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Celebrity Big Brother returned for the first time in six years to 2.7M viewers last night, as Sharon Osbourne and Kate Middleton‘s uncle entered the house.
The show was just ahead of the launch of the civilian Big Brother UK in October, which secured 2.5M viewers, according to Barb data supplied by overnights.tv.
Celebrity Big Brother, which peaked with 3M, will now have the benefit of airing nightly on ITV main channel for the next three weeks in the primetime 9 p.m. GMT (1 p.m. PT) slot and be given a big push on streamer ITVX. The civilian Big Brother kicked off in the same slot in October but was then moved to ITV 2 and ratings naturally declined from there – averaging around 1M per night.
Revealed yesterday by hosts AJ Odudu and Will Best, Celebrity Big Brother contestants include Sharon Osbourne, Kate Middleton’s uncle Gary Goldsmith and former X Factor host Louis Walsh. Other celebrity housemates include Love Island UK Season 8 and contestant of The Traitors US Season 2 Ekin-Su Cülcüloğlu, Coronation Street actor Colson Smith, Broadway star Marisha Wallace, The Real Housewives of Cheshire alum Lauren Simon, Netflix’s Heartstopper actor Bradley Riches and former This Morning co-host Fern Britton.
Last night’s show comfortably won the 9 p.m. slot, quadrupling BBC One drama The Way, but it was some way off being the top-watched broadcast of the day.
The Initial-produced Celebrity Big Brother is into its 23rd season in the UK and tends to run just after the civilian version.
Last night’s launch comes as British broadcasters reboot numerous shows with varying success. Survivor came back towards the end of last year on the BBC roughly in line with Big Brother and question marks remain over whether it will be handed a second series, but the BBC has had far more success with Gladiators, which has been landing millions of viewers per night on Saturday’s.
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