Celebrity Big Brother viewers confused over Nikita Kuzmin’s dislike of Fern Britton

The ‘Strictly’ star nominated Britton three times

Tensions between Nikita Kuzmin and Fern Britton appear to be brewing in the Celebrity Big Brother house.

During Sunday night’s episode (17 March), Strictly Come Dancing professional Nikita ignored the former This Morning star as she came over to speak to him while he was peeling potatoes.

Fans remarked on social media that it was “extremely awkward” and that Kuzmin seemed to “really dislike” Britton.

“Nikita not taking his eyes off the potato to avoid eye contact with Fern,” wrote one person on X/Twitter.

It was revealed in the episode that Kuzmin had voted for Britton in all three nominations of the series, and in an unprecedented move, Britton found out. Usually, housemates are only told who voted for them if the nominations are classed as “face-to-face”.

During the nominations, contestants pick the person they want to evict from the CBB house.

Some viewers wondered what had encouraged Kuzmin to consistently vote for Britton.

One fan asked: “What have [ITV] not shown between Fern and Nikita?” Another wrote: “Erm what has Fern done to Nikita that we haven’t seen? He seems to really dislike her!”

“Nikita nominating Fern because he wants to see her participating more is such a strange reason, reminds me of Yinrun nominating Noky because she wanted to get to know the real her,” said a third person, pointing to the dynamic between contestants on the civilian series of Big Brother that aired last year.

Nikita Kuzmin in ‘Celebrity Big Brother’ (ITV)

Britton seemed upset to learn that Kuzmin had voted for her three times, with some fans jumping to her defence.

“It’s kinda upsetting to find out someone nominated you three times even if it is Nikita. Fern is allowed a moment,” wrote one, as another criticised ITV for “messing with the format” and revealing who Nikita had voted for.

Fern Britton on ‘Celebrity Big Brother’ (Ray Burmiston/ITV/PA Wire)

They said that revealing the voting pattern “will massively influence [Fern’s] nominations next time round. The whole point is that they’re supposed to be secret unless done face-to-face so why mess with the format like that”.

The evictions have caused quite a stir during the series. When former Love Island’s Ekin-Su was nominated by Broadway star Marisha Wallace, she broke down into tears.

Wallace tried to explain her reason for nominating Ekin-Su, stating: “I know if I get to the final, I can’t beat you... I know that if we go head-to-head, you have a huge following, you played these games before you know how to win and if I want to win this, if I ever had the chance, I wouldn’t have the chance against you.”

Ekin-Su replied: “I knew this was going to happen, this judging me because I went on a f***ing show before. You’ve been close with me this whole time so you’ve been fake with me this whole time.”