Rylan Clark-Neal has responded to Brian Belo after the former ‘Big Brother’ winner suggested he and fellow presenter Emma Willis were responsible for the downfall of the show.
Since 2013, Rylan has presented ‘Big Brother’ spin-off show ‘Bit On The Side’, launching his presenting career, which has since seen him front ‘The Xtra Factor’, ‘This Morning’ and even his own short-lived Channel 5 talk show.
However, with reports still suggesting the future of ‘Big Brother’ is still in jeopardy, former winner and superfan Brian launched a tirade against both Rylan and Emma, suggesting the former is more enthusiastic about furthering his celebrity status than the future of the show.
After retweeting a post calling the presenting team “awful”, Brian wrote on Tuesday (23 April): “With [Rylan], it’s so obviously about fame with him. When you watch his first ‘X Factor’ audition, he so obviously couldn’t sing and he was the joke act. That’s not being nasty, that’s fact!
“Who would enter a singing competition when they can not sing! I’m not going to put a gif-up of his first audition from [‘X Factor’] because that would be mean.
“When I first watched Rylan’s [’X Factor] audition I thought it was funny, as I don’t take [‘X Factor’] seriously as a singing competition, it’s a soap-opera!
“When Rylan entered [‘Celebrity Big Brother’] I thought fair enough cos’ the public were mean about him during [‘X Factor’].
“So it was good that Rylan came to [‘CBB’] and won because he build his confidence after people wrote such horrible thing’s about him online. I’m from Essex too and I remember my timeline used to be full of stuff, it was awful. So ‘Big Brother’ was a great place to come, to heal from that.”
Brian continued: “When Rylan got the ‘Big Brother’s Bit On The Side’ job… I understood it because he had a high-profile… and ‘Big Brother’ needed the publicity and his fame. But if ‘Big Brother’ is going to get axed, we’ve got to say now, you’re not good enough!
“This is not being nasty, to say [you’re] not good enough when the show is on the verge of being axed! Some people really know this show and the format and you and [Emma Willis] don’t!”
Brian went on to compare Emma unfavourably to former ‘Big Brother’ presenter Davina McCall, while doubting both of the presenters’ loyalty to the reality TV brand.
Rylan has now had his say on the matter, saying that while he has no problem with Brian doubting his capabilities as a presenter, no one should doubt his love for ‘Big Brother’.
Brian won ‘Big Brother’ back in 2007, arguably when the show was at the peak of its popularity on Channel 4.
He made a return to the show almost a decade later, during Channel 5’s ‘Timebomb’ series in 2015.
However, his second time in the house was far less enjoyable, after he was pushed to the limit by controversial fellow victor Helen Wood, eventually escaping over the garden wall when she compared him to a “rapist” during a row.
