CELEBRITY Big Brother fans are up in arms after AJ Odudu and Will Best announced a massive format change.
The CBB hosts have revealed a shake up to the way fans will be voting when the new series kicks off in less than a week.
AJ and Will have told viewers they will now be voting to save contestants, rather than evict them.
This will happen for every single public vote throughout the series – and fans are furious.
It is feared the shake up will result in celebs with massive fan bases staying in the CBB house, irrespective of their likeability.
Lesser known contestants who end up being popular on screen could be evicted as a result.
Taking to social media, CBB fans have shared their fury.
One raged: “Nooooooooooooooooooooo the best part about big brother is voting to evict!!!! It’s going to be way to predictable if we’re voting to save!”
Another added: “Voting to save literally just means the most popular (famous) one will win…”
A third fumed: “Terrible idea, vote to evict is part of the fabric of Big Brother. It’s not Big Brother without it!! Who do you pay to come up with this nonsense??”
And someone else chimed in: “Sounds like ITV just want to do BB in the nicest way possible! Vote to save will possibly mean the most famous/followed will probably win.”
Other fans were also quick to point out that Channel 5 experimented ‘vote to save’ when Big Brother switched to the network from Channel 4 in 2011.
However, after just two series’ with C5, show bosses reverted back to ‘vote to evict’. This continued until the penultimate series when both both voting formats were used.
Big Brother was axed the following year in 2018 before finally returning to screens on ITV last year.
Sharing their thoughts, another viewer wrote on X: “S***e. Ruined the Channel 5 series with this and it’s happening again.”
Replying, someone else agreed: “Literally. They managed to capture some of the old-school show magic with the last one and I would hate for that to go the same way as Channel 5’s BB.”
AJ and Will announced the news in a video on social media on Tuesday.
In the clip, AJ said: “Celebrity Big Brother is just around the corner so we are coming at you with big news.”
Will continued: “Now you’ll remember, the last series of Big Brother you were voting to evict. This time, for Celeb BB, you’re voting for your favourite housemate.
“You’re always voting to save!”
AJ added: “I don’t know how it’s going to change the dynamics within the Big Brother house or how fans are going to rally behind their favourite celebrity. But I for one cannot wait to find out.”
The duo’s announcement came just hours after they had revealed there will also be TWO live evictions each week, rather than one.
Celebrity Big Brother kicks off on ITV on March 4 and some huge names are rumoured to be taking part.
Coronation Street‘s Colson Smith – aka Craig Tinker – is believed to have signed up, alongside former This Morning star Fern Britton.
The series will kick off with a movie-length runtime and X Factor legends Sharon Osbourne and Louis Walsh have apparently been lined up for it in a ‘massive coup’ for ITV.
