Big Brother entrants express fears

Sada is one of the favourites to be kicked out

Producers of Channel 4's Big Brother show have had to step in to stop the contestants talking about their fear of eviction.

The 10 housemates bidding for the £70,000 prize in the voyeuristic TV experiment have become obsessed with self-preservation.

The group of strangers were put together in the purpose-built, camera-filled property last Monday. Each week they have to hold a secret ballot to nominate which one of their number should be evicted.

Members of the public, who can watch events in the house unfold live on the internet, then get two days to choose which of the two most popular choices should go.

Darren is retreating into his shell

The winner of the jackpot is the last person left in the house at the end of the 64-day series.

A Big Brother spokeswoman said the contestants had split into two cliques - five men and five women - with Sada and Caroline the favourites to be kicked out first.

"They have spent nearly all weekend talking about who is going to be thrown out," she revealed. "It got to the point where they were obsessing so much about it Big Brother had to give them another topic of conversation.

Blows

"The girls are now in a very definite clique, with Sada at the head, and she has been trying to get all the others to nominate a boy to go because she's worried about being selected.

"But privately the girls have been talking behind her back, and Mel doesn't like her at all. She has already admitted she could come to blows with her."

The spokeswoman said the boys wanted to get rid of Sada or Caroline - the latter who has been described as "useless" by Andrew.

"Another thing is that although he is still hanging around with the boys, Darren has gone very quiet.

"He's probably thinking 'I'm not going to win this', and if anyone's going to walk out it's going to be him," she added.

Anyone is free to leave the house in Bow, east London if it gets too much, with producers allowed to draft in a replacement from a pool of reserves.

When the housemates were finally persuaded to talk about other things, artist Nichola revealed she'd had her tongue pierced by a friend using a needle and cooking tongs.

For her part, Sada described Andrew as "the worst type of man", while softly-spoken Thomas revealed he may have a nine-year-old love child - if two fortune-tellers are to be believed.