Celebrity Big Brother 2007, also known as Celebrity Big Brother 5, was the fifth series of the British reality television series Celebrity Big Brother. The show followed a total of fourteen celebrity contestants, known as housemates, who were isolated from the outside world for an extended period of time in a custom built House. Each week, one or more of the housemates were eliminated from the competition by public vote and left the House. The last remaining housemate, Shilpa Shetty, was declared the winner.
The series launched on Channel 4 on 3 January 2007 and ended on 28 January 2007. Davina McCall returned as presenter, having presented both the regular edition and the celebrity edition of Big Brother since they first began. Eleven housemates entered on launch night, with an additional three being introduced two days later. The series was watched by an average of 4.6 million viewers, the third highest viewed series of the show to date. As with the previous regular series, it was broadcast in 16:9 aspect ratio, as opposed to 4:3 – the first series of Celebrity Big Brother to do so.
The series saw the return of Jade Goody, who had become a media celebrity after appearing on the third regular series of Big Brother in 2002, arriving with her boyfriend and her mother – marking the first time in any series of Big Brother UK where family members entered together. During its original broadcast, Celebrity Big Brother 5 had become the subject of an internationally publicised racism controversy. It attracted the largest number of complaints to the UK media regulator Ofcom about a Big Brother series and, as of 2018, the second highest number of complaints about any British television broadcast of all time (after Jerry Springer: The Opera). Viewer complaints and press attention concerned housemate Shilpa Shetty, and alleged that she was the subject of racist bullying from some of her fellow housemates, in particular Jade Goody, Danielle Lloyd and Jo O’Meara. As a result, a protest took place in India; tensions increased between the UK and Indian governments; and a diplomatic incident occurred. Following the broadcast of the series, Ofcom concluded that Celebrity Big Brother 5 had breached the Broadcasting Code, and statutory sanctions were placed on Channel 4.
| Celebrity | Age on entry | Notability | Day entered | Day exited | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shilpa Shetty | 31 | Actress | 1 | 26 | Winner |
| Jermaine Jackson | 52 | Jackson family member and singer | 1 | 26 | Runner-up |
| Dirk Benedict | 61 | Actor | 1 | 26 | 3rd place |
| Ian "H" Watkins | 30 | Singer | 1 | 26 | 4th place |
| Danielle Lloyd | 23 | Glamour model and Miss Great Britain | 1 | 26 | 5th place |
| Jack Tweed | 19 | Boyfriend of Jade Goody | 3 | 26 | 6th place |
| Cleo Rocos | 44 | Actress | 1 | 24 | Evicted |
| Jo O'Meara | 27 | Singer | 1 | 24 | Evicted |
| Jade Goody† | 25 | Reality TV star | 3 | 17 | Evicted |
| Carole Malone | 52 | Journalist and broadcaster | 1 | 10 | Evicted |
| Leo Sayer | 58 | Singer | 1 | 10 | Walked |
| Jackiey Budden | 48 | Mother of Jade Goody | 3 | 8 | Evicted |
| Ken Russell† | 79 | Director | 1 | 5 | Walked |
| Donny Tourette | 25 | Singer | 1 | 3 | Walked |
| Day 3 | Day 9 | Day 15 | Day 21 | Day 26 Final |
Nominations received | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shilpa | Master in Task |
Jack, Leo |
Jade, Jack |
Dirk, Jack |
Winner (Day 26) |
9 | |
| Jermaine | Master in Task |
Jo, Danielle |
Jade, Jo |
Danielle, Jo |
Runner-up (Day 26) |
2 | |
| Dirk | Servant in Task |
Ian, Jermaine |
Jade, Jermaine |
Jo, Cleo |
Third place (Day 26) |
13 | |
| Ian | Servant in Task |
Leo, Dirk |
Danielle, Jade |
Cleo, Jo |
Fourth place (Day 26) |
3 | |
| Danielle | Servant in Task |
Leo, Dirk |
Shilpa, Dirk |
Dirk, Ian |
Fifth place (Day 26) |
3 | |
| Jack | Master in Task |
Shilpa, Dirk |
Shilpa, Dirk |
Dirk, Shilpa |
Sixth place (Day 26) |
5 | |
| Cleo | Servant in Task |
Banned | Shilpa, Jade |
Dirk, Ian |
Evicted (Day 24) |
2 | |
| Jo | Servant in Task |
Leo, Jack |
Shilpa, Dirk |
Dirk, Shilpa |
Evicted (Day 24) |
6 | |
| Jade | Master in Task |
Shilpa, Dirk |
Shilpa, Dirk |
Evicted (Day 17) |
5 | ||
| Carole | Servant in Task |
Banned | Evicted (Day 10) |
0 | |||
| Leo | Servant in Task |
Jack, Jo |
Walked (Day 10) |
4 | |||
| Jackiey | Master in Task |
Evicted (Day 8) |
N/A | ||||
| Ken | Master in Task |
Walked (Day 5) |
N/A | ||||
| Donny | Servant in Task |
Walked (Day 3) |
N/A | ||||
| Nomination note |
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | ||
| Against public vote |
Jack, Jackiey, Jade, Jermaine, Shilpa |
Carole, Dirk, |
Jade, Shilpa |
Cleo, Dirk, Ian, Jo, Shilpa |
Danielle, Dirk, Ian, Jack, Jermaine, Shilpa | ||
| Walked | Donny, Ken |
Leo | none | ||||
| Evicted | Jackiey 4.6% to save |
Carole 77.4% to evict |
Jade 82% to evict |
Jo 48.4% to evict |
Jack 3.15% (out of 6) |
Dirk 16% (out of 3) | |
| Danielle 3.30% (out of 6) | |||||||
| Jermaine 37% (out of 2) | |||||||
| Cleo 27.9% to evict |
Ian 5.3% (out of 4) | ||||||
| Shilpa 63% to win | |||||||
^Note 1 : When Jade, Jack, and Jackiey entered the house they became “masters” along with Jermaine, Ken, and Shilpa. The other eight housemates were chosen to be their “servants” and moved to the House Next Door. It was revealed that the masters are automatically nominated for eviction in which the viewers are to vote which housemates to save, rather than evicted. Therefore, the housemate with the fewest votes is evicted. Donny, who was originally a servant, left the house on Day 3. On Day 5, Ken voluntarily left after being involved in arguments with housemates. The eviction was not cancelled, and Ken’s number was removed from the voting system.
^Note 2 : Carole and Cleo were banned from nominating as a punishment for discussing nominations earlier. Additionally, housemates had to choose one of them to face the public vote. They chose Carole. On Day 10, Leo escaped the house. The eviction was not cancelled, and Leo’s number was removed from the voting system. At the time of his exit, Leo had the most votes to evict.
^Note 3 : The nominations were cast on Day 15 and announced on Day 16. The voting package was delayed and only shown at the end of Big Brother’s Big Mouth where it was also revealed that all Channel 4’s profits for this vote will go to charity.
^Note 4 : There was a double eviction on Day 24 and therefore the three or more housemates were placed up for the public vote rather than the two or more housemates. If there was not a double eviction, Dirk and Jo would have faced the public vote. The voting lines originally opened on Day 22 but were reset on Day 23 due to an error which stated that viewers were to vote to save Shilpa when they were in fact voting to evict. Viewers who had voted before the lines were reset were offered a full refund with all unclaimed money and profits from the vote being donated to charity.
^Note 5 : There were no nominations in the final two days and instead the public were voting for the housemate they wanted to win rather than evict. There was a double eviction on Day 24, two days before the final.
| Official viewers (millions) | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4 | |||
| Saturday | 3.16 | 2.93 | 3.3 | 2.56 | ||
| Sunday | 3.39 | 3.03 | 3.65 | 6.01 | ||
| Monday | 3.81 | 3.75 | 4.16 | |||
| Tuesday | 4.1 | 4.72 | 4.32 | |||
| Wednesday | 7.32 | 4.51 | 5.4 | 4.71 | ||
| Thursday | 5.48 | 3.72 | 5.89 | 4.47 | ||
| Friday | 4.25 | 3.5 | 7.61 | 5.14 | ||
| 5.27 | 3.8 | 8.78 | 5.26 | |||
| Weekly average | 4.36 | 5.26 | 4.36 | 4.29 | ||
| Running average | 4.36 | 4.72 | 4.62 | 4.29 | ||
| Series average | 4.6 | |||||
| blue-coloured boxes denote live shows. | ||||||
