‘Big Brother’ UK Is Back: Execs Talk Sifting Through 30,000 Casting Applications, Prioritizing Welfare & “Making Reality ‘Real’ Again”

deadline.com:

“This is the perfect opportunity for us to make reality ‘real’ again,” says Peter Tierney, the commissioner who has spent the past two years overseeing ITV‘s rebooted Big Brother.

Speaking as ITV prepares to become the third UK network to premiere the world-beating format, Tierney says his team have listened relentlessly to audiences “telling us that they want real, authentic reality.” “They are aware of the way in which [some of] these shows are made, the directions you can push contestants in and the hands of the producer,” he adds. “But Big Brother presents us with the perfect opportunity to make reality ‘real’ again, providing a better opportunity for an environment that is conducive to real life than many other reality shows afford you.” In a world of over-polished, glossy hits, Tierney says his reality commissioning team and producers at Banijay label Initial have repeatedly stressed that they will do their best to let things play out.

Hosted by AJ Odudu and Will Best, ITV is aiming to make a splash with Big Brother’s return five years after it ended on Channel 5 and it will launch Sunday across ITV 1 and ITV 2 with a pre-recorded show, before subsequently airing weeknights on ITV 2 for six weeks alongside companion program Late & Live.

The show was initially slated to launch several months ago but was pushed to Q4 due to a downturn in ad revenue. Exec producer Katy Manley, who runs Initial, believes reality TV is coming “full circle” from the days that Big Brother first wowed the nation on Channel 4 more than 20 years ago, when the likes of Nasty Nick, Nikki Grahame, Jade Goody and Pete Bennett bedecked UK tabloid front pages. “Lots of polished, glossy TV is out there but hopefully we are going back to