WI member set for new Big Brother

According to the Daily Mirror, all of the initial contestants will be female.

The eighth series of the Channel 4 reality show starts on Wednesday, with contestants entering the house at Elstree Studios in Hertfordshire.

Channel 4 will also broadcast an apology over its handling of January's Celebrity Big Brother race row.

TV regulator Ofcom ruled last week that the show breached its code of conduct.

The watchdog found that Channel 4 made "serious editorial misjudgements" in its handling of the incidents involving Indian actress Shilpa Shetty.

'Quirky surprises'

TABLOID RUMOURS
What the papers say will happen in Big Brother:

• Show starts with an all-girl house
• Housemates forced to sleep four to a bed
• Islamic contestant will wear a veil
• Raunchy peep show planned for sex-starved contestants
• Couples to be offered the chance to marry on air
• New-look house will have four rotating rooms
• Secret garden linked to bedroom to encourage romantic night-time trysts
• Contestants' partners to be put on display in secret room
• "Asbo teen" will wreak havoc in the house

Producers have promised "quirky surprises" for the new series.

Housemates will find their bath is in the living room, their fridge in the garden and an oven-free kitchen.

The house will also be man-free until Friday, reports the Daily Mirror, when a "real hunk" will be introduced to the line-up.

More men will be brought in after a couple of weeks, it says.

The newspaper quotes an insider as saying: "It will be a hilarious start. The girls' behaviour will be fascinating."

No text votes

Channel 4 has said it will not profit from phone lines on the eighth series, after controversy over its handling of a previous vote.

It has halved the cost of taking part in the eviction process to 25p per call, with 15p spent on administration fees and the rest going to charity.

It had to scrap a poll on Celebrity Big Brother in January after a mix-up in a vote involving housemate Shilpa Shetty.

In a further change to the reality show's voting process, viewers will no longer be able to participate through text messages.

This is because of the lack of time during live broadcasts for mobile phone operators to count and verify the votes in the way that Channel 4 demands.

And all elements of voting will be monitored by an external law firm in future.

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