Back to Reality (TV series)

*Back to Reality*
Back to Reality
No. of days	20
No. of housemates	12
Winner	James Hewitt
Runner-up	Maureen Rees
Release
Original network	Five
Original release	15 February –; 5 March 2004

Back to Reality is a reality television show featuring stars from previous reality television programmes. The show was broadcast on Channel 5 between 15 February 2004 to 5 March 2004.^[1]^[2]

It was advertised by Channel 5 as being "The biggest reality show of all time" however in terms of ratings, it failed to deliver. The 12 contestants spent 3 weeks in a studio built mansion, with no natural sunlight. In the final two weeks, the public voted for their favourite housemate with the two people with the lowest votes every 3/4 nights being put to the housemate vote, where the other contestants had to vote for who they wanted to leave. The show was presented by Tess Daly and Richard Bacon, the first and only series of the show finished with James Hewitt winning the show ahead of Maureen Rees and Craig Phillips.

Ratings[edit]

The ratings rarely went over 1.6 million despite the show extending its hours (early morning and afternoon live streaming). The lack of ratings was put down to the lack of tabloid interest in the show, despite the sponsoring of the show by popular celebrity magazine 'Heat' and the constant arguments and major events that happened in the house.

Highlights[edit]

Events included the threatened walk-out of the contestants after Nick Bateman was referred to as "Nasty Nick", the planned addition of Jade Goody's then boyfriend Jeff Brazier (from the reality TV show Shipwrecked) as a thirteenth contestant, Uri Geller walking out, the suspicion of Josie D'Arby being a mole (and the subsequent arguments and divides), the love interest between James Hewitt and Sarah Kozer, the rushing of Jade Goody to hospital and the "Ricardo Incident" when the flamboyant cross-dresser Rocardo Ribero argued with other housemates and then proceeded to destroy the kitchen. The show ended when the public voted The Games star James Hewitt to be the winner with Maureen Rees coming second.

Aftermath[edit]

Since the show, Channel 5 confessed that Back to Reality was an expensive but worthwhile experiment however it is unlikely to return. Goody's aggression towards Rik Waller in the series, though attracting little comment at the time, was later cited as evidence that she was a serial bully following her appearance in Celebrity Big Brother. However they only actually had one row and made up soon afterwards for the duration of the series.

Contestants[edit]

Celebrity	Previous show
Catalina Guirado	I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!
Craig Phillips	Big Brother 1
Jade Goody	Big Brother 3
James Hewitt	The Games
Josie D'Arby	The Games
Lizzy Bardsley	Wife Swap
Maureen Rees	Driving School
Nick Bateman	Big Brother 1
Ricardo Ribero	The Salon
Rik Waller	Pop Idol 1
Sarah Kozer	Joe Millionaire
Uri Geller	I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! (UK)

Eviction table[edit]

	Day 8	Day 9	Day 10	Day 11	Day 12	Day 16	Day 17	Day 18	Final Day 20	Votes received

James	Nick	Lizzy	Catalina	Josie	Josie	Rik	Josie	Jade	Winner (Day 20)	0
Maureen	Nick	Sarah	Catalina	Sarah	Ricardo	Rik	Bottom two	Bottom two	Runner-Up (Day 20)	0
Craig	Catalina	Lizzy	Catalina	Sarah	Ricardo	Rik	Josie	Jade	Third Place (Day 20)	0
Jade	Nick	Sarah	Catalina	Sarah	Ricardo	Rik	Josie	Bottom two	Evicted (Day 18)	2
Josie	Nick	Sarah	Bottom two	Bottom two	Bottom two	Bottom two	Bottom two	Evicted (Day 17)		8
Rik	Catalina	Sarah	Josie	Sarah	Ricardo	Bottom two	Evicted (Day 16)			4
Ricardo	Nick	Lizzy	Josie	Sarah	Bottom two	Evicted (Day 12)				4
Sarah	Nick	Bottom two	Josie	Bottom two	Evicted (Day 11)					9
Catalina	Bottom two	Lizzy	Bottom two	Evicted (Day 10)						6
Lizzy	Nick	Bottom two	Evicted (Day 9)							4
Nick	Bottom two	Evicted (Day 8)								7
Uri	Walked (Day 7)									0

Notes	none	1	none	none	none	none	none	none	none
Nominated	Catalina, Nick	Lizzy, Sarah	Catalina, Josie	Josie, Sarah	Josie, Ricardo	Josie, Rik	Josie, Maureen	Jade, Maureen	Craig, James, Maureen
Walked	Uri	none
Evicted	Nick 7 of 9 votes to evict	Lizzy 4 of 8 votes to evict	Catalina 4 of 7 votes to evict	Sarah 5 of 6 votes to evict	Ricardo 4 of 5 votes to evict	Rik 4 of 4 votes to evict	Josie 3 of 3 votes to evict	Jade 2 of 2 votes to evict	Craig Fewest votes to win
									Maureen Fewest votes to win
									James Most votes to win

Notes[edit]

^Note 1 : James, who received the most votes after the vote count, had to break the tie in order for either Lizzy or Sarah to be evicted.

References[edit]

^ "'Reality' hits the ground walking". BBC. BBC News. 17 February 2004. Retrieved 26 April 2014.
^ "Back To Reality winner Hewitt arrested". Digital Spy. 8 March 2004. Retrieved 26 April 2014.

External links[edit]

[1] "'Reality' hits the ground walking". BBC. BBC News. 17 February 2004. Retrieved 26 April 2014.

[2] "Back To Reality winner Hewitt arrested". Digital Spy. 8 March 2004. Retrieved 26 April 2014.

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