There’s something to be said for launching a show at a theme park.
It’s so backlot LA. In this case, of course, it’s the birthplace of Big Brother, and Mediaweek joined the pilgrimage to Dreamworld on the Gold Coast, where Paramount and Network Ten are determined to prove that everything old can, indeed, be new again.
The theatrics were pitched to memory lane: fire twirlers, parasol faeries on stilts, and other sparkly types. So many show-biz smiles and white teeth, you didn’t know where to look.
Fire and stilts on display at the Big Brother 2025 Dreamworld launch
Under a Gold-Coast full moon (naturally), the assembled buyers, journos, talent and producers gathered around the elimination stage for what was ostensibly a set visit but felt like a revival meeting. The Paramount/Network Ten leadership team wanted us to believe, and they weren’t taking any chances.
Can we get a Hallelujah?
Back to Big Brother. The original format elements will return, with the cameras rolling 24/7. With live streaming, live nominations and live evictions, across all Network 10 platforms.
Season 16 is embracing everything that made the early noughties version a breakaway hit, but now, the house is positioned right in the middle of the theme park, so the housemates will compete within earshot of actual rollercoaster screams. How fitting.
Oh yeah, and it’s 25 years later.
The stars came out to celebrate.
On stage, new host Mel Tracina worked the crowd with genuine enthusiasm, before Network boss Beverley McGarvey used her Madonna mic to assure everyone that Network Ten is settled, making gains, and in it for the long haul.
She introduced her boss, Kevin MacLellan, President of Global Content Distribution and International Media at Paramount, who delivered a top-down corporate pep talk.
He announced that the time had come for the Australian Paramount team to emerge from the last few unnerving years, into the future and to “pull back their shoulders and push out their chests.”
New Big Brother host, Mel Tracina fronts the media wall as NCIS superstars Michael Weatherly and Cote de Pablo strike a pose
The message was clear.
His boss David Ellison, chairman and chief executive officer of Paramount-Skydance, has big plans for leveraging the company’s expanded global reach. The combined power of CBS, Network Ten and the UK’s Channel 5 are poised to deliver.
NCIS stars Michael Weatherly and Cote de Pablo talk it up with Angela Bishop
The talent parade that followed was entertaining and confident: Survivor‘s David Genat, 10 News Plus duo Denham Hitchcock and Amelia Bracz, I’m A Celebrity‘s Julia Morris, comedy veterans Ed Kavalee and Tom Gleisner, with Sam Pang heckling from the audience, Rod Prosser delivered an advertiser closer with the demeanour of both salesman and showman.
Then NCIS legends Michael Weatherly and Cote de Pablo added the necessary imported Hollywood glamour, and Angela Bishop tied the whole package together with her trademark Q&A efficiency.
But the nostalgic climax? Gretel Killeen stepping on stage to spruik her new series, The Traitors. Twenty-five years after hosting the very first season of Big Brother, her presence was a calculated dose of circularity. Nothing says “we’re serious about this” quite like bringing back the original host to bless the reboot.
By the time OG narrator Mike Goldman‘s voice boomed at the end of the sizzle reel, instructing us housemates to leave the premises, the message had landed. Paramount 2026 is all about believing in the future. A future that can somehow leverage the biggest successes of the part.
Can Big Brother be the catalyst that brings back the good old days? Only time will tell.