Big Brother 19 (UK)

 is the upcoming series of Big Brother (UK).

Possible Cancellation
After a drop in ratings in 2017, Channel 5 boss Ben Frow stated that he would like to take Big Brother UK off of the air. The summer's civilian series fell at an all-time low average at less than one million viewers a night where most of the viewers watched Channel 4's Love Island. “A year ago, everyone was saying 16-34s aren’t watching television. Love Island has proved that if you get the right programme, they will come", said Frow. “I’ve got Big Brother on the channel which is, you know, decline decline decline. Still a useful programme. But this is a really good time for me to take a step back and look at a programme that was the be all and end all for our 16-34s and go, what are we gonna do?” Richard Desmond head of the channel when executives decided to revive the format back in 2011 after Channel 4 canceled the series. “That was a contract that was there before I came,” said Frow. “I would be much happier with a channel that did not have Big Brother on it.” However, Frow would go on to say that he did, in fact, enjoy the rating boost that Big Brother brought to the channel. Back in 2013, he said at the Guardian Edinburgh International Television Festival that “Big Brother’s very important, I think it was genius, genius, genius of Channel 5 to take it. My only concern about it is that it’s such a big beast, and we need to manage the big beast because we can’t become over-reliant on it". After the twentieth celebrity series, it was revealed that Big Brother ratings were the highest for the network.

Casting
Auditions for Big Brother 19, opened January 5th, 2018 and unlike the previous year, where pairs were being asked for, anybody can audition this time around. On March 5th,2018, it was announced that the closing date for auditions would be March 19th,2018. Call-backs began after March 29th,2018.

The closing date revealed for this season's auditions, March 19th, 2018, is a reference to the book 1984 by George Orwell, which is the novel that the Big Brother franchise was inspired from.

New Creative Team
Previous editor and executive producer Paul Osborne was hired as the new creative director for the show to help save it from cancellation. He was previously with the show from Big Brother 6 until Big Brother 9.

It was later announced that two former executive producers had stepped down and were replaced by Tamsin Dodgson, who was promoted last series, and Anna Meadows and Jess Thomas. Lucy Crofts, Matt Green and Cally Haycox will be serving as Series Editors.

Trevor Boris, who had been the challenge producer for Big Brother Canada was also added as a senior producer.

Production Changes
On 25th March,2018 British newspaper; The Daily Star reported that the Big Brother producers are planning to strip the show back to it's roots, similar to what it was during it's first series as a basic social experiment.

Superfan Press Conference
On August 5th, various Big Brother fan sites and superfans were invited to Borehamwood to a short discussion with producers to understand where the new team is taking the show for the upcoming celebrity and civilian series.

Production Changes
As reported during the Superfan Press Conference, the following will be changed:

Less Outside Contact
In previous years, the show has violated the first rule of Big Brother, "No outside contact." As a result the house has been built to "keep the outside, out".

Shopping Tasks Return
In the recent years, shopping tasks had been shortened to minimal days or eliminated all together in favor of twist taks. This will be reversed and shopping tasks will be back. Previous task producer, Jackson Townroe, has returned to the show for the first time since Big Brother 15 (UK).

Normal Diary Room Nominations
Returning executive producer Paul Osborne announced that classic nominations would be back. He stated that he was a fan of the classic process rather than the recent weekly twists on nominations. It has also been noted that we will now know prior to nominations how many nominations one housemate will need in order to be nominated.

Completely Unknown Housemates
For the potentially last series, Paul Osbourne stated the they were trying to find "complete unknowns". For the last few series there have been reality stars from shows The Valleys, Ibiza Weekender and Ex on the Beach.

Natural Drama
Producers will be ditching the outside influencing and manipulative tasks that have taken over the last few series. A source said, "They want it to be a true social experiment because they realise they have lost that element along the way." This was also implemented in previous celebrity series.

Eye
The eye was teased by Paul Osbourne as a never before seen eye for the franchise, especially since the move to Channel 5. It was eventually released on September 4th with a red and blue color scheme. Channel 5 said, "With this brand-new series comes the first surprise, a brand-new take on the ‘Big Brother’ eye – an interplanetary orb of luminous colours."

Controversies
Through their time in the house, housemates will do or say things that are not acceptable to the rules that were explained to them before they entered the house. If an action is deemed too offensive to the viewing public, a housemate can be ejected or given a warning by the producers of the show. The following housemates were involved in a breach of the rules and were either given a warning or ejection by the Big Brother producers.