She definitely lit up the Big Brother house, then herself, Santa Claus and Mayor Ruair\u00ed McHugh lit up a Derry City centre bedecked with Christmas lights.<\/p>\n
Now, in an exclusive New Year\u2019s Day interview with The Derry News, our own Jenny Baird (21) spills the tea on all things Big Brother and reveals some 2026 plans.<\/p>\n
Big Brother aired from September 25 until November 14, when popular third place contestant Jenny left the house, just before runner-up Elsa Rae and winner Richard Storry.<\/p>\n
Describing a typical day in the Big Brother house, Jenny laughed it was like \u201cputting in a 12-hour shift\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat surprised me the most was just how long everything took,\u201d she said. \u201cFor example, I watched back the \u2018Doctor Task\u2019 and on television it looks like it took 20 minutes tops but we were actually there from nine in the morning until half past ten at night. Things take a lot longer than viewers watching the programme at night would see.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven nominations. Nominations take about eight hours in all because they constantly rerun them. They will ask you who your first nomination is, and I say, \u2018My first nomination is whoever\u2019 and they would say, \u2018Why? Why? Why? Why?\u2019 and they basically keep prodding at you until they get you to say, \u2018I hate Sam\u2019, when in reality maybe your reason was just because Sam didn\u2019t wash the dishes,\u201d said Jenny.<\/p>\n
Asked if there was a little bit of manipulation by the programme-makers, Jenny agreed. \u201cAye they want you to say something really bad,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
To the horror of The Derry News, Jenny also revealed there are cameras and microphones in the Big Brother toilets – nowhere in the house is off-limits.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you are using the toilet, there is a camera right in your face and there is a microphone hanging down, nearly hitting you on the head,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut, you get used to it after the first week. The first week you are trying to use the toilet with your legs crossed and your trousers just about down, but after about a week, you don\u2019t care any more,\u201d Jenny added with customary frankness.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey don\u2019t tell you this beforehand but I never thought to ask the question so it was all new to me when I got into the house. They don\u2019t tell you anything. You don\u2019t even get to see the Big Brother house until you get in and literally, after one week, you forget there are cameras even there.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s not to say, although there are individual shower cubicles, the showers are in the middle of the room, so you could be in the shower and there could be five people all standing brushing their teeth.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut, whenever I wanted to take a bath, I used to cordon off the bathroom and say to everyone, \u2018Right, give me an hour, I\u2019m getting a naked bath\u2019 because I would have worn a swimsuit in the shower and sometimes you need a good wash.<\/p>\n
\u201cOverall Big Brother was a great experience,\u201d smiled Jenny.<\/p>\n
Big Brother viewers might be surprised to learn your day is not your own in the house. No napping or taking to your bed was allowed by the programme-makers.<\/p>\n
\u201cI used to always try and nap,\u201d said Jenny, \u201cbecause I love napping. I used to try and lie down but then you would hear the Big Brother voice saying, \u2018This is Big Brother, Jenny. You are not permitted to nap during the day\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd then, see if you kept on napping, they used to play bird noises and chickens clucking and babies crying to get you back up,\u201d laughed Jenny.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd once the lights went out at night, well we could go and sit in the bathroom and chat but the Big Brother voice would come over again, especially if we were doing something early the next morning, and say, \u2018This is Big Brother. Big Brother advises housemates to go to sleep,\u2019\u201d said Jenny.<\/p>\n
As well as the presence of cameras and microphones in the toilet, Jenny divulged some other ways in which all is not what it appears to viewers of Big Brother – even announcements around evictions.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn Week One, when Zelah (Glasson) got the \u2018Evil Eye\u2019 from George (Gilbert), we had to re-record that like five times,\u201d said Jenny, \u201cso, whenever you actually look at the episode, we probably don\u2019t look shocked that Zelah got the \u2018Evil Eye\u2019 because we weren\u2019t. It is wild for the person getting the \u2018Evil Eye\u2019 because they know they are getting it after the first time and, that time, the person giving it had to make his speech five times.<\/p>\n
\u201cNominations take between five and eight hours because sometimes you are clutching at straws down there to nominate somebody, especially early on in the process when you like everyone.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was really hard because you are being pushed for a really dramatic reason for nominating someone because Big Brother doesn\u2019t think \u2018They left their washing in the machine all night\u2019 is not sensational enough,\u201d the young Brandywell woman added.
Jenny has remained friends with Big Brother housemates, Cameron (Kinch), Gani (Khan), Feyisola (Akintoge), Teja (Dalphy), Zelah and Richard, and Cameron B (Barnes) and Tate (Reynolds).<\/p>\n
\u201cI wouldn\u2019t say I had any mortal enemies,\u201d said Jenny. \u201cWhenever I got out of the house, Sam had me blocked but he unblocked me and apologised. I just haven\u2019t spoken to Nancy (Nocerino).\u201d<\/p>\n
Jenny also said she was overwhelmed by the massive support she got from Derry, and further afield.<\/p>\n
\u201cOh my God, the support from the Derry people was unbelievable,\u201d she laughed. \u201cI actually couldn’t believe it. Whenever I got out and my mammy was telling me about the billboards and that, I was like, \u2018Let me see a picture\u2019 and between City Competitions with the billboards and Ferry Clever with the mugs and jumpers and City Cabs with the text messages, the support was amazing.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd there were so many other people supporting me, people that I love, influencers, it was unbelievable.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhenever I was going into the Big Brother house, I had only told my mammy, best friend, Shane, and my boyfriend, so nobody knew, and, even though you’re on air, you’re on the TV, you don’t realize that you’re on the TV. So, you\u2019re thinking, once somebody annoys you, \u2018Stuff this, I want to go home\u2019 because you are thinking there is no-one watching.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re wondering if anyone really cares because I’m just laughing or having a conversation. So I really, really appreciate all of the support I received,\u201d said Jenny, who actually started her Big Brother journey back in April.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am so excited for 2026,\u201d declared Jenny. \u201c2025 was a great year for me but I’ve a feeling 2026 is going to be better.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am doing a few live shows. I am actually hosting a show around suicide awareness, which will be in Belfast. It\u2019s called the \u2018Stand By Me\u2019 Ball. I am also going to Thailand for a month for work but it\u2019s top secret at the minute.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor something like this to happen to someone like me is amazing. I\u2019m just in shock. I had the best night ever in The Diamond Nightclub with all of my Big Brother friends. They had an absolute ball. They loved Derry and got a fantastic welcome. Feyisola was telling everyone she was moving to Derry she loved it so much.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"She definitely lit up the Big Brother house, then herself, Santa Claus and Mayor Ruair\u00ed McHugh lit up…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":221994,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[7726,17201,83015,93,61,60,282],"class_list":{"0":"post-221993","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-derry","9":"tag-derry-news","10":"tag-derry-post","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-ie","13":"tag-ireland","14":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221993","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=221993"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221993\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/221994"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=221993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=221993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=221993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}