Ultimate Big Brother

Ultimate Big Brother is the upcoming and final series of the UK reality television series Big Brother to air on Channel 4. It was announced on 26 August 2009 that Channel 4 would not be renewing their contract with Endemol following the eleventh series and so would not screen Big Brother in 2011. The series will broadcast on Channel 4 for 18 days, from 24 August 2010 to 10 September 2010. It will be produced by Remarkable Pictures, a division of Endemol. The series will feature housemates from every series of Big Brother and a smaller section of housemates from Celebrity Big Brother, as well as the winner of Big Brother 2010. The series is sponsored by skincare brand Freederm. As with the eleventh series of Big Brother, the 24 hour live streaming is available via the Big Brother website as a fee-based service.

Production

The series was first announced during the launch night of the eleventh series of Big Brother. The first trailer for Ultimate Big Brother was shown on 13 August 2010 during a live eviction episode of Big Brother. On the same day, Channel 4 released a promo image for the series on the Big Brother website. The promo featured 15 of the previous 186 Big Brother housemates and 68 Celebrity Big Brother housemates, along with the tag line "Who goes in? We decide".

Broadcasts

The Launch Night and first broadcast of Ultimate Big Brother was on Tuesday 24 August 2010 as part of the Big Brother 2010 final night show, presented by Davina McCall.

The main television coverage of Ultimate Big Brother was screened on Channel 4 using daily highlights programmes, narrated by Marcus Bentley. These episodes summarised the events of the previous day in the House. Although the schedule was eratic, in general the Monday to Thursday highlights episodes were shown at 10pm and aired for 70 minutes, whilst the weekend shows aired for 60 minutes at 9pm. The two-part, live eviction shows, hosted by Davina McCall, feature a highlights episode 9pm and a second show at 10.35pm in which the evicted housemate (or housemates) were interviewed. Eviction shows and highlights episodes were given a censored repeat the following morning on both Channel 4 and E4.

Alongside these highlights shows were spin-off programmes, Big Brother's Big Mouth and Big Brother's Little Brother, that commented on fandom, cultural reaction to the events within the House and included interviews with celebrities, former housemates and family and friends of housemates. Emma Willis and George Lamb presented Big Brother's Little Brother live on E4 at 6pm for 30 minutes Monday to Friday and on Channel 4 for an hour Sunday lunch time. Big Brother's Big Mouth was fronted by McCall and aired on E4 for an hour after the main eviction programme.

Logo

The eye used for this series is the same used for Big Brother 2010.

House

Since the third series in 2002, the programme has been filmed at Elstree Studios in Borehamwood, Hertfordshire. The House for Ultimate Big Brother is the same House used for the eleventh series and is mainly glass walled with floral designs. The entrance has a heaven theme with a single staircase and the Diary Room underneath, to the right hand side. The Diary Room reflected this heaven theme with wings on the chair and a sky scene as the backdrop. A small task room is located off of the Diary Room. Upon entering the living room, there is one large red sofa. In contrast to the kitchen and bathroom's modern effect, the bedroom consisted of Salvador Dali designs on the beds. As revealed in Big Brother 2010, the beds can be raised in order to wake the housemates. The bedroom also contains a walk-in wardrobe. The store room for the house is located off of the kitchen. The garden has a carnival theme and includes a carousel (for the smoking area) and a snug (called the nest). The garden also contains a mini pool/tub and outdoor showers. A large task room is located off of the garden and the garden toilet can be used to access a smaller task room. On the penultimate day of Big Brother 2010 it was revealed that a few changes had been made to the house prior to Ultimate Big Brother beginning. The glass walls of the shower have been made frosted and the cameras have been removed from the toilets, in order to respect the privacy of the celebrity housemates.

The house also includes several features present from Big Brother 2010:

• Bob Righter - a fortune teller machine used to predict the future,
• Davina McCaw - a mechanical parrot in the living room used to recall previous conversations made by the housemates,
• Tree of Temptation - a chest of drawers in the bathroom made from the Tree of Temptation present in 2010's celebrity series.

Housemates

It has not been officially confirmed which former celebrity and non-celebrity Big Brother contestants will be joining the Big Brother 2010 winner.