Signing up for Big Brother is always a gamble. If it goes wrong, your reputation can end up in tatters. But if it goes right, you can make quite the tidy sum.
As well as the cash prize up for grabs, previous winners have gone on to absolutely rake it in and become overnight millionaires. From Craig Phillips to Brian Dowling to Josie Gibson, former housemates have done very well indeed for themselves.
We rank the most successful winners of all time (in ascending order)…
7. Nadia Almada – season 5
Nadia did bloody well for herself after leaving the house. Sensibly, she cashed in on her popularity before it ran out and landed several lucrative deals out of it, including modelling contracts, personal appearances and countless magazine interviews. She also released a workout DVD and, rather strangely, starred in a Kit Kat advert.
Perhaps she pushed her luck a little too far with her cringeworthy attempt at launching a pop career. Her first and only single, ‘A Little Bit of Action’, limped to No. 27 in the charts.
But despite the minor setback, she’s had the last laugh. Nadia reportedly made £250,000 after leaving the Big Brother house. She then used that money to go to beauty school and now she’s a professional hair stylist in London.
6. Brian Belo – season 8
Brian gets bonus points for being the first (and so far only) late entrant to win. Admittedly, we like him a lot more now that he’s out of the house and not quite so ditzy (we’ll never forgive him for pretending he’d never heard of William Shakespeare). But we admire him for being a proper Big Brother superfan (we can relate) and love the weird fact that he received a settlement after claiming the concept for TOWIE was his idea.
Following his win, Brian’s profile in the public eye rocketed. Less than a month after leaving the house, he made his West End stage debut in The Vegemite Tales. He also landed several TV roles including an acting part in Channel 4’s Dead Set and a cameo in Hollyoaks. And he became a regular on Big Brother’s Big Mouth and Harry Hill’s TV Burp.
5. Josie Gibson – season 11
Again, this one might just be us, but we watched a lot of the live feed for this series – like, a lot – and we weren’t convinced by Josie at all. Maybe we were just tired of the endless John James drama, but we feel like we saw the cracks in her Bristolian good cheer act and we didn’t really care for them.
Sorry, Josie – it’s not you, it’s us.
Although her romance with John James didn’t work out, Josie’s career in the spotlight certainly did. Cashing in on her new-found fame once the series ended, the BB queen went on to appear on countless TV programmes and radio shows as well as landing huge magazine deals. She was also a professional agony aunt at one stage.
4. Kate Lawler – season 3
Kate will always live on in our minds for that time she got drunk and tried to put her trousers on. While we were Alex Sibley fans, we can’t begrudge Kate her victory – she was always up for a laugh and seemed like she’d be great fun on a night out. Plus, the show’s first female winner surely deserves some credit.
Following her stint in the house 16 years ago, Kate is still doing well for herself. After presenting the Kerrang! Radio weekday breakfast show for nine years, she went on to host weekday afternoons on Virgin Radio.
She also landed several TV presenting jobs, DJ-ing gigs and modelling contracts, including a lucrative deal to be the face of Ann Summers.
3. Pete Bennett – season 7
While there were plenty of “chosen one” complaints about Pete, there’s no denying that he was a fun housemate – from his tumble down the stairs on entry (planned or not) to his legendary fall into the pool.
We could have done without his Nikki Grahame romance and his discussion of spirituality and dreams in the last couple of days of the show, but aside from that he always seemed like a genuinely nice guy, and there was no way anyone but Pete was going to win.
Unfortunately, his dreams of becoming the first Big Brother rock star didn’t quite work out. But thanks to a string of magazine deals, public appearances and a huge cheque for his autobiography, he did pretty well after leaving the house. So he still got his happy ending.
2. Brian Dowling – season 2
Alright, so Brian might not have lasted as a Big Brother presenter, and he might not have been at the very top of his game during Ultimate Big Brother (although he won it anyway, which says something). But Brian in Big Brother 2 was an utterly charismatic, entertaining, funny, interesting housemate. From his rivalry with Josh to his banter with Narinder – to borrow a phrase from another show, Brian without a doubt had the X factor.
After leaving the BB house, Brian cemented his new celebrity status by landing a string of presenting jobs, including a two-year stint on Big Brother alongside Davina McCall.
1. Craig Phillips – season 1
Where do we start with Craig? The first winner was definitely the best – from the fun-to-repeat “I’d like to, er, nominate, ehhh, Sada,” to his dramatic calling out of Nasty Nick Bateman, to his sweet decision to give his prize money to his friend Joanne Harris, who needed a heart and lung transplant. Just a lovely fellow all round.
Since winning, he’s built a property-development empire (including a £675,000 penthouse in Liverpool), established himself as a TV DIY expert – with appearances on more than 800 programme episodes – and released an autobiography.
Craig’s success has reportedly made him a multi-millionaire, making him the most successful Big Brother winner ever.
Whoop – congrats, Craig!
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