Nasty Nick, aka one of Big Brother’s most famous stars ever, has made it clear exactly how he views being a housemate of the social experiment.
Nick Bateman entered the iconic house in its very first series under Channel 4’s watchful eye, working as a broker pre-BB and one of 40,000 people who applied to take part in the reality series.
While he didn’t receive a single nomination during his 2000 Big Brother stint, it didn’t take long for him to acquire the Nasty Nick moniker from the tabloids due to how he played housemates off against each other.
The other stars were tipped off by producers about the trouble he’d been stirring up, leading to a confrontation led by eventual winner Craig Phillips in a now legendary BB moment.
Reflecting on the showdown from day 34 in which his manipulative tactics towards nominations were exposed ahead of his removal from the programme, Nick, now aged 57, has weighed in on the ‘manufactured’ nature of such TV shows.
Asked whether he’s watched his face-off with Craig back, speaking on behalf of Heart Bingo, the TV personality replied: ‘Yeah, I have watched it because every time I do a talk show, they always show it.
‘But it’s one aspect of a long line of convenient coincidences that happened and brought the show to that point.
‘Reality TV is entertainment, and it’s manufactured. That confrontation was a perfect storm after the contestants had been tipped off and gone through all my belongings.’
After production planted the seed about Nick writing names on scraps of paper (making notes is against the BB rules) and showing them to individual housemates to influence their votes, he acknowledges the whole confrontation was ‘extremely watchable’ from outside.
But he has no beef with the producers to this day.
‘No,’ he said when asked if he felt ‘angry’ about what they did.
‘I signed that form, and that form said they could do what they wanted with the coverage. You can’t go into a show with your eyes shut.
‘On something like Big Brother, the producers are gods and you’re the puppets. And if you can’t accept that, don’t do it.’
So, does he wish he had handled the argument with Craig any differently?
‘I should have said, “Come on, guys, it’s a game”,’ he admits.
‘It was an ambush, but you can’t change it now. I didn’t do anything that bad.’
As for his life post-Big Brother, Nick made various TV appearances and even wrote a book. In 2011, he returned to the house for Ultimate Big Brother before turning his back on show business.
He then couldn’t have had a bigger switch-up in his lifestyle, as he moved to Australia in 2013.
Working in marketing, he began dividing his time between Brisbane and Sydney, and he was granted Australian citizenship in 2022.
He now enjoys not being recognised when walking the streets, telling The Telegraph last year that it’s ‘nice to be a ghost’.
‘Sometimes people look at me curiously, but they usually think I was on The Bill,’ he quipped.
In fact, when he first moved Down Under, the controversial star reverted to his real name, Jack (Nicholas is his middle name, which he began going by in boarding school).
The ‘Nasty’ adjective in front of it has never weighed him down, though, even when public perception of him was bleak.
‘It’s better to have a nickname than no nickname,’ he argued.
‘How many contestants can you remember from the first or second series? I couldn’t do anything about it.
‘Your true friends and family, and anybody with an ounce of intelligence, know that’s not you.’
Asked in 2023 what he expected from the ITV reboot of Big Brother after the network acquired the format, he said its success would be defined by the casting, hoping for producers to take note of the golden age of reality shows.
‘It’s about the characters on the show. If they get the casting right, they can make it a success,’ he reasoned.
‘If they get the casting wrong like Love Island here, there’s nothing between their heads.’
Watch Big Brother Sunday-Friday on ITV2 and ITVX.
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