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Big Brother: Channel 4 boss says reality show's revival is 'depressing'

PA Media Craig Philips, pictured here alongside fellow contestants Darren Ramsey and Anna Nolan, won the inaugural Big Brother in 2000PA Media
Craig Philips, pictured with fellow contestants Darren Ramsey and Anna Nolan, won the first Big Brother in 2000

Channel 4's programming boss has said the return of Big Brother to screens on ITV2 is part of a "depressing" moment when old TV hits are being "reheated".

The reality show first aired on Channel 4 in 2000 before moving to Channel 5, and will be revived by ITV next year.

Channel 4 chief content officer Ian Katz said it was a "wonderful show".

"I'm sure it will bring an audience to ITV, but I do think there is something depressing about this microwave moment of TV of shows being reheated."

Also on Thursday, the BBC revealed it will revive Saturday night sports entertainment game show Gladiators next year.

The programme, previously popular for pitting contestants against characters including Wolf, Jet and Hunter, appeared on ITV from 1992 to 2000, before being resurrected on Sky One in 2008 and 2009.

It will return on BBC One, and will be filmed at the Utilita Arena Sheffield.

Getty Images Wolf (Michael van Wijk) and host Ulrika Jonsson during the filming of Gladiators for Comic Relief at the National Indoor Arena in Birmingham in 1997Getty Images
Gladiators ready? Wolf (Michael van Wijk) and host Ulrika Jonsson in 1997

Mr Katz was speaking at the Edinburgh TV Festival, where Channel 4 was named channel of the year at the annual event's award ceremony.

"If Channel 4 is about anything, it is about finding that new dish," he said.

His comments came a day after ITV's managing director of media and entertainment, Kevin Lygo, told the festival Big Brother was the programme that had "shaped the most television" over the past 20 years.

He explained that the popularity of another show, Love Island, as well as the November launch of streaming platform ITVX, had encouraged the company to reboot Big Brother five years after it ended on Channel 5.

Edinburgh TV Festival Ian Katz at the Edinburgh TV FestivalEdinburgh TV Festival
Ian Katz told the Edinburgh TV Festival that Channel 4 was "about finding that new dish"

Mr Lygo said: "We look at Love Island and we see this extraordinary successful show that defies all the sort of current logic and goes against what people say in that, 'Young people don't watch [linear] television'.

"And then you think every single night at nine o'clock on ITV2 and on the [current streaming service ITV] Hub is this show for eight weeks that more young people watch than they watch anything else.

"And we should all take great joy in the fact that, if you get the right show, they're going to come and watch it."

Asked whether bringing back Big Brother was sensible given its track record of occasionally having negative effects on contestants, and after Love Island has attracted complaints and controversy, Mr Lygo suggested broadcasters were now far more "mindful" of their "duty of care" than in the past.

The BBC's chief content officer Charlotte Moore responded to Mr Katz's remarks by insisting it takes creativity and can be "challenging" to revive older shows, and that you have to do it "judiciously" and with "real intent to reinvent it for a new generation".

She added that Channel 4 had taken over The Great British Bake Off after it moved from the BBC. Channel 4 has also rebooted Changing Rooms, The Big Breakfast and Friday Night Live.