NEW Big Brother housemate Emma Morgan looked worlds away from her current reality TV stint in unearthed photos from her past.

Not only is her appearance drastically different, Emma’s career choice from 2008 was vastly different from her current day-to-day role as an aesthetics practitioner.

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Emma was among the group of 16 stars who walked into the famous ITV house last night during Big Brother’s live launch.

The bubbly 53-year-old wasted no time getting to know her co-stars as she made a good impression on the viewing public.

However, the star would appear unrecognisable in throwback photos from her time training to be a boxer.

Gone were her blonde locks with Emma instead sporting a full head of brown hair.

She donned a full fringe in her classic look and looked completely different from her current self.

Even more surprisingly, Emma partook in boxing back in the late noughties.

Emma opted to get into the sport after having all of her children.

She attempted to win the British Boxing Federation’s bantamweight title against Shannee “Killer Queen” Martin at the time.

Then aged 33, she told the Daily Star at the time: “My grandfather was a professional boxer and my dad was a London schoolboys’ champion, so it has been in the family for a long time.

“I’ve always thought that I could do it and I asked Wayne [Barker, her trainer] if he could help me learn the ropes.

“I don’t know what he thought at first, but he agreed to help and it has really paid off. I love training – but I can’t wait to get in the ring for real.”

As Emma made her way into the house, it became clear that she had already met one of her fellow housemates.

She appeared to confess that she had been with 20-year-old Charlie during the show’s audition process.

Emma declared: “I saw you at the audition and I was like he’s going to get in the house!”

This revelation managed to get under the skin of many Big Brother viewers who were left fuming that the contestants were already recognising each other from the lengthy audition process.

It caused them to hit out on X – formerly Twitter – to question their past meeting.

One said online: “I saw you at auditions” so what you’re telling me is some of them have deffo already met #BBUK.” 

Another added: “The fact they all know each other from auditions??? literally why? #bbuk.”

Big Brother 2024 cast

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A brand new batch of Big Brother housemates are living it up in the famous compound.

Meet the cast of the 2024 series:

• Rosie, 29, dental assistant from Cornwall.
• Emma, 53, aesthetics business owner from Altrincham.
• Segun, 25, charity videographer from Watford.
• Nathan, 24, pork salesman from Dumfries.
• Daze, 24, climate activist from London.
• Khaled, 23, sales manager from Manchester.
• Martha, 26, NHS administrator from Scarborough.
• Lily, 20, Chinese takeaway server from Warrington.
• Ali, 30, Forensic psychologist from London.
• Thomas, 20 amputee footballer from Carlisle.
• Ryan, 28, marketing and events from Stockport.
• Hannah, 24, HR consultant from West London.
• Izaaz, 29, sales consultant from London.
• Sarah, 27, spa account manager from Shrewsbury.
• Marcello, 34, youth mentor from East London.
• Dean, 35, barber from East London

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Netflix might have just called time on one of its most exciting new shows.

The streaming service has made a habit of prematurely cancelling acclaimed series over the years, with the most egregious cases including The OA, Mindhunter and Shadow and Bone, which was canned despite being one of its most-watched titles.

Although currently unverified, it seems Netflix has cacelled a show that developed a cult fanbase since its launch on 29 August.

On Monday (7 October), one of the lead stars of Kaos, a contemporary reimagining of Greek mythology from Charlie Covell (The End of the F***ing World), seemed to reveal the show had not been renewed for a second season.

Aurora Perrineau seemingly announced the news in a tribute to the show, which was captured by The Independent, on her social media pages, accompanied by photos of herself as Riddy. About 20 minutes later, the actor deleted the post and instead shared a cryptic post reading: “Woof.”

Here is Perrineau’s now-deleted post in full:

“Well… this one hurts. I find explaining how I’m feeling to be really difficult, but I’ll try.

“When I started auditioning for this show, I knew it was special, mainly due to the fact that Charlie Covell’s scripts resonated with me in a way most things hadn’t. I knew all of these people, and I loved them all – every flaw, everything.

“For one of the first times in my life, I have found myself really proud. I’m, of course, proud of everyone’s work and the care they gave to this project, because, let me tell you, they left everything on the floor. But I’ve also found myself proud of me, and that is something I’ve struggled with.

“When I got cast, I couldn’t believe that someone SAW me. A girl who’s not only a minority but also a survivor of SA – and you’re telling me that someone thinks I could be one of the leads of a show, have agency, my own mission, and be desirable enough to be the love interest to not only one amazing human but two? I was worthy of that? Everything that happened from that point forward really changed my perspective.

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“As the journey continued, I started to learn about the absolutely amazing talent involved – as if Charlie wasn’t enough. Then I learned of our directors, Georgi [Banks-Davies] and Runyararo [Mapfumo]. It continued with our incredible cast; there are far too many to mention, but I have to acknowledge the three who have become life-long friends, family and lifelines while we drifted through Spain for months: Misia [Butler], Nabhaan [Rizwan] and Killian [Scott].

“Our beautiful HMU department, wardrobe department, Sister, Netflix, our production team and our entire crew – every single person involved was a heavy hitter. And there I was, sitting and wondering how? Why me? And the answer I often got back was: why not you?

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“Everyone was brilliant and uniquely themselves. Every performance surprised and excited me. I can’t believe I got to do this with all of you. We made something weird, dark, hilarious, deranged and absolutely tragic – something entirely human. THIS is a feeling I plan to take with me.

“Thanks for letting me be your Riddy. I had the time of my life.”

What’s on Netflix noted that, when one fan asked Perrineau if her post meant Kaos had been cancelled, the actor replied: “Sadly yes.”

News of Kaos’s possible cancellation has been met from derision of fans, especially considering Covell previously said the show needed three seasons to reach its natural conclusion.

The Independent has contacted Netflix for comment.

Channel 4’s bosses accepted hundreds of thousands in bonus payments last year, despite the broadcaster suffering its steepest fall in revenues in its 41-year history.

The state-owned, commercially funded broadcaster reported a 10% year-on-year fall in total revenues to £1.02bn last year, down £120m compared with 2022, the steepest percentage fall in income in decades.

While bosses enjoyed bonus awards, the Guardian revealed in January that as a result of the poor performance in 2023 Channel 4 was moving to cut staff numbers by 240, the biggest round of layoffs in at least 15 years.

Channel 4’s latest annual report, published on Tuesday, showed that the corporation’s top executives – the chief executive, Alex Mahon, the chief operating officer, Jonathan Allan, and the chief content officer, Ian Katz – took home £2.15m in pay and bonuses last year.

This included Mahon and Allan accepting £375,000 in bonuses, despite the poor performance of Channel 4, while Katz declined to accept an award of more than £100,000.

Katz is responsible for the corporation’s content commissioning budget, which was cut by £50m last year to £663m as part of a cost-cutting strategy. This severely financially hit hundreds of small independent TV producers who work with Channel 4.

On Tuesday, Mahon said the financial impact on TV producers was actually worse as Channel 4 had initially planned to spend more than the £713m it had in 2022, when the market was experiencing a significant post-Covid boom.

Asked about why two of the top Channel 4 executives accepted performance bonuses despite the tough year for the broadcaster and its staff, Mahon said: “Executive compensation [last year] was the lowest level since 2011, down 35% year on year,” she said. “Ian [Katz] declined to take an executive bonus because he feels close to the indie community. For him it was an important decision.

“We [Mahon and Allan] took significantly reduced bonuses in line with [Channel 4’s] key performance indicators and how the remuneration committee decided to award it.”

In 2022, a record year for Channel 4, Mahon took home almost £1.5m – the most in the broadcaster’s 41-year history, including a bonus of £594,000. Last year, Mahon received a salary of £619,000 and a bonus of £247,000, and her total package was £993,000, including benefits.

Separately, last year Channel 4’s top executives agreed to “indefinitely defer” a planned retention bonus – worth hundreds of thousands of pounds – after a backlash from struggling TV producers hit by the broadcaster’s cuts to programme-making.

The loyalty payment was meant to be in recognition of their commitment during the government’s aborted plans to privatise the broadcaster.

On Tuesday, it emerged that Channel 4’s remuneration committee had agreed to pay this retention bonus to the top executives in July, after a stabilisation in the ad market.

Those payments, totalling £391,000 for Mahon, Allan and Katz, were accounted for in Channel 4’s 2022 annual report and are separate to bonus linked to performance.

The broadcaster’s advertising revenue, on which it still relies for 80% of total income, fell by 9.6% from £1.25bn to £1.14bn in 2023, the worst proportionate slump since the advertising recession of 2009.

Total staff numbers grew from 1,197 in 2022 to 1,351 in 2023, driving an increase in total staff costs from £108m to £123m year on year.

Overall, Channel 4 reported a deficit of £52m for 2023, after three years of financial surpluses totalling £178m.

“We had three years of surpluses,” Mahon said. “The idea of our model is that we can then use that for ‘down’ years to keep investing. It is now important for us to use those surpluses to diversify the business.”

Asked if Channel 4 would consider turning to the government for support, Mahon said: “We’re not looking for government to do anything, thanks very much. We are always open to ideas.”

Digital revenues increased by 10% to £280m last year, accounting for just over a quarter of total revenues, and are forecast to reach 30% in 2024 – a year ahead of its targets.

However, traditional linear TV advertising fell by 16%, or £124m, from £766m to £642m between 2022 and 2023.

Separately, Channel 4 has signed up Boris Johnson and Stormy Daniels, the adult film star at the centre of a “hush money” trial over her affair with Donald Trump, as part of plans to offer all-night coverage of the US presidential election for the first time in 32 years.

Coverage will be fronted by the Channel 4 News anchor Krishnan Guru-Murthy and Emily Maitlis, the former BBC news presenter who now co-hosts the News Agents podcast, while a deal with CNN will feature the sharing of guests, reporters, analysts, graphics and data.