The Big Brother house might be closed for business, but the countdown is on for a grand reopening in 2026. Host Mel Tracina excitedly announced at the end of Monday night’s finale that the reality show would return for its seventeenth season next year on Channel 10.
While this year’s reboot was generally loved by audiences (especially in comparison to Channel 7’s version), it was by no means perfect. Fans praised the cast dynamic and brutal twists on social media but regularly complained about the livestream, season length and other subtle changes.
Before season 17 goes into production, PEDESTRIAN.TV spoke with a bunch of former Big Brother winners about what they think needs to change for the series to return to its former glory.
Channel 10, listen up.
1. Let us vote to evict
2007 winner Aleisha Cowcher told P.TV that while she enjoyed seeing the show return to its original format this year, she hopes season 17 has a different voting structure.
Early seasons allowed viewers to vote to evict a nominated housemate, whereas recent seasons required fans to vote for the contestant they wanted to save from eviction. Yes, it’s a much nicer format, but it doesn’t necessarily encourage viewers to cast a vote when they don’t want to save anyone who’s landed in the bottom three.
“I didn’t like the vote to save because I feel like what that did was allow people that, in my opinion, didn’t seem very entertaining to fly through to the end, when maybe they shouldn’t have because there wasn’t an opportunity to evict them,” Aleisha said.
“I feel like it was a missed opportunity with that.”
2. Make Big Brother mean again
Aleisha also said she preferred when Big Brother was “mean” to the housemates in earlier seasons and didn’t stand for any BS.
“He’s so friendly now,” she remarked. “When we nominated, we had to voice things that had actually occurred and he’d be like, ‘That’s not true,’ or he would know. And if we didn’t nominate well, we would get a nomination point.
“I quite liked that because it really put the pressure on. Everyone would sweat on a Monday and peel off and sit alone and really try and get that nomination clear, so he’d go ‘Accepted,’ because otherwise we’d get a point.”
Seeing as Bruce Dunne was allowed to nominate Coco Beeby in week one simply because he found her hot and didn’t want to be tempted in the house, she’s got a point.
“There’s no way the old Big Brother would’ve let that fly,” Aleisha added.
3. A Friday Night Games comeback
2008 winner Terri Munro told P.TV that she would love to see the return of Friday Night Games, a companion show hosted by Mike Goldman and former housemates Bree Amer and Ryan “Fitzy” Fitzgerald.
The spin-off saw contestants compete alongside Aussie celebs in a series of games and challenges and brought a greater sense of fun to the house — which Terri believes the reboot desperately needs.
“I’ve actually been looking back at my own season to see whether I was right or not — they don’t seem to be having a great deal of fun,” she said.
“It’s all been very emotionally draining, like what they did to Vinnie [Brigante] the other night and the way Conor [Maysey] is just a loose cannon and the way they tore into Holly [Young] all the time.
“I found it’s been a bit emotionally draining that they’re all so upset all the time, so I hope next year if it comes back again, they put the Friday Night Games in to make it a bit more fun.”
4. Longer seasons please!
Two-time winner Reggie Sorensen was a huge fan of this year’s reboot but told P.TV she was disappointed they only filmed for 30 days. This is a huge contrast to when housemates were locked in the Dreamworld compound for up to 100 days in the show’s heyday.
“It’s a shame that it’s not three months, but it is what it is. I hope next year they bring it back for three months,” she said.
Aleisha also pointed out that this year’s season may have aired too late in the year for the format to truly shine.
“It felt like it started strong and then it just scrambled like, ‘Quick, we’ve got to get seven people out in the last three days’,” she pointed out.
5. Fix whatever’s going on with the livestream
Reggie echoed the complaints of many viewers when she said the 24/7 livestream needs to be changed for Big Brother 2026. Rather than a constant feed of spicy convos in the house, fans tuning in were often shown the laundry or fishtank.
“Stop showing the washing machines and the fish all the time!” she remarked. “If you’re going to do a live feed, just keep it live. I think we saw too much of the washing machines.”
Reddit user Ty (u/TheGRVOfLightning), who helps moderate the official Big Brother subreddit r/BBAU, also told P.TV that his biggest complaint this season is that the livestream feeds “need to be more open”.
“We understand they have to be censored to a degree,” he said. “We don’t want something that puts the show into a legal crisis. All we want, in reality, is just more coverage of the actual conversations between housemates.
“We understand there’s going to be private details that they can’t share. We accept that. What we aren’t accepting is when they do a snap eviction, announce the countdown will go till 1am and then you have people watching the feed at 1am expecting an eviction to happen and they cut the feed off for two solid hours.”
Channel 10 has not yet announced when next year’s season of Big Brother will air on TV, but fingers crossed they take on some of this feedback.
After all, Big Brother is always watching.
The post Big Brother Winners Reveal 5 Things That Need To Change Next Season appeared first on PEDESTRIAN.TV .
