How many people watched the 2026 Big Brother Live Launch on ITV2 and ITVX?
Big Brother returned to ITV2 last night with around 600,000 viewers watching the 2026 launch, giving the reality show a slightly stronger opening than last year’s series.
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The new series began on Sunday, September 13, with AJ Odudu and Will Best welcoming 16 new Housemates into the Big Brother house for the latest civilian series.
The reported overnight audience of 600,000 represents a modest improvement on the 2025 launch, which attracted approximately 570,000 viewers on ITV2.
However, the latest figure remains well below the audience recorded when Big Brother returned for its second ITV2 civilian series in 2024.
How do the Big Brother 2026 ratings compare?
The reported overnight figures for the recent ITV2 launches are:
- 2024: 825,000
- 2025: 570,000
- 2026: 600,000
That means the 2026 launch attracted around 30,000 more overnight viewers than 2025, an increase of approximately 5.3%.
However, it was still around 225,000 viewers below the 2024 launch, representing a fall of roughly 27% compared with the audience two years ago.
The 2025 launch was described as a particularly soft opening, with Broadcast reporting that its 90-minute special attracted 570,000 viewers, compared with 825,000 for the October 2024 opener.
Is 600,000 the lowest Big Brother launch ever?
No.
The 2026 launch figure is higher than the 570,000 viewers recorded for the 2025 ITV2 launch, so it is not the lowest launch of the current ITV era.
The comparison also needs to take into account how audiences now watch television.
Big Brother is available on ITVX as well as ITV2, meaning the overnight ITV2 figure does not represent everyone who watched the launch.
That was particularly evident with the 2025 series. Its launch was subsequently reported to have reached 1.4 million viewers in seven-day catch-up viewing, demonstrating how much of the show’s audience watches beyond the initial television broadcast.
The 2024 launch also saw its audience rise substantially once catch-up and on-demand viewing were included, with reports putting its seven-day audience at around 1.4 million.
Big Brother returns with its longest ITV series yet
The 2026 series is being billed as the biggest and longest Big Brother series since ITV revived the format.
The series launched on Sunday, September 13 at 9pm on ITV2 and ITVX, with new episodes airing throughout the week.
This year’s series has also been extended to eight weeks, making it longer than the previous ITV civilian series.
The new run features 16 Housemates competing for the prize, with AJ Odudu and Will Best returning to host.
The first episode also marked the beginning of a new era for the show’s companion programming, with Big Brother: The Group Chat replacing Late & Live.
Hosted by former winner Kate Lawler and GK Barry, The Group Chat begins tonight, Monday, September 14, following the main Big Brother episode.
What do the Big Brother ratings mean?
While 600,000 viewers may initially look like a disappointing figure for such a high-profile reality show, the overnight ITV2 number needs to be treated with caution.
The show’s audience is increasingly spread between traditional television and ITVX, and previous launches have added hundreds of thousands of viewers through catch-up and on-demand viewing.
The more significant figure will therefore be the consolidated seven-day audience once ITV’s full viewing data becomes available.
For now, though, the early verdict is relatively positive: Big Brother 2026 has opened with a slightly bigger overnight audience than 2025, although it remains considerably below the 2024 ITV2 launch.
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