Big Brother (British TV series) series 21

Big Brother
Series 21
Series twenty-one logo
Hosted by	AJ Odudu Will Best
No. of days	41
No. of housemates	16
Companion show	Big Brother: Late & Live
No. of episodes	36
Release
Original network	ITV2
Original release	6 October 2024 (2024-10-06) – present
Series chronology

Big Brother 2024, also known as Big Brother 21, is the twenty-first series of Big Brother. It is the second civilian series of Big Brother to air on ITV2 after ITV plc gained the rights to the format, and the third series to air on the network overall. The series began on 6 October 2024 and was again co-presented by AJ Odudu and Will Best, who also returned to host the companion show, Big Brother: Late & Live.

At 41 days, this is set to be the shortest-running civilian series of Big Brother in the UK, surpassing the previous series which ran for 42 days.

Production

In August 2023, prior to the beginning of the twentieth series, which was the first to be commissioned by ITV following the programme's revival on the channel, ITV's commissioning editor Paul Mortimer confirmed at the Edinburgh International Television Festival that the show would return for a twenty-first series in 2024, stating that the show had been confirmed for "two six-week runs" and also hinted at a revival of Celebrity Big Brother, which in turn was also commissioned and aired its first series on ITV, the twenty-third series of Celebrity Big Brother, in March 2024. Applications for the series opened on 17 November 2023, during the final of the previous series, and closed on 31 July 2024.

Format

The series is set to retain the format from the previous series, running for 36 episodes, airing six nights a week from Sunday to Friday. Unlike the previous civilian series, the launch show was live, and as a result the series will run for 41 days, the shortest series in the show's history. ITV confirmed that the series would again feature a "new cast of carefully selected housemates, from all walks of life" [...] with "cameras capturing [the housemates'] every move, and the nation following every twist and turn." Shopping tasks, nominations and live evictions will return, with the public once again voting throughout the series and ultimately determining the winner, who will walk away with a cash prize. Hosts Odudu and Best also teased that the tasks for this series would be "taken up a notch".

House

In April 2024, it was reported that the Big Brother house was set to be moved from Garden Studios due to it being situated next to a canal, which in turn had resulted in disruption from the public and boat users. However these rumours were later debunked a month later, with planning applications revealing that the house would remain at Garden Studios, with the live set and garden situated in the same place as it was for the previous series. On 4 October 2024, two days before the show's launch, Richard Arnold conducted a tour of the kitchen and living area on Good Morning Britain, before ITV revealed photos of the house on social media later that day. The house maintained a similar structure to the previous series, but with updated colour schemes, as well as decor that resembled dripping paint throughout the house which adapted the theme of the eye logo. The diary room chair also followed the same theme, with multi-coloured cushioning and the outside frame taking the shape of dripping paint.

Eye logo

On 29 July 2024, the official eye logo for the series was revealed in a 20-second teaser trailer, which aired during the ad-break of the final of the eleventh series of Love Island. The eye depicts different coloured paint mixed together which in turn, drips down to the bottom of the screen.

Promotion

The official trailer for the series was released on 13 September 2024. It featured a smaller model of the previous series' house, filled with guinea pigs who are seen in different rooms undertaking various activities, all of which are being overseen by hosts Odudu and Best who peer inside. A further promotional teaser on social media featured a person walking towards the London Eye, which features the new eye logo inside it. The series was also promoted via billboards featuring the guinea pigs from the trailer.

Housemates

On 6 October 2024, the day of launch show, the Big Brother social media accounts posted close-up teasers of the sixteen housemates' eyes several hours prior to the launch.

Name	Age on entry	Hometown	Day entered	Day exited	Result	Ref.
Alison "Ali" Bromley	38	Leicester	1
Emma Morgan	53	Altrincham	1
Hanah Haji	24	Acton	1
Marcello Spooks	34	East London	1
Nathan King	24	Sanquhar	1
Rosie "Baked Potato" Williams	29	Plymouth	1
Sarah Griffiths	27	Church Stretton	1
Segun Shodipo	25	Watford	1
Thomas Atkinson	20	Carlisle	1
Khaled Khaled	23	Manchester (originally from Lebanon)	1	34	Evicted
Lily Benson	20	Warrington	1	34	Evicted
Dean Quinton	35	Walthamstow	1	27	Evicted
Martha Jones	26	Scarborough	1	24	Evicted
Izaaz Miah	29	Swansea	1	20	Evicted
Adaeze "Daze" Aghaji	24	London	1	13	Evicted
Ryan Bradshaw	28	Blackpool	1	6	Evicted

Weekly summary

The main events in the Big Brother 21 house are summarised in the table below.

Week 1	Entrances	On Day 1, Rosie, Emma, Segun, Nathan, Daze, Khaled, Martha, Lily, Ali, Thomas, Ryan, Hanah, Izaaz, Sarah, Marcello and Dean entered the house.
	Nominations	After failing to gain housemate status, Baked Potato, Dean, Nathan and Ryan faced the first public vote.
	Twists	On Day 1, housemates were instructed to choose either the Blue or Red side of the house. Unbeknownst to them, one side would become housemates, winning safety from eviction, whilst the other side would become non-housemates where they would all face eviction. The Blue Side (Ali, Izaaz, Khaled, Ryan and Segun) became housemates, whereas the Red Side (Daze, Dean, Emma, Hanah, Lily, Marcello, Martha, Nathan, Rosie, Sarah and Thomas) were non-housemates and at risk of facing eviction. They were also informed that a series of challenges would take place against housemates and non-housemates, giving non-housemates the chance to earn housemate status and safety from eviction. On Day 2, Martha beat Ryan in the first challenge by convincing Ali that their opponent blew up the cake, making Ryan a non-housemate. Martha was able to choose two non-housemates to become housemates; she chose Hanah and Rosie. On Day 3, Thomas beat Rosie in the second challenge after Rosie failed to complete her dares, which included Thomas shaving an eyebrow, wearing a bucket on his head and a smelly scarf, and becoming topless, whereas Rosie had to change her name to Baked Potato by deed poll, have her meals liquidised, put chewing gum in her hair but refused to accept the dare to have her nominations revealed to the rest of the House for the remainder of the series. This resulted in Rosie being a non-housemate, and Thomas receiving housemate status and chose Marcello and Sarah to join him. On Day 4, Segun beat Daze in the third challenge by calling over a dog to him first, making their statuses the same. All remaining non-housemates had the opportunity to win safety in the final challenge by raising their hand the longest. Daze won, who then chose Emma and Lily to become housemates.
	Tasks	On Day 5, the housemates took part in their first shopping task "Coconut Eye Land Resort", in which the housemates were split into staff and guests. Dean served as the resort manager alongside Hanah, Khaled, Lily, Marcello and Sarah as staff, followed by Ali, Baked Potato, Martha, Segun and Thomas as all-inclusive guests, ultimately leaving Daze, Emma, Izaaz, Nathan and Ryan as half-board guests. To pass the shopping task, staff were tasked with remaining polite at all times and no guests could eat food that was made for different ranks, and incurring no more than 5 fails. After receiving a total of 51 fails, housemates failed the shopping task and received an economy shopping budget.
	Exits	On Day 6, Ryan became the first housemate to be evicted.
Week 2	Nominations	On Day 8, housemates nominated for the first time. Ali, Daze and Lily all received the most nominations and therefore faced eviction alongside Martha who was killer nominated by Khaled.
	Twists	On Day 7, Big Brother introduced the Head of House competition where housemates would compete for luxuries, power and immunity from eviction. On Day 8, Khaled had the power to save one of the nominees and replace with the housemate of his choice, or leave nominations the same and give a housemate a killer nomination. He chose to nominate Martha.
	Punishments	On Day 6, as punishment for discussing nominations, Daze and Lily were chained on the stair railings until further notice. On Day 7, as punishment for Ali, Baked Potato, Emma and Nathan discussing and speculating nominations, the hot water and appliances were switched off for the whole House. On Day 9, as punishment for discussing and speculating nominations, Lily and Martha were sent to jail in the garden and lost access to the hot water and appliances again. On Day 12, as punishment for writing messages, half the luxury shopping was confiscated.
	Tasks	On Day 7, Khaled won the first Head of House and won immunity from eviction this week. On Day 9, housemates took part in deciding which character statements relates to which housemate the most out of two options. Khaled and Segun had to correctly predict which housemate the majority picked and with 4 out of 7 correct guesses, the hot water and appliances were turned back on. On Day 10, housemates competed in their second shopping task. The house was transformed into Downing Street where housemates were separated into "government" and "citizens" and would have to compete in a series of tasks in order to pass. The government consisted of Khaled as Prime Minister, and Daze, Emma, Nathan served as cabinet. In addition, the government were given a budget to maintain and was able to decide whether or not to spend this to help housemates in the tasks. The first task had construction workers Ali, Baked Potato, Dean, Lily and Marcello and were required to fill potholes and repaint road markings, with no budget being spent for better tools. The second task had Martha blowing on mini wind turbines and had to create 20 minutes of energy in 30 minutes, with budget being allocated giving Martha an extra 10 minutes to complete the task in 40 minutes. The government also had the option to spend budget to turn the hot water and appliances back on, which they refused. Izaaz and Thomas were tasked to guard the government’s front door without falling asleep, with the budget not being spent on an extra guard to give them the opportunity to rest between shifts. The fourth task had the government answering a series of complaints from the citizens and had to respond without dodging any questions to pass. Finally, the final part of the shopping task saw Hanah, Izaaz Sarah, Segun, Thomas as farm workers and were required to make 8 blocks of butter in 30 minutes with budget spent for extra workers. The housemates passed all tasks and won a luxury shopping budget.
	Exits	On Day 13, Daze became the second housemate to be evicted.
Week 3	Nominations	On Day 15, housemates nominated for the second time. Instead of voting for two housemates, each pair was only allowed to nominate another pair for eviction. Hanah & Lily and Izaaz & Nathan received the most nominations, but Hanah & Lily were saved from eviction and were replaced by Khaled & Marcello.
	Twists	On Day 14, Heads of House Ali and Dean were informed by Big Brother that housemates would be nominating in pairs and were instructed to choose the pairings: they picked Hanah & Lily; Marcello & Khaled; Izaaz & Nathan; Martha & Segun; Sarah & Baked Potato and Emma & Thomas. On Day 15, Ali and Dean had the power to save one of the nominees and replace with the pair of their choice, or leave nominations the same and give a pair a killer nomination. They chose to save Hanah & Lily and named Khaled & Marcello as the replacement nominees.
	Tasks	On Day 14, Ali and Dean won the second Head of House and won immunity from eviction this week.
	Exits	On Day 20, Izaaz became the third housemate to be evicted.
Week 4	Nominations	On Day 24, Emma gave killer nominations to Ali, Khaled, Martha and Thomas, who therefore faced a flash public vote. On Day 26, housemates nominated for the third time. Only the winning group from the shopping task were eligible to nominate but could nominate anyone, excluding Emma who won immunity from winning Head of House, and housemates had to nominate face-to-face.
	Twists
	Tasks	On Day 24, Emma won the third Head of House and won immunity from eviction this week.
	Exits	On Day 24, Martha became the fourth housemate to be evicted, via the back door. On Day 27, Dean became the fifth housemate to be evicted.

Nominations table

	Week 1	Week 2	Week 3	Week 4		Week 5	Week 6 Final	Nominations received
				Day 23	Day 26
Head(s) of House[3]	none	Khaled	Ali, Dean	Emma		Marcello	none
Ali	Housemate	Sarah, Segun	Khaled & Marcello[2]	Not eligible	Marcello, Hanah	Sarah, Emma		10
Emma	Housemate	Izaaz, Lily	Hanah & Lily	Martha, Thomas, Khaled, Ali[2]	Dean, Hanah[2]	Lily, Ali		4
Hanah	Housemate	Ali, Lily	Izaaz & Nathan	Not eligible	Not eligible	Emma, Ali		5
Marcello	Housemate	Ali, Daze	Izaaz & Nathan	Not eligible	Not eligible	Ali, Lily[2]		3
Nathan	Non- Housemate	Sarah, Izaaz	Hanah & Lily	Not eligible	Not eligible	Banned		8
Rosie Baked Potato	Non- Housemate	Thomas, Ali	Hanah & Lily	Not eligible	Not eligible	Khaled, Thomas		1
Sarah	Housemate	Ali, Nathan	Hanah & Lily	Not eligible	Not eligible	Lily, Khaled		5
Segun	Housemate	Daze, Lily	Izaaz & Nathan	Not eligible	Nathan, Lily	Lily, Ali		3
Thomas	Housemate	Daze, Lily	Hanah & Lily	Not eligible	Lily, Baked Potato	Emma, Lily		4
Khaled	Housemate	Lily, Ali, Martha[2]	Izaaz & Nathan	Not eligible	Lily, Nathan	Lily, Nathan	Evicted (Day 34)	5
Lily	Housemate	Emma, Segun	Izaaz & Nathan	Not eligible	Not eligible	Thomas, Khaled	Evicted (Day 34)	18
Dean	Non- Housemate	Sarah, Daze	Khaled & Marcello[2]	Not eligible	Marcello, Sarah	Evicted (Day 27)		2
Martha	Housemate	Segun, Nathan	Izaaz & Nathan	Not eligible	Evicted (Day 24)			2
Izaaz	Housemate	Lily, Daze	Hanah & Lily	Evicted (Day 20)				6
Daze	Housemate	Izaaz, Dean	Evicted (Day 13)					5
Ryan	Non- Housemate	Evicted (Day 6)						N/A
Notes	1	4	5, 6	7	8, 9	10, 11	12
Against public vote	Baked Potato, Dean, Nathan, Ryan	Ali, Daze, Lily, Martha	Izaaz, Khaled, Marcello, Nathan	Ali, Khaled, Martha, Thomas	Dean, Hanah, Lily, Marcello	Ali, Baked Potato, Emma, Khaled, Lily	Ali, Baked Potato, Emma, Hanah, Marcello, Nathan, Sarah, Segun, Thomas
Evicted	Ryan Most votes to evict	Daze Most votes to evict	Izaaz Most votes to evict	Martha Most votes to evict	Dean Most votes to evict	Lily Most votes to evict
						Khaled Second most votes to evict

Notes

• ^Note 1 :   On Day 1, housemates were instructed to choose either the Blue or Red side of the house. Unbeknownst to them, one side would become housemates, winning safety from eviction, whilst the other side would become non-housemates where they would all face eviction. The Blue Side (Ali, Izaaz, Khaled, Ryan and Segun) became housemates, whereas the Red Side (Daze, Dean, Emma, Hanah, Lily, Marcello, Martha, Nathan, Rosie, Sarah and Thomas) were non-housemates and at risk of facing eviction. They were also informed that a series of challenges would take place against housemates and non-housemates, giving non-housemates the chance to earn housemate status and safety from eviction. On Day 2, Martha beat Ryan in the first challenge, making Ryan a non-housemate. Martha was able to choose two non-housemates to become housemates; she chose Hanah and Rosie. On Day 3, Thomas beat Rosie in the second challenge, resulting in her becoming a non-housemate, and Thomas receiving housemate status. He chose Marcello and Sarah to join him. On Day 4, Segun beat Daze in the third challenge. All remaining non-housemates had the opportunity to win safety in the final challenge. Daze won, who then chose Emma and Lily to become housemates, leaving Rosie, now called Baked Potato, Dean, Nathan and Ryan to face the first public vote.
• ^Note 2 :   This housemate was Head of House and received immunity from eviction for the week.
• ^Note 3 : Week 2 introduced the Head of House. Each week, Housemates participated in a competition where the winner would receive immunity from eviction, alongside other luxuries.
• ^Note 4 :   On Day 8, Khaled had the power to either save and replace one of the current nominees, or place a killer nomination on someone. He chose to nominate Martha.
• ^Note 5 : In Week 3, in addition to there being two Heads of House, housemates would be nominating in pairs: these pairs were Ali & Dean; Hanah & Lily; Marcello & Khaled; Izaaz & Nathan; Martha & Segun; Sarah & Baked Potato and Emma & Thomas. Each pair nominated one pair.
• ^Note 6 :   Ali and Dean had the power to either save and replace one of the current nominees, or place a killer nomination on someone. They chose to save Hanah & Lily, and replace with Khaled & Marcello.
• ^Note 7 : As part of Halloween week, Emma became the Evil Head of House and would solely decide who would face eviction. A flash vote was held on Day 24 during Big Brother: Late & Live, and the evicted housemate left through the back door.
• ^Note 8 : For this week's shopping task, housemates were divided into two groups: Vampires and Villagers. The winning group would win a luxury shopping budget and the right to nominate, whereas the losing group would be on basic rations and unable to nominate.
• ^Note 9 :   On Day 26, Emma had the power to either save and replace one of the current nominees, or place a killer nomination on someone. She chose to save Nathan and replace with Dean.
• ^Note 10 : On Day 28, as a punishment for discussing nominations, Nathan was banned from nominating.
• ^Note 11 :   On Day 31, Marcello had the power to either save and replace one of the current nominees, or place a killer nomination on someone. He chose to save Thomas and replace with Baked Potato.
• ^Note 12 : The public were voting for the housemate they wanted to win rather than to evict. The vote was frozen on Day 36 and the housemate(s) with the fewest votes were evicted.

Ratings and reception

Television ratings

Official 7-day consolidated ratings in the table below are taken from Thinkbox and include +1, but exclude viewership on devices.

	Viewers (millions)
	Week 1	Week 2	Week 3	Week 4	Week 5	Week 6
Sunday	1.31	1.12	0.99	1.07
Monday	1.22	1.05	1.05
Tuesday	1.07	1.01	0.99
Wednesday	1.15	1.00	1.05
Thursday	1.02	0.97	1.11
Friday	1.07	1.03	1.17
Weekly average	1.14	1.03	1.06
Running average	1.14	1.09	1.08
Series average
blue-coloured boxes denote live shows.

Late & Live

	Viewers (millions)
	Week 1	Week 2	Week 3	Week 4	Week 5	Week 6
Sunday	0.50	0.30	0.34	0.29
Monday	0.36	0.33	0.46
Tuesday	0.32	0.30	0.34
Wednesday	0.28	0.31	0.32
Thursday	0.23	0.30	0.34
Friday	0.35	0.51	0.58

Controversy and criticism

On Day 17, housemate Ali Bromley was shown to be wearing a black t-shirt with a watermelon in the shape of Israel, with the fruit being used a symbol of solidarity with the State of Palestine in the wake of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict.

Following the airing of that night's highlight programme, both it and the accompanying Late & Live episode were taken down from ITVX following a complaint to the regulator Ofcom by Campaign Against Antisemitism. Following the re-upload of both programmes, Bromley's t-shirt was censored, with the watermelon removed.

A spokesperson for Big Brother published a statement following the episode being reinstated.

"Big Brother does not allow any personal items into the House that could be deemed harmful. "

"We regret that the implications of this particular item of clothing were not fully understood in our bag checks or prior to broadcast of last night’s show. We apologise to any viewers who have been offended by the broadcast and assure viewers that Big Brother was unaware of the implications of this image."

"The item of clothing has been removed from the House. The Housemate has been spoken to and they have expressed that they are unaware of the implications and did not wish to cause any harm or offence."

"Any offensive messaging associated with the image does not reflect the values or beliefs of Big Brother."

ITV

Writing for The Intercept, Nikita Mazurov compared the action to George Orwell's dystopian science-fiction novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, from which the series takes its name, arguing that the editing of the episode represented a "key tenant of the novel: old media being edited and original versions destroyed, leaving no trace of any modification having taken place."

External links

• Big Brother at IMDb