Brian Belo was the strong favourite before Big Brother combined the twins into one housemate. Photograph: Channel 4
We're into the final furlong of Big Brother now and although the ratings are down there is still time for this to be a historical year. Brian Belo is neck-and-neck in the running for victory with the twin-pronged threat of Sam and Amanda (who now count as one housemate in an outrageously unfair move by Big Brother). Brian would be the first black winner of Big Brother and in reality TV terms this would be an achievement on a par with Paul Ince being the first black footballer to captain England. But historically the Essex boy is up against it.
Brian is not the first contestant to walk this path. Big Brother was grooming Makosi for the role of first black winner in BB6. Flirty, outrageous and a born performer she floundered after the phantom pregnancy business and was thrown to the wolves in a pretty unpleasant open-air post eviction interview.
The fact is that black contestants have a terrible record in reality TV when put to the public vote. Javine was an astounding 50-1 on to make the girls' band in the Popstars: The Rivals final, but was beaten by the five white girls who are now pop royalty Girls Aloud. Lemar, an odds-on favourite to win Fame Academy, was laughably beaten by Sinead Quinn and David Sneddon in the final. Sneddon now plays to half-empty pubs while Lemar effortlessly knocks out top 10 hits. Then there's Colin Jackson - strong favourite to win the Strictly Come Dancing final and the clearly superior dancer losing out to Darren Gough. Beginning to see a pattern?
So what chance does Big Brother have of getting the PR gold of its first black winner? Well, Brian is as good a chance as they'll get. Producing some priceless diary room moments, standing up to syllable tsunami Charley, and battling his Hollyoaks fixation, Brian was the strong favourite before Big Brother combined the twins into one housemate. Two pretty blonde women against a young black man - we know how that usually plays out. It's almost as if Endemol are engineering another glorious failure for a black reality TV contest. It would be a depressingly familiar scenario. But should Brian win, it would be a TV landmark and an excellent fillip for the flagging franchise after the Shilpa Shetty and Emily controversies. I'm not saying it's Rosa Parks on the bus but it would be a start.
