Channel 5 has dealt Big Brother 2018 major blows in its first week schedule, by delaying the first highlights show until two days after launch and pushing evictions back to 10pm – although a special episode named ‘Blood Money’ hints at a potential twist.

The nineteenth ‘civilian’ series begins on Friday 14th September at 9.00pm – but it turns out fans will have to wait two days for their next fix.

C5’s latest listings release today confirms that there is no Big Brother on Saturday 15th; instead, there will be a 90-minute episode on Sunday 16th at 10.00pm.

This means there will be a gap of almost 48 hours between the launch and the first highlights show, which will conclude at the late time of 11.30pm.

It is unknown whether this is a one-off change, or there will be no Saturday episodes throughout the run. bbspy has approached C5 for clarification.

Highlights shows air at 10.00pm throughout the rest of the week, except Tuesday 18th, which has a 10.15pm start time. This is due to C5 pushing its peak time schedule back by 15 minutes to avoid clashing with The Great British Bake Off.

However, it appears Big Brother has a twist in store, as the episode on Wednesday 19th is billed with the special title ‘Big Brother: Blood Money’.

The name quickly prompted speculation that bosses are planning to play with the prize fund just six days in to the new series – but C5 is yet to confirm what the special involves, or whether it will be a live broadcast.

Big Brother faces another scheduling challenge on Friday 21st September, when the first eviction will air in a 90-minute show at the later time of 10.00pm.

Restrictions set by the local council mean that the outdoor crowd present during evictions must vacate the premises by 11pm. Therefore, although the broadcaster is billing the eviction as ‘Live’, it will inevitably air on a time delay.

The shake-up suggests that C5 isn’t giving Big Brother a vote of confidence this year, despite holding the new series back several months so it wouldn’t be up against ITV2 smash hit Love Island.

Evictions first moved to 10pm for the ‘civilian’ version last summer when it collapsed below 1million viewers for the first time ever.

Elsewhere, Bit On The Side airs immediately after the main show on weeknights, although Friday episodes are only 40 minutes long, instead of the usual hour. C5 does not have any live feed or daytime repeats currently scheduled.

Yesterday, the brand new Big Brother eye logo – described as an ‘interplanetary orb of luminous colours’ – was unveiled.