Celebrity Big Brother 2024 housemates revealed – live

One banner that stole the limelight at last night’s Celebrity Big Brother launch episode was the below work of art, remembering George Galloway’s time in the house back in 2006.

In what has gone down in reality TV history as one of CBB’s most memorable moments, Galloway pretended to be a cat in somewhat disturbing scenes while purring, scratching behind his ears and “drinking milk” out of TV presenter Rula Lenska’s hands.

Lorraine Kelly has said it was “bizarre” seeing Sharon Osbourne and Louis Walsh in the Celebrity Big Brother house.

On Tuesday’s episode of her iTV daytime show, Kelly led a discussion about the new housemates with journalist Lucie Cave and comedian Rob Beckett.

Kelly said she thinks Fern Britton “will be good” in the house, adding: “She’ll get a lot out of the other contestants, because she will start interviewing them, I think.

When Sharon Osbourne entered the Celebrity Big Brother house, it was highlighted that she is merely a “lodger” and not an official housemate.

The former X Factor judge, 71, has been given a secret task, and will be in charge of one person’s fate in the house – but it’s believed she will be leaving the series after approximately five days.

Why? Well, The Sun is reporting that ITV could not afford the fee she was asking for, which allegedly sat around £1.9m. Instead, it’s been claimed Osbourne agreed £500,000 for a shorter stint.

The much-hyped entrance of Kate Middleton’s playboy uncle into the Big Brother house will likely be met with dread by the royal family’s already overloaded PR team.

It’s been an exhausting 12 months for “The Firm”, with everything from major health shocks such as King Charles’s cancer diagnosis to severe embarrassment caused by Prince Andrew’s much-publicised friendship with late paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

So Gary Goldsmith’s entrance into the CBB house on Monday will only induce shudders from those in Buckingham Palace who fear he will create more unwanted headlines.

Here we take a look at the ups and downs of the Princess of Wales’s “black sheep” uncle Gary Goldsmith:

Not everyone was a fan of last night’s CBB return.

One such person was writer Sean O’Grady, who argues that the reality show’s format is dated, and plundered a few old tropes and familiar faces from other shows – though not to much success.

Find O’Grady’s review of the launch episode for The Independent below.

Here is the Celebrity Big Brother 2024 housemates – all in one place for your viewing pleasure.

Going by the audience reaction during the live launch, this year’s favourites currently are: Nikita Kuzmin, Ekin-Su Cülcüloğlu, Marisha Wallace, Levi Roots, Bradley Riches and Fern Britton.

While he’s yet to elaborate on why, Will Best alerted his Instagram followers to the fact that he had a mini-health scare before the launch episode of Celebrity Big Brother.

He told his followers just one hour before the episode started on ITV: “So guys, this is nearly it. We’re basically one hour away from going live on Celebrity Big Brother 2024. I’ve literally just been given a clean bill of health by a paramedic. Thank you very much. It’s a long story.”

A lot of people are all expressing the belief that Kate Middleton’s Uncle Gary isn’t long for this series…