Glamour model Lucy Pinder became the first celebrity to be evicted from the Big Brother house last night.
Pinder was up against former weathergirl Ulrika Jonsson who shored up her place in the house when her duet with actor Verne Troyer proved a surprise hit on the Channel 4 reality show’s website.
Bookmakers slashed the odds on Pinder being voted out after she failed her part of the house shopping task.
As part of the task, Big Brother set Jonsson and Troyer the challenge of performing Lionel Ritchie and Diana Ross’s classic Endless Love, and getting 10,000 web views of the video.
Surprisingly, the pair’s woeful rendition proved a huge hit – with 81,483 views by the end of the challenge at 11pm and more than 100,000 by yesterday afternoon.
Pinder had declared her wish to leave the Big Brother house after being driven to distraction by Coolio’s incessant rapping. Jonsson found her sobbing in the toilet, having left the press pen in tears. Pinder told her: “I’m just really tired. I really want to go home tomorrow.”
After the announcement, Pinder and Jonsson embraced and Jonsson burst into tears.
Pinder promised: “I’ll see you all again,” but added: “I’m so glad I’m going home.”
She received 57% of the total votes cast by the public.
Discussing the eviction in the smoking room earlier, presenter Terry Christian and Coolio agreed Jonsson seemed to be safe.
“She’s staying isn’t she?” Christian said.
“I’m sure she’s more popular than Lucy. She’s been on TV all these years.” said Coolio.
“And 81,000 hits on the website,” said Terry, “and she’s funny. And she’s funny when she gets annoyed.”