Year 23 in the Big Brother house and I’m still watching - Kevin Buckle

I stuck with it to the end but gave up on the celebrity version eventually when I started to fail to recognise the people involved mainly because their claim to fame was that they were reality stars from shows I didn’t watch.

When ITV announced they were going to bring back Big Brother I was more than a little worried that it would be a disaster but I have to say I am really enjoying the new series with a couple of caveats.

Whether on Channel 4 or later on Channel 5 it was clear the presenters were big fans of the show and none more so than Emma Willis who was brought in to replace Brian Dowling the winner of the second series for series fourteen.

This time however the presenters just come over as presenters and while doing a reasonable job there is no great affection shown for the show or its history.

Consequently I have watched very little of the after- show programmes mainly because I don’t know who virtually all the guests are who appear to be a mixture of reality stars and presenters of shows I have never seen.

The new show itself has not veered from the format that was so popular with tasks determining how much food the contestants have and weekly evictions gradually reducing the numbers until there is a winner.

One strange change though is that while there is no longer any charge for voting viewers can now vote up to five times. Unlike previous series I’ve seen little made of the number of votes cast so I’m not really sure what this attempt to boost the voting numbers is about.

I have to congratulate those who chose the contestants as they must have had to sort through thousands of wannabes but have managed to pick people who have interacted exactly as the show first intended.

Initially when I saw the contestants chosen I was more than a little concerned as there seemed to be an awful lot of box ticking going on but both inside and outside the house the inmates have been judged on how annoying or scheming or likeable they are rather than on their ethnicity, sexuality or disability.

One thing that I have found odd in every series, and believe me when there was a live feed I watched many conversations, is that there is little talk about

music and favourite bands and I’ve never understood why.

As if one reboot wasn’t enough the BBC have brought back Survivor which was another of the few reality shows I have ever watched and again it has been enjoyable with a good mix of contestants.

While I didn’t know the presenter Joel Dommett he makes a good fist of it.

The most recent new reality show I have watched is The Traitors and I ended up watching the American

and Australian shows too which while having the same format each managed to have a different vibe.

With season two due soon my reality show fix will continue for some time yet.