Auditions

The first round of auditions started on 6 January 2007^[1] at the SECC in Glasgow, where there was a queue of three hundred people.^[2]

Sponsorship

On 8 March 2007, it was announced that The Carphone Warehouse would not return to sponsor Big Brother 8 after cancelling its sponsorship of Celebrity Big Brother 5,^[3] and on 21 March, that Virgin Media would sponsor the show, for a reported £3 million.^[4] Virgin Media's idents for the show use footage from Big Brother programmes from all around the world, including Germany, Brazil, Philippines and the Netherlands.^{[citation needed]}

Eye logo

The iconic Big Brother eye has been redesigned to what has been described as a "centrifugal inter-locking RGB rainbow test card"^[5] by its designer Daniel Eatock.^[6]

Broadcasts

On Channel 4, Davina McCall remained as main host of the live shows such as live launch, evictions, finale and other special shows where there may be a twist taking place. Marcus Bentley returned as narrator of the nightly highlight shows. For the first time since Big Brother 5 in 2004, there were no highlight shows broadcast on Saturday nights. In the early years of Big Brother, a live stream would feature on Channel E4, however this was omitted from the schedule until the final series (BB11-2010). Sunday night's highlight show would show just a short amount of footage from Friday, and would instead focus more on Saturday's events in the house.

McCall also hosted Big Brother: On the Couch, a psychology show broadcast on Sunday before the main show. It was similar to Big Brother's Big Brain, which was broadcast the previous year before being axed.^[7] It did not return in any subsequent series' of Big Brother.

Dermot O'Leary returned to host Big Brother's Little Brother. On 28 November 2007 he announced his departure from the show.^[8] His last presenting role was for the following Big Brother: Celebrity Hijack in January 2008.

Diary Room Uncut returned in the same time slot as the previous year. On Fridays, housemates would make podcasts.

Big Brother's Big Mouth returned in the same late night timeslot, however Russell Brand did not return, having quit the show earlier in the year.^[9] No permanent replacement was made and a different presenter/host took control each week.

Garden

As well as the kitchen fridge, the garden contained a swimming pool, a seating area^{[citation needed]} and, due to the smoking ban that came into effect in all public places during the series, a smoking area which housemates had to use from Day 1, even though the smoking ban didn't come into play until 1 July. This was checked by health officials, and deemed acceptable.^[12] The grass from the previous series has been replaced with AstroTurf.^{[citation needed]} The garden was one of the smallest this year, in comparison to the garden in Big Brother 7. On Day 25 it was revealed that a caravan was hidden behind a garden wall. The caravan came with two single beds and sleeping bags. Brian and Charley went "on holiday" to the caravan for one night. The caravan was again accessible from day 36, this time any of the housemates were allowed to use the room.^[13] An extension to the pool was revealed on Day 67, along with a bar area. The area was hidden behind the "wet" sign in the garden.^[14] "The Insider" on BBLB revealed that there was a fully functioning washing machine hidden in the garden, throughout the show.^[15] Dermot O'Leary revealed this to the housemates during the BBLB reunion show. Because of the Big Brother 7 water shortage, the garden included a water tower, which at the beginning of the series was full. The water tower was located next to the fridge and the mangle.

Vestibule

Between the entrance/exit stairs and the main house was a vestibule area. This was used for several tasks, rewards and punishments, such as Ziggy's dating task, Amanda and Sam's birthday party, the punishments on Day 43, and the "Sin Bin" which is the room Charley was made to stay in while the rest of the housemates had their sin party.^{[citation needed]}

Diary Room

A corridor was added between the Diary Room door and the main house which changes colour from red to blue to green when the "eye" button to open the door is pressed. The diary room chair was changed to a much larger see-through chair which contains white neon lights. For Big Brother: Celebrity Hijack, the lights inside the chair were coloured purple, to keep up with E4's theme. The diary room resides in almost the same place as last year, but set back a bit, making the living area larger. As in recent years, the diary room was used for several tasks. The Time Machine from Big Brother's time machine task was in the diary room. It was also used for the Seven Deadly Sins task.

Hidden rooms

The House contained a number of hidden rooms that were accessed either through the diary room or through a store room off the living area. At various points in the show, all or part of these rooms were opened up for various tasks and twists.

• One of these rooms was slept in by Thaila Zucchi, in her role as "Pauline", and it was Australia-themed and contained a kangaroo statue, a surfboard, plants and beanbags. The bedroom also contained the dossier from which "Pauline" could find out things about her housemates. Only "Pauline" was allowed in the room at that time.^[16]
• The rooms were later on used to house five 'halfway housemates' as part of a twist. It included a dormitory, common room, wash room and kitchenette as well as a small garden.^{[citation needed]}

Periodically throughout the series, housemates conducted various tasks in some of these rooms.

• For the BBTV task, a newsroom was built, where two housemates transmitted news to the rest of the house, such as messages from home.^[17] The rooms were also used as a studio for a gameshow and later a talent show.
• It was used as a "The Happy Room" to cheer up Charley and Billi, who were instructed to wear "happy" t-shirts and baseball caps for the duration of their stay. The room was full of red beanbags, and featured cheery slogans on the walls. While in the room, Big Brother played the tune, If You're Happy and You Know It.^[18]
• During the seven deadly sins task, it was turned into "The Room of Nicky" and contained pictures, books and footage of Nicky and also a sofa with cushions spelling N-I-C-K-Y. Nicky was instructed to stay in the room and learn to appreciate herself until Big Brother allowed her to leave.^{[citation needed]}
• For Big Brother's birthday task, a Practice Room was built, where the entertainers had to practice.^[19] A party room was then provided with a ball pool, small stage, and an area for food.^[20] Amanda and Sam, Gerry, Nicky, and Ziggy were chosen as the party guests. Carole's job was the face painter. Chanelle and Liam performed magic. Charley and Tracey were clowns. Brian was the final musical performer.

Halfway House

On Day 59, five new housemates Amy, Jonty, Shanessa, David and Kara entered the house and were told they would live in the Halfway House which was reached by going through the store room or through the diary room and down a corridor. The Halfway Housemates and ordinary house mates were swapped around for different reasons. Day 59 Amy, David, Jonty, Kara and Shanessa enter the Halfway House. David visits the main house. Day 60 In the morning Amy visits the main house, followed by Jonty in the afternoon. Day 61 In the morning Shanessa visits the main house, followed by Kara in the afternoon. Day 62 Housemates in the main house choose David and Kara to enter the house swapped with Ziggy. Day 63 The Halfway Housemates have a task called Jack in a box to win a place in the main house. Shanessa won and was swapped with Liam who Shanessa chose. Day 64 The four Halfway housemates had to choose to swap with four housemates in the main house they chose David, Kara, Shanessa and Tracey who moved in halfway house and were automatically faced eviction. Day 65 The halfway housemates are given a last night to go into the main house for a few hours. Day 66 The first halfway housemate to be evicted is Shanessa, the second is David. Then Kara and Tracey re-enter the main house for good.

Notes

Notes

Racist language

Nine days into the series, Channel 4 was criticised for deciding to air the word "nigger" on their daily highlights show.^[27] After the criticism they received for not handling the Celebrity Big Brother racism allegations properly back in January, they were quick to intervene after Emily used the word in conversation with Charley. On the other hand, Charley and Nicky subsequently used the same contentious word several times, in reference to Emily's use. No action was seen to be taken against them.^[28] After Emily's disqualification from the competition was announced, 922 viewers complained to Ofcom, the British television regulator, believing that it was unfair.^[29] Another 270 people expressed dissatisfaction with Channel 4's decision to air the word "nigger" uncensored.^[29] Parr was invited on BBLB, which also caused disturbances, but postponed her appearance. The press and Dermot presumed she postponed due to the controversy, but as she revealed in her BBLB interview, it was not.

Furthermore, on Day 40, Channel 4 confirmed that Charley had been called to the Diary Room and reprimanded after using the word "nigger" twice on one night. This was not broadcast on the nightly highlights programme or the live feed, further inflaming rumours about favouritism towards Charley. A Big Brother spokesperson claimed "Charley used the N-word as a black woman to refer to another black person. We judged her use of the term different from Emily's. But Big Brother called her to the Diary Room to remind her that this word could cause offence."^[30][31]