It’s official, one of TV’s original and most-talked about reality formats is returning to Australian TV in 2020.
After plenty of media speculation TV Blackbox can reveal Big Brother is back. The show will once again be produced by Endemol Shine Australia, with a casting process to be announced very shortly.
TV Blackbox can also exclusively reveal which network will air the reality juggernaut in 2020.
The format was a huge success when it originally launched in Australia on Ten in 2001, where it ran for eight seasons. At its peak it dominated ratings charts and generated huge income for the network. It also generated plenty of negative headlines, most notably for the infamous “Turkey-Slap” incident which led to then Prime Minister John Howard, calling for the show to be removed from air.
More recently a version of the show aired on Nine from 2012 to 2014. Hosted by Sonia Kruger, this incarnation of Big Brother received plenty of criticism from fans believing the network played it “too safe”.
Endomol Shine have been shopping the format around to all local networks and when chief creative officer Peter Salmon was asked by Deadline about re-entering major territories like Australia, he told the publication;
“It’s rare in most big territories that there isn’t a conversation about it in some shape or form every year. We’re close in a couple of interesting territories to further reboot, but I don’t want to get ahead of ourselves. There are constant conversations and exchanges of idea where we’re thinking what’s next.”
Key crewing has already begun and a casting call is close to being officially announced.
Watch this space!
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Could the vacancy by Sunday Night be connected to this?
It better have Gretel Killeen as the host again then as it went to crap after she left!!!! At least it was half decent when she was the host.
I wonder if they’ll rebuild at the Dreamworld site? They’ll need to start pretty soon…the entire area where the house & studios were has been cleared.
BMG43 Posting from U.S. Have followed BB Australia via YouTube until its demise, and looking forward to the return of the show. We in America have just finished the 21st season of Big Brother, and it was a contentious season to say the least. Always like to compare the two formats which have some contrasting differences. In America, there is no ‘Big Brother’ personage to compliment or punish housemates. What we have is a female host much like your Sonya, and ‘production’ takes the role of BB when necessary to advise guests to wear their mikes, not discuss certain issues, etc. One thing I like are the AU competitions each Friday. In America, we have Head of Household competitions, Veto competitions and housemates — or we call them houseguests — fight to stay in the House. After about 2/3 into the season, evictees are not sent home, but go to a palatial ‘jury house’ awaiting the finale, when they cast their votes to elect a winner and runner-up. The only time the viewing audience gets to vote is for America’s Favourite Player, who gets $25,000. The BB winner gets $500,000, and the runner-up, $50,000. Housemates are also payed a weekly stipend during their stay in the House.