Big Brother is hit by more than 1,600 Ofcom complaints in one week after a series of explosive rows

DAILYMAIL.COM • 5h ago

By BETHAN EDWARDS, SHOWBUSINESS REPORTER and LAURA FOX, ASSOCIATE SHOWBUSINESS EDITOR 09:32 08 Oct 2026, updated 09:50 08 Oct 2026

Big Brother has been hit by 1,654 Ofcom complaints in one week after a series of explosive rows in the ITV house.

The reality show returned to screens three weeks ago and has not failed to deliver drama and chaos with bosses having to step in multiple times.

Now Ofcom has confirmed that a total of 1,654 complaints were made from September 30 to October 5.

The highest number of complaints came relating to the episode on September 30, when a staggering 1,191 complaints were made related to the handling of incidents involving Johanne and Rochelle.

In the episode, Johanne was issued a formal warning from Big Brother after a heated exchange with Rochelle during a nominations task.

Producers deemed her ‘tone and body language as unacceptable’ and viewers expressed their frustrations when Rochelle did not receive a formal warning for her behaviour.

The episode on October 4, where Big Brother rolled back the tapes for the House of Revelations, received the second-highest number of complaints, with a total of 191, for alleged ‘bullying’ behaviour towards Twinks.

Ofcom also confirmed a total of 122 complaints were made following the episode on September 27, making a cumulative total of 634. A majority of these raised concerns about the alleged racism and bullying claims towards Rochelle by other housemates, including remarks by Johanne.

Following Johanne’s live eviction on Friday, a total of 97 complaints were made relating to the treatment of both her and Rochelle around the eviction, including the ‘alleged racism and bullying behaviour’.

October 5 also saw 53 complaints made to the broadcasting regulator with many fans slamming the behaviour towards newcomer Twinks.

The Daily Mail has contacted ITV representatives for comment.

Big Brother hasn’t been short of drama this year and Tuesday night saw the biggest row yet as Pauline had to be removed from the bedroom.

Tense scenes saw Pauline involved in a screaming match with housemate Rochelle, after leaving newcomer Catrin in tears with remarks about facing eviction.

Pauline is set to face eviction for the third time after she and Rob received the most votes during face-to-face nominations.

The former PI admitted she was struggling to come to terms with the news and declined to have a conversation with Catrin, who chose to nominate her.

Referencing her spat with Catrin, Pauline then said: ‘Is this place empty? Is it just us? What the f*** was that? Like don’t start on me, you literally just got here.’

She went on to fume: ‘I don’t even owe you a hello at this point. ‘Pauline, give me attention. It’s about me.’ It’s not about you, babe, you just got here. Like, you ain’t gonna get your moment girl.

‘Go look for it elsewhere, you ain’t gonna find it here. That was so ridiculous. Is it really that deep that you just came… tried to come for me? Like, you look stupid, seriously, like you were looking for a moment.’

Pauline was unaware that Catrin could hear her words while she was in the toilet, and the comments left her in floods of tears as she went into the bedroom.

Rochelle saw Catrin was upset and then confronted Pauline about her comments, saying ‘I hope you’re f*****g pleased with yourself.’

This then sparked a furious row between Rochelle and Pauline, who pointed her finger in her rival’s face.

Pauline was restrained by Harry as she screamed in Rochelle’s face during the clash, with the mother-of-three telling her to ‘pick on someone your own size’.

The pair were eventually separated as Pauline was called to speak to Big Brother in the Diary Room, and they said it wouldn’t be ‘appropriate’ for her to spend the night in the bedroom, and offered her the snug instead.

In a series that’s already seen more tension than the past three series combined, this was a row that divided viewers, with a mixed reaction over whether Rochelle should have got involved.

They wrote on X: ‘Pauline in the snug in the end was absolute cinema;’

‘Am I the only one who thinks Catrin crying in bed with Rochelle was pathetic. Pauline clearly didn’t want to speak to her regarding the nomination, she’s been in there two days, she knows what the public think. I believe it was intentional to get a reaction from Pauline;’

‘There was no reason whatsoever for Pauline to be so disrespectful to Catrin. Also stop b*****g behind her back!;’

‘Genuinely confused why everyone is blaming Catrin when Pauline was literally talking s**t about her basically right in front of her face and then got aggressive when she rightfully got very upset and had to be brought to the Diary Room cause she was crying so much?;’

‘Pauline is up because she is selfish and everyone’s fed up of it, end of! You didn’t see Rob blanking people and booting off about it, he tried to make a joke of being up, get her out;’

‘Rochelle has really changed my mind about her because of last night’s episode. Don’t get this wrong, they have pushed and pushed Pauline by nominating her every week. And Rochelle couldn’t wait to be the one to go in there, light the match and set the kindling on fire;’

‘Honestly… it’s Rochelle who should be getting dragged;’

‘I’ve never seen someone s**t stir the way Rochelle does in that house. It’s honestly an art form at this point;’

‘I think Rochelle is ridiculous with a lot of the things I’ve seen her do in the house all season. I couldn’t stand her at first, and she still gets on my nerves BUT… For one thing, she’s Philip’s ally and he’s my fave;’

‘For another thing, I’m beginning to like her more lately. Also, Rochelle doesn’t fall for these intimidation tactics which were done by Johanne and Pauline both. She stands her ground without trying to be physically intimidating except to protect herself.’

Pauline and Rob will face the public vote on Friday, and viewers will see the fallout of the row during Wednesday’s show.

It has also been revealed that the face to face nominations delivered the highest overnight for the series since the show’s launch episode in 2024.

Excluding ITVX streaming, the show delivered a peak of 840k on ITV2 (average of 787k), an increase of 77% on the same episode in 2025.

The show continues to be up 17% year on year, with the coveted 16-34 audience also increasing by 45% compared to episodes in 2025.

To date the series has generated 22 million streams, with the drama no doubt set to continue as the weeks draw on.

Big Brother continues tonight at 9pm on ITV2 and ITVX.

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