‘Big Brother Australia’ Season 11 Launch Recap: Meet the Housemates in Pairs [VIDEO]
“Big Brother Australia” season 11 has premiered on Monday night. A new set of housemates have entered the fully renovated famous house, and they’re in pairs!
A pregnant Sonia Kruger kicked off the launch with a short dance before getting down to the business of introducing the 12 housemates who are about to enter the social experiment.
This season’s house is perhaps the most luxurious ever. It has a second floor and just looks bigger and brighter than before.
The first housemate announced was Priya, 27, from Adelaide. Born in India, this Asian beauty is the “Posh Spice” in the introduction video released ahead of the premiere.
Priya described herself as “what you see is what you get,” which is what most “Big Brother” housemates (with the exception of a few who admitted they wanted to “play” a different character) typically say about themselves.
As the first one introduced, Priya has the good fortune to also become the first Head of the House. It’s unclear what duties her new, albeit temporary, role has, but Sonia said that she has the power.
For 2014, housemates go in pairs. They didn’t know it then, and were only informed by the time they hit the stage with Sonia. As pairs, the housemates do everything together, including sleeping side by side in a bed. They are punished together and rewarded together.
“You will be part of a pair consisting you and one other housemate. The good news is you get to choose who that housemate is. Big Brother has selected two potential partners for you. They’ve also been through the same psychological testing as you. One is a good match and the other not so much,” Sonia informed Priya, adding that they would not tell her which one is the good match for her.
“Sounds like an arranged marriage. I’m quite used to that, too,” the married Priya joked before she was given a choice between Katie and Jake.
“Jake seems like a safe choice,” she reckoned, so she went with 25-year-old Katie from Sydney.
A reverend’s daughter, Katie is now an atheist who has lost around 13 kilograms. She describes herself as “quite confronting.” As Priya’s partner, she’s also Head of House.
After the new pair has gone to the house, Sonia revealed to the audience that Katie is the bad match for Priya, according to their psychological profiling.
Her good match is Jake, 25, from Brisbane. The professional tennis player describes himself as a “prankster” who is “super single.” He was to choose between Gemma and David as his partner in the house, and he went with Gemma, the fiery redhead from the introduction video.
Gemma, 29, has a condition called Marfan syndrome, which gave her her height of 6’6”. The nurse from Perth said she used to be bullied because she looked different. But now, she’s bigger than her bullies, so her height is perhaps a great thing.
She and Jake looked like they hit it off immediately. Gemma even hugged him before hugging Sonia on stage. However, like Priya and Katie, Gemma and Jake are also a bad match for each other.
Jake’s rejected choice 31-year-old David claims he has a “nice smelling” beard. He has never had a long-term relationship just because he hasn’t met the right one yet.
He chose 30-year-old “very single” Sandra to be his partner. Sandra sells underwear and reads a lot of erotic romance novels. David looked taken aback with his choice. He might have been regretting it already, especially when Sandra bluntly said she doesn’t like his beard.
As it turned out, they’re a good match.
Dion, 24, is the gym enthusiast housemate already introduced in a video. He doesn’t drink or smoke, and appears to be a true health buff.
“I think women should be respectful of themselves,” he said, complaining that women these days don’t have respect for themselves then moan that people don’t respect them.
With that opinion, it was easy to guess why he chose Jason over Skye. Although Jason said he hates “six-pack selfies” (and Dion seems like someone who does selfies of his toned abs), they appear to be a better match together than Dion with Skye, who doesn’t like “war, that politics thing and stinky bad breath.”
They are.
Quirky Jason, 26, from Canberra is a real estate agent. He is “very emotional” and doesn’t like to judge people.
20-year-old Skye is a barista from the Gold Coast who admits she’s “super forgetful.” Flirty and flighty, Skye says she is always looking for affection. And if she doesn’t get it, she just eats.
Her options of Lisa and Travis were an easy one to make. Like her, Lisa hates bad breath and seems just like the type of girlfriend Skye would love to hang out with. Travis, on the other hand, enumerated everything he wants in a person, and Skye ticks every one of his list.
So it’s just logical for Skye to go with Lisa. They not only appear to have the same attitude in life, they look a bit the same, too. Unfortunately, they’re a bad match for each other.
Travis, 24, didn’t have to pick a partner anymore as there was only 26-year-old Ryan left for the night. There had been an awkward non-hugging moment between the two, but as it turned out, they are a good match together.
Back to Priya and Katie, Big Brother gave them their first Power Play task. The house was having a party, but one pair would be left out. Priya and Katie, as the Head of House for the week, got to choose whom to banish to the fish bowl in the pool. They chose Dion and Jason because they thought that the boys “would have a good time anyway” in the fish bowl.
That’s not all. For Priya and Katie’s second Power Play, they were presented with $20,000 in cash. How they would take it was up to them. The bigger amount they take from the prize fund, the longer days the whole house would go without food.
Priya wanted to take $10,000 since it’s “each man for himself.” After all, she reasoned out, the housemates would get meal replacement shakes as food so it’s not as if they would totally die of hunger for a period of time. Katie was hesitant, though. They have 24 hours to decide, and they may not tell anyone about their predicament.
The housemates are not complete yet. There are four more about to enter on Tuesday night.
Read: ‘Big Brother Australia’ Introduces 5 Housemates; 3 Already Named