Big Brother Croatia Update: Marina Bajlo Beats Jadranka Kosor

Saša Ljubičić (Sasa Ljubicic) ih his daily column for Slobodna Dalmacija comments on Big Brother and seems amazed with the fact that the nation pays more attention to a reality show than presidential elections. In this state of affairs any Big Brother candidate is more interesting than any presidential candidate and, therefore, more popular. According to the conversations overheard by Ljubičić, it seems that the pensioners seem to favour Marina Bajlo who is "a strong enough to remain as a the only woman among three men". Since pensioners happen to be the most decisive part of Croatian electorate it is very likely that Marina Bajlo would fare much better than Stipe Mesić (Stipe Mesic) in the contest with Jadranka Kosor.

It is very likely that Marina would easily win the game if the rules were similar to presidential contest. Unfortunately, pensioners are the least decisive factor in Big Brother. Reality show is the exact opposite of political elections – the younger the people are, more important their vote is. Marina, who could easily cruise to victory among crowd over 30 years of age, doesn't stand a chance in the electorate dominated by teenagers. Teenyboppers, of course, didn't like her from the day one while the teenage boys found their new idol in Saša (Sasa) and Alen. Even those who can't stand Zdravko and Alen prefere Saša and take Marina as a second choice. Among Alen's fans there are many of those who openly advocate Alen taking by force what is "rightfully his" or, at least, beat Marina and thus prove her who is the real man of the House.

Alen, however, has different things on his agenda. In past few days his depression became so severe that RTL Televizija staff began to worry about his voluntary departure. Few days before the end of the show it could be interpreted as nothing more than a PR disaster, accompanied by a drop in ratings and large financial losses for T-Com. This was something that had to be prevented at all cost.

Last night, in a very dramatic move, RTL Televizija employed its ultimate asset – chief psychologist Tanja Pureta. She spent at least an hour grilling Alen and using all kinds of professional tricks to help him stay. She apparently managed to help Alen, at least temporarily, to change his mood. Marina also used this as an opportunity to patch up relationship with him and last night they exchanged good night kisses.

This morning Pureta was again at work. After receiving video-greetings from his family and being shocked to see his father without hair, Alen was again summoned to a hour-long talk with psychologist. Marina was also brought for an hour-long session. After that two of them are acting just as they were acting before Tuesday night melodrama. The only exception was Alen's brief hissy fit after he caught Marina and Zdravko exchanging few words.

Pureta will be very active in last few days. According to Alen, she was sick while tending his needs last night. This is small sacrifice for her. If Alen departs, she, as a chief psychologist, is most likely to be the sacrificial lamb of RTL Televizija's office politics. And it is very likely that this failure will affect her professional career and relationship with colleagues, many of whom didn't think highly of her job in Big Brother and instant fame that came with it.