But such measures can’t insulate contestants from the online vitriol that is now part and parcel of the reality experience, something that wasn’t an issue back in 2000. The makers of the new Big Brother say they are taking their duty of care for evicted housemates seriously. Love Island was among the first shows of its kind to offer comprehensive aftercare to contestants, including social media training and counselling, though it wasn’t until after the suicides of contestants Sophie Gradon, Mike Thalassitis and presenter Caroline Flack that things changed. So have things got better? In some ways, yes.

Photograph: Jonathan Hordle/ITV/Rex/Shutterstock

It’s little wonder that, in 2020, the regulator Ofcom saw fit to issue new guidelines to protect the wellbeing of reality TV contestants.Ĭaroline Flack (front, centre) in Love Island: The Reunion, August 2018. The picture he painted of a genre that sucked people in, magnified their flaws, and then spat them out, was damning. The series covered the reality stars who have died by suicide – at Peretti’s count, there have been at least 40 – along with the behind-the-scenes manipulations, the trolling and the non-disclosure agreements foisted on contestants to stop them spilling the beans. Last year, the documentarian Jacques Peretti shone a light on the ugly side of reality TV in the podcast Edge of Reality.

The challenge for the series is not just whether it can recapture past glories – at its peak it was watched by 10 million – but whether it can conduct itself responsibly. On its cancellation in 2018, it was deemed tired and toxic, though, even then, little thought was given to the toll on those taking part. It’s a measure of the ever-shorter cycle of nostalgia that Big Brother was only gone for five years, yet it is often talked about as a televisual relic. Now, Big Brother has been rebooted and is back on ITV, with 2.5 million viewing the opening episode – almost twice the audience Love Island pulled in for the first episode of its latest outing in June.

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