Australian reality TV fans haven’t been able to contain their glee this week, with confirmation that old favourite Big Brother will get a reboot in 2020.
And now, new details are emerging about what the fresh format will look like, almost two decades after season one’s premiere in 2001.
An industry insider told Now To Love on Friday that live voting, which was an integral feature in earlier incarnations of the show, will be gone in the new series.
Instead, in the format that was floated to several networks before reportedly being picked up by Channel Seven, housemates will vote each other out themselves, “Survivor-style”, according to the source.
While no host has yet to be announced, names rumoured to take the reins include original host Gretel Kileen as well as Mel Doyle, whose show Sunday Night was axed to make way for Big Brother’s return.
Will Gretel Kileen (pictured with Hotdogs) be back as host?
(Image: Network Ten)TV Blackbox’s editor Rob McKnight also detailed some of the other changes set to take place.
Appearing on KIIS FM’s Kyle & Jackie O show on Friday, Rob said the famous Big Brother house at Dreamworld on the Gold Coast may not feature this time around.
“It doesn’t look like they’re going to build an actual house this year, it will be a house within a studio to keep costs down,” Rob said, adding that the show will likely film inside a Melbourne studio.
Production company Endemol Shine has already opened casting applications, with would-be housemates able to apply here.
Ryan ‘Fitzy’ Fitzgerald (pictured with housemates from the 2004 season, Bree Amer, Paul Dyer and Trevor Butler) is welcoming the show’s comeback.
(Image: Network Ten)Meanwhile, since the news of Big Brother’s resurrection was made public earlier this week, its former contestants have been weighing in with their thoughts.
Radio star Ryan ‘Fitzy’ Fitzgerald, who initially found fame on Big Brother in 2004 revealed he was worried producers would make the show “too controversial” but welcomed its return.
“I’m a tragic. I actually love the show. I’m addicted to it,” Fitzy admitted.
WATCH: Big Brother’s Benjamin Norris says he wasn’t ready for the aftermath of the show. Story continues after video…
Tully Smyth (pictured with Anthony Drew) said she “felt nauseous” about the show’s return.
(Image: Channel Nine)Tully Smyth, who was embroiled in a controversial affair with fellow housemate Anthony Drew in Big Brother’s 2013 season, also added her two cents in an open letter for Mamamia.
“Instantly, I felt nauseous,” she wrote, later adding: “It seems as if the other housemates from my year are feeling equally conflicted. Are we excited? Anxious? Jealous? Irrelevant?”
Speaking to news.com.au, 2003 winner Reggie Bird said she hoped producers were mindful when it came to their casting choices on the new season.
“I think a lot of people these days go onto the shows to become famous,” she told the online publication.
“I hope that when they cast the people they put realistic people in there and not these fake, plastic people.”
