ITV Confirms Return Of ‘Big Brother’ UK Version With Teaser During ‘Love Island’ Final
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Big Brother has found its third British home, ITV, with the network teasing the news – one of the UK TV industry’s worst kept secrets of the past few months – during the final of tonight’s Love Island season eight.
The format aired on Channel 4 from 2000 to 2010 and Paramount-owned Channel 5 from 2010 to 2018, with ITV’s reboot set to hit British screens in 2023.
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As with Love Island, the Banijay format will air on ITV portfolio channel ITV2 along with soon-to-launch streamer ITVX and is a huge coup for the commercial broadcaster.
Airing on CBS in the U.S., the format involves several housemates living in a house together for weeks, competing in challenges as they are voted off one-by-one, with the public watching their every move.
It was teased during the final ad break of tonight’s Love Island, ITV’s biggest reality show.
Paul Mortimer, ITV2 Controller and Director of Reality Commissioning & Acquisitions, said ITV’s version will be “refreshed and contemporary.”
“It will contain all the familiar format points that kept viewers engaged and entertained the first time round, but with a brand new look and some additional twists that speak to today’s audience,” he added.
Exec Natalka Znak, who runs Banijay labels Initial, Remarkable Entertainment and Znak TV, added: “Big Brother is the original and best reality format and one that I have never made before so it’s a huge privilege to be making an all new version.”
Znak will exec produce for Initial and the greenlight represents her first major Banijay show since the super-indie bought the Hells Kitchen and Love Island creator’s label Znak TV. She has since signed former Fox commissioner Claire O’Donohoe as Director of Programmes.
Although it debuted in Holland after being created by John de Mol and becoming the bedrock of Endemol, Big Brother is a British reality staple.
It revolutionized the genre and made the careers of tonnes of reality stars including the likes of Jade Goody, Alison Hammond and Nikki Grahame, along with airing several seasons of a celebrity version that was hugely popular and threw up multiple legendary moments.
Versions of Big Brother are currently airing in more than 20 markets and the format has proved hugely lucrative for Banijay (previously Endemol Shine Group) over the past two decades.
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