Big Brother is returning to our screens soon, and its new channel host, ITV, has made a significant investment in the show.
According to reports, the first episode will air on ITV1 before transferring to its regular home on ITV2.
This extraordinary approach has not seen in any series of the dating programme behemoth Love Island.
According to a TV insider, ITV thought that giving the show ‘the most high-profile slot available’ would ensure that it debuted with a ‘bang’.
‘They’re hoping that a sensational start will hook the maximum number of viewers on the main channel, then bring them across to ITV2 for the rest of the series,’ they explained.
The source added to The Sun: ’This is something which has never been done before. Even when Love Island was at the height of its pulling power, it never had a launch show on ITV1’.
Big Brother first aired on Channel 4 in 2000, then moved to Channel 5 in 2011, and finally ended in 2018.
ITV has recently bought the rights and will bring it back with new hosts Will Best, 38, and AJ Odudu, 35.
Paul Mortimer, ITV’s Head of Reality TV and ITV2, has confirmed that fans would be given to hours of Big Brother each night.
‘We have a 10pm show after the 9pm show — so two hours of Big Brother every evening.
‘Then from 11pm you can go to ITVX to watch the live feed into the small hours.’
Not only that, but the celebrity spinoff has been essentially confirmed for BB fans.
‘We have bought into Big Brother, a lot of us at ITV are BB fans,’ Paul remarked at the Edinburgh TV festival when questioned about the possibility of a celebrity version.
‘I can’t imagine that we’re in it just to do two, six-week runs across 2023 and 2024.
‘This is the start of it – so just watch this space.’
Big Brother is launching on ITV2 in October.
