Weekend Media Blast: Why Trash TV Refuses to Die

Research evidence excerpt

Weekend Media Blast: Why Trash TV Refuses to Die

Annick Maas +44 20 7676 6683 annick.maas@bernsteinsg.com 24 July 2026

refusing to leave the villa, Big Brother simply kept going. Since The quarter-final drew 18 million viewers, only 4 million more than

launching in 1999, the format has been exported to around 70 the largest reality TV audience of the previous year, highlighting the

countries and remains one of Banijay's most valuable assets enduring scale of mass-market reality programming (Exhibit 11).

(Exhibit 9). For example in 2025 the franchise represented 8.9%

of the Banijay Entertainment & Live's total revenues. The largest EXHIBIT 11: Best viewed shows of 2025 vs this year's football

local adaptation for Big Brother represented 1.9% of Banijay (in million)

Entertainment & Live’s revenue respectively in Financial Year 2025. 30

25 24EXHIBIT 8: Long standing reality TV shows in the Banijay

library 20 18

Title Year of origin 15 14

MasterChef 1990

Big Brother 1999 10 9

Survivor 2000 10 8

Deal or No Deal 2002

Temptation Island 2001 5

LEGO Masters 2017

Shaolin Heroes n/a 0

England vs England vs Norway, The Celebrity I'm a Celebrity …Get The Traitors, BBC Strictly Come

Argentina, BBC ITV Traitors, BBC Me out Here!, ITV Dancing, BBC

Source: company reports, Bernstein analysis

Source: thinkbox, trade press, Bernstein analysis

EXHIBIT 9: Some of Banijay's reality TV shows have been sold The second element is that producing reality TV shows is cheap (vs

in >80 countries scripted content shows)

Title Year of origin Exported countries (adapted in) According to C&I producing a reality TV show costs from $100,000

Deal or No Deal 2002 84

Big Brother 1999 70 to $500,000 per episode. Scripted TV is much more expensive,

MasterChef 1990 71