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 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

Big Brother (US) Seasons
Season	Season Run	Days	HouseGuests	Winner	Runner-Up	Final Vote
Big Brother 1 (US)	July 5, 2000 - September 29, 2000	88	10	Eddie McGee	Josh Souza	59–27%1
Big Brother 2 (US)	July 5, 2001 - September 20, 2001	82	12	Will Kirby	Nicole Nilson Schaffrich	5-2 (6-3)
Big Brother 3 (US)	July 10, 2002 - September 25, 2002			Lisa Donahue	Danielle Reyes	9-1
Big Brother 4 (US)	July 8, 2003 - September 24, 2003		132	Jun Song	Alison Irwin	6-1
Big Brother 5 (US)	July 6, 2004 - September 21, 2004		143	Drew Daniel	Michael Ellis	4-3
Big Brother 6 (US)	July 7, 2005 - September 20, 2005	80	144	Maggie Ausburn	Ivette Corredero	4-3
Big Brother All-Stars (US)	July 6, 2006 - September 12, 2006	72	145	Mike Malin	Erika Landin	6-1
Big Brother 8 (US)	July 5, 2007 - September 18, 2007	81	146	Dick Donato	Daniele Donato	5-2
Big Brother 9 (US)	February 12, 2008 - April 27, 2008		167	Adam Jasinski	Ryan Quicksall	6-1
Big Brother 10 (US)	July 13, 2008 - September 16, 2008	71	13	Dan Gheesling	Memphis Garrett	7-0
Big Brother 11 (US)	July 9, 2009 - September 15, 2009	73	138	Jordan Lloyd	Natalie Martinez	5-2
Big Brother 12 (US)	July 8, 2010 - September 15, 2010	75	13	Hayden Moss	Lane Elenburg	4-3
Big Brother 13 (US)	July 4, 2011 - September 14, 2011		149	Rachel Reilly	Porsche Briggs	4-3
Big Brother 14 (US)	July 12, 2012 - September 19, 2012		1610	Ian Terry	Dan Gheesling	6-1
Big Brother 15 (US)	June 26, 2013 - September 18, 2013	90	16	Andy Herren	GinaMarie Zimmerman	7-2
Big Brother 16 (US)	June 25, 2014 - September 24, 2014	97		Derrick Levasseur	Cody Calafiore	7-2
Big Brother 17 (US)	June 24, 2015 - September 23, 2015	98	1711	Steve Moses	Liz Nolan	6-3
Big Brother 18 (US)	June 22, 2016 - September 21, 2016	99	1612	Nicole Franzel	Paul Abrahamian	5-4
Big Brother: Over The Top	September 28, 2016 - December 1, 2016	65	1313	Morgan Willett	Jason Roy	Unknown1
Big Brother 19 (US)	June 28, 2017 - September 20, 2017	92	1714	Josh Martinez	Paul Abrahamian	5-4
Celebrity Big Brother 1 (US)	February 7, 2018 - February 25, 2018	26	1115	Marissa Jaret Winokur	Ross Mathews	6-3
Big Brother 20 (US)	June 27, 2018 - September 26, 2018	99	16	To Be Determined
Celebrity Big Brother 2 (US)	To Be Announced			To Be Determined
Big Brother 21 (US)	To Be Announced			To Be Determined

^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