Let's be real about the new Big Brother for a hot minute; from the moment its return was announced during the Love Island 2022 final (they REALLY did keep us waiting), fans were equally hyped and terrified.
After Big Brother's time on Channel 5, erm, it's safe to say that should another reboot ever occur fans would need it to be more than perfect.
Luckily, Big Brother 2023 on ITV completely slaps (as the kids say) and that's at least partly due to the casting team who found our current housemates. It's a cross-section of 2023 Britain and each and every one of them are giving entertainment in their unique way.
One of those housemates is recent evictee, 28-year-old Zak Srakaew, who was evicted from the Big Brother house on Friday 20 October after going head-to-head with Henry Southan, who remains in the house following another nail-biting public vote.
Because heat and Big Brother go WAY back (like, WAY before people were using the word 'slap' colloquially) we'll be chinwagging with each and every one of our evictees over the next few weeks and on Monday (23 October) we spoke to Big Brother babe, Zak.
We'll be honest, we weren't expecting such a colossal amount of house juice from Zak – especially after watching his exit interview on Friday (bless him, he was like a deer in headlights), but we have to give it to him - he delivered during our interview. In fact, his tea was piping and flowing.
In addition to discussing his beef with Kerry Riches, his relationship with Noky Simbani and the obvs attraction between Paul Blackburn and Olivia Young, Zak revealed the identity of the housemate he believes completely sabotaged his chances on Big Brother. See – tea.
Zak exclusively told heatworld, "My friends and family said, ‘You were flying [in the house] until one dayHallie [Clarke] just went around talking so much rubbish about you.'"
He explained, "I was really upset by it when I found out she wrote on Olivia’s back that I was a game player because, you know, every single night me and Hallie shared pillow talk, I was always trying to say something positive to her, I was always giving advice to her… so it was quite a shame that she went behind my back to other people and I feel like that 100 percent encouraged other people to nominate me."
We're a little obsessed with Hallie here at heat HQ and won't hear a bad word said about her – that goes for Yinrun Huang, too – but we'll always welcome BB tea. Oh how we've missed it.
Speaking of which, welcome back, Big Brother.