Josie didn’t have to pack her suitcase for Friday night’s eviction because she had a free pass to tonight’s Big Brother final. It looks like she won’t have to pack up this evening either and will stay put for the Ultimate show as series 11 winner.

John James, Steve, Sam and Corin were all evicted in Friday’s semi-final.  This caused a bit of stir with criticism that the ‘boring’ housemates (except Josie) have made it to the final.  The show’s producer Endemol has been under a bit of fire for asking viewers ‘to evict’ housemates which, it’s been claimed, meant the public was more driven to vote out the stronger personalities.  It could well have been a different line-up if the vote had been ‘to win’.

Layla Anna-Lee on the OK! blog posted: ‘Our Twitter went nuts last night and Big Brother forums all round took a big hit  … in my view, Sam Pepper would have still been in and, of course Corin – two of the most entertaining housemates of all time’. (OK! 21/8)

Anyhow, Josie, Mario, Andrew, Dave and JJ are battling it out to win tonight.  A quick look at the sentiment analysis for all five shows Josie is almost in a league of her own and is still the bookie’s favourite to win at 1/10. Mario is at 9/1, Dave 10/1, Andrew 18/1 and JJ is the outsider at 40/1.

Celebrity hairdresser Lee Stafford has been in the house to give them all haircuts as part of their ‘Perfect Day’ on Sunday, which started off with breakfast in bed from Anthea Turner and included a meal cooked by Nancy Lam.

Figure 1: Sentiment expressed towards final five housemates – 20/8 to 23/8

And, what’s the news on the Ultimate series?  Sam fans have started a Twitter campaign to get him back for the show.  Will Endemol bow to the power of the people?

Sam’s new Twitter account has also created a real buzz and 30,000 followers have signed up to his new account since Saturday night.  John James has 20,000.  Sam has more followers than previous winners Sophie Reade and Brian Belo.

Anyway, first things first, the final’s tonight and it looks like Josie will win BB 11.

Ben was evicted.  Sam became a housemate.  Jedward played a live set in the garden.  Davina McCall presented part of her live show from the house.  An average Friday night in Big Brother land.  Oh, and on Thursday, Laura became the third girl to walk out of the back door.

The Jedward and Davina stunt was all part of an ‘Ignore the Obvious’ task for the weekly shopping budget, where loads of random people went into the house and got up to all kinds of shenanigans.

So, that’s seven lines on Big Brother and no mention of John James and Josie.  And, the good news?  The two seem to have become love birds at last.  But, Sam has been the biggest doubter so far, with questions for them both on what’s been going on and he then mentioned the ‘m’ word – magazine (deal).  That caused another row with Josie.  The consensus in the house was the relationship was real.

Figure 1: Topic cloud for the Big Brother conversation – 28/7 to 3/7

For the gazzillionth week running, John James has been the lead topic in the Big Brother conversation.  But, Corin has held on her own as the bookies’ favourite to win at 6/4 with John James and Josie hot on her heels.

Figure 2: Sentiment expressed towards favourites to win – 28/7 to 3/8

A quick look at the sentiment analysis for the three front runners showed that although John James and Josie have had the biggest buzz, Corin has had the highest number of positive mentions (68.5%) and the least number of negative mentions (6.8%).

Figure 3: Sentiment expressed towards nominated housemates – 28/7 to 3/8

And, who will go this week? John James, Rachel and Mario were put up by the house.  But, Mario saved himself in the ‘Save & Replace’ task and put Dave up instead.  On balance, it looks like Rachel could go.