‘Big Brother’ winner Nadia Almada doesn’t want the show to be like “soulless” ‘Love Island’.
Nadia Almada wants the new Big Brother to be real
The 46-year-old hairdresser - who snagged victory on the fifth series of the original Channel 4 run in 2004 with 74 per cent of the vote - is “super-excited” for the ITV2 reboot of the iconic reality show but urges the producers to “listen to the fans” and make it like the Davina McCall-fronted edition with “real people” and not glossy wannabe influencers like on the dating competition.
She told the Daily Star newspaper: “I’m super-excited for Big Brother. They will have to listen to the fans. They want the humour, the real people.
“But I think they are really trying to keep the essence of the show, the social experiment, people from all walks of life connecting.
“We need to step away from influencers and models and go back to people like me, Brian Dowling, Pete Bennett, Jade Goody – people that created the foundations for this amazing show.
“We created reality TV – the whole genre was based on that show. ‘Love Island; is very generic. I find it’s not real. There’s no soul to it. I’m sick and tired of forced love relationships.”
Nadia - who was the first openly transgender woman to compete - admitted she was grateful they were considering “bringing back familiar faces” but was unsure if she wanted to be involved.
She said: “I appreciate the fact they are considering us, bringing back some familiar faces.
“It’s very honourable and almost like an appreciation for what we created and delivered for that show.
“I’m not sure I’d go back as a contestant but in a guest spot or something like that.
“Or it would be quite nice to have a commentator position, looking at highlights of the night or week.”
She labelled the new crop of contestants are “having it easy” compared to her heyday.
Nadia said: “We did 12 weeks. They’re having it easy and will probably have all mod cons – we didn’t even have a washing machine or dishwasher.”
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