Originally Posted by Xochiquetzal:
I'm listening to the podcast (right hand of the site - BB Couch Potato Radio Live, around 46 mins in.) - of Fridays eviction night and interestingly they have Jo Hemmings, the previous programme psychologist, where she is talking about how the psychologists assess potential HMs and what the broadcaster does with the assessments! It answers many of our questions!
Some of her comments were a bit misleading: the producers she's referring to would have worked for Endemol, not C4. Endemol produces the show, and chooses the HMs, so it's Endemol who would be ignoring the psychologists' assessments. My understanding is that C4/C5 have final say on HMs, so they have to take some responsibility, but any potential HM would have to have been passed by Endemol first. There were reported cases of C4 vetoing HMs - one particular case was in BB7 where C4 prevented two HMs with criminal records - at least one of them for violence - entering the house. Endemol threw their toys out and leaked the story to the press, implying heavy-handedness by C4, but I think the public was on C4's side with that one...
Also, Jo Hemmings skirted around the specific incident she was asked about, which has been well-documented. I forget the person's name, but a BB advisor went public after "Fight Night", stating that he had specifically warned Endemol not to return the bedsit HMs to the house, because they had gained too much information and it would create a dangerous situation. Despite - or perhaps because of - this warning, BB put them back in anyway. The advisor resigned because his advice was ignored.