Big Brother 3, 2002

Big Brother 3
The series started on 24 May 2002, and ended on 26 July 2002. The third series saw two early walkouts, by housemates Sunita Sharma and Sandy Cumming; Sandy surprised his fellow housemates as well as the production team by urinating in a bin, scaling a wall and escaping over a roof whilst the rest of the housemates watched the England vs Brazil World Cup Quarter final match (It was latter claimed by Sandy to be the "Most exciting thing to happen in the house"). Sunita was replaced by Sophie Pritchard, and Sandy by Tim Culley.

Also this year the house was split into two for a time: those on one side had more luxuries and better food than those on the other. A weekly task, shown live on Saturday nights, determined which housemates lived on which side of the Rich House / Poor House divide. Kate Lawler and Jonny Regan spent more time on the poor side of the house than any other contestant, which may have fostered sympathy for them from the viewers.

Jade Goody was has since become a celebrity in her own right began her TV career as a housemate in this series, gaining notoriety for her apparent lack of general knowledge. Amongst other things, she thought that Sherlock Holmes invented the toilet, that Rio de Janeiro was a person and that East Anglia was a foreign country.

Tabloid newspapers took an instant dislike to Jade. Within the first 10 days of the start of the series, The Sun had nicknamed her Miss Piggy, installed her as favourite for eviction and branded her a "big mouth". TV presenter Graham Norton was an early driving force in the campaign against Jade with monologues in his chat show focused on her rather porcine features ("Jade is afraid to eat fruit. She thinks if the others see her with an apple in her mouth, they'll roast her").

The hate campaign launched against Jade had so much momentum that The Sun branded her Public Enemy No 1. Jade was hot favourite to be evicted and yet on July 8th, The Sun published an article in which it accused Big Brother makers of toning down its coverage to show a quieter Jade — and a bitchy Adele Roberts 'amid fears Jade may crack up or try to sue when she leaves the show and learns how viewers see her.'

Channel 4 denied that they manipulated the coverage of Jade to keep her in the house. Nevertheless, that week many opinion forming Channel 4 TV shows (RI:SE, SO Graham Norton) made a U-turn and campaigned to keep Jade in the house and evict Adele. Graham Norton began to champion Jade saying "Jade may be a stupid pig but she’s by far the most entertaining person in the house - and at least she’s not evil like Adele. The following week, Jade was saved from eviction again when nominations were cancelled and PJ was evicted after having to draw lots.

As a result of Channel 4's alleged pro-Jade campaign, public opinion changed towards Goody and she eventually came 4th and enjoyed success as a public personality after the end of the series, admitting in Sky One's show Why reality TV is good for you that she is a millionairess.

Alex also became a popular figure due to his obsession with cleaning the house, and ended up in Domestos commercials, singing along to KC & The Sunshine Band's hit That's the Way (I Like It), following a famous, in-house incident in he sang along to the song to a camera as a door closed.

By far, the largest fad in the house was a game called Follow the Van. In one of the weekly shopping deliveries was a fluorescent Mystery Machine van, from cereal brand Sugar Puffs' Scooby Doo promotion. It was finally revealed on the reunion show that it involved following the van with your lips, and kissing where it came into contact with someone.

The eventual winner of the £70,000 prize was Kate Lawler, who went on to co-present Channel 4's breakfast TV show, RI:SE; she also dated footballer Jonathan Woodgate and is now a DJ. Two other housemates, Sophie Pritchard and Lee Davey, later got married and had a child, but separated in 2006.

Big Brother 3 Housemates

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