'Big Brother' Accused Of Copying 'Love Island' With New Dating Twist, Amid Ratings Struggle

'BB' has fallen way behind its rival in the ratings battle of the reality shows.

’Big Brother’ bosses have been accused of copying ‘Love Island’ with the latest twist they have planned for the housemates.

On Monday’s (19 June) edition of ‘This Morning’, ‘Bit On The Side’ presenter Rylan Clark-Neal announced that three female guests would be entering the house as part of a dating task, with the housemates then selecting two of them to become permanent residents.

“Make of it what you will. Connect the dots - it’s Channel 5,” Rylan said, hinting perhaps it could like to the network’s recent reboot of ‘Blind Date’.

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'Love Island' and 'Big Brother' have been going head-to-head in the ratings
ITV/Channel 5

However, some fans noted how similar it sounded to the premise of ‘Love Island’, which is entirely based around dating and new arrivals being dropped in the villa to entice existing residents.

Many shared their theories on Twitter:  

‘Big Brother’ producers have been forced to draft in new housemates after Kayleigh Morris was removed from the house over the weekend, and Arthur Fulford and Sukhvinder Javeed both walked last week. 

Their latest twist comes as the latest episode of ‘Love Island’ scored almost double the amount of viewers as the shows went head to head on Sunday night.

‘Big Brother’ drew just 0.89 million viewers at 9pm on Channel 5, in comparison to Love Island’s 1.51 million, when it aired at the same time on ITV2. 

It was the sixth consecutive day in a row that figures for ‘BB’ have fallen below a million, while ‘Love Island’ continues to hit ratings highs for its third series.

‘Big Brother’ continues tonight at 10pm on Channel 5, with ‘Love Island’ airing an hour earlier on ITV2.