ITV BOSS EXPLAINS WHY NOW IS THE RIGHT TIME TO REVIVE BIG BROTHER

The Big Brother house has a brand new home, as the global television phenomenon makes its much anticipated return to UK television and moves onto ITV2 and ITVX from 2023.

A new cast of carefully selected housemates, from all walks of life, will take up residence in the world’s most famous reality TV home for up to six weeks, with cameras capturing their every move, and the nation following every twist and turn.

Speaking at the Edinburgh TV Festival and answering a question put by TV Zone, ITV controller Kevin Lygo said: "I suppose the Big Brother question is just why? I think because partly the launch of [ITVX] coming up, you know, we look at Love Island, and we see this extraordinary extraordinarily successful know that defies all sort of current logic, and goes against what people say in that young people don't watch terrestrial television..

"... and you think every single night at nine o'clock on ITV2 and the Hub, is this show for eight weeks that more young people watch than they watch anything else, and we should all take great joy in the fact that if you get the right show, they will come and watch it...

"I think with the Big Brother, I don't think it will skew as young as Love Island does, because of its legacy, because people remember it fondly from 15 to 20 years ago, whenever we started it, I just thought it's been off air for five years, by the time it comes back...

"It is arguably the sort of best programme that has ever been on television, or the most extraordinary thing that shaped most television afterwards that, after Big Brother had caught fire?..

"So we thought, let's give it a go, because it will drive people to our streaming service. It is honestly, I don't think it's that big a risk in terms of will the numbers be fine for us? Will it commercially work? I think people will come, half the room will come and have a look. They will want to know what are they going to do with it?..

"With any luck, if we do our jobs properly, we will think it's good, and you think I've got to watch this for eight weeks now and ruin your lives! That is partly why we're doing Big Brother."

Big Brother returns in 2023 on ITV2 and ITVX.