Big Brother Launches on a High But Falls Short Of Record

Friday’s launch of Big Brother‘s sixth series saw Channel 4 draw 7 million reality TV fans, securing a share of 36% but failing to top last year’s record launch night viewing of 7.2 million.

This year’s housemates entered the Big Brother house at 10pm on Friday, going head to head with ITV’s Celebrity Love Island, which peaked at 2.7 million, securing a share of 14%.

Commenting on this year’s show, Angela Jain, Channel 4’s commissioning editor for Big Brother, said: “This is a fantastic start to the series. Channel 4 and Endemol have worked hard for months to assemble a brand new bag of tricks to test this year’s participants. We are committed to making this year’s Big Brother as entertaining as ever for fans.”

The show’s debut looks promising for Channel 4, with its ratings down just 200,000 on last year’s launch programme, which benefited by following the last ever episode of Friends. However, eviction and finale episodes of the reality marathon are typically the big winners, with last year’s final attracting a record-breaking 9 million viewers.

ITV can seek some comfort, however, with rival reality show Celebrity Love Island receiving 2.5 times more internet searches than Channel 4’s offering, according to internet ratings specialist, Hitwise. The programme has seen online interest increase 10-fold, with the term “Celebrity Love Island” now receiving 0.020% of all online searches, compared with searches for Big Brother attracting 0.008% (see Celebrity Love Island Wins Reality Fans’ Hearts Online).

Channel Four: 020 7396 4444 www.channel4.com