As everyone knew before the series was to air, the intention behind Channel 5's misguided initial theme (which got scrapped a few days into the house) was to have Stormy Daniels be a cast member for this series, only for Stormy to (sensibly) bail on proceedings. That said with former Cheers actress Kirstie Alley and reality star Natalie Nunn, that side of the pond was represented fairly well enough, even if the latter grated pretty fast and became the first to be evicted from the house. The rest of the housemates then comprised of soap actors Ryan Thomas and Roxanne Pallett, former footballer Jermaine Pennant, radio host, Hardeep Singh Kohli, "psychic" Sally Morgan, former derivatives broker, Nick Leeson and various other reality people including Daniel Osbourne, Gabby Dawn Allen, Rodrigo Alves, Ben Jardine and model Chloe Ayling. In some respects, not too much recognisable faces.
For the first couple of days and because Channel 5 clearly didn't want to admit defeat over Stormy heading back to the US, the ill conceived presidential/Stormy theme went ahead with Kirstie assuming the commander in chief role with Ryan as her right hand man. To be fair to both of them, they did a brilliant job overall but between Natalie's incessant moaning and trying to create conflict with Kirstie over her own views regarding Trump and the fact that this idea felt like two series too late, I think we all could've done without this particular theme. Luckily for us (and probably due to Stormy being a no show), the theme was dropped after a few days, so the actual storm stuff come come into affect with the housemates being stuck with each other.
The biggest storm occurred halfway through the house when Roxanne Pallett falsely accused Ryan Thomas of assaulting her during a bit of play fighting. It was lucky for Ryan that due to this being on the air, audiences quickly spotted that Roxanne was lying but the fact that the show let it manifest to the level that they did before Roxanne left the house was absolutely shocking. The show has been pretty irresponsible in the past over tensions with the housemates but their actions (along with Roxanne's) contributed to Ryan even doubting himself, which was despicable of them to do. In the end, the right thing was done with Roxanne facing consequences for her actions as even Emma Willis could barely contain her disgust towards Roxanne during that awkward interview while Ryan went on to win the latest series and deservedly so, considering what he had been subjected to while in the house. Of course, Roxanne wasn't the only person who left the house in controversy as a "further incident" also saw the departure of Rodrigo Alves as well. We still don't seem to entirely know what went down there, do we?
As for the rest of the housemates - I think this show helped both Dan and Gabby with general public perception while people like Nick, Sally and Hardeep seemed to fare pretty well too, considering that "bigger" or "younger" people left before any of them did. I'll admit Chloe came across as a bit dull to watch and Jermaine and Ben weren't the most exciting of housemates either (even if the latter was extremely loud). I'm going to go against the grain by saying I didn't much care for Nick but I did find the Sally and Hardeep rivalry interesting, even when it led to a pretty heated discussion on the nature of race, in which I could see both sides (though I sympathise a little more with Hardeep). For me though, while Ryan was a deserving winner, my favourite housemate was Kirstie Alley. Endlessly entertaining, funny, a little mad and an overall a good person, she was a worthy second place and in another series, she definitely would've won the show. While I preferred the earlier version this year, this series after a dull start and some bad behind the scenes decisions did thankfully pick up pace though.
The regular Big Brother starts Friday at 9pm on Channel 5. The show may be taking a break in 2019 though.
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