[Viper]

Long time TVF/TVLF lurker, first time poster here and Big Brother fan, so I thought I would add my thoughts on the revival.

I've always been quite adamant that the show needed an extended break of at least five years because of viewer fatigue. Three series a year was just too much. Perhaps if Channel 5 had dropped both the civilian and summer celeb series and concentrated solely on the arguably more popular winter celeb series it might still be with us today. That being said, Ben Frow was supposedly never a fan of the franchise being on the channel, whether it delivered a strong younger audience or not. So it probably would've been dropped eventually. Personally, I think it was a shame how the final C5 series was treated, because honestly it was the best civilian run in years. Decent housemates, imaginative tasks and minimal meddling from producers. The introduction of the 'Big Coin' mechanic as well was a decent twist that added interest, and something that I would like to see continued in future series. It's just a shame that Channel 5 chose to tuck the final season away in a series of increasingly viewer-unfriendly slots, so many people won't have seen it.

To the future then, and now it has been officially confirmed that Big Brother is to be revived I guess it's time to start thinking/speculating about what the ITV2 era will look like. Obviously, it needs to move on from the C5 era of the show, but I don't necessarily believe it needs to wipe the slate completely clean. In terms of who might present the eviction shows it does need to be somebody completely new. I always preferred Emma to Davina as host personally, but I believe she has recently ruled out returning in an interview. Perhaps somebody like BOTS alumni AJ Odudu might be a good shout? Or perhaps Joel Dommett? I've also heard Mo Giligan's name being connected with the revival by the tabloid newspapers. Any of those would be good in my opinion. I also believe that Rylan should be involved as well, perhaps if ITV choose to revive the spin-off show as well. 

Live feed has always been a sticking point as well for Big Brother fans, and while I can appreciate that the whole point of Big Brother is that we can watch what the housemates are up to 24/7, I can't see it appealing to many viewers other than the die-hard fans. I think we've all moved on a bit these days. Perhaps ITV are planning on making the feeds available as a part of the new ITVX service, which would I'm sure appease those that felt hard-done by during the C5 era.

In terms of the show itself, I would like to see a good, varied bunch of housemates, of all ages and from all walks of life, with no over-reliance on social media influencers and models. Tasks should be varied, interesting and imaginative. No 'mean tweets', no 'which housemate said this' task designed to stir up trouble and no 'I'm a celeb' style tasks involving century eggs and disgusting milkshakes. They've been done to death.

I hope this doesn't come across as too negative. Believe me, I want Big Brother on ITV2 to succeed, and succeed well. But Big Brother is still a damaged franchise thanks to years of poor treatment by Channel 5, and it needs to be handled with care.