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Auditions: Big Brother

A casting notice teases reality show return.... even though contracts are yet to be signed.

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Rumours around a Big Brother revival have been swirling for weeks while producers Endemol Shine Australia have been shopping the show to several networks.

As late as yesterday neither network nor production company could confirm details while numerous media reports flourished….

A casting notice for the show has now emerged, declaring “Big Brother is back. The game has changed. Are you ready to play?”

Nine most recently staged the show in 2014 and still has has right of refusal for a few more weeks (and whether that expires in time for Seven’s Upfronts on October 23 is unclear).

If Nine decides not to proceed -and that seems unlikely- Seven is interested in the show. As of yesterday no contracts had been signed at Seven, until Nine’s rights expire. But Nine also has Love Island, is it too much of the one genre?

The show would clearly help to lower the average age of Seven’s audience, which is something CEO James Warburton has flagged.

As to where the show will be staged….. look to the UK model of a house built inside existing studio facilities. It’s cheaper than the stand-alone Dreamworld model. Chatter has suggested FOX Studios -but those are all tied up by Marvel. Another plan will be likely.

Those key words “the game has changed” also nod to BB in a different guise than how we remember….

Former host Gretel Killeen recently said, “I think the essence of Big Brother is brilliant because when we first started that show it was about just watching humans interact without interference, just seeing what humans do.”

The casting notice appears to be something of an each way bet… either Nine will be pushed to remount it, or Seven will pounce on it. That puts ESA in a prize seat and the more the show is reported in media, the better their bargaining position.

Endemol Shine Australia has not confirmed the network late today.

An Endemol Shine Australia Spokesperson said, “We are thrilled to be casting for Big Brother, to apply bigbrothercasting.com.au”.

Sources: Colin Vickery, TV Blackbox, news.com.au

47 Responses

  1. David, can you clarify if this sentence reads the right way? “If Nine decides not to proceed -and that seems unlikely- Seven is interested in the show.” You imply it’s unlikely Nine won’t resurrect the show.

  2. If they are going to do this do it as a real experiment.

    Board up all the windows and etc., up for the first week so no natural light comes in so they don’t no if it’s night or day, let them all fall asleep for a couple of hours and then wake them up like it is morning. Before entering also ask each to nominate their top 20 songs and on entrance give them each a CD with 15 songs on (in case of duplicates with others), having a car CD player in the house they can use. This will cause drama as people want to play their music especially if it is not to all tastes, plus once they’re for a bit turn it into groups of people doing shift work, for charity of course, like washing and ironing clothes to stocked at the Salvos shops or something, that way you’ll have shifts of people awake and asleep (like a share house).

    Also do not introduce us to them, let us learn who they are as we…

      1. Nah well apart from the boarding up of the windows which is more House From Hell from 1998 that was created by Andrew Denton and hosted by Amanda Keller. Take that boarding up out though and I would honestly like to see something that reflects share-households can be like, especially when you get a few Uni Students living together. Which part of that would need to have people that worked different shifts and I would really like to see them all just enter and us the audience not know any background on them.

        Though making like they are living in a world that resembles the 1984 in George Orwells book, like a futuristic version of say Frontier House or the BBC ones about families living through World War 1 etc., hmmmm.

  5. Studio space, nah there are plenty empty warehouses around the country in regional areas that housed a masters hardware business, big empty buildings waiting to be used. Cheap as well. Councils would welcome the production company with open arms

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