It appears like there will be significant adjustments before the next group of Big Brother players enter the house.
The revival, which originally aired on Channel 4 and subsequently Channel 5, will go to ITV later this year, with AJ Odudu and Will Best at the helm.
However, according to sources, housemates will go through a “watertight training process” before appearing on our screens.
According to sources, the procedure would go “far beyond” what Love Island candidates go through before joining the villa.
According to The Sun, ITV2 has prepared a ‘super-sized’ welfare package to get the housemates clued up, offering them training covering diversity and inclusion, racism and gender diversity, sexual consent, and dealing with conflict.
‘Love Island’s provision is already regarded the Fort Knox of training, but ITV realises how essential the re-launch of such a beloved series as Big Brother is,’ an insider told the site.
‘And of course, it’s been a fairly difficult time for the channel with recent events on This Morning, so everyone is determined the brand won’t be rocked by any further scandal.’
However, the insider claimed that some individuals are ‘worried’ about the restrictions being too ‘tight,’ given how chaotic Big Brother was back then, from sexual activities in the bedroom to sweary drunken rows.
‘No chance of any wine bottles or pregnancy tests these days!’, the source quipped.
This isn’t the only change coming to the BB relaunch; co-host Will has hinted at a format change.
‘It’s going back to being real people,’ Will, 38, stated ahead of his debut.
‘The focus of this is it’s going to be an entertainment show, but it’s going to be fun and funny with all of that emotion and realness that you get with Big Brother,’ he added to The Sun.
Meanwhile, Big Brother producers want to recreate the show’s “golden era” when it returns.
The popular reality show debuted in 2000 with Davina McCall as host and ended in 2018 with Emma Willis.
Kevin Lygo, director of media and entertainment at ITV, said previously in a statement, via Variety: ‘The key to Big Brother is to keep it like it was in its golden period – more interesting, intelligent, and upmarket than other reality shows.’
Big Brother had a peak audience of 5.89 million viewers during the third series, which was won by Kate Lawler.
However, numbers plummeted over the next seven years, with just 2.93 million turning in for Ultimate Big Brother, which was won by previous competitor Brian Dowling.
Its numbers continued to plummet during its tenure on Channel 5, and by the time of its last show, 1.02 million people had tuned in to see the shortest-ever Big Brother series, which lasted only 45 days.
So it appears that the crew behind the resurrection is eager to bring it back to life – and we can’t wait.
Big Brother launches on ITV2 later this year.
Source My Celebrity Life.
