A more “aspirational” house and housemates who represent different sections of society and will engage in the debates of modern Britain are among the changes as Big Brother goes “back to basics” when it returns to British TV on Sunday.
At a time when division is exacerbated by culture wars and social media echo chambers, the producers have taken the format back to its social experiment roots by narrowing down 30,000 applications to just 16 housemates who reflect the “changes in society” since the reality show was axed five years ago by Channel 5.
And they also looked at other countries’ versions of the series to see how it has helped create tolerance between those with political and social differences.
Big Brother’s casting executive, Jay Khagram, said: “It’s fair to say that society generally has changed a lot through the pandemic, social media, the current political climate, etc so housemates reflect those changes in society.”
Khagram said that during the 1,000 Zoom castings producers Initial conducted there were “real surprises among the prospective housemates” – including some applications from previous contestants and their children.
But, he said, the final line-up contains housemates that “feel completely fresh and unique and … unlike anyone we’ve ever seen on the show before”.
“Gender identity terms like ‘non-binary’ and ‘gender fluid’ were nonexistent in society,” previously, Khagram said, along with, “phrases like ‘Black Lives Matter’ or ‘Me Too’ … we’ve been through a global pandemic since the last series of Big Brother aired”, so when choosing housemates the team was “mindful and representative” of “changes in the way we tackle mental health, political viewpoints, empowerment, prejudice and equality”.
Big Brother’s executive producer, Natalka Znak, said she was interested in finding people with “different accents” and “ordinary jobs” along with older contestants – the age range is from 18 to about 50+ – to ensure “a variety in age [and] backgrounds so it is a social experiment, because they’re just trapped in that [Big Brother] world”.
She was keen to find people who will provide “all the debates of modern society … you do want the national things that people are talking about … different generations approach things differently. I’m interested in that debate [and] in what young people think of old people.”
However, housemates and production teams were given inclusion and diversity training because “people are from different backgrounds” so might not “understand … why things might be unacceptable”.
Other changes Znak said, include a more “aspirational” and colourful-looking house, making the character of Big Brother more “playful” plus the return of live-streaming the house’s occupants 24 hours a day – which she said she was not sure would work again until when after the Queen died she noticed “people’s obsession” with footage of her lying in state and “watching the queue for hours”.
Banijay, the global production company which owns Initial and the Big Brother format around the world, got together producers from the 33 global versions of the reality show it has been running to see what the UK’s team could learn for ITV2’s reboot.
Portugal has a couples iteration and the Australia one focused on love. Various ideas were posited, including a gaming or a farming version, before deciding northern Europe prefers “a social experiment” format, as Banijay’s chief content officer, Lucas Green, put it.
He said the show can promote tolerance, pointing out that a housemate called Wendy “was the first ever transgender winner of any reality show in Mexico” and changed attitudes there.
“We’re proud that Big Brother has changed lives and what society is prepared to accept. It’s often been considered to be a guilty pleasure or in some way undermining the fabric of society.
“But when you look at the alternative – the home secretary’s speeches – I think it’s really important we’ve got shows like this that show that people from different backgrounds can get along and work together and live in a house and make us all think differently about multiculturalism.”
Green also highlighted Israel where, like the UK, Big Brother returned after five years with a classic social experiment format.
One of the housemates was “someone who was quite orthodox” and, due to their “openness and willingness to get along with people from different religious and political perspectives”, the show was subsequently discussed in parliament.
Green said that while dating reality shows have been popular: “It’s good Big Brother isn’t just about love and romance, betrayal and what you look like; it’s really healthy to have a big show that’s … about societal relationships rather than love and sex.
“It’s good to have Big Brother back as a counterpoint to being judged on what you look like.”
Big Brother starts on ITV1, ITV2 and ITVX on 8 October
