The only way to save Big Brother is focus on the cast – hosts, house and eye logo don’t matter, says our expert

BIG Brother is just days from welcoming a new hoard of housemates for a fresh series of the original reality show – but hardcore fans still grumble about everything from hosts AJ Odudu and Will Best to even the decor.

But TV expert Ed Gleave reckons the only thing that really matters is the cast and if can nail that, the show has a long life ahead of it.

Ed is a stalwart and was a regular on former spin-off Bit On The Side so joined our podcast sponsored by Sun Bingo.

Ed said: “To keep audiences hooked they need to be brave with the casting. People always talk about, ‘Oh, the house is this or the eye is this’.

“It’s the casting. It’s the housemates. That’s what matters. That’s what makes a series.

“You need to put people in who are going to offend and annoy and get people talking. And I think they ought to be putting in more older housemates with different viewpoints.

“People from all different worlds. I don’t want to see more than one influencer in there.

“I want to see people who have nothing in common and see if they gel.”

Ed has watched every single series of the show across , and ITV.

He went on: “The thing about is it really is still a psychological experiment. People think it’s about rows and sex. It’s not.

“It’s about watching someone who’s never had to worry about money talking to someone who goes to food banks and learning from each other.

“And it’s about people being tested continually in different ways and how they react. And you think, well, how would I react to that? Could I cope with that? Would I do this? Would I give that up to help someone else? Would I protect myself rather than the group?

“It’s so fascinating. And that’s what separates it from other shows.”

Superfans hark back to the days when and were hosts of the show.

ITV brought in – who hosted Bit On The Side in 2013 alongside – and for their reboot of the show in 2023.

But Ed doesn’t think the host even matters.

Continuing on Showbiz Fix: Uncut, he said: “I think AJ and Will are wonderful people, but to be honest, they’re now only on once a week and they’re effectively just doing links.”

Show host Felicity Cross probed: “A lot of the Big Brother fandom feel that the Davina days were wonderful and then was exceptional, but your argument is that it was the series that shone?”

Ed continued: “I think people have an affection for nostalgia because obviously Big Brother’s been part of all of our lives for so long. And so Davina will be remembered because she’s the one that you watched a lot of.

“But I think week to week they’re having minimal impact, really. They conduct the exit interviews, but they’re never long enough and they never really get under the skin properly.

“And I think in this day and age of , if you really want to know what someone thought, you’re going to watch a podcast three weeks later and get it then.

I don’t think in a six minute interview, you’re really going to get a particularly much out of anyone. So no, I don’t think the hosts really matter. Sorry, AJ. Sorry, Will.”

You can dive into Big Brother with Ed on this week’s Showbiz Fix: Uncut available on .