We have developed a method to improve the brightness of fluorogenic hybridization probes (FIT probes) by introducing auxiliary dyes that serve as light harvesters. A distinctive feature of the probes is that the light-collecting dyes transfer excitation energy to a base surrogate, which only fluoresces if it can enter into stacking interactions with neighboring base pairs by forming the probetarget duplex. In the single-stranded state, dyes in the thiazole orange family act as fluorescence quenchers. Our data show that a QB or TO nucleotide can quench the fluorescence of two lightharvesting AlexaFluor dyes. It is conceivable that fluorescence quenching would be maintained if further AF dyes were introduced. The intercalation of the QB or TO dye, forcibly formed by hybridization with the target, closes quenching channels. The achievable quantum yields are limited by the QB or TO dyes, indicating an efficient energy transfer from the AF to the QB/TO dyes. Bright fluorescence obtained upon target binding is the result of more effective photon absorption. A prerequisite for this is to avoid quenching interactions between the light-harvesting dyes. Our data demonstrate that this is possible when the dyes are attached at a distance of 7-11 nucleotides to 5alkynylpyrimidines by click reaction.