Close but not close enough. There was disappointment for Dublin woman Anna Nolan who came second in Channel 4's Big Brother competition last night.
The first prize of £70,000 went to the popular Liverpool man, Craig. However, it was still a very impressive performance for the 29-year-old ex-novice from Crumlin, who now seems guaranteed a lucrative showbusiness career.
In Britain more than five million people - one in 12 of the population there - voted in a phone poll last night to decide who would win the contest.
Now living in London, where she works as an office manager, Anna impressed viewers with her ready smile, intelligent conversation and self-deprecating ways.
A sister-in-law of Irish Times journalist Kevin Myers, Anna is expected back in Dublin next week.
Over the last nine weeks, Big Brother has became a TV phenomenon both in Britain and Ireland. Not only did it pull in a regular five million-plus viewers a week for Channel 4 but it also generated huge interest on the Internet thanks to an almost "live" 24-hour video stream.
The show originated in the Netherlands where all the contestants in the Dutch Big Brother house went on to become media celebrities. Most European countries have either shown or are planning to show their own version of the show - an Irish Big Brother is expected next year.
The idea is quite simple - take 10 complete strangers (for the British version of the show over 40,000 applied to be a contestant), put them into a house with no outside distractions (TV, radio, mobile phones etc;) and have cameras positioned in every corner of the house to record their behaviour.
At the end of each week in the house, which is in Bromley By Bow, east London, the contestants themselves voted to decide which two were up for eviction from the house. The public then rang in to decide which of the two was to be "evicted". The last remaining person in the house wins £70,000.
Such has been the interest in the show that 3 1/2 million people rang in to "evict" Mel (the contestants are only known by their first name) last Friday night - a record phone-in for a television show in Britain.
Channel 4 has helpfully pointed out that the figure of 3 1/2 million callers was only slightly below the amount of British people who voted in the last European Parliament elections.
The amount of people logging on to the show's website to watch the almost-live video "stream" has caused concern to businesses, fearful that their staff are getting addicted to the show. It was estimated that the show cost Irish industry at least £30,000 a day in lost working hours.
