Big Brother returns with celebrity special after move to Channel 5 | Television & radio | The Guardian

Big Brother returns with celebrity special after move to Channel 5 | Television & radio | The Guardian

People can't do anything to change the dates written on their gravestones, but TV programmes sometimes can. Just over six months after the media mourned – or cheered – the death of Channel 4's Big Brother (2000-2010), the housemate elimination show has been resurrected. Richard Desmond's Channel 5 has announced a two-year deal to lock up more young people with a desire for fame or notoriety and set them a series of challenges.

Ever since Davina McCall said her final goodbye last September, it has been assumed that the shouty house would find a new home, with the next number along on the terrestrial spectrum always seeming the most likely destination. The series will still be made by the UK branch of Endemol, the Dutch company that had the internationally lucrative idea of merging a sitcom plot – tense flatmates – with a gameshow format.