Posted by Simon at January 3, 2006 10:26 PM

They only go on it to become 'famous'... and that goes for the Celebrity version of Big Brother too, where a bunch of former celebs (and maybe a few current ones) will live together for a couple of weeks trying to not go round the twist like John McCrirrick did last year.

Yep, Celebrity Big Brother is back again, and it all kicks off at 9pm on Thursday 5th of January, with several celebs hopefully keeping us entertained day and night for however many days the series runs for, but after last year's bloody great Celebrity Big Brother, it'll face a tough job trying to be as good, yet alone beat it.

He's in, she's not, he might be, she definitely is...
The tabloids have been awash with rumours of who might be in, who definitely is in because some anon source told them that they were, etc etc...

Most likely seems to be former gameshow host Michael Barrymore, who quite clearly won't be getting The Sun's support even if he made it to the final...

They're also saying that American host Joan Rivers is being asked to go on the show by Channel 4, although that seems to have been ripped to shreads by some of the Big Brother forums where people have checked her website and seen she's got apperances booked. Not that it means she'll turn up to them, mind.

It seems quite a few yanks could infiltrate our Celeb BB, with not only Joan tipped as a possible, but also Macaulay Culkin, Denis Rodman and Anna Nicole Smith are all being mentioned in the same rumours/reports.

Further names being throw around include Johnny Vegas, Jodie Marsh, Shane McGowan, Nikki Sanderson, Scott Wright, Jocelyn Gesien, Gillian McKeith, Pete Burns, Dave Berry, and Boy George.

Yes, quite a line-up, if the tip-off's are true.

What do you think of the potential housemates? Post your thoughts in the Celebrity Big Brother topic on the forum!

Indoor pool, sauna hut, polka-dot beds...
There have also been a set of photos released to the media giving a preview of things to come, with The Sun and BBC News (who possibly didn't watch BB6 as they'd have known about the Dogs in the garden - admittedly there was only one then, and it wasn't painted white) being two that have already splashed the photos online.

The outdoor hut (which seems to be where the "loft" was in BB6) is said to only work some of the time, and could possibly face other prank-style tomfoolery from the Big Brother crew to annoy the housemates, although quite what this will be is anyone's guess. Maybe the area above their heads will contain gunge and will dump out over them like some sort of wacky Noel's House Party gungetank trick.

Other parts of the house haven't been shown in full yet, although usually a lot of it stays pretty much the same as the non-celeb series from the summer before, with only minor changes in furnishings and fixtures. It'll be interesting to see what they've done with the room behind the Diary Room though where the secret garden (Eugene, Kinga and Orlaith), room 101 (Maxwell) and interrogation room (Derek) were located.

Hopefully they'll also bring back the "live challenges" for the Celebrity version of the show, after they were pretty much dropped from the last series - annoying when you consider they often provided the highlight of the week and usually lead to a party or reward of some sort rather than just seeing housemates sitting around doing nothing. And who can forget John McCrirrick's complete and utter fit at the controls of an electric wheelchair disguised as a ghost train!?

Something worth watching on 4 in the morning!
It's been ages since there was something worth watching during Breakfast time on Channel 4, and the ending of The Big Breakfast was a sad day for many, but at 8:05am (just after the repeat of the launch show which starts at 6:45am) on Friday 6th of January you'll be able to watch Dermot's Big Brother Little Brother - oh yes, it's getting a breafast slot, instead of the evening or late night ones that they've given it before.

All the usual stuff that you'd expect from BBLB will no doubt make it in to this series, and will probably see them waking up during the show if Channel 4 have tied it in with that - it's often been said that there's little going on for "breakfast" viewers of Big Brother because they all go to bed late and wake up even later, but the trouble is that if they go to bed early because they're being woken up early, then there's nothing to show overnight. Hmm.

Which is a good time to mention that each night at 9pm you'll be able to watch the highlights from the day before, and overnight each night from around midnight/1am will be the "live" coverage from the house, with presumably the same sort of thing on E4. Freeview viewers apparently won't have an interactive service though for Celeb BB, meaning no 24-hour streaming for them.

The Eye will have full updates, from 9pm on Thursday. Don't miss it.