(Fwrd Axis) — Channel Seven bosses expressed confidence in one of its main shows despite disappointing ratings for its celebrity spinoffs.
Seven’s Director of Programming Angus Ross spoke to TV Tonight Australia this week and said he is confident in Big Brother going into 2022 despite some disappointing ratings for spinoff show Big Brother VIP this year.
Ross said the decision to make Big Brother VIP came after Australia’s Got Talent was axed due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. He said once the decision came to cancel the show for the year, he knew a short season of VIP could be confidently filmed during precarious pandemic conditions.
“With AGT we thought we had a really great judging panel. We had a lot of great acts. For them to have done their quarantine and then us have to cancel the show was absolutely heartbreaking,” Ross said.
“We had a mechanism where we could get a series of Big Brother and that we could produce under COVID conditions and choices were limited,” he added.
The viewing figures for Big Brother VIP were disappointing for Channel Seven. The three-week run of the show never went above 400,000 viewers, averaging 337,000 viewers for its short season.
“We’re disappointed in the numbers, but you still go into it thinking you can get the show to resonate and for whatever reason, it hasn’t,” Ross said. “I’m still very confident about our series next year with the ‘All Stars’ angle we’ve got. I think when it returns it’s going to do very well. But yeah, this one didn’t resonate as we’d hoped.”
Channel 7 revealed a teaser for Big Brother 2022 at its Upfronts presentation in October. Rumours of former players returning to play the game have been hinted at for weeks and the network finally confirmed it is actually happening.
The upcoming season will feature returning players from the Channel Nine and Channel 10 era of the show. Some of the faces that popped up during the promo were Estelle Landy from season nine, along with Tully Smyth, and Anthony Drew from season 10 of the Channel nine era.
Big Brother Australia returns to Channel 7 and 7 Plus in 2022.
