Angry Viewers Accuse Celebrity Big Brother Of ‘Mocking’ Mental Health

Fans of the show criticised the first task, claiming it was 'using mental health for entertainment'...

Celebrity Big Brother launched on Channel 5 on Tuesday night, and viewers watched as a new group of housemates entered the famous house for another series.

It’s fair to say that there’s a huge variety of contestants this year, including former Girls Aloud singer Sarah Harding, Hollyoaks and former Love Island star Paul Danan, comedian and actress (probably best known for her role in Absolutely Fabulous) Helen Lederer, Made In Chelsea‘s Sam Thompson and Gogglebox‘s Sandi.

See: It Looks Like There’s ANOTHER Love Island Baby On The Way

Of course, there was another TV legend that deserves a mention. Host Emma Willis also welcomed Shaun Williamson AKA Barry from EastEnders. 

Twitter had a lot of feelings about it, with reactions including: ‘I’m just here to see Barry off Eastenders.. that’s all #cbb’ and ‘It’s shaun but we all know we will call him Barry #CBB’. 

In true Big Brother style, it didn’t take long for a housemate to be set a secret task. And Baz was the obvious choice.

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The soap star was told that it was his job to become the ‘most nervous housemate in the history of Big Brother.’

As part of his instructions, he was also told: ‘As each of your fellow Celebrity housemates enter the Big Brother house it must be instantly noticeable that you are suffering from a severe case of first night nerves. In fact the more housemates that enter the more your nerves should escalate.’

Shaun AKA Barry was also told that he would be set a series of challenges throughout the evening, with Big Brother adding: ‘As if nerves weren’t bad enough you’ll be hearing voices in your head as Big Brother will be talking to you secretly through an ear piece.’

A number of viewers were left unimpressed by the nature of the task, with many claiming that it ‘mocked’ genuine mental health issues.

There were a series of tweets being shared as the show aired, with comments including: ‘Really CBB.. making an actor act anxious and then hearing voices .. really disrespectful to people with mental health problems #CBB’ and ‘I’m really not digging this whole #CBB task I feel it’s making a mockery of those with genuine anxiety and other mental health issues.’

Big Brother has proven itself to be controversial and divisive in the past, and it looks like this series is set to be no different.

It continues tonight at 9pm on Channel 5.

The post Angry Viewers Accuse Celebrity Big Brother Of ‘Mocking’ Mental Health appeared first on Look Magazine.