Bradley
Colson
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Ekin-Su
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Zeze
Royals will be hoping that Gary Goldsmith, who faces eviction on Friday, will not generate headlines about the Prince and Princess of Wales
It’s the reality TV show that gives a fly-on-the-wall peek at how celebrities – a term used here in its loosest form – look when they’re lounging on the sofa in their pyjamas.
But the bit of hidden-camera footage we’d have really liked to see this week is the one showing the reaction of the royal family as Gary Goldsmith, the Princess of Wales’s “bad uncle”, walked into the celebrity Big Brother house.
Thanks to The Traitors and Race Across the World, shows with ‘normal’ people are booming. Does Sharon Osbourne on Celebrity Big Brother mark the end of famous contestants?
‘It’s the most famous house in Britain!” the hosts AJ Odudu and Will Best kept telling us, repeatedly, with a slightly hostage-like tone, as they stood outside Big Brother’s compound preparing to welcome a new crew of celebrity contestants. It is the first series of Celebrity Big Brother since 2018, when the show was won by the soap actor Ryan Thomas on Channel 5. This time, ITV’s reboot features “stars” including the Princess of Wales’s uncle Gary Goldsmith, the Dragons’ Den success story Levi Roots, the former This Morning presenter Fern Britton and the former X Factor judge Louis Walsh.
During Monday night’s live launch, my social media feed was full of complaints that the lineup didn’t exactly scream A-list. Sharon Osbourne – who is married to rock royalty and can reasonably claim to be one of the first “reality stars” – is the most famous person there. But she is only staying as a “lodger” for a week, with her very own fancy private room. (Presumably ITV’s budget didn’t stretch far enough for a full stay.)