GenQ - For the not so straight individual

After hosting one of Australia’s most successful reality television shows for seven years, Gretel Killeen has been dumped as host of Big Brother, and has been replaced by continually popular radio duo Kyle Sandilands and Jackie O.

Commenting on her time with the show, Killeen said “Working on Big Brother has been an extraordinary, challenging and rewarding experience.

“I'm really proud of what we've achieved but I now have the seven-year itch and am busting to get on with a million new things, including my first feature film, which we're shooting in the new year.�

Big Brother producers Endemol Southern Star have promised that the show will return for an eighth season in 2008 in what has been described as a “tighter, re-energised format�.

New co-host of the programme Jackie O said “I would like to see them shake it up, especially with the contestants because I think everybody is sick of the same old contestants going in.

“It actually gets really boring after a while.

“As a fan, I have always wanted a bigger variety of people in there and also to push the contestants more.�

Kyle Sandilands, one of only two people to have visited the Big Brother house in separate seasons, said “I want that conflict, that real sense of drama rather than that frat house drama that we've seen over the last few years.

“It is time that we mix it up a little bit.

“We will still have young, fun people in there but the whole house won't be full of 20-something losers.

“I would like the old grumpy man that hates loud noise and hates young people in there.�

The new hosts have praised Killeen for her work on the show for the last seven years, commending her efforts.

There has been no public announcement as yet for auditions for the 2008 season, which will again be filmed at Dreamworld.