And The Ultimate Big Brother Housemate Is An Irishman

Never mind that's he gay or won BB2 but the fact than an Irishman is the Ultimate Big Brother housemate of the UK series has an interesting irony to it.

The four hours may have been overkill but overall, I thought this was a really good send off for the series. Ultimate Big Brother has had some pretty entertaining moments and while there's a part of me that a) wished it had been left for later instead of directly after BB11 and b) wished it had run for at least a month rather than 18 days, I think ultimately it was actually time for Big Brother to end. It's ran for 11 years and has become TV history, like it or loathe but nothing lasts forever and the show has had it's day.

It would've been remiss not to have included some acknowledgement to Jade Goody as well and the tribute to her was rather sweet as well.

Dermot's last meal wasn't as cringey as I'd thought it would be but I kinda wished that he had focused a little more on later seasons and while the Davina send off was a tad self-indulgent, it was pretty entertaining nonetheless, even though there weren't as many housemates as I expected and Sam and Aisleyne had a strange look to Pete Burns appearing at the end.

I wasn't remotely surprised when Davina cited Brian as her favourite and I did chuckle with the highlight she picked for him. Seriously that twirl as he stubbed his toe and spewed milk cracks me up all the time.

Stuart as fittest housemate, oh hell yeah. He wasn't the most exciting housemate in the show's history but he was definitely one of the nicest to look at for sure and from the limited stuff from BB9 I can remember, he was a nice enough bloke.

In terms of Brian winning it, it was predictable but fine. He is actually an ultimate housemate in every sense of the word and it was interesting to see Nikki and Chantelle in 2nd and 3rd places as well.

Bye bye Big Brother. It's been a mostly interesting 11 years but if Channel 5 don't pick you up, then it's been a good ending.

Standing Up For Nerds Everywhere

Five episodes into The Vampire Diaries and I'm having a lot of people telling me how great this show gets in later episodes and it's enough to make me want to speed up but I can't. However, I can see why friends of mine are loving this show. My niece last night described the cast as incredibly attractive (she might have made a supernatural allusion somewhere) and they are an incredibly good looking bunch. Plus the extraordinary thing isn't just the rivalry between Stefan and Damon, or the fact the latter managed to escape from his prison and this time more likely killed Vicki as a result. Heck, even Bonnie honing in on her powers wasn't the highlight this week but Elena finally realising that her new boyfriend isn't all he seems definitely was. So, here's to Stefan filling her in on the fact that he's a vampire in the next episode then.

As for Smallville, another middle of the road episode this week. I have looked into later episodes where things such as Checkmate and Zod's overall machinations actually go up a notch, so sitting through an episode where some guy tries to murder off Kandorians because they used extreme methods to save his life wasn't all that interesting. Slightly better was Chloe and Oliver banding together to prevent Tess from finding Chloe's stash of weapons for when the apocalyse arrives. An apocalypse I'd welcome now to be honest. As for Clark saving Zod's life - like hell that won't come back to bite him soon enough.

A show by MTV worries me. There's the US version of Skins next year, which may or may not be a steaming pile of turd and then there's the godawful Jersey Shore, currently clogging up the TV schedules. After all the excess promotion behind The Hard Times Of RJ Berger - a series where nerdy kid RJ's massive meat and two veg becomes public knowledge in high school after a disastrous basketball game, I really thought that MTV were getting desperate but watching the first two episodes of the series, I have to admit that it's actually an enjoyable show. Nowhere near as crass as the premise suggested and while all the characters fall into obvious stereotypes, I think this could become a guilty pleasure for me. Definitely something I want to see more and I certainly didn't mind RJ's attempts of standing up for nerds everywhere in the second episode even if he did lose the election to jock Max.

Ugly Betty's fourth season in my opinion comes close to being the best for the show since it's first year but it takes later episodes for that to really be driven home. Last Wednesday's episode wasn't the best, even with the amusement of seeing Betty and Marc dressed as a hotdog and Daniel thinking on his feet to stop a sexual harrassment lawsuit. The Justin plot in particular is definitely something to keep an eye out on.

I caught up with the last two episodes of The X Factor and yeah, while there's a few standouts (Mary Byrne, Cher?), I have to say that both Katy Perry (Dublin) and Natalie Imbruglia (Birmingham) were much better at engaging with the contestants than Geri Halliwell had been during the Glasgow auditions. However this year, the most memorable thing was horrid duo AbLisa, who added assault, abusing the audience and dissing the guest judge to their list of shortcomings. It's enough to make you forget about the auto-tuning incident, isn't it?

It's only three days away from the Big Brother franchise finally ending and Ultimate Big Brother has been busy enough. To be honest, I've sort of tired of the Victor/Nick double act and hope the latter's exited on Wednesday but it was rather sad to see Nadia make herself so unpopular in the last few days before her eviction. Davina's interview with her left a bad taste in my mouth and while Nadia did act like a bitch to the likes of Ulrika for little reason, I do think as a professional journalist/broadcaster, Davina should've acted maturely instead of the rent a mob that has ruined this show in recent years. As for the arrival of Vanessa Feltz - works for me. Anyone who can handle Nikki's tantrums with the patience she has clearly deserves to win but it's clear that Brian or Chantelle will emerge victorious on Friday though. Oh and the appearances of Glyn, Samanda, Rex, John Tickle and Anthony over the last few days for tasks has been fun. I knew the latter didn't have sex with Makosi.

- New girl Sunshine will perform Lady Gaga's Telephone with Rachel in a bathroom stand-off in the first episode of Glee's second season. Empire State Of Mind will also feature in the first episode.

- Desperate Housewives opening episode will reveal the baby swap plot in full in the first ten minutes.

- Both Shawn and Aaron Ashmore have been cast as twins in the new season of Fringe.

- Ali Larter has claimed that it's unlikely that a Heroes film will enter production.

- Ken Jenkins will play the father of Courtney Cox's character Jules in the second season of Cougar Town.

- Nicholas Brendon is the latest actor to sign on for Private Practice. Previous Buffyverse actors have been Amy Acker, Alexis Denisof, Amber Benson and Emma Caulfield.

- Jane Espenson will be writing three of the 10 episodes scheduled for the fourth season of Torchwood.

- David Marshall Grant has confirmed that all the characters in Brothers And Sisters will be in different places in their lives this season.

And The Awards Go To The Usual Crowd

The Emmys are only on once a year and they're usually entertaining enough but the cynic in me can't help but scoff at some of the winners speeches for some reason. For a two hour gig, Jimmy Fallon (who I find rather Marmite mostly) did a decent enough job but I don't think there was a win that was that genuinely shocking. Most of the usual candidates (Mad Men, House, Glee, Dexter, etc) were up and the wins attributed to them were deserved and all but the Emmys has almost become more about what everyone is wearing (or who everyone is wearing) rather than the actual ceremony itself. Here's to next year though.

I just knew with the way that Mistresses had been going for the past three episodes that the finale wouldn't match up and it didn't. Why the hell didn't the BBC give this a longer run? Because of that shortcoming, we've been left with a rather rushed finale where Trudi and Katie were at loggerheads over the latter's affair with Richard (your blandness will not be missed) but manage to reach some civility because for half the episode you're almost thinking that Jessica's illness might actually kill her off. As glad as I am that it didn't, this along with Siobhan getting Dominic after leaving it so long. This was a good show but this last series showed that the BBC were more concerned with getting out of the way than ending it satsfyingly.

A week into Ultimate Big Brother and you'd have to admit that it's certainly been eventful enough. Josie walked out after two days, John McRirick was evicted after actually being fun and thanks to an argument with Nadia, Coolio was also forced to leave and there was Michelle and Victor from BB5 having some fun in a bedsit at the expense of the other housemates. Even I felt bad for Nikki when she was terrorised with a clown and there was fun with seeing the likes of Anna Nolan, Craig Philips and Stuart Pilkington over the last few days as a part of tasks and treats for the housemates. However the Chantelle and Preston stuff is a little uncomfortable to watch (not to mention that the usual gossip mags are obsessed with them two getting back together) but I did like Victor, Michelle and Nick's little analysis over the antics of the house dynamics and the former occupants from BB11. So far, this has been fun enough, though I can see a Brian or Chantelle victory come next Friday.

That's it - The Vampires Diairies is really getting interesting. Bonnie's totally a witch and while setting candles alight might not be the most amazing thing on a supernatural themed show, Bonnie is by far the best character on this show and can I have some sympathy for Caroline too? Her relationship with Damon should be enough to show fangirls that dating the latter is a bad thing to do. Elena won pointers in this episode for trying to get Damon away from Caroline but lost them for not sticking to her guns and getting answers from Stefan. Also while Stefan's method of incapacitating Damon was genius, I'm more intrigued by this band of supernatural hunters comprising of Tyler's parents, Caroline's mother and Jenna's reporter ex-boyfriend. Nice to know that some people in Mystic Falls are privy to vampires.

I tried to get into Vexed but the three episodes that BBC2 offered me for the last few Sundays made me wished that I hadn't bothered. The problem with this show has been that it's often not funny enough for a straight up comedy and the crassness often underscored anything dramatic. The last episode with Jack and Kate searching for a kidnapped pop star was probably the better of the three but if this show returns next year, it needs to figure out what it wants to be and stick with it.

- Jon Hamm and Paul Giamatti are both confirmed for appearing in the new season of 30 Rock. Hamm's character will be a love interest for Liz Lemon.

- Carol Burnett has been cast as Sue's mother for the second season of Glee.
- Stephen Collins will apear in Brothers And Sisters as Charlie, a love interest for Saul. He'll also appear in No Ordinary Family as the boss of Julie Benz's character, Stephanie.

- Naoko Mori is another actor attached to the SyFy series, Three Inches.

- Lois Smith has been cast as Tom Scavo's mother in Desperate Housewives. She'll appear in the fifth episode of the new series.

It's Only A Gameshow - Thank You, Nick Bateman

I never thought I would say this but I'm going to miss Big Brother as well. Tonight's episode just hit that home for me that it really is all over.

Okay, final positions

5th place Andrew: I expected him not to be the first out but I've liked him over the last few weeks and he's certainly been more entertaining than the likes of Shabby, Nathan, etc. I guess in other words, geek pride, yeah?
4th place JJ: He's a bit on the bland side but his interview was nice enough and I don't doubt he'll be appearing topless in several magazanines within the next year, regardless of his previous views on the subject.
3rd place Mario: I wanted him to win but knew he wouldn't. Apart from Josie's victory interview, I enjoyed his the most. Good old moley and one of the better gay guys we've had in the house.
2nd place Dave: I'm not gonna moan too much on this one because I didn't actually watch all that much of his interview and the fact that he'll no longer be on my TV screen is a good thing.
1st place Josie: Was there any doubt that she wasn't going to win? I liked that she said she'd give some of her money for Steve's leg, so sort of glad she did win for that alone.

Ultimate Big Brother lineup

Chantelle and Preston could be interesting, given that not really a lot of time has passed since their seperation (and Preston looked really handsome as well, didn't he?), plus there could be some fireworks between her and Nikki. I sort of don't mind Ulrika and Nick to me is nowhere near as nasty as they've tried to make him out to be - more sly than anything else. Nadia and Brian, I like them but they're making me miss Mario a little as well for some reason and I'm not too fussed about Makosi truth be told, though the hyperbole surrounding her has always baffled me a little. The only ones I don't like are John and Coolio but I can try to ignore them as best I can.

Overall, a good 2 hours 50 minutes for Channel 4.