IF nothing else, the Noughties was the decade which finally proved the Andy Warhol maxim about everyone having their 15 minutes of fame (although some people wanted a few minutes more).

The last few years have been the era of reality TV, where nobodies become brief megastars, and the age of the comeback, where disbanded acts tried for one further stab at success.

Big Brother was largely to blame. The reality show which effectively spawned all that followed began in 2000 and created a parade of wannabes desperate for fame. Its spin-off series, Celebrity Big Brother, bolstered a few flagging careers.

In the wake of BB came a collection of shows with little in common beyond the catch-all term “reality”.

I’m a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here secured Ant and Dec’s national treasure status while BBC 1’s Strictly Come Dancing rejuvenated ballroom dancing as well as the fortunes of Bruce Forsyth.

A succession of TV talent shows – Popstars, Pop Idol, The X Factor and Britain’s Got Talent – has transformed not only our schedules but our charts.

Those who have won these shows have had mixed fortunes. Will Young, the first winner of Pop Idol, still has the biggest-selling song of the decade with Evergreen. For runner-up Gareth Gates, it looked like superstardom beckoned, but he soon sank without trace.

And for every Leona Lewis – the world-conquering winner of X Factor 2006, there is a sobering tale of Steve Brookstein, the 2004 winner who quickly went from hero to zero.

But even reality shows have their day. The last-ever series of Celebrity Big Brother started this week, while Big Brother will take its final bow in the summer.

Amy Studt

SINGER-songwriter Amy Studt, who grew up in Bournemouth, was still at Bryanston School when she signed a deal with Spice Girls manager Simon Fuller.

Her first single, Just A Little Girl, was a top 20 hit and when her debut album, False Smiles, was certified gold for 200,000 sales it looked as if she was on her way to superstardom until her record label decided not to take up the option of a follow-up.

Left on the music business scrapheap before she was even old enough to vote, she laid low for four years and only returned earlier this year with her well-received sophomore album, My Paper Made Men.

She has since parted company with her record label, management and publicist.

Anouska Golebiewski

Anouska Golebiewski from Bournemouth entered the Big Brother house in 2003, but was the first contestant to be booted out. The bubbly nursery nurse lasted just one week before being evicted with 45.9 per cent of the public vote. Anouska – also reported to be a barmaid at the Ship Inn, Christchurch – made quite an impact and was surprised to hear from presenter Davina McCall she’d made the front page of more newspapers than Tony Blair, with her flirting and talking about sex. Her moment of fame started on rocky ground when her loud first night behaviour was badly received by her fellow contestants – many of whom nominated her for eviction. In the house Anouska promised to bed Glaswegian waiter, Federico, in an attempt to avoid eviction and shamelessly stripped for a bath as housemate Cameron showered nearby. A national newspaper said Anouska’s antics upset her boyfriend of four months, Andrew Little, and the couple were expected to be meeting for a heart-to-heart. Andrew, 25, a recruitment consultant from Bournemouth, was outside the house to greet Anouska. She was tipped for a glittering TV career but soon disappeared into obscurity.

Gordon Haskell

DORSET’S most famous one-hit wonder is Gordon Haskell. Singer-songwriter Gordon, born in Bournemouth on April 27 1946, became an overnight success after 35 years in the business when his single How Wonderful You Are was a contender for the 2001 Christmas number one spot. Gordon had been on the fringes of the English music scene since the late 1960s, and was the bassist and vocalist in the transitional King Crimson line-up of 1970. His solo effort How Wonderful You Are was given to Johnnie Walker of BBC Radio 2 the day before 9/11. Walker liked the song, so he played it to listeners, who made it the most requested song in the radio station’s history, surpassing the Beatles’ Hey Jude and Frank Sinatra’s My Way. Due to public demand, it was released as a single for the UK Christmas Chart. It was narrowly beaten into second place by Robbie Williams & Nicole Kidman’s cover of Somethin’ Stupid. However, the spotlight on Gordon soon faded. On his website he writes: “Imagine my surprise with that Christmas No 2 record when I found my spirits sinking. With £500,000 in the bank, and prospects of a lucrative career, so late in life, I suddenly became the target of every parasite and maggot that crawls the earth. I began to receive death threats. Someone nearly managed to kill me. “I knew from the hostility coming from the inner circle of show business that my time was up...”