Big Brother 2013: Secrets & Lies is about to introduce a ‘safe house’ twist – but is it really a scheme to keep save this week’s four nominees from eviction? Here we present the evidence…

Just three weeks ago, this series of Big Brother looked like it was going to be one of the best ever – well, the best on Channel 5 at least.

A brand new boss had finally answered our prayers and drafted Emma Willis in as the main host, there would me more live streaming to provide a less edited insight in to the housemates, and the new theme of secrets and lies made the pre-launch build-up the most exciting for years.

However, three weeks in, and it’s now turned out to be a bit of a damp squib.

The launch twist that they promoted for three weeks and described as ‘never been done before’ actually borrowed from two previous years and only lasted for nine days. They reversed one of the few good changes C5 had made to the show by bringing back vote to evict. The live feed was cancelled rather than given another chance in a timeslot where it wouldn’t have faced competition from the juggernaut soaps.

And now, it seems the producers are again up to their crafty old tricks.

Back in January, we proclaimed that they’d ‘destroyed any shred of credibility left in the Big Brother format’ when they allowed Celebrity housemate Rylan Clark out of the house for work. But with all the fresh changes they’d made for this series came a glimmer of hope that they might have changed their attitudes.

It turns out we were stupid to think so, as this week’s eviction is now not going ahead as expected – with either Dexter & Gina or Dan & Wolfy instead set to be fake evicted to a ‘secret safe house’.

Spin-off show Bit On The Side – masters at glossing over controversy – may want you to believe that there’s no ‘conspiracy theories’ or ‘fixes’ involved.

But they’re not pulling the wool over our eyes. We’re convinced that this twist was cobbled together at the last minute to save all four – and below, we sum up why.

Reason 1: It wasn’t announced before nominations

First of all, we should acknowledge that we’re fully aware that the safe house – which is located just off the garden – hasn’t been built overnight. Its existence was revealed to viewers when the house floorplans were shown on BOTS a fortnight ago.

However, we’re pretty sure that the top brass had planned to use it later in the series, and have instead hastily brought its introduction forward.

Usually, when major twists like this are about to come in to play, they’re announced to viewers in the live eviction show the week prior. However, it didn’t happen this time.

If Emma had given us even just the slightest teaser last Friday night – ‘next week’s nominees will not face eviction’, or something along those lines – the whole safe house twist would have been above board and we wouldn’t have published this article.

However, she didn’t – and that speaks volumes.

Reason 2: The nominees are big characters

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past week you’ll be aware that the four housemates nominated this week have been at the centre of the action.

With the house already having lost Sallie and Jemima, it’s highly likely the producers couldn’t bear to see another big character leave – so why not cook up a twist that’ll save all four and make two of them even more prominent instead?

Reason 3: The pairs have been pre-selected

Usually, viewers get to cast their votes for individual housemates. But instead of opening each of Dan, Dexter, Gina and Wolfy’s lines, bosses have instead paired them off – so you can only for either Dexter and Gina to move houses, or Dan and Wolfy.

If what was said on BOTS is to be believed, Dexter and Gina were coupled because they had the most nominations, while Dan and Wolfy had the least.

So it’s just a coincidence that these are also the pairs that have the most tension between each other, therefore maximising the potential drama in them living together?

We call bulls**t.

Reason 4: They originally had another twist planned

The Daily Star doesn’t exactly have a reputation for telling the truth, especially among Big Brother fans. Their annual ‘sex room’ rumours give us all a chuckle – and let’s not forget they promised us not one, but four 24 hour live feeds for Channel 5′s relaunch of the show.

However, the Star and C5 are both owned by the same company – Richard Desmond’s Northern & Shell – so they also have the inside track on what’s going down at Elstree.

And in recent years, they have nailed the finer details more often than not, having almost entirely accurately reported details of last year’s Wildcard housemate, launch night nominations and White Room, as well as January’s CBB basement.

So there’s no doubt in our minds that, when they said earlier this week that last night’s twist would involve housemates saving one of the nominees, they were correct at the time.

After all, the sad fact is that the Big Brother execs are now just as trustworthy as a tabloid newspaper.

It’s a real shame that the new safe house twist has ‘fix’ written all over it, as if it had been done legitimately it would most likely have been quite decent – even if the whole secret house thing has been done to death in years gone by.

But it has come at the cost of yet more of the producers’ integrity. Their meddling will no doubt be on our minds as we watch the next week play out – and that’s not a feeling you want to have about a ‘reality’ show.