Contestants dunk biscuits to join BB house

Big Brother contestants are dunking biscuits today as they bid to become fully fledged housemates.

The non-housemates will each try to dunk a biscuit in a mug of tea for the longest time, with the winner gaining housemate status.

Other contestants have already shaved off their eyebrows, walked across broken glass and apparently changed their names by deed poll – to Dogface and Halfwit.

They have been told they must earn their housemate status and anyone who fails to do so will be evicted tomorrow evening.

Yesterday morning an “SAS team” burst into the house wearing balaclavas.

Charlie Drummond, a 22-year-old customer service adviser from Newcastle, and Saffia Corden, a 27-year-old beauty consultant from Nottingham, were ordered to walk across “150 smashed wine bottles”.

Despite being told it was real glass – several times – they were in fact treading on sugar glass.

But they completed the task and earned housemate status.

They were joined by FHM High Street Honey Karly Ashworth, 21, from Fife.

She agreed to being laid out on the ground and blindfolded with a motocross bike tyre pushed into her chest.

Later on day two, 30GG glamour model Sophie Reade, 20, from Cheshire, and Freddie Fisher, 23, an entrepreneur from Market Drayton, agreed to change their names by deed poll.

They now believe their names are officially Dogface and Halfwit.

Meanwhile, Reade became the first of the contestants to cry as she complained of how “it messes with your head”.

Last night Noirin Kelly, a 25-year-old retail manager from Dublin, and Rodrigo Lopes, a 23-year-old student from Brazil became the first to earn their status when Kelly agreed to allow Lopes to shave off her eyebrows.

Unemployed Mohican-sporting factory worker Lisa Wallace, 41, from Birmingham, chose Kris Donnelly, 24, from Shrewsbury, to join her as an official housemate after she was the first to answer the phone.

As the Big Brother contestants adjusted to life in a house stripped of all creature comforts, Channel 4 was given an unwelcome surprise of its own.

Viewing figures for launch night were down for the second year in a row.

The average audience for the start of the 10th series of BB was 5.1 million, the broadcaster said, a fall of 300,000 from last year.

Viewing figures for Thursday night’s show peaked at 5.4 million, also down on last year, when a high of 6.1 million tuned in.

BB10 launch night attracted 23% of the available audience, again down on last year, when the show earned 25% audience share.

Channel 4 kept a positive outlook despite the fall in viewer numbers, pointing out that 43% of 16 to 34-year-olds watching TV at the time were tuned in to BB.

In 2006 a peak of 8 million tuned in for the start of BB7, the series which thrust the whining and histrionics of contestant Nikki Grahame upon an unsuspecting public and was eventually won by Tourette’s syndrome sufferer Pete Bennett.

Overnight viewing figures do not take account of people who may have recorded the show to watch later, Channel 4 said.