BB FANS

BB KICKS OFF EARLY

BIG Brother is to ditch its usual Friday opening for a Thursday as Channel 4 looks for an early advantage in a ratings war with ITV's Celebrity X Factor.

Visits to the house had always started on the Friday of the last weekend in May, but the seventh series will kick off on May 18.

Bosses hope moving it forward eight days will give it an edge against Celebrity X Factor, which starts the following day.

A TV insider said: "The gloves are off. Round one goes to Big Brother for getting the show on first to snare the fans early."

Big Brother 7 will last for three months, the longest series yet.
Mirror

21 days till kick off

great - i had thought i would be on holiday for the launch night, and now i'm not

madeline

thanks for the great news

just 21days to go

Last Modified: 27 Apr 2006
Source: ITN

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The new series of Big Brother will last for thirteen weeks and is expected to start with sixteen contestants.

The new series of the reality TV show is set to hit our screens earlier than ever before in order to grab as many viewers from other channels as possible.

The show, hosted by Davina McCall and Dermot O'Leary, will be launched on May 18, as opposed to the more traditional end of May spot.

Channel 4 appear to be trying to divert attention away from a summer full of ITV reality shows including Soccer Aid, Celebrity Love Island and Celebrity X Factor.

Fly-on-the-wall fans will certainly be in heaven this summer, by the end of which we will most certainly have our next Anthony Hutton or Jade Goody filling up the pages of the tabloids.

Well good on 'em. I'm always hopelessly optimistic a few weeks before the start of a new series, hoping, willing it to be as good as the last!

Wow! Hopefully it will be a brilliant series then!

Looks Like Channel 4 are scared of ITV's reality schedule in my opinion. If the BB7 h/ms are like BB6 h/ms then they are looking to lose out in the ratings fairly soon.
Hopefully this year there will be some likeable characters which has seriously been lacking the last 2 years

Bloody Hell....I'd always thought it'd be May 19th - then had become resigned to May 26th.

This is a surprise! ('talk' of there being 16 housemates, too)

Nice to see a few more people coming on here again, too.

GG, your sig looks likes my Chinchillas

Aww Ray....I'd be glad of anything of mine looked remotely like anything of yours!

16 contestants? 92 days? It just gets bigger each year...when will the numbers stop going up?! Craziness. There'll inevitably be some new HMs along the way so we can probably expect at least 20 housemates being trotted out on final night which seems too many to me. I have trouble knowing who is who for days after it starts as it is, 16's really gonna make me think!

Don't blame them for giving people a good chance to get into it properly before the World Cup starts though, if that was part of their thinking.

Can't be too long until details of the BB7 house emerge now either

27 April 2006 17:06:53 GMT
ViewLondon

Yes, sadly, that time is nearly upon us again, when Channel 4's innovative programming is once again abandoned in favour of the Big Brother series.

And as adolescents prepare to deny watching it, while simultaneously being glued to the uninterrupted all-night shows, programming bosses have revealed a sneaky tactic to try to steal viewers from rival channels.

The plan will be for the seventh, yes seventh, series of Big Brother to hit the airwaves much earlier than ever before and last for an agonising 13 weeks.

May 18th has been pencilled in as the official start date, which is two weeks before the usual big kick-off.

Channel 4 have allegedly gone for the early start to beat off competition from ITV's reality show-packed summer schedule which includes, among others, returns for Celebrity Love Island and Celebrity X Factor.

Reports also suggest 16 contestants will be clambering over one another for the greater share of camera time, meaning more non-entities than ever for tabloids to talk about.

Dermot O'Leary and Davina McCall, fresh from her grown-up chat show failure, will return to host the show as expected.

Nice one, didn't expect it just yet but it gives me something else to watch other than Lost.

OOO Fab the day after i come back from my visit to London so that's fab can't wait wonder if i will get hooked this time tho