As we reported weeks ago, Launch night will feature close to 100 wannabe house mates who will attempt to earn their position to get into the house! While producers don’t know how many house mates yet (between 12 and 14) they’ll find out if they’re in LIVE on the show. Producers also mentioned that house mates would enter as the series went on. Source

Creative director Phil Edgar Jones told Digital Spy: “We’ve got our shortlist of people coming down on launch night. There will probably be around 80 or 90 people. They are all coming down to join in this last carnival which is Big Brother.

“None of them will know whether or not they have been picked. To be honest, not even we know all of them yet. Some of them we do, some we don’t.

“Big Brother still makes the decision on who goes in the house, like it has always done. You will just see the moment when they find out who enters this wonderful, beautiful house. There will be between 12 to 14 housemates. I’m being truthful, we genuinely don’t know at this point how many. We haven’t finished selecting yet, we are just trying to get the mix right.”

Jones explained the setup for the launch, saying: “They will still walk in individually and get their own walk into the house. They are just not pulling up in cars, getting booed or cheered. We are doing it in a slightly different way.

“They will be outside. On the big staging outside. Davina will be there. The big crowd will be there. They will all be there in the middle with their name badges on. Big Brother will announce who is going in the house, then you’ll see their face as they start screaming, gibbering or running away madly from it. Who knows?”

Speaking about the possible housemates, Jones revealed that they do not “have a touch of celebrity” about them. He also hinted that more housemates would join later in the series.