Marco Pierre White Jnr
Marco Pierre White Jnr enters the Big Brother house at the Big Brother Launch 2016 at Elstree Studios on June 7, 2016 Ben A Pruchnie/Getty Images

Big Brother 2016 has gotten off to a shaky start. Viewers have expressed their dismay regarding the new series via social media sharing site Twitter, with many damning the reality show's 'twists' and humdrum housemates, sparking demands for it to be cancelled.

The reaction follows reports that the latest series of Big Brother has flopped on launch night (Tuesday 7 June) which was hosted by Emma Willis and lasted just over two hours. The first show garnered its lowest viewing figures ever and BB fans called for the show to be scrapped, with one citing: "Day 1 in the #BigBrother House: all the housemates have left & the show's been cancelled" sorry was just dreaming out loud... #BBUK."

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Though Channel 5 producers have gone to extreme lengths to revamp the flailing show – which first launched in the UK on Channel 4 in 2000 – viewers were left unimpressed by the new two-house set-up and huge 'twist' with 'THE OTHERS' – a group of egregious characters trying to usurp the main housemates' places. The first episode reeled in an average of just 1.5 million viewers, which counts as the worst opening rating in the show's history.

Big Brother brought in viewing figures of around 1.4 million between 9pm and 11.05pm on the opening show, which is down 300,000 on 2015's show, along with 600,000 for the 2014 series.

The 'boring' contestants could be to blame – with celebrity chef Marco Pierre White's son, Judge Geordie's Alex Cannon and former BBC reporter Andy West making up the 'Z list' celebrities failing to excite the nation.

Despite the criticism, some BB fans have been entertained by the drama of the second show and are intrigued by this year's 'twist'. One Twitter user wrote: "@BBUK is that juicy this year, I can nearly feel a reunion coming on with @Gezley and @Fenslice," while another put, "I like this "Others" twist so far hopefully this series brings lots of drama #bbuk"

The reality series moved to Channel 5 in 2011, and the ratings have slowly declined over the years. The 2011 and 2012 series hovered around the 2.6/2.7 million mark, while it dropped to 2.1 million in 2013 and 2014, with 2015's figure plummeting to 1.8 million. So whether the 2016 series could be the show's last remains to be seen.

Check out the Twitter reaction of the 2016 series thus far.

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