Former Big Brother contestant turned TV host Alison Hammond is petitioning to be crowned presenter of the iconic reality show if it does come back to air.
For weeks, speculation has swirled that ITV have bought the rights to revive the long-running reality show which aired for 18 years from 2000 until 2018 and spawned a number of spin-offs including celebrity versions and companion shows and are planning to bring it back in 2023.
Alison, 47, was a contestant on season three of the show back in 2002 – featuring alongside Kate Lawler and the late Jade Goody and survived 15 days on the show before she was voted off.
And while she has gone on to build an impressive presenting career – hosting This Morning on Fridays – she says she’d jump at the chance to host the series if ITV really do decide to bring the series back.
Alison was a guest on The Late-ish Show with Mo Gilligan when the topic of Big Brother was approached.
Asked if she would make a good presenter on the show, she declared: “I think so. They need to change it up a bit.
“We’ve got to put it out there to the universe. Let’s make it happen!”
Meanwhile, Emma Willis – who hosted Big Brother, Celebrity Big Brother, and Big Brother’s Bit On The Side when the show was on Channel 5 – has poured water on the speculation the show will be resurrected by ITV.
During an appearance on This Morning over the last week, she said: “I miss it so much but I do think it needs longer [off air]. It needs a bit more of a rest, I think.”
She continued: “I think if you go back to day dot when it first started and how it just took all of us by storm, it was just phenomenal. If it can do that again, and if it went back to that, I mean, it would be amazing wouldn't it?"
She went on: “Everybody wants it back! I think it will come back when it's ready, maybe it's not ready yet. If you're gonna do it again, you've got to do it fantastically well.
"Hopefully, there's somebody beavering away somewhere that is coming up with an amazing plan for it, but I don't know anything about it if they are!"
Meanwhile, Alison recently revealed she almost never appeared on Big Brother at all.
She recalled being offered a chance to appear on a different show, telling Heat magazine: “I wanted to do Blind Date, because I wanted to meet Cilla Black and I wanted to meet a bloke, so I thought, ‘This is a great thing to do.’
“But I was also in a bit of debt, and someone said you could win £70K on Big Brother, so I thought, oh that’s a good idea.
“It was so weird, because I got both the offers at the same time, and I had to pick and choose. I was so shallow, I didn’t choose love, I chose money.”
She added: “I always think, what would’ve happened if I’d won Big Brother.
“Would my career have gone in this direction? And I don’t believe it would have, because the This Morning producer who watched my best bits never watched Big Brother, but had just happened to turn on.”
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