Channel 4 and producers Endemol are hoping that the latest Big Brother stunt involving a contestant swap between the African and UK versions of the show will lead to a surge in popularity, after the number of eviction votes cast slumped by around 40% on last year and ratings continue to slide.
Just 3.87 million votes have been cast in the first four weeks of the show, compared to 6.5 million in the same period last year.
An extra Friday night show, with voting extended for several hours, and last week's stunt of evicting two forgettable nobodies instead of one has failed to boost ratings.
Channel 4 earned almost £5m in text message votes and alerts alone when the total number of votes topped 25m last year.