on two occasions. The program screens at 7pm.
With AAP
TOMORROW NIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
