Big Brother (American TV series)
Template:Big Brother US sidebar
Big Brother is a reality show in which a number of strangers live in an isolated house and compete to win a cash prize. The American version of Big Brother has aired on CBS every summer since 2000. The series is taken from Endemol's popular Big Brother format, and is produced by Endemol USA. The show is executive-produced currently by Arnold Shapiro (who formerly produced Rescue 911) and Alison Grodner.
Since its second season, the American Big Brother uses different rules than other countries' versions of the show. In the U.S. version, viewers do not vote for eviction; all voting is done by houseguests. There have been seven complete seasons of the U.S. version of the show; all have been broadcast on CBS.
For all seasons the eviction-night host has been Julie Chen, wife of CBS President Les Moonves and co-host of the network's The Early Show. In the first season (2000), Chen was widely ridiculed in the media for her wooden delivery, stilted interaction with the studio audience, weak interviews with evictees on the live programs, and her overuse of the phrase "But first..." This led fans to affectionately dub her "the Chenbot," a moniker which Chen is aware of and readily accepts. The continuity announcer for the first five seasons was Phil Proctor. He played an active role in the first season introducing every scene, but with the major changes to the program after the initial series, he was relegated to the opening and closing of each episode. For season six, Proctor was replaced by Clayton Halsey. This decision was made so late that Proctor had already toured the new set.
The weekly live show was substantially changed after the first season. Originally, the live show featured a studio audience along with guest commentators Dr. Drew Pinsky, best known for Loveline on MTV, and (sponsor) America Online "Internet Advisor" Regina Lewis. Julie Chen now presents the live eviction show from an empty studio overlooking the entrance to the house.
Seasons
- Big Brother 1 (2000)
- Big Brother 2 (2001)
- Big Brother 3 (2002)
- Big Brother 4 (2003)
- Big Brother 5 (2004)
- Big Brother 6 (2005)
- Big Brother 7: All-Stars (2006)
- Big Brother 8 (2007)
House Calls: The Big Brother Talk Show
| Big Brother | |
|---|---|
| File:HouseCallsLogo.jpg House Calls Logo | |
| Starring | Gretchen Massey |
| Production | |
| Running time | Approx. 30 minutes Monday-Thursday, approx. 50 minutes Fridays |
| Original release | |
| Network | Live internet talk show |
| Release | 2004 – present |
House Calls: The Big Brother Talk Show is a live Internet talk show hosted by Gretchen Massey and Big Brother 3 contestant Marcellas Reynolds. Talks of creating of a Big Brother talk show were in negotiations since at least Big Brother 2, due to the success of Big Brother's Little Brother in the United Kingdom. The program focuses on events in the Big Brother house as well as taking phone calls from viewers. The show started in 2004 during Big Brother 5, and became quite popular. House Calls was renewed for a second season to correspond with Big Brother 6. The show returned again in 2006 during Big Brother 7: All-Stars, but without Reynolds as co-host, who was participating as a contestant in the Big Brother house. The program regularly features specials guests, such as Joe Adalian, the TV editor of Daily Variety. Contestants on Big Brother are bound by contract to appear on the webcast the Friday after their live eviction. The show airs Monday through Friday at 10 a.m. PT and 1 p.m. ET. All episodes of House Calls will be available at the CBS website. For season seven, because of Reynolds' absence, a guest host appears for a week. So far they have been:
| Pre-Show | Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4 | Week 5 | Week 6 | Week 7 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| none | Joe Adalian (Daily Variety) |
Bunky Miller (Big Brother 2) |
Bunky Miller (Big Brother 2) |
none (Monday) Bunky Miller (Big Brother 2) (Tuesday-Friday) |
Lisa Donahue (Big Brother 3) (Monday) Bunky Miller (Big Brother 2) (Tuesday-Friday) |
Zach (also known as Jase Wirey) (Big Brother 5 Big Brother 7: All-Stars) |
Arnold Shapiro (Executive Producer) (Monday) Bunky Miller (Big Brother 2) |
The popularity of House Calls has spawned other internet talk shows, including Survivor Live for Survivor, Finish Line for The Amazing Race, Talk Model for America's Next Top Model, and various Aftershows on MTV Overdrive for MTV programming.
Competitions
Competitions have been part of the show since every season, and the houseguests must compete together, against each other, or in teams to win them. The competitions in American Big Brother are:
HoH (Head of Household)
For more info try Head Of Household (Big Brother)
Every week, after the live eviction (except when the first HoH is crowned) the houseguests compete in the Head of Household competition. The HoH gets to nominate two people for eviction, and also gets their own private bedroom, things from home, and laundry service. The current HoH is not eligible to compete in the following HoH competition except for the final HoH competition when there are only three houseguests. In the first week of season seven, there were 2 HoHs. In this case, if both HoHs, when deciding for nominees to go up for eviction cannot come to a decision, both HoHs will become nominated, and there will be no HoH until the next live broadcast. This did not happen.
The HoH contests usually are one of three kinds of competitions. There are endurance contests to find which houseguests can last the longest doing a certain task, such holding a light switch in or hanging on to a key. These usually take place in the opening HoH competition, at some point during the midway point of a season, and in the first part of a three part competition to find the last HoH of a season.
There are also quiz contests, moderated by host Julie Chen, designed to find the new HoH before the end of the eviction show hour, and usually last a few minutes. The quizzes usually eliminate players after a wrong answer, unless everyone in a respective round answers incorrectly. Due to time restraints, there can also be a tiebreaker question after a certain amount of questions have been asked to find a winner. Quizzes are also usually held, at least once during the season, to find a person that can answer the most questions correctly, with a tiebreaker question breaking any equal scores.
Finally, there are competitions that usually require some kind of skill houseguests are allowed to practice in a given time period beforehand. For instance, there was a competition in season three that was a combination of bocce ball and golf to find someone getting a bocce ball closest to a large, golf-like hole without going in the hole or a gutter at the end of the green. Whoever did their skill the best would win HoH.
When the number of houseguests are reduced to three in a given season, the HoH competition is always a three part affair. The first part is usually an endurance competition, requiring a houseguest to hang on to their key in the face of some unusual circumstance (in season two, on a waterbed; season three, during a fake thunderstorm; season 4, during a "blizzard"; season 5, during an "earthquake"; season 6, a large safe's spinning dial; and season 7, on a volcano) with the last person to hang on winning that stage, and advancing to the final stage. The two people who lost move on to the second part, usually a contest requiring the houseguest to answer what occurred during the season.
The winner of those two parts move on to the third part, which usually is a guessing game as to what the departed houseguests thought of those remaining. Whoever wins the final part becomes the last HoH, and is the sole decider as to which of the two remaining houseguest leaves the game, and which moves on to the final vote to determine the season winner.
On the live feeds, the nomination ceremony takes place usually on Fridays, excluding double eviction weeks in which the ceremony will be done live after the HoH competition. For the second set of nominations, these will be done on a Saturday.
| HoH Wins | When Won | |
|---|---|---|
| Janelle Pierzina | 6 | Days 47 and 68 of season 6 Days 1, 25, 39, and 60 of season 7 |
| Drew Daniel | 4 | Days 21, 63, 70 and 78 of season 5 |
| Mike Malin | 4 | Day 3 of season 2 Days 47, 60 and 67 of season 7 |
| Hardy Hill | 3 | Days 19, 33 and 53 of season 2 |
| Nakomis Dedmon | 3 | Days 35, 49 and 64 of season 5 |
| Alison Irwin | 2 | Days 26 and 75 of season 4 |
| Danielle Reyes | 2 | Day 69 of season 3 Day 32 of season 7 |
| Howie Gordon | 2 | Days 33 and 61 of season 6 |
| Ivette Corredero | 2 | Days 62 and 76 of season 6 |
| Jase Wirey | 2 | Day 2 of season 5 Day 1 of season 7 |
| Jason Guy | 2 | Days 48 and 62 of season 3 |
| Jee Cho | 2 | Days 12 and 47 of season 4 |
| Kaysar Ridha | 2 | Day 19 of season 6 Day 11 of season 7 |
| Lisa Donahue | 2 | Days 3 and 78 of season 3 |
| Marcellas Reynolds | 2 | Days 13 and 55 of season 3 |
| Marvin Latimer | 2 | Days 14 and 56 of season 5 |
| Nicole Nilson | 2 | Days 40 and 77 of season 2 |
| Erika Landin | 2 | Day 41 of season 4 Day 53 of season 7 |
| Adria Okins | 1 | Day 42 of season 5 |
| Amy Crews | 1 | Day 41 of season 3 |
| April Lewis | 1 | Day 54 of season 6 |
| Beau Beasley | 1 | Day 48 of season 6 |
| Chiara Berti | 1 | Day 34 of season 3 |
| Dana Varela | 1 | Day 19 of season 4 |
| Diane Henry | 1 | Day 29 of season 5 |
| Eric Littman | 1 | Day 12 of season 6 |
| George Boswell | 1 | Day 46 of Season 7 |
| Gerry Lancaster | 1 | Day 27 of season 3 |
| James Rhine | 1 | Day 18 of season 7 |
| Jennifer Vasquez | 1 | Day 41 of season 6 |
| Jun Song | 1 | Day 54 of season 4 |
| Justin Giovinco | 1 | Day 33 of season 4 |
| Kent Blackwelder | 1 | Day 26 of season 2 |
| Krista Stegall | 1 | Day 12 of season 2 |
| Maggie Ausburn | 1 | Day 26 of season 6 |
| Monica Bailey | 1 | Day 68 of season 2 |
| Nathan Marlow | 1 | Day 2 of season 4 |
| Rachel Plencner | 1 | Day 1 of season 6 |
| Robert Roman | 1 | Day 61 of season 4 |
| Roddy Mancuso | 1 | Day 20 of season 3 |
Nominations
One of the tasks of being the Head Of Household (HOH) is that they must selct two houseguests to put up on the nomination block. The two houseguests fight for the Power of Veto (POV) (as explained in the POV section) so they can remove themselves. After the POV ceremony is over, and the new houseguest is put on the block, the remaining houseguests (excluding the HOH and nominees) must vote to evict one nominee, with the HOH only voting to break a tie. Many houseguests have been nominated, some multiple times. However, there are the few who have managed to escape the nomination block. So far, Janelle Pierzina has been nominated the most times (over two seasons) with 9. Amy Crews has been nominated the most times in a single season, 6.
Jason Guy remains the only houseguest to never be nominated or expelled.
The food competition
In some weeks during the season (but not all weeks, the latter half of season six went without a food competition, and only had five total) the houseguests compete together (Or against each other) in the food competition. If a team or certain people win the competition, the houseguests win a variety of food for the week, or a given day. If they lose, they must live on Peanut Butter and Jelly, condiments, milk, and water for the week, or that given day, depending on the rules of that respective competition. In Big Brother All-Stars, the food the losing team must eat has been changed from peanut butter and jelly to "Big Brother slop" which is a thick, oatmeal-like substance. Due to his giving away food privileges for the rest of the season to win power of veto, George Boswell holds the record for most days on slop.
On occasion, the house is split up into teams for the food competition, however. Whichever team wins gets the food, whichever team loses lives on peanut butter and jelly for the week. Two exceptions to this rule have happened in season six were if a houseguest has a PB&J Pass, which allows them to eat food regardless of the outcome of a competition, and in season seven, were if houseguest has a slop pass, they can eat food regardless of the competition results. These passes have been transferable, adding to game strategy.
The Power of Veto
In Season 3, a new rule was introduced. Each week until the number of housguests was reduced to five (for the third season only), the houseguests would compete for the power of veto. If they won, they could save a nominee from nomination, forcing the HoH to nominate someone else (The Power of Veto winner was safe either way). Originally, if a nominee won the power of veto, they could not use it on themselves, but this changed in the last veto competition in season 3. From then onward, Big Brother USA has used "The Golden Power of Veto." It allows the holder to veto any single nomination including his/her own. One exception, the last veto competition in season 4 introduced the "Diamond Power of Veto." It allowed the holder to name his/her successor. It has not surfaced since. Starting in the fifth season, only six contestants could compete for the Power of Veto, which enabled a new strategy, the backdoor nomination. Season 7 limited this practice by adding a semi-random selection the competitors after the HoH and nominees. So far, Janelle Pierzina has won the most POV challenges with 7 and has been saved the most times with 6.
On the live feeds, the competition takes place on Saturday and the ceremony takes place on Mondays. This excludes double eviction weeks, in which for the first eviction of the week, both the competition and ceremony occur on a Friday. For the second eviction of the week, the competition occurs on a Sunday and the ceremony occurs on its usual day of Monday, or can also be done live on Thursday night.
| POV Wins | When Won | |
|---|---|---|
| Janelle Pierzina | 7 | Days 48 and 63 of season 6 Days 5, 34, 48, 55, and 62 of season 7 |
| James Rhine | 5 | Days 15, 21, 35 and 50 of season 6 Day 46 of season 7 |
| Adria Okins | 2 | Days 44 and 51 of season 5 |
| Alison Irwin | 2 | Days 55 and 63 of season 4 |
| Diane Henry | 2 | Days 64 and 66 of season 5 |
| Gerry Lancaster | 2 | Days 7 and 43 of season 3 |
| Danielle Reyes | 2 | Day 15 of season 3 Day 41 of season 7 |
| Erika Landin | 2 | Days 13 and 60 of season 7 |
| Jase Wirey | 2 | Days 16 and 30 of season 5 |
| Rachel Plencner | 2 | Days 7 and 42 of season 6 |
| Robert Roman | 2 | Days 28 and 35 of season 4 |
| Amy Crews | 1 | Day 57 of season 3 |
| April Lewis | 1 | Day 56 of season 6 |
| Chiara Berti | 1 | Day 29 of season 3 |
| Dana Varela | 1 | Day 7 of season 4 |
| David Lane | 1 | Day 14 of season 4 |
| Drew Daniel | 1 | Day 37 of season 5 |
| Eric Oulette | 1 | Day 22 of season 3 |
| George Boswell | 1 | Day 20 of season 7 |
| Ivette Corredero | 1 | Day 70 of season 6 |
| Jason Guy | 1 | Day 50 of season 3 |
| Jee Cho | 1 | Day 48 of season 4 |
| Jun Song | 1 | Day 42 of season 4 |
| Karen O'Neil Ganci | 1 | Day 58 of season 5 |
| Lisa Donahue | 1 | Day 36 of season 3 |
| Maggie Ausburn | 1 | Day 62 of season 6 |
| Marcellas Reynolds | 1 | Day 65 of season 3 |
| Michael Ellis | 1 | Day 72 of season 5 |
| Mike Malin | 1 | Day 27 of season 7 |
| Nakomis Dedmon | 1 | Day 23 of season 5 |
| Nathan Marlow | 1 | Day 21 of season 4 |
| Sarah Hrejsa | 1 | Day 28 of season 6 |
| Scott Long | 1 | Day 8 of season 5 |
| Saved by POV | Saved by...? | |
|---|---|---|
| Janelle Pierzina | 6 | Herself (5), April Lewis |
| James Rhine | 4 | Himself (3), Sarah Hrejsa |
| Alison Irwin | 3 | Herself (2), Nathan Marlow |
| Diane Henry | 2 | Herself, Drew Daniel |
| Maggie Ausburn | 1 | Janelle Pierzina |
| George Boswell | 1 | Himself |
| Ivette Corredero | 1 | Herself |
| Drew Daniel | 1 | Diane Henry |
| Nakomis Dedmon | 1 | Herself |
| Holly King | 1 | Jase Wirey |
| Mike Malin | 1 | Himself |
| Adria Okins | 1 | Herself |
| Rachel Plencher | 1 | Herself |
| Marcellas Reynolds | 1 | Gerry Lancaster |
| Jase Wirey | 1 | Himself |
| Danielle Reyes | 1 | Herself |
| Erika Landin | 1 | Herself |
Luxury Competitions
The Luxury Competitions have always been a special treat for the houseguests, and have always given them some kind of Luxury. Almost always, the first Luxury competition has been the chance to unlock the Hot Tub (The hot tub was unlocked by Rachel on Big Brother 6 as a twist). In recent seasons, luxury competitions have almost entirely been eliminated except for the first one, in which the hot tub is rewarded. However, in Big Brother All-Stars, the houseguests were given the hot tub and did not need to compete to earn it.
America's Choice
America's Choice offers the viewing public to select a houseguest to receive a special opportunity not available to other houseguests; voting is done through the CBS website. Though houseguests do not actively compete for the reward, it is essentially a reward based on viewers' opinions of the houseguests. America's Choice contests typically begin midway through a season and new contests are repeated weekly through the end of the season. Previous contests have allowed houseguests to make a mobile phone call to family, to have a walk-on role for a CBS soap opera, and to conduct an internet chat with fans. In Season 6, the first America's Choice contest was to vote back into the house a previously evicted houseguest; voting for this contest was expanded to include text message voting. The America's Choice Question is not always a choice between contestants to earn a special opportunity. America's Choice Questions have also been a choice of what challenge would be played, and what kind of appliances would be given to the houseguests.
| AC Wins | What Won | |||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Janelle Pierzina | 5 | Phone call home Set visit to Two and a Half Men Entry into BB All Stars House Big Brother Prom Queen $25,000 Jury Prize | ||||||||||||||||
| Robert Roman | 3 | Letter from home Phone call home Internet chat with fans | ||||||||||||||||
| Kaysar Ridha | 2 | Re-entry into BB6 house Entry into BB All Stars House | ||||||||||||||||
| Bunky Miller | 1 | Letter from home | ||||||||||||||||
| Hardy Hill | 1 | Phone call home | ||||||||||||||||
| Krista Stegall | 1 | Birthday Dinner Date | ||||||||||||||||
| Will Kirby | 2 | Internet chat with fans Entry into BB All Stars House | ||||||||||||||||
| Danielle Reyes | 2 | Video from home Entry into BB All Stars House | ||||||||||||||||
| Jason Guy | 1 | Letter from home | ||||||||||||||||
| Lisa Donahue | 1 | Internet chat with fans | ||||||||||||||||
| Marcellas Reynolds | 2 | Private dinner date Entry into BB All Stars House | ||||||||||||||||
| Marvin Latimer | 1 | Walk on role in the Young & the Restless | ||||||||||||||||
| Michael Ellis | 1 | Phone call home | ||||||||||||||||
| Diane Henry | 1 | Entry into BB All Stars House | ||||||||||||||||
| Nakomis Dedmon | 1 | Entry into BB All Stars House | ||||||||||||||||
| Erika Landin | 1 | Entry into BB All Stars House | ||||||||||||||||
| Howie Gordon | 1 | Entry into BB All Stars House | ||||||||||||||||
| James Rhine | 1 | Entry into BB All Stars House | ||||||||||||||||
| Jase Wirey | 1 | Entry into BB All Stars House | ||||||||||||||||
| Mike "Boogie" Malin | 1 | Entry into BB All Stars House
Items of noteTemplate:BbSpoiler The following are some of the most notable events including records, for seasons one through seven.
Timeline of Notable Events
Big Brother on DVDDiscs from the third season of the show, in its entirety as well as edits, have been released on Region 1 DVD. Highlights from the fourth season have also been released. On the third season discs, the episodes were taken from tapes aired on CBS, and not from unedited versions, meaning that curse words spoken on the show, and nudity seen, was still beeped and blurred out, respectively. With the release of the fourth season highlights, it was announced that the clips would show unaired footage, ostensibly racier than what CBS would allow to air. NotesThe first season of Big Brother had such a completely different format it cannot be considered the same show as the seasons that would follow it. In the first season, similar to the international formats of the show, the format was more of a social experiment meant for viewers at home to observe. The contestants had little power over each other since the home audience decided their fate, so it was up to them to create drama on their own. Ironically, the two most controversial contestants on the season, Will and Jordan, were the first two to be eliminated. This meant that the remaining players, for the most part, got along with each other, leaving little conflict to be witnessed by viewers. Producers did their best to spice up the show with gimmicks such as a huge domino set for the players to fiddle with as well as adding barnyard animals to the house's backyard. These tactics seem downright mundane compared to the overly dramatic antics that would befall later seasons (including, but not limited to, a contestant nearly slicing the throat of another contestant) and did little to improve the show's ratings. Initially hyped as the perfect companion series to the surging Survivor, which had premiered just a few weeks before, viewers soon tired of the boring antics of the show. However ratings perked up enough by the finale, especially among younger viewers, that the show was renewed the following summer. Beginning with Big Brother 2, CBS completely replaced the creative team behind the show and turned it into the Survivor-esque game that is played today. External links
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