<b>Eviction Blues</b>

This is an instalment of a regular commentary on Big Brother from Dr Toni Johnson-Woods, Lecturer in Contemporary Studies, The University of Queensland.

The second round of nominees (Sharna, Peter and Christina) demonstrates that the contestants are still thinking about their comfort zone.

How did this week's nominations go? Sharna attracted the most nominations, which sent her into a crying jag. Peter and Christina attracted the same number of points. While Christina's came from the females, Peter's came from the males. Mostly the boys voted for Sharna (6 of her 10 votes). Johnnie continues to nominate females; the female contestants seem to be fooled by his nurturing but not by Sharna's. Though Sharna mother-hens the females, she keeps nominating them. Apparently, Gordon and Sara-Marie spent last week recuperating their popularity. Only Johnnie and Blair have received no nominations to date. Who will be evicted? It's anyone's guess after Andy's surprise eviction.

Andy's eviction surprised most of the live audience. But then so did Survivor and The Mole-could reality TV be stranger than fiction?

Or are the media/press manipulating representations of the show? Certainly the Sunday Mail poll predicted that Sara-Marie would go and fooled some readers into thinking that the decision had been made. But it was a Sunday Mail poll not the Big Brother voting poll. So there was increased surprise as those "in the know" confidently informed others that S-M was definitely going! Love her or hate her, Andy was entertaining and suprisingly insightful about herself and the show. As the first and most controversial evictee, she has the highest cultural currency. And this is converting into real dollars. At the moment, her whip and collar are being auctioned and have realised a bid of AUD$410-the proceedings of which will be donated to Greenpeace.

Dr Toni Johnson-Woods

The complete set of commentaries is available at https://www.uq.edu.au/news/bigbrother