Before Big Brother relaunched over the weekend, fans of the game-changing reality format were promised housemates from “all walks of life”, and it’s fair to say that producers delivered.
Viewers were quick to praise the show for including contestants who wouldn’t traditionally make the cut on the likes of Love Island, with housemates of different gender and sexual identities, economic backgrounds and ages on the show.
The ages of the 16 new housemates range from 18 to 50, with youth worker Hallie the youngest of the lot.
So far, Hallie has already proved to be one of the most popular contestants with fans (winning particular praise after opening up about her trans identity on her first full day in the house), but long-time fans of the reality TV format have been left feeling a bit old after some stark realisations about her age.
As fan page BBSpy wrote on Twitter (now known as X): “Just realised that Hallie was born in the year that Big Brother 6 (yes, SIX) aired and I don’t think I’ve ever felt older.”
Another Big Brother fan then took this one step further, pointing out that Hallie “would have been in the same year at school as Makosi and Anthony’s jacuzzi baby”.
Before entering the Big Brother house, Hallie revealed that, because of her young age, she “didn’t grow up watching” the reality show, but learned more about it through discovering old clips on YouTube.
“I feel like Big Brother is the biggest social experiment and I want to be a part of it,” she told ITV.
Big Brother continues on Tuesday night at 9pm on ITV2.