Big Brother returns: 2.5 million watch as ITV launch show divides opinion

Hosts AJ Odudu and Will Best introduced the new housemates including Jenkin (right)

More than 2.5 million people watched 16 contestants enter the Big Brother house as the reality show returned to British TV for the first time in five years.

The series has moved to ITV, and the new crop of housemates immediately took part in a "housewarming party" with games that had unexpected consequences.

Jenkin, 25, had his suitcase blown up and lost access to hot water for a day.

The launch got a mixed reaction - the Telegraph called it "fun" but the Times said it felt "like a Noughties fossil".

AJ Odudu and Will Best are the new hosts, but some viewers compared them unfavourably to the previous eras of Davina McCall and Emma Willis.

Davina posted on X during the first episode on Sunday: "How's it going? I've got horrific fomo [fear of missing out]."

Big Brother transformed British TV when it first began on Channel 4 in 2000, before moving to Channel 5 and eventually being axed in 2018.

The launch show was watched by 2m on ITV1, and a further 527,000 on ITV2 - which will be its primary home in the coming weeks.

'Striving for authenticity'

In a four-star review, the Telegraph's James Hall wrote: "Do we really need Big Brother back? Of course not. Raw and real? Obviously not.

"But this was fun and is at least striving for a degree of authenticity while also knowing it has to entertain."

Metro's critic Adam Miller welcomed it back, also awarding four stars and writing that the show's return "was more impactful than I could have imagined".

"Big Brother shines on deception, tactical game play and sheer ludicrousness - the launch night alone had all three in abundance," he wrote.

The line-up is "the most interesting cast Big Brother has seen in years, possibly ever", he said, but added that it was "strange" that the opening episode was pre-recorded "knowing how electric those live launches could be".

Fans were also enthusiastic on social media.

The Independent's Katie Rosseinsky agreed that having a launch show that wasn't live "feels like a misfire".

"Big Brother has always been a franchise that has thrived on chaos, and this opener doesn't give us that," she wrote.

"Can this new cohort of housemates rise to the challenge of keeping us gripped six nights a week? In our era of shortened attention spans, they'll have to work pretty hard to do so."

In the Radio Times, Emma Bullimore praised the mix of personalities in the house. "Crucially, it's not just a set of 16 TikTokers," she wrote.

"Instead, it genuinely feels like real effort has been made to bring interesting people together for an extraordinary experience. From a bingo caller, to Miss Universe, to an 'ecstatic dancer' who shimmies under the moon on the Isle of Man."

The jury's out on whether the show can compete with more recent reality TV hits like Love is Blind and The Traitors, she added.

"While ITV's reset looks like it may be elevating the brand from the gutter, it's unclear whether it will be enough to dominate the public conversation as the show once did."

'It feels tired'

The Times' Carol Midgley said the format was "showing its age", however, and "feels pretty vanilla, pretty basic stuff" when compared with modern formats.

"I can see that ITV wants to replicate the success it has had with Love Island because this is one of the few shows which young people watch in the old-fashioned, nightly way. But this feels tired," she wrote.

"It's early days and it might get better but on the strength of what we saw tonight, Big Brother has nothing new to tell us."

There was some drama on the opening night when Jenkin, from Bridgend in south Wales, also unwittingly chose 23-year-old Olivia to be up for the first eviction on Friday.

However, she was later given the chance to save herself from eviction if she can avoid being ranked the least entertaining housemate.

Ahead of the launch, Odudu and Best asked fans to be kind online, posting a video to the Big Brother Instagram account reminding users that the "housemates are real people with their real lives".

As with recent series of ITV's Love Island, housemates and their families and friends have also been asked to not post content about the show on their individual social media accounts while they are in the house.

It comes as broadcasters' duty of care policies have faced scrutiny following a number of controversies involving on-screen talent.