Being Big Brother

ITV has unveiled the new eye logo for the upcoming 23rd series of Big Brother UK, which is expected to kick off on Sunday, 13th September.

In a press release, ITV confirmed we’re getting an eight-week run this time – and revealed that the House has been “reimagined as a house of surprises.” The release continues: “This year’s Big Brother House will keep Housemates on their toes with unexpected twists and game-changing moments around every corner.”

We also recently found out the cancelled Late & Live spinoff will be replaced by a daily video podcast: TV Zone revealed it’ll be airing Sunday thru Thursday, and might be hosted by Chris Hughes from last year’s Celebrity Big Brother.

And The Sun claims (via Big Blagger) that former Celebrity Big Brother Housemates are set to return to the House this year – not as fully-fledged Housemates, but “as temporary guest residents, or [participating] in specially-designed tasks.” Gemma Collins, Kerry Katona, and JoJo Siwa are all said to have been approached by producers. My current theory is that there’ll be one a week, and they’ll visit on Tuesday and Wednesday – to try to boost the embattled Wednesday and Thursday episodes (the ones that clash with Celeb Traitors).

Big Brother returns soon on ITV2 and ITVX.

I’m waaaaaaay behind the curve on this one, guys.

The promo makes it sound like Channel 10 are doubling down on… everything that was wrong with last year’s season, so I just couldn’t muster up much excitement. 😬 Still, I’ll try to collect all the promos here for you as they appear.

Big Brother Australia returns in October on Channel 10.

Gretel is back and she’s more eccentrically dressed than ever! 🙌 May she never be away from our screens again.

The Traitors Australia airs every Tuesday and Wednesday on Channel 10. Oh, and Tully Smyth from Big Brother 2013 is in it, too.

Production listings uncovered by TV Zone suggest the upcoming 23rd series of Big Brother UK will launch on Sunday, 13th September, with the finale due to air on Thursday, 5th November.

While neither show has confirmed their official schedules yet, that’s likely to be the same day The Celebrity Traitors ends on BBC One.

Last year, BBUK’s overnight ratings tanked every Wednesday and Thursday while Celeb Traitors was airing, before rebounding for the Friday eviction shows. In Week 2, the Wednesday and Thursday episodes attracted BBUK’s smallest ever audience, with just 2.5% of live TV viewers bothering to tune in.

Ratings overall fell by about 50,000: average same-day figures dropped by 200,000 compared to 2024, while ITVX viewing rose by 150,000, not quite managing to restore balance. BBUK was ITVX’s most-streamed show throughout its run, though.

Early ratings gloom aside, these dates would suggest we’re getting a 54-day series this time – six days longer than last year’s. So that’s something.

We already knew CBBUK was being “rested” this year, and that it was going to be bumped from ITV1 to ITV2. But if The Sun’s report is to be believed, ITV is now ready to throw in the towel – just two years after it resurrected the show.

An insider apparently put the blame on the BBC’s Celebrity Traitors, whose popularity is evidently causing a shortage of celebrities.

“That is already causing problems for other big shows, like Strictly and I’m A Celebrity”, said the insider, “because they now find themselves as second in the pecking order. So that is an even greater issue for a show like Celebrity Big Brother because.” (That’s literally how the sentence ends; presumably they were taken out by the ITV snipers.)

The civilian show is safe, though, at least for now. An ITV spokesperson told The Sun: “Big Brother returns to ITVX and ITV2 later this year. No decisions have been made for 2027 as yet.”

Job postings by EndemolShine Australia – the production company behind Big Brother Australia – have specifically asked for applicants who are “willing to work on-site in Brisbane”. Notably, that’s… not where Dreamworld is.

The ads, uncovered by users on the Behind Big Brother forums, are for “post producers, offline/online editors, assistant editors, post engineers, post coordinators, post-production assistants, and more” – in other words, all roles that’re related to editing and post production. So it’s possible the show will still be based at Dreamworld, but edited remotely. We simply don’t know at this point.

One source claimed the move was due to a “scheduling conflict” at the Dreamworld Convention Centre, which housed last year’s, uh, House. But that’s just hearsay for now; it doesn’t seem to have been picked up anywhere else.

Honestly, the juiciest info is that the contracts are set to run from 20th October to 7th December, with one ad outright stating, “shooting will commence in approx. October 2026.” That means we could be looking at a 48-day run this time – 18 days longer than the 2025 series.

Like this week’s BBUK news, this is kind of a nothing-burger, but at least Channel 10’s press releases are less fucking dull than ITV’s.

Banijay Entertainment, BBAU’s production company, has confirmed Mel Tracina will be returning as host – adding that the “upcoming season will have a stronger focus on live nominations, live evictions, and live feeds.”

That was a big focus last year, too (the Live Stream was literally the best thing about the series), so… does this actually mean anything? We do not know. 🤷‍♂️

Meanwhile, Channel 10 punched up their presser with a quote from Big Brother himself:

Another year, another group of housemates who think they can outsmart me. How adorable. Australia, I hope you’re ready, because I’ve been watching, I’ve been planning, and let’s just say… this year’s surprises will be my finest work yet. Welcome back to my House.

According to Channel 10, we can expect “even more twists, unexpected friendships, hilarity, tantrums, and maybe a showmance or two!

“One thing’s for certain; Big Brother is watching… and we know you will be too.”

ITV has extended this year’s Big Brother UK to eight weeks – up from seven last year, and six the previous two years. For anyone keeping score, that’s still a week shorter than the early Channel 4 series, but slightly longer than the last few Channel 5 ones. The show is back this autumn on ITV2 and ITVX.

ITV’s press release (linked above) claims BBUK has now been streamed over 163 million times on ITVX – they were still saying 150 million as recently as November, so that gives us some idea of how things are going.

The press release also reveals there will be Housemates, a House, evictions, and a winner. Big if true.

There’s not a huge amount of new information for us to share here – we already knew Late & Live had been cancelled, and that the next series of Celebrity Big Brother UK was being “pushed back” and bumped to ITV2.

But TV Zone has confirmed what we already thought: CBBUK is being “rested” during 2026, and is “expected” to return in 2027.

The main, “civilian” series will air on ITV2 in the autumn as usual.

Depending on when BBAU returns, this might mean a quiet few months from us, but rest assured we’ll still be keeping our all-seeing eye on all the latest developments.

Hey – this isn’t too bad for the first series back. Including BBUK, that brings us to over 95,000 views and nearly 15,000 posts on our Bluesky Feeds since 28th September.

The most popular Housemate of Big Brother Australia 2025 was Allana, with 18.10% of the Pop Poll vote!

Over the past month, 195 people cast 517 votes for their favourite Housemates. These weighted results take evictions out of the equation, by simulating what would happen if all the Housemates had stayed for the entire 31 day run.

Thank you so much for your votes. Look for more Big Brother Popularity Polls in 2026!

Oh, and there’s a text-based list of the results below the cut, as usual.

Join the #BBAU Bluesky Feed

With 32.11% of the Pop Poll vote, Week 4’s most popular Housemate was Emily! That’s the highest vote share of the series, by quite a long way (and well deserved).

The weighted results are now being verified, so stay tuned to find out who was the most popular Housemate of the series! As always, if you’d like a text-based list of everyone’s percentages, hit the “Keep reading” link below.

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This is it, you guys – today, in just a few short hours, one of these five people will be crowned the winner of Big Brother Australia 2025.

Here are your listings for Big Brother Australia’s final week! It’s been a mixed bag, but I can’t quite believe we’ve already reached the end. Here’s hoping for a longer, higher-budget series next year… Who knows what they could achieve if they didn’t have to resort to buying their Christmas decorations from The Reject Shop?

At 11:20am AEST (House time) today, the Housemates were gathered in the living room to read their letters from home. And – in what we assume was a direct copy of Matty’s BBUK 2023 eviction – Edward became the seventh Housemate to be sent packing.

In other news, Sunday’s eviction is now confirmed to be a double.