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| 27 April 2002 |
| 27 April 2002 Error May Have Cost Damian By Luke Dennehy AN error on the Big Brother website could have cost week one evictee Damian Hoo vital votes it was revealed yesterday. After the first nominations on Monday, April 15, phone numbers for each of the three nominees -- Damian, Katrina and Turkan -- appeared on the website. However for 10 hours Turkan's phone number displayed on the Internet was mistakenly Damian's. So those thinking they were voting for Turkan actually voted for Damian. The mistake was online from 11pm Monday to 9am Tuesday. In the first eviction Damian attracted 40 per cent of the vote, Turkan had 30.5 per cent while Victorian Katrina had 29.5 per cent. In a statement Channel 10 and Southern Star Endemol, which produces the website, admitted the mistake but said it made no difference to the final result. The statement said a big swing against Damian happened on Thursday, April 18, and continued until the following Sunday when he was evicted. The network also looked at voting patterns for the whole week and found no difference when the mistake was online. But among Big Brother fans, many people thought Damian's eviction was a shock. The second Big Brother -- Uncut was again slammed by family and church groups. Constant profanity plus talk of masturbation and anal sex dominated the show on Thursday night. Geraldine Capp, a spokeswoman for the Catholic diocese in Melbourne, said the housemates were not good role models for young Australians. "Channel 10 has encouraged a group of self-absorbed, vulgar, young people to entertain the masses," she said. "This is a shame because the overwhelming majority of Australia's young people are working or studying hard to make the world a better place to help people less fortunate than them. "It is a shame we don't see a more accurate portrayal of the nation's young people." Yesterday Australian Broadcasting Authority investigation officer Sharon Trotter said the authority had one complaint from Thursday's show. Article from Herald Sun |