Big Brother returned to UK screens for the first time in five years, but the iconic reality show failed to premiere with a big bang for ITV.The 20th series of Big Brother launched on ITV1 and ITV2 to 2.5M viewers on Sunday evening, according to overnight BARB figures supplied by Overnights.TV.This meant the Initial-produced format won the 9PM hour, but was some way short of the highest-rated show of the day: Strictly Come Dancing, which entertained 6.6M viewers on BBC1.Big Brother’s ITV premiere outperformed the launch of the final run on Channel 5 in 2018, when just 900,000 people tuned in for the start of Season 19.Big Brother’s first season on Channel 5 performed better, however. Making its debut on the Paramount-owned channel in 2011, the reality show was watched by 2.6M viewers.Presented by AJ Odudu and Will Best, the 2023 Big Brother launch was a long way short of the show’s halcyon days on Channel 4, when it used to premiere to audiences of more than 7M.Viewing habits have changed significantly in that time and the overnight figures do not include those watching on streaming service ITVX.
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