[Arneldo]

Big Brother will remain a primetime fixture this year and Davina McCall will return as presenter, Channel 4 confirmed today.

Executives, speaking at the launch of their spring and summer lineup, also said it would run for 13 weeks, as last year, but remained tight-lipped about other details of Big Brother 9.

Angela Jain, commissioning editor, said producers were close to finalising the new presenter of Big Brother's Little Brother following the departure of Dermot O'Leary, but declined to give names.

Reports today said Konnie Huq, Alexa Chung and Miquita Oliver were in the running.

Channel 4 head Julian Bellamy said Big Brother's place in the schedule was also as yet unconfirmed. He denied rumours it may move to a later time but left open the option of switching it between 9pm and 10pm.

The show has been under pressure in recent years because of allegations of racism, falling audiences and calls for Channel 4 to focus on public service programming. Celebrity Big Brother was this year replaced with Big Brother: Celebrity Hijack, on E4 rather than the flagship channel.

However, Bellamy said the show would remain a primetime fixture for Channel 4.

"I think it is a brilliant programming, I love it," he said. "It will be back this summer, hopefully with a bang, after a period where we have rested the celebrity version in order to reinvigorate the main series.

"It's a big primetime show and will remain, whether it's at 9pm or 10pm on different days. It depends on the competitive context."

DS