Big Brother winner Cameron Cole has exposed some fascinating show secrets following the news of an ITV reboot next year.
He claimed top spot in 2018, becoming the last ever Channel 5 civilian series winner – but now he lives a low-key life as a student in London.
Staying out the spotlight, Cameron has revealed some of the trials and tribulations producers faced during his series four years ago.
Speaking on the train back to his home in Norwich, Cameron told the Mirror that his season of Big Brother was almost over before it even started.
Talking of the application process, he said: “It was simple, I just had to send over a two-minute video and I was fortunate to hear back.
“Then I had to do some open auditions and then more closed-off auditions, it was a bit like The X Factor, there was multiple stages.”
Cameron, who is now a phycology student – the study of algae – at university living with his boyfriend in the capital, said he had to make constant trips into the city from his home in Norfolk.
“There were lots of going into London and meeting producers towards the end of the application process,” he added.
“Then one day, after all the interviews, the casting crew asked if I could come on a Skype call to answer some medical questions.
“I remember thinking ‘oh god, what on earth have they found? what's gone wrong here?’, I thought it was all going to end in tears right at the end.
“But that was how they got your live reaction on the webcam, I joined and they said ‘Cameron, you’re in Big Brother, would you like to be a housemate?’.”
Cameron revealed that housemates have just a matter of days to buy a whole new wardrobe before they are catapulted into hiding.
“I had around two weeks to sort everything out, I had to buy new clothes, all with no logos or visible brand names, that was all before an eight-day lockdown which was held at an unknown location,” he told The Mirror.
“A chaperone picked me up from a random train station and drove me to a cottage where I stayed until the last few days before the show’s launch night.
“I was then taken to a hotel in London where we had to do certain media interviews, photoshoots and film sections for Big Brother’s Bit on the Side.”
Cameron said the chaperone took away his mobile phone the minute they met, cutting off any contact with the outside world.
He added: “There was no live TV allowed and I wasn’t allowed to leave the cottage after the first day of being there.
“All of the other housemates were kept in different locations around the UK until we were all brought to the same hotel in London.
“No one was allowed to leave their rooms when other housemates were around.”
Cameron revealed that producers gave each housemate a codename to avoid giving away any secrets.
“We all had code names and mine was Cider. The runners and chaperones would be responsible for avoiding any of us coming into contact with each other,” he said.
But it was at this point the show nearly descended into chaos, an emergency happened which nearly cost the show greatly.
Cameron revealed: “It always made me laugh as the process was like a military operation.
“But, on the morning of the launch, there was a fire alarm at 7am in the morning.
“It nearly ruined everyone’s hard work of keeping us all apart."
Fortunately for producers, and the housemates, the alarm was deactivated after minutes of chaos and panic and none of the contestants were exposed.
