Oh Big Brother, what art thou? Five years after ascending to the big diary room in the sky, the reality show to rule them all beams back down to ITV on Sunday 8 October at 9pm (having previously graced Channel 4 and then Channel 5). But does a franchise regarded as having outlived its relevancy when cancelled in 2018 have any business coming back in the radically changed cultural landscape of 2023? Can a flogged-to-death reality horse ride again?
ITV’s answer is essentially that it’s bringing back Big Brother, only not quite as we remember it. Going out largely on Love Island’s home turf of ITV2, the series, with new presenters AJ Odudu and Will Best, will have a “sense of ITV-ness”, promised commissioning editor Peter Tierney in an interview with Deadline. He added, “Big Brother presents us with the perfect opportunity to make reality ‘real’ again.”
