Big Brother (British TV series)

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Big Brother is a reality TV show broadcast on Channel 4, and S4C in Wales, in which a number of contestants live in an isolated house trying to avoid being evicted by the public with the aim of winning a large cash prize at the end of the run. It is based on the Big Brother series produced by Endemol. The show's name comes from George Orwell's 1949 novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, a dystopia in which Big Brother is the all-seeing leader. The main shows are hosted by Davina McCall and narrated by Marcus Bentley.

Main series

The seventh main series began on 18 May 2006 and is scheduled to end on Friday August 18. Davina McCall is the eviction night host. She has hosted all series. [1]

Channel 4 has announced Big Brother will be renewed for an eighth series, which will air in May, 2007.

The current two year contract between Endemol and Channel 4 ends in 2007 and ITV have been reported to be in talks to poach the format.[2]

Daily highlights

The daily highlights show is narrated by Marcus Bentley. Normally, the show is broadcast every day at 9pm on Channel 4 and lasts an hour, but is subject to change. On Fridays the highlights are incorporated into the live eviction show (see below). The events of the previous day are shown, and on Tuesday it is where viewers can find out who nominated who. Unlike Big Brother Live, it shows Diary Room conversations.

Live Eviction

The Live Eviction show is broadcast on Fridays at 8:30pm on Channel 4, and is presented by Davina McCall. The first fifty minutes are the Daily Highlights, shown in the same format as the nightly shows narrated by Marcus Bentley. At around 9:25pm, Davina will "talk to the house" and announce the latest evictee before the show breaks at 9:30pm. Thirty minutes later, the show returns at 10:00pm when the audience are shown how the housemates have reacted to the announcement. The housemate is then evicted and interviewed by Davina, before the show ends at 10:30pm. The Live Eviction is often extended if something special is happening that night, and other special live shows are often on other days.

Aspect ratio

Series 1–6 of Big Brother (2000–2005), including the four series of Celebrity Big Brother in between, were some of the very few programmes on mainstream British terrestrial television that were broadcast in the old 4:3 aspect ratio as opposed to the more common 16:9 widescreen format. (Except the Big Brother Panto, which was in widescreen). The reason for this is unclear, but was believed to be because of the size of some of the hidden cameras. However, from Big Brother 7 (2006) the aspect ratio has been switched in favour of the 16:9 format, with Big Brother, and all of its sister shows, broadcasting in widescreen.

The house

For the first two series, the house was located in Bow, London near to the Three Mills Studios which housed Davina's interviews and the production crew. After planning permission expired after two main seasons (and the first Celebrity Big Brother), Newham Council ordered the complex to be returned to a natural habitat. [3] Subsequent series have taken place at Elstree Studios, which offers more security than the Bow site (which had a public footpath running alongside the southern border). Even the Elstree site has problems, however: it is close to a residential areaTQ198967, attracting complaints from locals about crowd noise on eviction night. Permission has recently been granted to extend the lease of the house for series 7 and 8 (2006 and 2007 respectively).[4] On 20th July 2006 it was reported in a tabloid newspaper that Big Brother producers had failed to gain the rights to extend the lease for usage of the house past 2007, mainly due to the fact that local residents are continually complaining about crowd noise on eviction nights. Celebrity Big Brother 5 and Big Brother 8 will both be filmed at Elstree Studios but the newspaper reported that Big Brother producers are now attempting to find a new location for the Big Brother House where it will begin filming for series 9 (2008 respectively).^[1]

Every year, Big Brother changes the interior of the house to make it fit with the theme of the series. Series 5 for example had the "evil" theme, so the interior was very jagged, with jagged mirrors and very uncomfortable seating and beds. Series 7 has been given an "inside out" theme, which means that everything you expect to find indoors, you will find outdoors and vice versa. Every series with the exception of series 5, the entrance and exit to the house has been the same. It consists of a staircase leading up from the inside, to two sliding doors (usually with the eye logo on them) and another staircase down onto the stage. But the Big Brother 5 house was different. The entrance was on ground level, and therefore looked much less spectacular.

The tasks

Housemates are regularly set tasks by Big Brother. These vary from a short job for one housemate (often conducted without the other housemates' knowledge) to tasks over several days involving the whole house.

Shorter tasks are generally rewarded with "treats" such as cigarettes or alcohol. The longer ones usually determine the size of the weekly shopping budget. If housemates fail these tasks, they are provided with basic rations only. Tasks often involve an element of performance, dressing up, or artistic endeavour.

In more recent series, some tasks have also rewarded or punished housemates with regard to nominations, such as the now infamous 'Pants of Power'.

Series 3 of Big Brother introduced the "Big Brother : Live Task" programme. Each Saturday at 9.00PM, the housemates would take part in a short task which could change the way they live in the house, one task gave the housemates the chance to remove the bars (rich / poor side divide).

The live tasks were continued in series 4, where winners of the task were treated to special rewards in a hidden 'reward room'. The live tasks were discontinued in the third week of Big Brother 5 to make way for further highlights from the house.

Live

The action from within the house is streamed live over the internet (for a monthly fee). Since the second series Channel 4's sister station E4 has also carried live pictures and audio from the Big Brother house. However the stream had a delay of 15 minutes so that audio and/or pictures can be edited out to comply with TV regulations. An interactive service available to digital viewers allows 24/7 access to the stream, even when E4 is carrying normal programming. In 2005 for Series 6 this service became available and free for 5.1 million viewers who have access to Freeview. During series 2 - 4 the interactive service via digital TV also carried up to 4 separate video streams; 2 containing live footage from the house, both focusing on different groups of people in different areas of the house whilst the others contained highlights from recent house action. Only a single feed appeared from Series 5 onward.

Freeview Freeview viewers were previously able to view live streaming by pressing the red button while watching E4 and 'LIVE' is displayed. This redirected the viewer to channel 305, which required More 4+1 to be discontinued to allow for the transmission. However, as of 17th of July this feature was removed in preparation for a free version of Film Four due to air from 23rd of July.

Sky Sky viewers can also still watch it through the red button. [5]. However, this service is unavailable to Sky's Irish customers as E4 broadcasts on a different frequency in Ireland due to commercial legislation, and the frequency isn't capable of interactive streaming.

NTL Subscribers to NTL Broadband Plus can also watch the live stream free over the Internet. NTL Broadband Plus users can watch it live here[6] Also the Big Brother live strem can now be viewed using the red button

Telewest Digital cable viewers can now view live streaming through the red button.

Series 7

Main article: Big Brother (UK series 7)

The seventh series of Big Brother began on Thursday May 18 2006 at 9pm. Fourteen housemates entered the house initially. The series will run for 13 weeks, scheduled to end on Friday August 18. The new Big Brother 7 eye was also released to the public on May 2, 16 days before the official launch.

Series 7 is the first series to allow a random member of the public to enter the house. 100 golden tickets were placed in Kit-Kat chocolate bars, granting the finder a chance to enter the Big Brother house. Of those tickets, 58 were found before the deadline, but two people decided not to put themselves forward for the show, three dropped out, and 19 did not pass the required background checks, leaving a total of 34. The competition began at 10:30pm on May 18 2006, the launch date of Big Brother. Susie Verrico became the "Golden Housemate" after being randomly selected in a Bingo style machine, as each ticket-holder were randomly given numbers to wear as hats and armbands on the day.[7]

Sister shows

Big Brother's Little Brother

A second daily show, Big Brother's Little Brother, presented by Dermot O'Leary, shows news, gossip and behind-the-scenes details. During Celebrity Big Brother 4, BBLB was renamed to Big Brother's Little Breakfast as it was in a new 8am timeslot. Big Brother's Little Brother has been moved back to E4 for the seventh series to accommodate Channel 4's successful daytime schedule, Deal or No Deal and Richard & Judy. During Series 7, the show airs Tuesdays-Fridays on E4, live at 7.30pm, as well as on Sunday afternoons.

Big Brother's Big Mouth

The fifth series saw the start of a talk show about the happenings in the house called Big Brother's EFourum hosted by the irreverent Russell Brand, shown on digital channel E4 with late-night repeats aired on Channel 4. The sixth series saw EFourum renamed and updated to Big Brother's Big Mouth, and now in its seventh series, the show airs at 10pm, Tuesday–Friday, immediately after the main highlight show on C4, with a mixture of fans of the show and celebrities all airing their sometimes controversial opinions on the show; all mixed together with Brand's unusual, risque humour.

Big Brother's Big Brain

Big Brother's Big Brain is a discussion programme based around the reality television series Big Brother. It is broadcast on Channel 4 every Monday at 11.05, and is hosted by Dermot O'Leary, who is joined by psychologists and studio guests each week.

Nominations Uncut

A show shown only on E4 which covers uncut footage of that week's nominations. It was on for series 4-6. During series 6, this show was shown at 7:30pm on Tuesday nights. It did not broadcast for the current series of Big Brother.

Diary Room Uncut

Similar format to Daily Highlights, Diary Room Uncut shows events through the whole week, mostly through Diary Room conversations but also outside of it. It is narrated by Marcus Bentley.

Special versions

Celebrity Big Brother

Celebrity Big Brother is a spin-off of Big Brother UK, also shown on Channel Four, in which a number of B grade and C grade celebrity contestants live in an isolated house trying to avoid being evicted by the public with the aim of winning a large cash prize being donated to the winner's nominated charity at the end of the run. It is based on the Big Brother series produced by Endemol and sometimes uses the same house and presenters as the non-celebrity version.

Differences to non-celebrity version:

The show lasts for a much shorter time.
A proportion of the profits from eviction votes goes to charity.
The celebrities are paid for their appearance (as long as they do not quit).

The series took a break for Teen Big Brother in 2004 but now is a regular part of Channel Four's Winter schedule.

The winners of the past series are:

Jack Dee (March 2001)
Mark Owen (November 2002)
Bez (January 2005)
Chantelle Houghton (January 2006) — Chantelle entered the Big Brother house as a non-celebrity, chosen after the BB6 auditions. She had to pretend she was a celebrity and succeeded in fooling her fellow housemates.

A fifth series has been planned, and will first air on Thursday January 4 2007.

Teen Big Brother

A special version of Big Brother, featuring eight 18-year-old teenagers, was broadcast in October 2003 on Channel 4 and E4 as Teen Big Brother.

Unlike all other Big Brother series, Teen Big Brother was pre-recorded and shown some months after the contestants had left the house.

While the show was being aired it was involved in a scandal over two of the housemates having sex on live TV.

Big Brother Panto

E4 and T4 broadcast the special Big Brother Panto series, bringing together selected members of the various Big Brother series to perform a pantomime of Cinderella during December 2004. The people who took part in the pantomime were:

Nick Bateman (series 1)
Tim Culley (series 3)
Victor Ebuwa (series 5)
Anouska Golebiewski (series 4)
Jade Goody (series 3)
Melanie Hill (series 1)
Narinder Kaur (series 2)
Kathryn "Kitten" Pinder (series 5)
Marco Sabba (series 5)
Spencer Smith (series 3)

Trivia

Following the end of Celebrity Big Brother 4, 134 housemates have inhabited the house (not including the 8 participants in Teen Big Brother). 33 of those were celebrities, including Chantelle Houghton, the non-celebrity contestant in Celebrity Big Brother 4.
The now iconic "Eye" logo was designed by Daniel Eatock of design agency Foundation33. The current logo (series 7) has a black and yellow/gold theme.
The logo has become so well known that since series 5, the words Big Brother do not appear in the title sequence of the main programme.
On the billboard advertisements for series 7 there was no name or date, just the black and gold eye.
In the 2005 season of the television series Doctor Who, episode 12, Bad Wolf, partially concerns efforts by the Doctor to escape from a distant future version of Big Brother (UK), in which contestants are disintegrated after eviction.
A 2D artistic installation between the carriageways in the Bus portion of Gateshead Interchange is reminiscent of the Big Brother eye.
The theme tune used for all the series was recorded especially for the programme by Paul Oakenfold and Andy Gray as "Element 4". It reached #4 in the UK Singles Chart.

Big Brother facts

All facts refer to the UK series

Series 1 (2000)

First contestant to enter the house: Craig Phillips
First contestant to be evicted: Sada Walkington
First contestant to be ejected by Big Brother: Nicholas Bateman
First replacement housemate: Claire Strutton
First winner of Big Brother UK: Craig Phillips

Series 2 (2001)

First contestant to be voted into the house by the public: Josh Rafter
Lowest percentage of votes for a contestant to win Big Brother: 2% (Elizabeth Woodcock)

Series 3 (2002)

Oldest contestant: Sandy Cumming (44)
First contestant to voluntarily leave: Sunita Sharma
First housemate evicted by their fellow housemates: Lynne Moncrieff
Least eviction difference: 0.08% (between Alison (38.52%) and Alex (38.44%))
First contestant to escape from the house: Sandy Cumming
First housemate banned from nominating: Jade Goody

Series 4 (2003)

First housemates swap: Cameron Stout with Gaetano Kagwa from Big Brother Africa
First double eviction: Jon Tickle and Federico Martone
First evicted housemate voted back into the house: Jon Tickle
First housemate to enter a foreign house: Anouska Golebiewski (who entered the Big Brother 2003 Australia house for a week)

Series 5 (2004)

Longest time spent in the house without ever being nominated: 69 days (Stuart Wilson)
First fake eviction (Michelle Bass and Emma Greenwood moved into the secret Big Brother Bedsit)

Series 6 (2005)

First 'secret' housemates: Eugene Sully, Kinga Karolczak and Orlaith McAllister

Series 7 (2006)

Highest eviction percentage: 91.6% (Sezer Yurtseven)
First random member of the public to become a housemate: Susie Verrico
100th housemate to enter the Big Brother house (excluding Celebrity and Teen): Michael Cheshire
First time Big Brother UK has had two houses running parallel to each other
Series with most housemates: 22
Youngest housemate: Jennie Corner (18 years and 3 months)
Shortest time in the house: 6 days (Shahbaz Chauhdry)
Longest time Big Brother on air: 93 days
Longest time spent in the house: 93 days (Pete Bennett , Glyn Wise and Richard Newman)
First time an evicted housemate could win: Nikki Grahame

Viewing figures

Each year Big Brother is a ratings winner for Channel 4. The final of Big Brother 3 on 27 July 2002 was watched by 10 million viewers, the highest ever ratings for a non-film on the channel, and BB3 as a whole averaged almost 6 million viewers. Big Brother 6 had an average of 4.4 million, the poorest in the show's history. Thus far, BB7 is slightly ahead of it but dropping. Big Brother 7 Viewing Figures

Show sponsors

Big Brother 1 — Southern Comfort
Big Brother 2 — BT Cellnet
Big Brother 3 — O2
Big Brother 4 — O2
Big Brother 5 — TalkTalk from The Carphone Warehouse
Big Brother 6 — TalkTalk from The Carphone Warehouse
Big Brother 7 — The Carphone Warehouse

Celebrity Big Brother 1 — Comic Relief & Dubble (Percentage from votes given as donation)
Celebrity Big Brother 2 — O2
Celebrity Big Brother 3 — TalkTalk from The Carphone Warehouse
Celebrity Big Brother 4 — The Carphone Warehouse

External links

^ "[8]", Big Bro's moving house. URL last accessed on 2006-07-23.

[1] "[8]", Big Bro's moving house. URL last accessed on 2006-07-23.

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