When Big Brother made its debut on Channel 4 back in the summer of 2000, its arrival heralded by the soon-to-be iconic synths of Paul Oakenfold and Andy Grey’s theme tune, it changed TV forever. Eleven contestants, taken from all walks of life, piled into a mansion in east London, rigged out with cameras to capture every throwaway comment, every disagreement, every facial expression. It was hailed as a groundbreaking social experiment and turned those 11 ordinary people into a new breed of celebrity. By 2018, however, after a move to Channel 5, a bucketload of celebrity spinoffs and increasingly outlandish format twists, this once revolutionary franchise seemed tired, no, exhausted. So when it was announced that year that Big Brother was being put out to grass, even the most devoted fans agreed that it was probably for the best.
TV loves a comeback story, though, and by 2022, ITV had secured the rights to the OG reality show, teasing its revival during the final of Love Island, a series heavily indebted to BB. But did anyone actually fancy another one, to borrow a phrase from Big Brother’s former presenter Davina McCall? The responses were mixed, to say the least. Could the broadcaster breathe fresh life into a franchise that hadn’t felt relevant since the mid-Noughties, recapturing some of the chaotic, zeitgeist-defining energy of its early heyday in the process? Or would it just end up looking and feeling like a Love Island knock-off, populated by TikTok stars with one lash-extensioned eye on a future fast-fashion deal? And would a series that could be notoriously hard on its contestants work in an era when we expect our reality TV to be more ethical?
It’s too early to definitively answer either of those questions on the basis of one 90-minute episode. But as the new cohort of 16 contestants enter the brand new BB house in west London’s Garden Studios during Sunday night’s series premiere, it seems like ITV has wisely decided to take the original reality juggernaut back to basics. Those first Big Brother seasons were golden thanks to creative casting, and the broadcaster appears to have taken cues from another recent hit, The Traitors, by opting for contestants from across a wide range of backgrounds.
First to enter the house (which feels eerily familiar, perhaps because the exposed brick, retro furniture and kitschy lighting make it look like the waiting area of a London creative agency, crossed with the quote-unquote quirky bottomless brunch venue you’ll find on every major British high street) is Jenkin, a barman from Bridgend, who arrives to the strains of Kylie’s “Padam Padam” and seems to have inadvertently come dressed as the Big Brother eye. Then comes Farida, a 50-year-old make-up artist who speaks about her Muslim faith in her introductory VT; Jordan, a lawyer whose cut-glass tones were honed from watching Downton Abbey as a child; and 18-year-old Hallie, who barks at catcallers and has never lived away from home (talk about a baptism of fire), to name just a few. NHS manager Kerry, 40, seems like a shoo-in for this season’s resident hun already.
Leaning into the “housewarming party” concept, the contestants (who, we learn, have been selected from around 30,000 applicants) are eased into proceedings with some simple party games, from pass the parcel to musical statues. This being Big Brother, naturally there are a few nasty forfeits: poor old Jenkin has already had hot water privileges revoked for 24 hours, and has to watch as his suitcase gets blown up before his eyes. But compared to opening nights of old, it feels pretty tame. Perhaps they are saving the big twists for later in the series, once viewers have had a chance to get to know the housemates, in order to raise the stakes more authentically. Again, it suggests that ITV are opting for a more old-school, less flashy approach, which is pleasantly nostalgic for those of us with fond memories of watching the grainy house live stream on E4 every summer (if they really want to win over the thirtysomething crowd, may I suggest they bring back the chickens in the garden?).
That’s not to say that Big Brother 3.0 gets everything right. Presenting duo AJ Odudu and Will Best have the thankless task of replacing a telly legend in McCall, and they aren’t helped by a pretty naff script peppered with forced gags – or the fact that the launch was pre-recorded. A small audience is invited along to stand outside the gates, but they certainly lack the feral energy that we’ve come to associate with a Big Brother crowd over the years. Indeed, the decision not to launch the show live feels like a misfire. Big Brother has always been a franchise that has thrived on chaos, and this opener doesn’t give us that. Can this new cohort of housemates rise to the challenge of keeping us gripped six nights a week? In our era of shortened attention spans, they’ll have to work pretty hard to do so.