The much-anticipated launch episode certainly didn’t go as planned.

The Big Brother reboot premiered on Sunday night, but didn’t go exactly to plan. Photos: Channel 10

Just over a year after it was first announced, Channel 10’s reboot of Big Brother Australia finally premiered on Sunday night. The much-anticipated series promised “the authentic, OG show you fell in love with all those years ago”, with live nominations, live evictions, 24/7 streaming, and filming taking place in Dreamworld on the Gold Coast.

While viewers were thrilled about the show’s return and praised new host, Mel Tracina, many were left frustrated by a major technical error. Mel announced at the end of the episode that fans could vote online to decide who the 13th housemate should be, with the winning candidate entering the house on Monday night.

However, the QR code that flashed on screen took fans — including this Yahoo Lifestyle reporter — to 10’s app, where they were unable to cast a vote.

Instead, a message popped up that said: “We were unable to validate your user. Please ensure you are logged in and try again.”

Viewers discovered that the voting link on 10’s app didn’t work. Photos: Yahoo Lifestyle Australia

‘Fix the voting link’

Big Brother’s Instagram page quickly became flooded with comments from viewers complaining about the error.

“The voting is not working properly,” one person wrote, while another replied, “Thought it was just me”.

“The QR code to vote leads to an app download and that’s it,” a third shared.

“Fix the voting link,” someone else urged, with a different user commenting, “The page won’t load for voting”.

Eventually, the official Big Brother account began replying to comments with statements like “Big Brother is on the case!” and “We’re currently working on it!”.

The problem was then fixed several hours later, with viewers finally able to vote for either 67-year-old retiree Jane or 36-year-old dealer Mitch.

Viewers can vote to decide who becomes the thirteenth housemate. Photo: Instagram/channel10au

Big Brother launch descends into chaos

The voting blunder wasn’t the only incident that impacted the Big Brother launch over the weekend, as intense weather on Saturday night caused filming to be shut down.

Daily Mail reported that after the first four contestants entered the house, “wild lightning, booming thunder, and torrential rain pummelled the Dreamworld set”.

Filming was then abruptly halted for two hours, with the audience members forced to evacuate the open-air stage area.

“Everyone had been working around the clock to pull this launch off, and then the weather just killed it,” a crew member told the publication.

“People were soaked, equipment was getting wet, and the energy totally disappeared.”

Filming eventually resumed, with the remaining eight housemates being introduced and the audience members seen wearing ponchos provided by the crew.