View a slide show of the Big Brother house

Read Damian Barr's first impressions on our Big Brother blog

Read Tim Teeman's review of Big Brother 9's first night

The ninth summer series of Big Brother began last night with Channel 4 desperate to prove that it can reclaim its status as the most talked-about show on television.

The average viewing figure dipped to 3.8 million last year, 700,000 fewer than the previous low for a Big Brother series and two million fewer than the third season attracted.

Critics have argued that the format has stagnated alongside newer reality television shows such as The Apprentice, Strictly Come Dancing and Britain’s Got Talent. Yesterday the programme makers unveiled their riposte: a promise (yet again) to be “more evil” than in previous series, the largest lineup of contestants so far (16), and the first blind housemate.

Michael, 33, a presenter on a radio station for blind and partially sighted people, decided to audition for Big Brother once he discovered that the house was now a no-smoking zone.

He lost his sight ten years ago after an operation but in plenty of other respects sounds like a typical Big Brother housemate. He describes himself as “wacky, zany and non-conformist” and loves performing stand-up comedy dressed as a woman.

He should feel at home alongside Alexandra, an accounts executive from Croydon, South London, who calls herself “quirky, outgoing and a go-getter”; Mohamed, a Hamleys toy demonstrator who is “crazy, outgoing and fun”; and Luke, a part-time wrestling announcer who admits being “eccentric, self-righteous and opinionated”.

Angela Jain, head of E4 and the Big Brother commissioning editor, said that the chemistry between the housemates would define the success of the programme, which is contracted to run for at least one more year.

“It’s all about the casting. It never was conceived as a social experiment. It is about putting people in a space together who wouldn’t normally meet each other.” Michael’s inclusion in the house “could have a very profound impact on the way that blind people are represented on television and in the world,” she added.

The sixth series of Big Brother was won by Pete Bennett, who suffered from Tourette syndrome. The Tourette Syndrome Association initially criticised his involvement, saying it would worsen his condition, but later accepted that the programme had improved awareness of Tourette.

This year the housemates also include a reformed gang member who was deported from the United States, a Thai massage therapist who says that she “doesn’t really understand British humour” and the summer show’s first real-life couple: Lisa and Mario, from Warrington. Lisa told the programme makers that the most significant event in her life was when Mario pawned his Rolex to buy her “a boob job”.

Big Brother built its appeal on a symbiotic relationship with the tabloid newspapers, beginning with the skulduggery of “Nasty Nick” in the first series and hitting new heights with Jade Goody’s ignorant remarks in 2002. That relationship has cooled notably in recent years. Goody’s return to the house for Celebrity Big Brother in 2007 was mired in allegations of racist bullying and led many commentators to suggest that the practice of deliberately fomenting tension between contestants had run its course.

Ms Jain shrugged off suggestions of viewer fatigue. “It is absolutely a format that can be reinvented again and again,” she said. “We want it to be funny but evil – tougher on the contestants than it has been before.”

To this end the housemates will be split between one lavish bedroom and a deliberately uncomfortable dormitory with thin mattresses, itchy blankets and short beds. In a nod to the concept’s origins, housemates will also have to grow their own food. John de Mol, the Dutchman who created Big Brother, dreamt it up while watching Biosphere 2, which featured ordinary people locked in a giant, ecologically balanced greenhouse.

Editor's choice

• The 100 Best Films of the Decade
• 70 facts you didn't know about Marvel
• The 50 Biggest Movies Of 2010