Sky and Channel 4 have no plans to acquire ‘Big Brother’.
The Endemol TV series has been axed after 18 years, with Channel 5 announcing that the current series will be its last and hopes for it to be picked up by another broadcaster have been dashed after both Sky and Channel 4 ruled themselves out.
When asked if it would ever air ‘Big Brother’ again, Channel 4 – which dropped the show in 2009 – insisted that it will not be back on the channel.
A message on Channel 4’s Twitter account read: "Hi there, there are no intentions to air #BigBrother on Channel 4 again."
And replying to a Twitter user, Sky’s account said: "Good Afternoon, there are no plans for Sky One to show Big Brother I’m afraid."
Host Emma Willis, 42, admitted the decision by Channel 5 to ditch the show came as a shock but she is hopeful it will be picked up by a rival broadcaster.
In a video message, she said: "This is a very strange ‘What You Talking About Willis?’ today because normally it’s a ‘Yay! It’s the launch!’ of our civilian series. But the excitement comes with really a lot of sadness because we have all found out today that ‘Big Brother’ is no more on Channel 5. I feel like I’ve been through this process before. Well I have been through this process before because I worked on the last year on Channel 4 and we like … buried it. Like, genuinely. We had a grave for it and everything in the back garden and then the next thing we know is, ‘Oh wow, it’s coming back.’
"So, the news was a shock, if I’m honest, but I kind of still hold out hope that somebody out there, loves it as much as we all do still and will give it a home in the future because it has been on the TV for a bloody long time and you know it’s part of our popular culture. So it would be sad. It would be sad to see its end at the age of eighteen. It’d be lovely to see it come back for its twentieth anniversary."