Is anyone still watching Big Brother? Disappointment for Channel 5 as viewers switch off in their thousands

By Sarah Bull


Disappointment: Viewers are turning Channel 5's Big Brother, hosted by Brian Dowling, off in their thousands


It was always going to be difficult to repackage former Channel 4 reality show Big Brother for a Channel 5 audience.

But it seems the channel, and media mogul Richard Desmond, have been left disappointed with viewing figures for the show, after ratings dropped below a million viewers for the first time since its launch on Channel 4 in 2000.

Following the celebrity version this summer, which saw Paddy Doherty triumph as the winner, Channel 5 drew in a relatively impressive three million on the show's opening night.


Figures eventually settled at around 1.4m, before an abysmal 900,000 viewers watched last weekend.

Before that, the smallest audience ever recorded throughout the 11 series was 1.5m in 2009.

In addition, last Friday night's eviction show, the second of the series, lost more than 300,000 viewers.

It attracted just 1.4million during the hour-long show on Channel 5, with a peak of 1.79million as Rebeckah Vaughan was evicted.

The figures are in comparison to last week's average of 1.82million, with a peak of 2.1million according to Barb figures.

Big Brother was beaten by The Million Pound Drop Live, hosted by Davina McCall on Channel 4.

A spokeswoman for Channel 5 declined to comment.

It is believed Channel 5 signed a five-year deal with Endemol for the rights to Big Brother earlier this year.

The show had been axed by Channel 4 in 2010 after a huge drop in ratings.

Channel 4's director of television Kevin Lygo said at the time: 'Big Brother is still profitable for Channel 4 despite its reduced popularity and there could have been the option to renew it on more favourable terms.

'That's what a purely commercial broadcaster would have done, but Channel 4 has a public remit to champion new forms of creativity.

'That remit to push the boundaries has been an essential part of the weird chemistry behind Big Brother's success, but it's now what is telling us that the programme has reached a natural end point on Channel 4 and it's time to move on.'



source:dailymail