Big Brother’s launch was a flop – but they’ve already turned it around

I am a Big Brother diehard – always have been and always will be. 

I’ve never been let down by a line-up. Every launch night has had me gripped from the get-go – knowing my weeknights are sorted for the next seven weeks.

But this year’s launch show was unlike any other. 

On Sunday night, when a fresh batch of 12 housemates walked through the iconic double doors for the very first time, it initially became clear ITV had made a colossal mistake, alienating its core fanbase. 

It was the youngest line-up of Big Brother to date – only two housemates were over 30. 

At 56, former PR Caroline, already faced an eviction, in a new game called the Evil Eye – where the public and then the housemates decide who should be immediately evicted.

I was worried, and annoyed. Had Caroline been the first contestant to leave, 39-year-old Pizza Hut manager Gani Khan would have been the only housemate older than 30.

Just as I was ready to throw in the towel, Big Brother redeemed itself by keeping the PR whirlwind and adding new housemates who brought up the average age. After a brief night 1 wobble, the show again has hook, line and sinker.

I felt like I’d gone through as big an emotional ringer as the iconic Caroline. 

She’s worked with the likes of Kylie Minogue and Dionne Warwick and is by far one of the most exciting people there.

Caroline has stories and knowledge that can really only come from age. Without her, I can’t pick out another housemate that could have taken on the parental figure that is absolutely central to almost every series. 

Thankfully, she was saved. 

Instead, 25-year-old Emily, a loud and proud Tory who adores Nigel Farage, became the perhaps unsurprising sacrificial lamb. 

Of course, Caroline wasn’t the only saving grace of this series – a heartthrob trans male personal trainer, Zelah, aged 25, is currently favourite to win. He is a breath of fresh air when trans representation is so few and far between. 

Otherwise, opening night to me looked like a house of kids – most of whom hadn’t even been born when the first series launched in 2000. 

I’m only 37, but even to me, this line-up felt offensively young. I’m part of the generation who were raised on Big Brother, have watched every single series and like to feel represented in a show which is supposed to reflect the country. 

Big Brother is for everyone – those who watched Craig Phillips crowned the first ever winner, and those who just discovered it when the show was revived on ITV2 three years ago.

Thankfully for the millennial (and older) audience, things have improved further. 

Last night, Big Brother introduced four new contestants – including its oldest housemate: 60-year-old composer and author Richard, the adoptive father of an adult refugee son. If that isn’t the CV of a potential winner, I don’t know what is.

He’s joined by 33-year-old Spice Girls superfan and financial investor Feyisola, who’s entering the house after years of illness. From first impressions, she’s smart, vivacious, and the first housemate I actually feel I’d want to meet in the outside world. 

Without that kind of connection, Big Brother is nothing.

George, an eccentric 23-year-old parish councillor, brings another intriguing new perspective, while 25-year-old Cameron feels like the most predictable addition – another personal trainer who, on first impressions, is forgettable. But I’m open to being proved wrong.

Age dynamics have always helped define the show. 

In series 7, the late Nikki Grahame (then 24) was looked out for by mid-30s contestants Lea Peters and Richard Newman.

Last year Ali Bromley won Big Brother at 37. 

It was her wisdom, which came with her age and experience, that made the series so special. She even took younger housemates, like Lily Benson, under her wing and could challenge those who were so deeply immature with such impeccable grace and constructive criticism. 

The Celebrity Big Brother series that followed this year, was the perfect blend of housemates of all ages, who felt like they were specifically picked for audiences of all generations too. 

Although Mickey Rourke was one of the show’s most problematic housemates of all time and was subsequently thrown out of the house after just a few days, watching him being educated by younger housemates was the crux of what makes Big Brother so special.

Big Brother has always prided itself on its diverse line-ups, and part of its downfall on Channel 5 was packing the house full of influencers with little substance and giant egos, like former The Valleys star Lateysha Grace, or even toxic Manosphere personality Andrew Tate.

The biggest fear for longtime fans was that ITV would fall into the same trap – and at first, it seemed like that nightmare had come true. 

It felt like ITV was actively sabotaging its greatest reality TV show by reducing it to a shallow, vacuous version that ignored everything that made Big Brother great – the ultimate social experiment of a diverse group of people.

But just two days in, my faith has been restored – and then some. 

This could turn out to be one of the most promising line-ups to date.

Do you have a story you’d like to share? Get in touch by emailing Ross.Mccafferty@metro.co.uk. 

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