FROM late night diary room breakdowns to booze-fuelled blow-ups, Celebrity Big Brother has become one of the most unpredicatable shows on the tele.
According to , one of the most talked about housemates in CBB history, the chaos we see on screen is just the tip of the iceberg.
Behind the glittery set and round-the-clock cameras lies a world of strict rules, intense psychological pressure, and carefully controlled environments that few viewers ever get to see.
With hosts and herding the stasr into the huose like cattle last week, Perez is lifting the lid on what really goes on inside.
Celebrity Contracts
“In 2015, the contracts made no sense to me. Let me throw out a random number, right? Okay, let’s say I got paid five pounds. If I was voted out first, I got my entire five-pound fee. But if I stayed up until the very end, I only made five pounds. In the US, a show like Dancing with the Stars or even Celebrity Big Brother US pays you more the longer you stay—bonuses for each week or episode. I even tried to renegotiate my contract inside the diary room, like, ‘This is ridiculous. I deserve more money.
“I agreed to do it because the pay was exceptional—at least for me. I don’t believe everybody got paid the same, obviously. And I don’t believe, you know, like some of the glamour models probably did it for close to nothing. I would imagine, you know, because they just really wanted to be on the show and the exposure was worth it for them.
Sleeping Arrangements
“There was only one bedroom for all housemates, and they lock you in there.
“If you’re one of those people who normally wake up early, you could not leave the bedroom until they opened it. You were locked in there with the metal shade down and complete darkness until they deemed that you got enough sleep.
Alcohol Management
“At night, often—but not always—they give you alcohol because they want you to loosen up. However, during my season, there were many nights they did not give people alcohol because they were already giving the producers more than enough content, and they didn’t want things to get even more heated.
Diary Room Access
“Big Brother had told us repeatedly that the diary room is there for us anytime we need it, and I needed it. I was like, ‘I need to talk quick now. I’m not well; I need to talk.’
“This went on for at least half an hour... I kept saying, ‘Hey Big Brother, I need to go to the diary room.’ And they weren’t opening the door. They weren’t communicating with me.
“They could have told me, ‘We can’t let you into the diary room right now, but if you give us 30 minutes or 10 minutes, we’ll let you in.’ The fact that they weren’t communicating with me is what made me upset and feel even more unwell.
Editing and Production
“So much of the show is produced, meaning it’s not real. They could have made two hours of content every night instead of a one-hour show. It would have been nice if they showed some of the good times, fun, and silliness, but that’s not the show they were putting on the air. It was drama, drama, drama, craziness, craziness, craziness. The American version is much more real because they have a live cam that viewers can watch at all times. In the British version, unless they’ve changed it now, there’s no live cam, so it’s easier to manipulate things.
“If I really wanted to win, the show would have helped me win.
“Meaning they would have, in the last days leading up to the finale, slanted the edit or changed it to give me a hero arc or redemption arc. They could have guided me and coached me in the diary room, like, ‘You should really try to make amends with this person,’ or ‘You should say this.
Medical Tests
“They didn’t make us do drug tests going into the house. They didn’t screen us for substances, and they should.
“Like, if somebody has crack cocaine in their system or even cocaine, I think the producers should know about that.
