Big Brother viewers were treated to their first double eviction of the series tonight – but the outcome has left many raging.
Hosts AJ Odudu and Will Best were on hand to reveal which two housemates had fallen at the last hurdle and would not be making it to the final week.
For the last few days, viewers have been voting in their thousands to evict either Ali Bromley, Lily Benson, Khaled Khaled, Emma Morgan, or Baked Potato, aka Rosie Williams.
And unfortunately for fans of Lily and Khaled, their time is up.
This means that the three surviving housemates join Head of House Marcello, Nathan, Sarah, Thomas, Segun, and Hanah in edging one step closer to that £100,000 cash prize.
Although, something tells us Big Brother isn’t going to make the final week easy…
Speaking in her exit interview, Lily assured AJ and Will that she was now at peace with being booted out, having been saved from eviction several times already.
‘I’ve been up for [eviction] three weeks, so to be saved twice, I’m so grateful.’
Lily added: ‘I thought I was going to be out in the first week so to be here in week five, I can’t complain.’
The 20-year-old Chinese takeaway worker joked that it ‘wouldn’t have been ethical’ if she won anyway because she would have ‘wasted all [her] money’.
Speaking after his own eviction, sales manager Khaled, who also faced the public vote for the third time, joked that Lily manifested their joint eviction after she told him: ‘Wouldn’t it be crazy if we went out together?’
‘So, thanks for that!’, he told her in the audience.
He was then quizzed on Nathan King’s comments about his Palestinian background after the pork salesman accused Khaled of not speaking enough about his upbringing as a refugee.
‘I took offence to that because the minute I went in there, I had those conversations,’ Khaled explained, having made it clear what he wanted to do with his time in the house.
‘For him to say that, acting as if I’m hiding from it and hiding from the support I could probably generate, well, the amount of flags I saw out there, thankfully the message got across.’
‘Other than that, though, I didn’t really care. He did apologise many, many times and I do forgive him for that.’
As mentioned by Khaled, there was a sea of Palestinian flags and banners in the live crowd tonight.
At one point, Khaled jumped off the stage to grab a scarf before returning, holding it high in the air and wrapping it around his neck proudly.
It was a move that certainly didn’t go unnoticed by viewers, given the controversy surrounding the ITV reality show so far this series relating to pro-Palestine garments.
The broadcaster has come under fire on a couple of occasions for editing out pro-Palestinian symbols, such as Ali’s watermelon t-shirt, which was later removed from the house.
But that’s not the only thing that meant this week in the famous compound was anything but smooth sailing.
Last night, in a series first, Sarah Griffiths was given a stern warning for making a ‘joke’ with racist connotations.
She apologised and was reminded that the house comprises people from all walks of life, which she should respect.
Reacting to the latest developments in house action, BB fanatics took to X to share their rage after losing two big characters.
‘Lily and Khalid, who have provided 90% of the storylines and entertainment this series, evicted, with half the housemates left absolutely abysmal’, blasted l0ttiehall.
‘Devastated. What a housemate. No matter what you think about Lily, there’s no denying that she has been the star of this year’s series and I’ll say it… the biggest “winner that never was” since Nikki Grahame. This week is going to be a drag without her’, wrote Lily cheerleader BRATTYBARBl.
Echoing those thoughts, luisspears tweeted: ‘like or hate her you cant deny lily is a big brother ICON.’
Others declared Khaled’s Palestinian scarf moment one for the ‘Big Brother Hall of Fame’, hailing it as ‘iconic’.
‘The way this damn show took the Palestine flag from people in the audience and edited Ali’s Palestine t-shirt twice only for Khaled to come out to chants, cheers, and love as he raises the Keffiyeh? I hope editors are freaking out right now’, wrote ClaudiaBoleyn.
Big Brother continues Sunday at 9pm on ITV1 and ITVX.
