Celebrity Big Brother 2009, also known as Celebrity Big Brother 6, is the sixth series of Celebrity Big Brother. It was broadcast on Channel 4, launching on 2 January 2009 and running for 22 days until 23 January 2009. The launch show was watched by approximately 6.4 million people. Davina McCall returned as main presenter, with George Lamb as host of Big Brother's Little Brother, and Jack Whitehall as host of Big Brother's Big Mouth. The winner of this series was Ulrika Jonsson, with Terry Christian second.
This was the first series of Celebrity Big Brother to air since the racism controversy of 2007, during series 5, although Channel 4's sister channel E4 aired a similar spin-off in 2008, entitled Big Brother: Celebrity Hijack.
This series was the least watched Celebrity Big Brother series, averaging 3.3 million viewers; at the time of transmission, it was also the least watched series of any Big Brother in the UK (excluding spin-offs) until the tenth non-celebrity series pulled in 2.5 million. Despite the low viewership, the launch show was the most watched programme of 2009 on Channel 4, raking in 6 million viewers.
Ulrika and Coolio took part in Ultimate Big Brother in 2010. Coolio was removed within the first few days and Ulrika finished seventh on the final night.
Production Eye logo The logo remains the same as the eye from Big Brother 9, except with the star located in the centre.
Sponsorship The sixth season was sponsored by bed retailer Dreams.
House The house used was the one from Big Brother 2008 and was largely unchanged, aside from a few minor modifications. Some of the wall panels near the stairs were modified to include stars in them to go with the format of the series. As the housemates entered the house there was a welcome pack available for housemates to read. The floor pattern in the basic bedroom were changed from the red segment of the BB9 eye, to a sequence of stars, and the beds were larger and more comfortable than in BB9. There was also a sign saying "You don't have to be mad to live here....but it helps" on one of the walls. The bathroom was completely gold, leaving no blue decor. The showers were closed off to give the celebrities privacy, although there were microphones in the showers. The garden house walls are now mainly blue and the pool has been taken out. The jail is now larger and includes a bench and mirror. A new heated sitting area was put in place and there appeared to be no spa or pool replacement. The smoking area, which contained a wall with dolls' faces with no eyes on, was moved for protection against the elements. The living area remained largely unchanged apart from some added weights and gym equipment. A specially designated entrance for housemate Verne was located to the side of the main door. This door does not have stairs.
Housemates
Celebrity Age on entry Notability Day entered Day exited Result Ulrika Jonsson 41 Presenter 1 22 Terry Christian 48 Presenter 1 22 Coolio 45 Musician 1 22 Verne Troyer 40 Actor 1 22 Ben Adams 27 Singer 1 22 Tommy Sheridan 44 Politician 1 20 La Toya Jackson 52 Jackson family member and singer 1 20 Michelle Heaton 29 Singer 1 18 Mutya Buena 23 Singer 1 15 Tina Malone 45 Actress 1 15 Lucy Pinder 25 Glamour model 1 8
Ben Adams Ben Adams (born 22 November 1981) is an English singer-songwriter, best known for being a member of the British-Norwegian boyband trio, a1. During his time, he developed a close friendship with fellow housemate, Michelle Heaton. On Day 22, Ben had been evicted from the house with 15.2% of the public vote to win, finishing in fifth place.
Coolio Coolio (1 August 1963 – 28 September 2022) was an American Grammy Award-winning musician and rapper, who is best known in Britain for his worldwide chart-topping single, Gangsta's Paradise. On Day 22, he became the third evictee on finale night, finishing in a respectable third place. However, in 2010, Coolio returned to Big Brother fame, when he joined Ultimate Big Brother. Coolio died on 28 September 2022.
La Toya Jackson La Toya Jackson (born 29 May 1956) is an American singer-songwriter, musician and television personality, best known for being a member of the musical family, The Jacksons. She maintained a career as a solo singer throughout the 1980s and 1990s, and has appeared in certain reality shows in America. La Toya became the second Jackson to enter Big Brother, the first being her brother Jermaine in 2007. On Day 20, she was the fourth person to be evicted from the house in a double eviction, along with Tommy Sheridan.
Lucy Pinder Lucy Pinder (born 20 December 1983) is an English glamour model, from Winchester, Hampshire. She was the first housemate to be evicted from the house on Day 8, with 57% of the public vote and losing to Ulrika Jonsson.
Michelle Heaton Michelle Heaton (born 19 July 1979) is a pop singer, actress and glamour model, best known for being a former member of the band, Liberty X. During her time in the house, she developed a close friendship with housemate, Ben Adams. On Day 18, Heaton was the third person to be evicted from the Big Brother house, in a surprise eviction.
Mutya Buena Mutya Buena (born 21 May 1985) is an English recording artist, who rose to fame as one of the original band members of the all-female R&B/pop trio, Sugababes. On Day 15 between 11:30pm-12midnight, Buena decided to walk from the house, just after surviving eviction.
Terry Christian Terry Christian (born 8 May 1960) is a television and radio presenter, whose credits include Channel 4's late night youth entertainment show, The Word and ITV1's moral issues talk show, It's My Life, but also has been involved with BBC Radio 4. On Day 1, Terry became the first celebrity Head of House. On Day 22, he came second on the final night, losing out to Ulrika Jonsson, with 43.3% to win.
Tina Malone Tina Malone (born 30 January 1963) is an English actress, best known for her role as Mimi Maguire in the Channel 4 series, Shameless. Despite being on Shameless, she has appeared on shows such as Brookside and dinnerladies. During her time in the house, she has been involved in arguments with Coolio and is known for her loud personality. On Day 15, she became the second person to be evicted from the house with 38.8% of the public vote.
Tommy Sheridan Tommy Sheridan (born 7 March 1964) is a Scottish socialist politician, known for being in various prominent roles within the socialist movement in Scotland and for being expelled in 1989 as the Labour Party militant tendency entryist. On Day 20, he became the fifth housemate to be evicted from the house in a double eviction, alongside La Toya Jackson.
Ulrika Jonsson Ulrika Jonsson (born 16 August 1967) is a Swedish-British television presenter, best known for her work as a weather reporter on TV-am, presenter of Gladiators and a panellist on Shooting Stars. In 2002, she had a publicised affair with then-England football manager, Sven-Göran Eriksson. She was the only female housemate in this series to make it to the final, eventually going on to win the show on Day 22, despite being nominated every week while in the house.
Verne Troyer Verne Troyer (1 January 1969 – 21 April 2018) was an American actor and stunt performer, who is best known for playing Mini-Me in the Austin Powers film series. Troyer is most notable for his height 2 ft 8 in (0.81 m), as a result of cartilage–hair hypoplasia dwarfism. On Day 22, he finished the series in fourth place, despite being the bookmakers' favourite from the first day. Verne Troyer died on 21 April 2018.
Summary Day 1 Entrances La Toya, Mutya, Verne, Tommy, Lucy, Ben, Tina, Coolio, Michelle, Terry and Ulrika entered the Big Brother House. Events Terry became the Head of House as he was the only housemate left without a bed. Day 2 Tasks For today's task, housemates had to decide between themselves who should receive which credit. One housemate would receive a starring credit, two would get a 'co-starring' credit, two would receive a 'featuring' credit, three housemates would be extras and 3 housemates would get no credit at all. After they decided, Head of House Terry would film the credited housemates in a "closing credits style" which would be broadcast at the end of the highlights show. In a twist to the task, Terry secretly watched his fellow housemates' behaviour during the task and had to decide who has the most inflated ego. He chose Ulrika. This automatically put her up for eviction for the first week. The housemates were to win two tokens for completing the task, but lost one, see punishments below. Punishments A token that was won in the task was taken away from the housemates because La Toya went into Terry's private room earlier in the day. Day 3 Tasks The task on Day 3 had housemates showcase their talents that made them famous to Head of House Terry. He chose Lucy as the least talented housemate stating she didn't impress him at all and her routine was boring. He also stated that he hadn't heard of her before she went in the house. Day 4 Tasks For the task, housemates had to pair up and act like one another for an hour. The pairs were Tommy/La Toya, Michelle/Lucy, Coolio/Verne, Tina/Mutya, Ben/Ulrika. Housemates passed the task and, as a reward, Terry won a Thai takeaway meal. Day 5 Nominations Terry had to nominate the housemate he thought had the least integrity, he chose Ben who joined Ulrika and Lucy being up for eviction. Ulrika, Lucy and Ben were put into a secret room as all other housemates apart from Terry had to vote for the 1 housemate per person they wanted to save from the eviction the majority saved Ben meaning Lucy and Ulrika faced eviction this week. Day 6 Tasks For this week's shopping task, housemates had to take part in 5 tasks associated with the rich and famous. Ben & Michelle had to become a celebrity couple in a task that tests their ability to work together. Verne and Ulrika had to perform a cover version of "Endless Love" as Lionel Richie and Diana Ross. La Toya and Tommy had to become contestants on a reality TV series and learn ice-skating from a DVD. Tina, Lucy and Coolio had to become members of the paparazzi and stake out the garden for 24 hours and photograph any non-housemate celebrities, including Michael Barrymore, Michelle Marsh, Nikki Grahame, Chesney Hawkes, Alice Barry and Rebecca Ryan who appeared over the garden wall on a crane. Mutya and Terry had to join and worship at the shrine of a celebrity cult. Housemates had to pass 3 of the 5 tasks in order to get a luxury shopping budget for the next week. However, housemates only passed 2 of the 5 set tasks, therefore they failed the task, and received a basic shopping budget of £1 per head per day. Day 7Events During the task which started the day before Coolio started annoying a tired Lucy causing her to leave the paparazzi area. The paparazzi did not snap Michael Barrymoore causing their section of the task to fail. Tommy and La Toya's ice skating routine was also a failure as Tommy did not perform the steps correctly. Mutya and Terry did not pass their made up cult as they did not get to the Chesney Hawkes statue several times. With these three failures the entire task was failed. Day 8 Exits Lucy was the first housemate to be evicted from the house after receiving 57% of the public vote to evict. Day 9 Tasks Today's task was to perform a dance routine to the Eric Prydz song "Call on Me". If the performance was deemed to be satisfactory to Big Brother's expectations, housemates would receive three tokens. The housemates passed the task and won three tokens, but due to Terry and Tina discussing nominations, Big Brother awarded the housemates with only one token. Day 10 Tasks