Kooky Celebrity Big Brother opener down one million viewers on last season
Monday’s Celebrity Big Brother 2014 launch saw the show's lowest viewer ratings in three seasons, with an average of 2.24 million viewers, during Channel 5’s live evening broadcast.
Gary Busey upon entering the house
The 9pm launch received fewer viewers than the previous two housemate-unveiling broadcasts, which were aired in January and last summer, taking 3.18 million and 2.66 million viewers respectively.
The figure was even usurped by BBC Two’s University Challenge which had 2.55 million viewers at 8pm. The two-hour show did however see an additional 125,000 viewers on the 5+1 channel.
This is despite Gary Busey providing a bewildering opening interview which ultimately saw him enter the house in confused fashion, causing Twitter users to question his health.
This year’s line-up includes boxer Audley Harrison, former boxing promoter Kellie Maloney, B*witched member Edele Lynch and Lauren Goodger from the Only way is Essex, among others.
Eight thousand viewers also stayed on the channel to watch the following talk show 'Big Brother’s Bit on the Side' with host Emma Willis, accompanied by singer Rylan Clark.
On Monday, Celebrity Big Brother’ was mentioned 26,000 times in Twitter conversations, ‘CBB’ received 18,404 and ‘Gary Busey’ took 7315, according to Topsy Analytics.
The show's high social network traffic even saw Paddy Power take a swing at boxer Audrey Harrison with an amusing tweet regarding his entrance into the house.
Audley Harrison is on Celebrity Big Brother. He does have experience doing nothing for large periods of time before losing, to be fair.
— Paddy Power (@paddypower) August 19, 2014
This comes after Viacom bought the British broadcaster for £450 million earlier this year.