Ha! Here's a blast to the past to give you a good guffaw... the housemates of South Africa's first 2001 season of Big Brother - as they are now:
They reunited at M-Net's 30th birthday party on Friday (11 November), under the direction of the season's winner Ferdinand Rabie who went on a mission to get as many of them to the event as possible. The ones in the pic are the ones who turned up.
Do you recognize them??
They are (from left to right): Irvan Damon, Steven van Rooyen, Margaret van der Westhuizen, Riaad Isaacs, Janine Orderson and Ferdie.
Missing in action were: Bradford Wood, Nina Zani, Nobesuthu Cele, Lara Plumstead, Leigh Bennie and Vuyo Tofile.
It's very nostalgic seeing them because the show sparked my deep and continued addiction to the Big Brother phenomenon. These are three main things that inspired my addiction:
1. The bliss and novelty of spying on people 24 hours a day. I was in the process of painting my house during the show's first week on air - watching the housemates in the background - and next thing they started licking chocolate body paint off each other's bodies.
I stopped painting my house instantly and dedicated myself to writing a daily column about them - the first ever TV column that I wrote. It was called: "Taking Big Brother from Behind."
2. Janine Orderson and her outrageous controversies took TV where it had never gone before. The fact that she was a primary school teacher increased her controversy 100%. I was shocked, shocked, shocked when she performed an accomplished "deep throat" on a cucumber on live TV and was gobsmacked at everything else she did, which included sucking Irvan's toe in the jacuzzi. She was also a Masturbator of Note.
The backlash against her in the outside world was extreme and yet she didn't apologise for her behaviour. She retaliated by saying that the series was an adult show with an age restriction - which it was. I've subsequently realised that she was one of the most real people we've seen on any reality show. Ever.
3. The show established the series as
the show to watch if you have an opinion that you're compelled to express. It started a wave of self expression by viewers that we'd never seen before and which has lasted through every Big Brother season. It captured the essential truth that it's brilliant fun and highly liberating to badmouth housemates.