Big Brother can claim to be the parent of modern reality shows. It started in 2000, suitably dystopian as we looked into the black mirror of an intimidating new millennium – and dozens of other brutish, tacky and vaguely exploitative contrivances followed in its wake. Two decades later, though, it’s a heritage format. Big Brother was canned by Channel 4 in 2010, then cancelled again by Channel 5 in 2018, supposedly due to low ratings. If you’re not rating highly enough to survive on Channel 5, your brand is at rock bottom.
In the ad breaks of the first episode of the latest revival, as it lands on ITV, there are trailers for a new show hosted by original Big Brother presenter Davina McCall. In My Mum Your Dad, people live together in a house, but they’re single parents hooking up with each other under the secret supervision of their adult children. It’s high-concept; the whole genre has evolved.
