PODCAST | Sarah Thornton and Amelia Fisk on building Big Brother Australia 2026 – Big Brother may be the all-seeing authority inside the house, but a vast team must make the live television experiment work beyond its walls.
This Sarah Thornton and Amelia Fisk Big Brother podcast is a TV Central exclusive. Aaron Ryan goes behind the scenes with Thornton, Head of Unscripted at Paramount Australia, and Fisk, Director of Content at Endemol Shine Australia. They explain who controls the format, what the production learned from 2025 and why the production is keeping this year’s housemates secret until viewers meet them on screen.
The conversation also explores audience power from night one, the balance between planned tasks and spontaneous human drama, the demands of a 24-hour live stream, duty of care and the move to Screen Queensland Studios in Hemmant.
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What Sarah Thornton And Amelia Fisk Reveal In The Podcast
- How Paramount Australia and Endemol Shine Australia divide responsibility for one of television’s most unpredictable formats
- What the production learned from the weather, rough edges and around-the-clock live stream in 2025
- Why the production is keeping the 2026 housemates secret and letting them enter without pre-packaged public labels
- How Sunday evictions, Monday nominations and audience voting shape the new season
- Why carefully planned tasks can be abandoned when the real story inside the house is stronger
- How television, 24-hour streaming and social media serve different parts of the same Big Brother experience
- The moderation, legal, compliance and duty-of-care systems behind an “unfiltered” format
- How the move to Brisbane is creating 92 local opportunities and practical training pathways
- The one thing the executives will be watching most closely on premiere night
Episode Chapters
- 00:00 – Introduction: Big Brother returns for 2026
- 02:03 – Who controls Big Brother?
- 04:52 – Lessons from the 2025 season
- 08:07 – Why the housemates are being kept secret
- 11:24 – The 2026 format, weekly structure and audience power
- 13:24 – Planning for an unpredictable social experiment
- 15:20 – Television, the live stream and social media
- 18:50 – Moderation, safety and duty of care
- 21:24 – The Brisbane production and Queensland jobs
- 23:35 – What the producers will watch on premiere night
Who Really Controls Big Brother?
Thornton oversees Paramount Australia’s unscripted slate, while Fisk leads the production team at Endemol Shine Australia. That creates a network-and-producer partnership rather than a simple handover from one side to the other.
They describe a highly collaborative relationship in which both sides make creative, production and network decisions together. The format may have a large rule book, but a live social experiment can demand quick calls late at night when human behaviour, weather or an unexpected event changes the plan.
“We are all slaves to Big Brother. Not just the housemates.”
Sarah Thornton
It is a funny line, but it captures the production reality. Once the house is occupied and the live stream is running, the story does not stop at the end of a conventional filming day.
What The Team Learned From 2025
The 2025 revival proved that a younger audience still wanted Big Brother, provided it could be consumed in more than one way. Some viewers followed the nightly television episodes. Others watched the live stream, found moments through TikTok or moved between all three.
The team also learned not to be frightened of rough edges. Weather disrupted live shows and the house did not always behave like a perfectly controlled studio, yet that unpredictability strengthened the feeling that viewers were watching something real.
Thornton says a show does not need to be completely slick to be compelling. Fisk agrees that the production must be ready to adapt when reality delivers a better story than the one on the schedule.
Why The 2026 Housemates Are Being Kept Secret
Unlike many reality launches, this season arrives without a public media kit labelling every housemate by job, hometown, relationship status or ready-made character type.
Fisk explains that the decision allows viewers to discover the cast at the same time as the people inside the house. It also gives personalities room to evolve without an external description becoming the lens through which every action is judged.
“We don’t want you, the viewers, to come in with a biased opinion.”
Amelia Fisk
Thornton calls that approach “the purity of the social experiment”: people entering as individuals rather than as pre-sold archetypes, with the audience free to change its mind as relationships, conflicts and alliances develop.
A Longer And More Interactive Big Brother
Big Brother Australia returns for a longer run across six nights a week. After the opening week, Sunday becomes eviction night and Monday becomes nomination night, giving the season a recognisable weekly rhythm while still leaving room for surprises.
Audience participation begins from night one, although that does not mean an immediate eviction. Thornton and Fisk tease a fast-moving first week, twists around nominations and evictions, and a season designed to put viewers in the driving seat.
Meanwhile, the television episodes remain the polished narrative of each day, but they sit alongside the 24-hour stream. That means fans can watch a moment unfold live and then return to the broadcast to see the context, consequences and production’s fuller version of the story.
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Planning For The Unexpected
Shopping tasks, live shows and major format beats require substantial preparation. Behind the scenes, the team works from what Thornton describes as a very large Big Brother bible.
Yet the house cannot be treated like a scripted drama. If a planned task would interrupt a more revealing conversation or an organic conflict, the production may change direction. Fisk says that capacity to follow the people rather than force the timetable is central to the format.
“You have to lean into unpredictability because that’s the secret sauce of any great content.”
Amelia Fisk
At the same time, the fixed points keep the season coherent. The flexibility between them allows the housemates to create the story.
Television, 24-Hour Streaming And TikTok
Big Brother is now designed as one experience across three distinct viewing habits. The television episodes offer structure and storytelling. The live stream delivers immediacy. Social platforms provide discovery, commentary and short moments that can pull viewers towards the other two.
Rather than cannibalising the nightly show, the 2025 live stream frequently created curiosity. Viewers might know that something happened, but still wanted to watch the episode to understand how the production framed it and what happened next.
That multi-platform appetite helped 10 record strong streaming results and informed the expanded approach for 2026.
How An “Unfiltered” Experiment Is Kept Safe
A 24-hour stream creates a very different responsibility from a pre-recorded reality series. Therefore, Thornton and Fisk detail the legal, compliance and moderation teams that monitor what leaves the house and reaches the public.
The production aims to preserve the spontaneity fans expect while maintaining a family-friendly lens and protecting the people taking part. Fisk says the live stream became one of the largest planning demands because it touches almost every part of production.
“Duty of care is number one.”
Amelia Fisk
Moreover, that responsibility continues beyond what viewers see. It affects casting, production decisions, welfare support and the way sensitive moments are handled in real time.
Big Brother’s Move To Brisbane
The production has built the new house at Screen Queensland Studios in Hemmant, taking the series from the Gold Coast to Brisbane. It is the first unscripted production to use the world-class facility.
The move is also an industry story. Fisk says the season is creating 92 local employment opportunities, supported by Screen Queensland pathways and practical experience for students and young people.
The production has worked with local schools, opened parts of the process to tours and created hands-on opportunities that can lead to employment. Thornton sees live television as particularly valuable training ahead of Brisbane 2032 because it develops crews able to respond calmly when plans change in real time.
What The Producers Will Watch On Premiere Night
With a new house, live television and audience participation all converging, Aaron asks what the two executives will be watching most closely when the season begins.
The answer is immediate: the weather. Lightning within 15 kilometres can disrupt the live production, a lesson the team knows well from the previous season. It is the perfect Big Brother concern—highly technical, completely beyond anyone’s control and capable of changing the night in seconds.
Meet Sarah Thornton And Amelia Fisk
Sarah Thornton
Sarah Thornton is Head of Unscripted for Paramount Australia and New Zealand. Her slate includes Big Brother, MasterChef Australia, Taskmaster Australia, The Dog House Australia, Dogs Behaving (Very) Badly and Aussie Shore.
She joined Network 10 in 2018 as executive producer of The Project, Ambulance Australia and The Secret Life of 4 Year Olds. Her career also includes more than 15 years in the United Kingdom developing formats such as First Dates, Don’t Tell the Bride, Bake Off and Kitchen Nightmares.
Amelia Fisk
Amelia Fisk is Director of Content at Endemol Shine Australia. Since joining the company in 2012, she has led teams across some of the country’s largest reality and competition formats.
Her credits include 12 series of Australian Survivor, the 2020 and 2025 relaunches of Big Brother, Australian Ninja Warrior, Tipping Point, SAS Australia and The Bridge. She also created The Summit, which expanded internationally and received an International Emmy Award nomination.
When Does Big Brother Australia 2026 Start?
Big Brother Australia premieres Monday, 26 October at 7.30pm on 10. The series airs six nights a week, with live nominations, live evictions and 24-hour streaming through 10.
TV Central will follow the season with conversations featuring narrator Mike Goldman, host Mel Tracina and the evicted housemates as the experiment unfolds.
For more Channel 10 news, head to TV Central. You can also explore the complete TV Central podcast archive.
TV Central: One on One Podcast
Season 2026, Episode 12
With thanks to Vanessa Menser for organising this podcast.