ITV bosses will announce they have clinched a deal to bring back Big Brother.
The show hasn’t been on TV since being axed by Channel 5 in 2018. Now producers are planning a “Big Brother for the Love Island generation” to air on ITV2 from next year.
Former hosts Davina McCall, Emma Willis and Rylan Clark are said to be unlikely to be involved in the reboot. One insider said: “This needs to be totally new and fresh. It’s all about a young audience.
“The aim is to recapture what audiences first loved about the show, the interesting and varied characters, the banter, the daft antics they got up to when left to their own devices. The aim is to get back-to-basics and interfere less, with fewer challenges.”
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Talks with rights-owner producer Banijay have been ongoing for months, but now a deal has finally been struck. The presenters have not yet been finalised but the housemates will be everyday people, rather than celebs, and it will be set in a brand new house in a UK location.
It is due to launch next year, soon after the summer run of Love Island ends. Big Brother launched on Channel 4 in 2000 and proved a huge hit, lasting a decade before shifting to Channel 5 in 2011 and turning the likes of Brian Dowling and Jade Goody into stars.
Other big characters from the early years included “Nasty” Nick Bateman, who whipped viewers into a frenzy over his manipulative tactics in the debut series, plus ex-nun Anna Nolan and transgender winner of series five Nadia Almada.
Rylan has made no secret of his desire to be involved in the new version, and Davina is also said to be “very keen” to host. But the Long Lost Families presenter may have damaged her chances by saying she didn’t think a new version could be a success.
Speaking to a magazine in January, she said cancel culture would stifle the show. She said: “If it came back now, it would never be the same as it was. And it’s not because of the programme but because of society. It’s changed so much and the expectations of TV have changed – I just don’t know if you could do it.”
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Davina added: “I don’t think it would work and that’s such a shame because it is a great format – but it was great for different times.” In the same month, Rylan said he’d be “a million per cent” up for fronting the “biggest and best” reality TV show if it returned.
Emma Willis also thought it was time for a change, declaring: “New era, new host”. Admitting that she missed the show, she said it felt too soon to bring it out of retirement, explaining: “I do think it needs longer. It needs a bit more of a rest, I think.”
Some of the biggest talking points from the early years were the romances that flourished in the house. Most memorable were Helen “I love blinking I do” Adams and Paul Clarke – who lasted for six years before splitting up – and Michelle Bass and her “chicken” Stu Wilson, who got amorous under a table in 2004.
The iconic eye logo is likely to make a comeback and fans will be hoping that the voice of the show for its full 18-year-history, Marcus Bentley, will also be lending his dulcet tones to the reboot.
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