Big Brother U.S. (franchise)

This article is about the English Version in the United States. For the Spanish Version, see Gran Hermano USA.

Big Brother U.S. (franchise)
Country	United States
Language(s)	English
Executive Producer(s)	Allison Grodner Rich Meehan
Television Network(s)	CBS CBS All-Access
Host	Julie Chen (2000 - Present) Ian O'Malley (2000)
Series Run	July 5, 2000 - Present

Big Brother is a popular international reality show franchise with an American version owned by CBS.

How it Works

Big Brother is a reality television show in which a group of people live together in a large house, isolated from the outside world but continuously watched by television cameras. Each series lasts for around three months, and there are 10-17 participants. The housemates try to win a cash prize by avoiding periodic evictions from the house.

American series

While most versions of Big Brother feature evictions that are voted on by polling television audiences over the phone or the internet, the American version shifted before Big Brother 2 to play off the popularity of Survivor and changed the format to have the other house guests evict players.

Retrieved from CBS
BIG BROTHER follows a group of people living together in a house outfitted with dozens of high-definition cameras and microphones recording their every move, 24 hours a day. Each week, the Houseguests will vote someone out of the house. At the end, the last remaining Houseguest will receive the grand prize of $500,000.^[1]

History

The idea for the show is said to come during a brainstorm session at the production house of John de Mol Produkties (an independent part of Endemol) on 4 September 1997. The first Big Brother broadcast was in the Netherlands in 1999 on the Veronica TV channel. It was picked up by Germany, Portugal, USA, UK, Spain, Belgium, Sweden, Switzerland and Italy the following year and became a worldwide sensation. Since then it has been a prime-time hit in almost 70 countries. The show's name comes from George Orwell's 1948 dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four.

Editions

^1 The viewing public decided the winner of the season.
^2 Eight houseguests entered the house followed by five houseguests that were ex-girlfriends and ex-boyfriends of the original eight.
^3 Thirteen houseguests were originally announced with a set of identical twins secretly playing as one HouseGuest. After surviving the first four evictions, the twins were allowed to compete as individuals.
^4 Fourteen houseguests entered the house with a secret partner unknown to the rest of the houseguests.
^5 The 14 returning houseguests were chosen among 20 candidates—eight through public vote, and six by the producers.
^6 Eleven houseguests were entered the house watched by three "rivals" watching inside of the HOH room that later joined the group.
^7 Sixteen houseguests were divided up into 8 couples, including two relationships from outside the house.
^8 Twelve houseguests originally entered the house divided into four cliques. The clique who won the first HOH competition allowed a returning player allocated to their clique to enter the game.
^9 Eight houseguests were originally entered the house divided into duos followed by 3 additional sets of duos returning from past seasons.
^10 Twelve houseguests originally entered the house followed by four returning houseguests as coaches that divided the houseguests into teams.
^11 Sixteen houseguests were originally announced with a set of identical twins secretly playing as one HouseGuest. After surviving the first five evictions, the twins were allowed to compete as individuals.
^12 Twelve houseguests entered the house followed by four returning players divided up into teams.
^13 Twelve houseguests entered the house followed by one returning houseguest voted in by the audience.
^14 Sixteen houseguests entered the house followed by one returning houseguest taking one of their spots on night one.
^15 Instead of normal houseguests, celebrities occupied the house.

Ratings

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Trivia

References