Big Brother returns on October 6 as the British public gets ready to welcome more than a dozen new housemates to the ITV2 show.
Revived in 2023, the long-running reality series proved to be a hit for ITV and is coming back to our screens for the big launch show on Sunday night.
The rules are simple: contestants will live together in the Big Brother house with zero access to the outside world, bidding to win the £100,000 cash prize.
Hosts Will Best and AJ Odudu will present the coverage from the Garden Studios in London – but it nearly wasn’t all plain sailing for Will and AJ this week.
Speaking to Capital Radio, Will revealed that both he and AJ have had major health scares in the last few days as opening night draws closer and closer.
He said: ‘I’ve got a stiff neck. Yesterday was bad. I’ve got an emergency physio [appointment] in a couple of hours after this.’
Will insisted he was seeing the positive side, however: ‘It’s always good to just before the biggest show of the year, when you’re going to be live for six weeks, with all kinds of mad stuff, to not be able to move.’
It was then revealed that he wasn’t the only one struggling with health complications this week, with his co-host AJ also racing to be fit for Sunday.
‘AJ’s lost her voice as well – I saw her yesterday, we recorded a podcast. That’s why she’s not doing radio today,’ updating listeners on how AJ was doing.
Despite the anxieties, Will has insisted that he and AJ will bring their best and that, once the cameras go on, all worries and nerves tend to disappear.
‘I get nervous because I love this show so much. So I’m nervous that we’re going to do it justice, the format justice, I’m nervous how the housemates will do.’
He continued: ‘But, once we get to Sunday, just before we go live, the nerves sort of disappear. I can’t wait to meet these people.’
And it appears things will be very much live on Sunday, after the pre-recorded intros for the contestants weren’t popular across the board with viewers in 2023.
A source told The Sun: ‘They brought back the live element for the celebrity version last autumn and it didn’t cause too many problems. But it did bring back the important sense that anything could happen, and it would all be caught on camera.’
Big Brother legend Marcus Bentley is expected to return as the series’ narrator, having been the iconic voice of the show for all 20 series to date.
Last year, lawyer Jordan Sangha, aged 26, won the show and the £100,000 cash prize after spending six weeks in the Big Brother house and emerging victorious.
The show was followed up months later by Celebrity Big Brother, with TV personality David Potts emerging triumphant in a competition that saw former X Factor judges Louis Walsh and Sharon Osbourne reunited on TV.
Watch Big Brother on ITV2 on Sunday at 9pm.
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