The sixth season of the Australian reality television series, Big Brother, also known as Big Brother 2006, began on 23 April 2006, with housemates going into the house the day before, and finished on 31 July 2006; a duration of 101 days. In the auditions, which had been held in November and December 2005, producers asked for contestants who were "smart, strong, and looking for a fight".
The Launch was aired on the evening of 23 April 2006 (a 24-hour delay). Fifteen housemates initially entered the house on Day 0, with the addition of three Intruder housemates entering the Big Brother House in Week 4, another three Intruders in Week 9, and two replacement housemates entering in Week 12. On Day 100, Jamie was declared the winner of Big Brother 2006, with Camilla the runner-up. At the time it was the closest winning margin in any Australian series of the show, later beaten by Series 7 in 2007.
As in the previous season, the voice of Big Brother was provided by Nick Colquhoun, who continued to portray the character with a stricter and more authoritarian tone. Throughout the 2006 series, Big Brother frequently issued fines and penalties to housemates for rule breaches and maintained a firm disciplinary approach. On several occasions, housemates who broke the rules were also given specific punishments by Big Brother. This season proved to be highly controversial after two male housemates sexually harassed a female housemate, resulting in the pair’s ejection from the show. The incident sparked calls for the series to be investigated for possible breaches of broadcasting laws, and calls for the cancellation of the series by several commentators and politicians, including then Australian Prime Minister John Howard and opposition leader Kim Beazley.
Ratings Ratings for Big Brother 2006 were up slightly on the previous year. The Daily Show increased its average audience to 1.13 million viewers, up from 1.11 million in 2005. The live Sunday evening Eviction shows averaged an audience of around 1.3 million for the 2006 series. The 2006 Finale attracted 1.9 million viewers with the viewing audience peaking at 2.2 million at 9:39 pm
Changes and additions The sixth season featured several innovations to the formula.
Voting format In previous seasons, viewers could only vote to evict the nominated housemates they wanted to leave the house. This season added the save vote. Any viewer may cast as many evict or save votes as they choose. Prior to eviction each housemates' save votes were merged with their evict votes; the housemate with the highest number of evict votes—or lowest number of save votes—remaining after the merge is evicted.
The House As with some previous seasons, a new house with an original layout was constructed for this series. A new feature was the addition of a Punishment Room to which rule-breaking housemates would be consigned by Big Brother. Housemates in the Punishment Room were required to perform tedious, difficult, embarrassing, or mildly painful tasks and jobs, such as sorting white rice from brown rice, sanding a wooden cube into a sphere, or dancing around a sombrero for hours.
Related housemates secret One of the twists of this season, promoted in advertising hyperbole as "Australia's World First", was that housemates Karen and Krystal are mother and daughter. This was not revealed to the other housemates, who were challenged to uncover the secret relationship in the house. The other housemates failed to uncover their secret, and as a reward for success in keeping their secret Karen and Krystal were exempt from being nominated by other housemates in the first round. Karen was later evicted from the House on Day 22. In Big Brother 2005 a different related-housemates secret task was conducted. Twin brothers Greg and David Mathew were, one at a time, put in the House, and were told to swap places at given times without being noticed by other housemates. They were given the mission to keep this a secret for the opportunity to be entered into the game as individual housemates, each with the chance of winning Big Brother 2005.
The Insider This season featured The Insider. Australia voted between the Housemates deemed "The Most Competitive" - David, Michael & Camilla. Michael was voted by Australia to be The Insider with 43% of the vote. Michael had to complete secret missions tasked by Big Brother in order to win immunity from Nomination Voting and hence, Eviction. Failure in a mission would result in Automatic Nomination.
After 3 weeks, Michael retired as The Insider. Australia voted between David, Clare and Jade during Week 4's eviction. Jade was selected with 45% of the vote.
Big Brother Uncut 2006 saw the renaming of Big Brother Uncut to Big Brother: Adults Only. Network Ten discontinued Adults Only early due to pressure from politicians, with the final episode broadcast on 19 June 2006. The content that was to be used on unscreened episodes was made available on a new Big Brother Premium (paying members) section of the Big Brother website called Adults Only.
Housemates Fifteen housemates entered at the beginning of the season. A total of eight additional housemates entering during the series. The first batch of intruders were Danielle Foote, Jade Stack and Rob Rigley. The second batch of intruders were Perry Apostolu, Darren Bowley and Lauren Clayton. After Ashley Cox and John Bric were removed after the controversial "turkey slapping incident" replacement housemates Max and Chris were added.
The winner was announced in July to be Jamie Brooksby, with Camilla Severi (alias "Camilla Halliwell") runner-up. It was the closest public voting in the Australian Big Brother series up to this point. While all former 2006 Big Brother housemates and intruders were all reunited for the 2006 Finale, Ashley and John were not invited to attend and participate.
Name Age Day entered Day exited Result Jamie Brooksby 22 0 100 Camilla Severi 22 0 100 David Graham 26 0 99 Max Panebianco 20 80 99 Chris Everden 22 80 95 Krystal Forscutt 19 0 92 Claire Madden 22 0 92 Darren Bowley 19 60 85 Perry Apostolou 39 60 78 Gaelan Walker 26 0 71 Ashley Cox 20 0 70 John Bric 20 0 70 Rob Rigley 26 24 64 Lauren Clayton 22 60 64 Katie Hastings 19 0 57 Danielle Foote 18 24 50 Dino Delic 21 0 43 Jade Stack 19 24 43 Michael McCoy 25 0 36 Anna Lind-Hansen 20 0 29 Karen Forscutt 36 0 22 Elise Chen 21 0 15 Tilli Clapham 19 0 15
Weekly summary and highlights
Week 1 (up to and including Sunday night) Michael McCoy was the first to enter the house, followed by Camilla Severi. On Launch Night, Australia voted between the Housemates deemed "The Most Competitive" - Michael, David & Camilla - to be made The Insider, and act as a secret saboteur in the House. On Day 2, Michael McCoy was voted to be The Insider. He was offered an ultimatum by Big Brother, to become The Insider or be instantly evicted by Big Brother. He was to play specific pranks at Big Brother's command, to work against and annoy other housemates, and to attempt to stymie the housemates' attempts to successfully complete assigned compulsory tasks. He had to remain undetected in these strategies and keep his role as the Insider a secret, or be automatically nominated for eviction. Michael McCoy failed his first mission - to make two Housemates uncomfortable by pouring a whole bottle of water on a bed - within minutes of receiving it as he did not pour the whole bottle out. He received his first strike because of it. Through his diary room discussions with Big Brother, viewers learned that David is gay but had not disclosed this to his fellow housemates. David came out to them on Wednesday, 26 April 2006. Gaelan won the first Big Brother Friday Night Live 2006, and chose runner-up Katie as his partner in the Rewards Room. The theme was Cavemen. A new twist was revealed to the Housemates; a fourth prize would be awarded to the winner of Friday Night Live. Three sealed boxes would be presented to the winner, marked 1, 2 and 3. The winner would select one box only before being allowed to open the box of their choice. The three boxes would inevitably contain a major prize (an overseas holiday), a medium-sized prize and a booby prize. The three prizes would follow a theme or be associated with each other in a homonymous manner (e.g. Cambodia, camera, Camembert). The three boxes were presented to Gaelan. They contained a trip to Thailand, a Thai banquet for all of the Housemates for the following night, and a large red bow tie. Gaelan chose the box containing the novelty bow tie. Krystal revealed to the house that Karen was her mother. On Day 8, Big Brother asked housemates to nominate which two they found 'Most Annoying'. The two who had the highest nominations were Anna and Camilla. They were both evicted from the house but unknown to the remaining housemates never left the compound and were sent to the Revenge Room. From there they could view the activities in the house and were given a task to enact revenge on their housemates for nominating them. Prize money at the end of Week 1 was $820,000.
Week 2 Monday, 1 May saw the first official nominations of series 6. Elise, Tilli, Claire and Dino were nominated. Michael was also up for nomination after failing his Insider task. On 2 May, the two isolated Housemates, Anna and Camilla, were returned to the House in Revenge Room Return. Both were immune to nomination points received during Week 3's Nominations. Dino wins the second Friday Night Live and takes runner-up Claire to the Rewards Room. The theme for the night is the Farmyard. The three boxes contain a trip to Cambodia, a digital camera and some Camembert cheese. Dino chooses the box containing the Camembert cheese. Tilli and Elise were evicted in a double eviction on 7 May. Prize money at the end of Week 2 was $645,000.
Week 3 Michael McCoy surviving eviction in week two became a controversial character within the House Karen, Krystal and Camilla were nominated. Michael McCoy's 'Insider challenge' for the week was to ensure that he was nominated by eight Housemates in the next week's nominations. Success would mean immunity from eviction for the week. He spun a complex and fictitious tale of a son called Reuben and a paternity test supposedly taken shortly before he entered the House that revealed he was not (as he had believed for nearly nine years) Reuben's biological father, in a bid to make other Housemates think he wanted to leave the house. Michael McCoy won Friday Night Live, choosing Ashley to join him in the Rewards Room. The theme for the night was Back To Work (an office theme). The three boxes contained a trip to China, complimentary Chinese laundry services for three Housemates for the week, and a Chinese fortune cookie. Michael McCoy chose the box containing the laundry services. Housemates held a mock wedding for Jamie and Katie. Michael McCoy's deception began tearing the house apart as Housemates did not know what to believe Karen was evicted on 14 May. Prize money at the end of Week 3 was $610,000.
Week 4 Michael succeeded in his Insider task to get eight housemates to nominate him and therefore was safe from eviction. Michael used his Three Point Twist to save Dino from eviction. Camilla, Ashley, Anna, David and Krystal were up for eviction. Michael's 'Insider' role was revealed to the house by Big Brother. Many housemates felt that Michael had betrayed them. All three Intruders, Rob, Jade and Danielle, went into the house at different times during the night during Day 24. Michael and David nearly shared a kiss in the bathroom. It was later revealed by Michael on Rove Live, and also during "The Gretel Incident" that it was a joke.