Channel 4 Plans New Housemates To Boost Big Brother
Channel 4 will tonight place three new housemates in to the Big Brother house in an attempt to boost the show’s performance and provide more gripping TV following three consecutive female evictions.
The identities of the show’s new contestants will be revealed live at 10pm, following the eviction of either Tory speech writer Derek, or Italian, Roberto.
Channel 4 are cryptic over the new additions, however, hinting only that, “as always with Big Brother, things are never quite what they seem.”
Earlier this week saw Channel 4 suffer ratings defeat at the hands of ITV, with the finale of Celebrity Love Island delivered a parting blow to Channel 4’s reality offering. The show ended its five week run with a peak audience of 5.9 million at 10pm, trouncing Big Brother, which peaked at 4.2 million despite over-running ITV by half an hour (see Love Island Bows Out With 5.9 Million).
Channel 4 remain unperturbed, however, cementing their faith in Big Brother earlier this week by agreeing to a two year extension to its broadcast rights deal.
The new agreement with producer, Endemol UK, will see Big Brother remain on Channel 4’s schedules until 2007, with the broadcaster signing up for the main show, its spin-off series and all off air activity, such as multimedia, online and retail operations (see Channel 4 Extends Rights To Big Brother).
Channel Four: 020 7396 4444 www.channel4.com