The Real Housewives of Cheshire, along with the other international Real Housewives formats and TOWIE, are to move to ITV2 as the broadcaster announces it will “retire the ITVBe brand from its portfolio in June 2025.”
ITV2 will now officially become the linear home of all of ITV’s best-known reality series as they make the move from ITVBe to “the UK’s most successful digital channel for 16-34s.”
RHOCH and TOWIE join a schedule of returning reality formats, including Love Island and Big Brother, alongside new commissions which are lined up throughout the remainder of 2025 on ITV2, and will continue to stream on ITVX.
The supercharged ITV2 offering also includes animated comedies (Family Guy) original commissions (G’Wed and Transaction) blockbuster movies and younger skewing factual entertainment, like Olivia Attwood’s Price of Perfection, which are all also strong performers on ITVX.
Both Love Island and Big Brother are due to return in the Summer and Autumn months respectively, alongside a second series of Olivia Attwood’s Bad Boyfriends, following its talked about debut series in 2024.
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The Only Way Is Essex will turn 15, meanwhile, with a celebratory Autumn series. The move to ITV2 marks a homecoming for TOWIE as part of its 15th anniversary year, having initially debuted its first 12 series on ITV2.
The reality genre provides some of the most highly consumed programming on ITV2 and ITVX to date, Love Island and all of its spin offs have been streamed 2.2 billion times, while Big Brother in all its forms has now been streamed over 100 million times, since coming to ITV in 2023. The Only Way Is Essex remains one of ITVX’s most streamed titles, with streaming reaching 66 million over the last 12 months.
Additionally, ITV2 consistently produces the biggest shows for the 16-34 audience. Last year, Love Island celebrated over 400 shows as the most popular series for this demographic. In Q1 of this year ITV2 further cemented its success with young audiences, overtaking Channel 4 for 16-34 year old viewers and maintaining its place as the UK’s most watched digital channel for 16-34 year olds.
Forthcoming new commissions include a reunion for siblings Sam Faiers and Billie Shepherd in Sam & Billie: Sister Act (produced by Potato, part of ITV Studios). The series marks Sam’s return to TV for the first time since 2021 when she stepped away from the hit ITVBe series Sam & Billie:The Mummy Diaries. Billie continued the franchise with Billie & Greg: The Family Diaries from 2021 to 2024. Now, the sisters reunite to showcase their personal and professional lives as they navigate the next phase of their careers, relationships and motherhood.
ITV plans to use the former ITVBe channel slot as ITV Quiz, drawing on ITV’s popular, market-leading UK quiz and game shows, and the success and learnings of its ITVX FAST channels.
