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Will Best has revealed he and his Big Brother co-host AJ Odudu are experiencing health troubles days before the show’s 2024 live launch.
The social experiment show, which sees contestants live together in a house without access to the outside world in a bid to win £100,000 prize money, made a comeback to screens on ITV2 in 2023, having previously been cancelled by Channel 4 in 2010 and Channel 5 in 2018.
Best and Odudu are scheduled to return to screens for the Big Brother 2024 launch show on Sunday, 6 October to introduce a new group of housemates in front of a studio audience.
Speaking on Capital radio, Best said he had booked an emergency physiotherapy appointment ahead of the live broadcast.
“I’ve got a stiff neck,” he said. “Yesterday was bad. I’ve got an emergency physio [appointment] in a couple of hours after this.”
The broadcaster continued: “It’s always good to just before the biggest show of the year, when you’re going to be live for six weeks, with all kinds of mad stuff, to not be able to move.”
Of Odudu’s health, Best added: “AJ’s lost her voice as well…I saw her yesterday, we did a podcast record. That’s why she’s not doing radio today.” Despite his illness, the Big Brother host said he was hopeful he and Odudu would be well again by Sunday night.
“I get nervous because I love this show so much," Best said. "So I’m nervous that we’re going to do it justice, the format justice, I’m nervous how the housemates will do.”
“But, once we get to Sunday, just before we go live, the nerves sort of disappear. I can’t wait to meet these people.”
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Big Brother returned last year after being cancelled by Channel 5 in 2018 due to poor ratings.
Speaking about the forthcoming series of the controversial reality show, ITV said in a statement: “Once again, the public plays a crucial role, voting throughout the series and ultimately determining the winner, who will walk away with a life-changing cash prize. Who wins? You decide.”
It comes shortly after Best confirmed last week that Big Brother would introduce even bigger budget challenges for its forthcoming series in order to “[raise] the bar further”.
“I’m excited about the tasks,” he told MailOnline. “The tasks were phenomenal last series, but I’ve been speaking to the members of the team and I think they’ve kind of raised the bar even further.
“This series, I think it’s been taken up a notch.”
Big Brother will return to ITV2 and ITVX at 9pm on 6 September
