Big Brother (US TV series)

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For the current series, see Big Brother (USA season 7).

Big Brother US

The current Big Brother logo.

Host and Shows

Julie Chen - Host of Big Brother
Gretchen Massey - Host of House Calls: The Big Brother Talk Show

Season 7 (2006) houseguests [http://encycl.opentopia.com/Big Brother (US TV series) edit ]

This is the current, ongoing series In the house:

Danielle Reyes - Since Day 1
Diane Henry - Since Day 1
Erika Landin - Since Day 1
George Boswell - Since Day 1
Howie Gordon - Since Day 1
James Rhine - Since Day 1
Janelle Pierzina - Since Day 1
Jase Wirey - Since Day 1
Jennifer "Nakomis" Dedmon - Since Day 1
Kaysar Ridha - Since Day 1
Marcellas Reynolds - Since Day 1
Mike "Boogie" Malin - Since Day 1
Will Kirby - Since Day 1

Evicted:

Alison Irwin - Day 1 to Day 11

Big Brother 6 houseguests

Winner: Maggie Ausburn

Runner-up: Ivette Corredero

Others: Janelle Pierzina, April Lewis, Howie Gordon, Beau Beasley, James Rhine, Rachel Plencner, Jennifer Vasquez, Kaysar Ridha, Sarah Hrejsa, Eric Littmann, Michael Donnellan, Ashlea Evans

Big Brother 5 houseguests

Winner: Drew Daniel

Runner-up: Michael "Cowboy" Ellis

Others: Diane Henry, Jennifer "Nakomis" Dedmon, Karen O'Neil Ganci, Marvin Latimer, Adria Montgomery-Klein, Natali Montgomery-Carroll, Will Wikle, Jase Wirey, Scott Long, Holly King, Lori Valenti, Mike Lubinski

Big Brother 4 houseguests

Winner: Jun Song

Runner-up: Alison Irwin

Others: Robert Roman, Erika Landin, Jee Choe, Jack Owens, Justin Giovinco, Nathan Marlow, Dana Varela, David Lane, Michelle Maradie, Amanda Craig, Scott Weintraub (ejected)

Big Brother 3 houseguests

Winner: Lisa Donahue

Runner-up: Danielle Reyes

Others: Jason Guy, Amy Crews, Marcellas Reynolds, Roddy Mancuso, Gerry Lancaster, Chiara Berti, Josh Feinberg, Eric Ouellette, Tonya Paoni, Lori Olsen

Big Brother 2 houseguests

Winner: Will Kirby

Runner-up: Nicole Nilson Schaffrich

Others: Monica Bailey, Hardy Ames-Hill, Bill "Bunky" Miller, Krista Stegall, Kent Blackwelder, Mike "Boogie" Malin, Shannon Dragoo, Autumn Daly, Sheryl Braxton, Justin Sebik (ejected)

Big Brother 1 houseguests

Winner: Eddie McGee

Runner-up: Josh Souza

Others: Curits Kin, Jamie Kern, George Boswell, Cassandra Waldon, Brittany Petros, Karen Fowler, Jean Jordan, William Collins

The American version of Big Brother has aired on CBS every summer since 2000. It is a reality show in which a number of strangers live in an isolated house and compete to win a cash prize. 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 six complete seasons of the U.S. version of the show, with a seventh season currently underway; 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..." 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, 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.

[Spoiler warningSpoiler warning]: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Contents

Seasons

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)

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 are 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.

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 doing 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"; and season 6, a large safe's spinning dial) 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.

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 an oatmeal-like substance.

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 PB-n-J for the week. (An exception to the rule in season six was if a houseguest has a PB&J Pass, which allows them to eat food regardless of the outcome of a competition). In Big Brother All-Stars, instead of PB&J they had to eat Big Brother Slop.

The Power of Veto

In Season 3, a new rule was introduced. Each week 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). But if a nominee won the power of veto, they could not use it on themselves. From Season 4-onward, this rule would be renamed as "The Golden Power of Veto" (not to be mixed up with the paragraph below).

The Golden Power of Veto

In the last Power of Veto competition of Season 3, the Golden power of Veto was introduced. The big change with the Golden Power of Veto was that if a nominee was to win it, they could take themselves off the nomination block. This Power of Veto has been used ever since. Starting in the fifth season, only six contestants could compete for the Power of Veto, which allowed the new strategy of backdooring to come to play. From Season 4-onward, the last "Power of Veto" competition has been renamed the "Diamond Power of Veto."

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.

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.

Strategy

American Big Brother strategy, after its first season, differs from other Big Brother shows substantially, as one must win votes from housemates instead of viewers.

Alliances

An alliance is a group of people who pledge absolute loyalty to the other people in their group. Alliances may be overt or secret. In Season 3, Jason Guy and Danielle Reyes formed a secret two-party alliance in the early stages of the game. This alliance worked well because they could convince the other houseguests to go after people other than themselves without appearing to have a bias. Jason and Danielle finished third and second respectively. Larger alliances are risky -- they usually fracture before they are the only houseguests remaining and players are slowly evicted when the "underdogs" win HoH. Non-secret two-party alliances are particularly dangerous, often resulting in both members of the alliance being nominated at the same time (e.g. Eric and Lisa, who were romantically involved were nominated in Week 4 of Season 3, as were Roddy and Chiara in Week 6 of the same season.) When Lisa had the chance to vote Eric back into the game, she chose not to (a choice that proved to be a wise one as she went on to win Season 3). Also famous for two-party alliances that weren't secrets were Adria and Natalie of Big Brother 5, who were the "twin twist." Overt alliances can propel one member or two members to the end, as seen when Maggie Ausburn beat Ivette Corredero in Season 6, but alliances are obvious targets and most members won't make it.

Being a Floater

An alternative to forming alliances is "floating" -- having no ties to a particular group but then being available to whoever is HoH that week to vote in the way they request. Floaters are often resented as self-serving, but can do well in the game as alliances target each other and delay targeting floaters. Season 4 was the debut of the "floater strategy" and the final two was comprised of a pair of self-proclaimed floaters. That was the season Jun Song went on to beat Alison Irwin.

Using Power

Winning the HoH or Veto games will guarantee an extra week in the game (unless the contestant does not choose to use the veto on themselves, as Marcellas did in Season 3, he was then voted out). Like Janelle from BB6, she won HoH and also won Veto in the same week. Having so much power made her go up the next week, but she was able to win the Veto again and saved herself. Playing with power often guarantees you another week. However, the power of winning such competitions will mark a contestant as being a strong (and dangerous) player, as well as potentially upsetting other contestants as a result of wielding power to nominate or change nominations. A person cannot win HoH two weeks in a row (except for the final two weeks), so the week following being HoH is particularly dangerous, many former HoHs have been nominated and/or evicted the following week. Some HoHs use their temporary week of power as a bargaining tool, striking a deal with other contestants that they will not nominate them the following week if they win HoH. Nominating is almost always likely to create enemies, a possible exception to this is in the first week of the game when contestants do not know each other very well and alliances are yet to have been formed. Although winning HoH or the Veto is not always a good idea (see Flying Beneath the Radar below), sometimes it is necessary in order to prevent your own eviction. To this end, contestants, including Alison, in Season 4, and Janelle, in Season 6, spent a considerable amount of time preparing for competitions, including studying trivia concerning fellow contestants and previous competitions, which is often the subject of competitions. Both Alison and Janelle were able to win some of these competitions, thus prolonging their stays in the house.

Flying Beneath the Radar

Contestants who appear aggressive, annoying, or competitive are often targeted early in the game. For example, Eric in Season 6, Michael, Scott and Jase in Season 5. More successful contestants have been those who have had quieter personalities, including Season 3 finalists Lisa and Danielle, Season 5 winner Drew, Erica, who made it to Week 7 in Season 4, and Jack who made it to Week 9 in Season 4. Contestants who are viewed as weaker in competitions (e.g. Cowboy in Season 5) are likely to be nominated later than stronger competitors, as they are unlikely to win Head of Household in the last weeks of the game and can be picked off once the stronger contestants have been removed. One possible strategy is to "throw" (lose on purpose) competitions, in order to appear weak. Season 4's Jack was suspected of doing this, because, despite being one of the more intelligent contestants, he never won Head of Household. Jack would subsequenlty denying throwing any competition. Will Kirby never won an HOH and eventually went onto win the second season of Big Brother. Will, unlike Jack, has claimed he threw competitions purposely.

Holding onto an Unpopular Contestant

While annoying contestants are generally ousted in the early to middle parts of the game because people don't want to live with them, during the endgame stage (when only a few contestants are left), it is sensible to enter the final week with an unpopular contestant by your side, as they are unlikely to garner votes from the jury. Contestants who have played the game by betraying or upsetting at least four jury members are therefore unlikely to win. For example, in Season 3, Lisa (HoH) chose to evict likeable Jason and take Danielle to the final with her. Danielle had been a more scheming player and had been extremely instrumental in the eviction of other contestants (particularly Roddy, whom she had compared on numerous occasions to the Devil). Consequently, Lisa won the jury vote 9-1 and the rules were changed to sequester the jury (Danielle's true strategic nature was revealed to evicted contestants via diary room interviews, destroying all the goodwill she had built up in the house). Season 4 was a stand-off between two unpopular contestants, Alison and Jun. Alison (HoH) chose to take Jun with her to the final, rather than Robert who was better-liked. However, by this point in the game, Alison was so disliked, that she still lost the jury vote (6-1) despite arguing to the jury that she had been a better competitor (having won many more competitions and schemed more successfully) while Jun had been more passive: "riding on other people's coat-tails". After winning HoH in Season 5, Drew Daniel chose to take Cowboy to the final two because Cowboy was seen as a useless player, unworthy of earning the big prize, and Drew won.

The \"Six Finger\" or \"Backdoor\" Plan

In this strategy of eviction, a contestant can be used thanks to the Season 5 alteration of the Power of Veto rules permitting only six players to compete for the power of veto. Under the "backdoor strategy" to evict a targeted contestant, the HoH originally nominates two cooperating contestants for eviction. The veto is then used to save one of these collaborators, and the HoH nominates the targeted contestant to replace the saved (collaborating) nominee. The now nominated target is unable to compete for Power of Veto and will be evicted if the HoH's supporters can secure sufficient votes. The "backdoor" strategy was pioneered in Week 6 of Season 5, when HoH Nakomis took advantage of a new rule in the Veto game--that it would only be played by 6 people rather than the entire household--in order to guarantee that houseguest Jase would be evicted. She initially nominated two people in her alliance: Marvin and Diane. However, during the veto game, all six players would be part of Nakomis' alliance. Therefore, the winner of the game was irrelevant, whoever won could remove one of the alliance members from the chopping block, and then Nakomis would be "forced" to choose a replacement contestant, in this case she chose Jase. Had she originally put Jase up for eviction, he could have won the Veto and removed himself. During the eviction vote, Nakomis' bloc majority ensured that Jase was evicted. A similar strategy was carried out in Season 6, when Kaysar originally nominated Maggie and James, but then his alliance arranged for James to win the veto game so that their enemy Eric would then go up in his place and be evicted. The effectiveness of this plan has been substantially decreased in Season 7, since the other two competitors are not chosen by the nominees, but rather they are randomly selected from a spinning wheel.

Betrayal

It is difficult to win Big Brother without betraying someone along the way, by either nominating or voting to evict them. Betrayals are best carried out early in the game (so the evictee will not be on the final seven jury) or on a person who everyone else wants evicted and who holds little influence with others. In Season 5, the final three contestants were Drew, Diane and Michael. Drew was allied with both Diane (who he was romantically involved with) and Michael. When Drew won HoH he had to evict either Diane or Michael. He evicted Diane, but still went on to win the grand prize as he gained four jury votes (including Diane's vote). It's been argued that breaking a strong long-term alliance late in the endgame (as long as one appears penitent afterwards) is not such a bad strategy as the broken alliance is unlikely to turn against you and would still prefer to see you win than a non-aligned contestant. This is where personal feelings can be a big factor in how much betrayal a player can get away with.

Items of note

The following are some of the most notable events including records, for seasons one through seven.

By the end of the seventh season of Big Brother, there have been a total of 75 different houseguests to play the game, with no new houseguests in season seven. Of those 75, there will have been at least 74 evictions for at least 61 different houseguests, a total that could be as high as 63 should Danielle Reyes, Will Kirby, Alison Irwin all be evicted before the final two. Seven occurred in the first season to reduce ten houseguests to a final three, the only season concluding with three finalists. In Season 2, twelve houseguests were reduced to a final two, a formula that has been used ever since. However, due to the expulsion of Justin Sebik, there were only nine evictions. In Season 3, twelve houseguests were reduced to two, but one houseguest, Amy Crews, was evicted on two occasions, making for a total of eleven evictions. In Season 4, thirteen houseguests began the game, but there were only ten evictions due to Scott Weintraub's expulsion. The fifth season of the series began with thirteen houseguests, and added a fourteenth, Natalie, with the "twin twist" playing itself out. That led to twelve evictions. In the sixth season, there were 13 evictions for 12 people, with Kaysar being evicted twice. The seventh season began with 14 houseguests, with only Danielle, Will, and Alison not having been evicted in their respective previous season.

Going into the start of the seventh season, 13 finalists have made it to the end of the season without eviction. The six winners: Eddie McGee, Will Kirby, Lisa Donahue, Jun Song, Drew Daniel, and Maggie Ausburn, and the seven runner-ups (two from season one): Josh Souza, Curtis Kin, Nicole Saffarich-Nilson, Danielle Reyes, Alison Irwin, Michael "Cowboy" Ellis, and Ivette Corredero.

In the first week of season seven, it turned out that Danielle Reyes and Alison Irwin were the standing nominees after the veto wasn't used. This will mean that the first eviction in season seven will be either Danielle or Alison's first eviction, because neither were evicted in the season they appeared in, both finishing second and making the end of their season.

Only Amy Crews in season three and Kaysar Ridha in season six were allowed to re-enter the house with a second chance to win their season's contest. Unfortunately for both, neither one won their respective season, as Amy re-entered Week 6, and was evicted Week 10, and Kaysar re-entered Week 5, but was evicted Week 6. If Kaysar does not make the final two in the seventh season, he becomes the only houseguest to be evicted three times, since Amy didn't take part in the All-Star season.

When Michael Donnellan and Eric Littmann were evicted second and third, respectively, in the sixth season, it marked the first time in Big Brother that two men had been evicted so quickly. In previous years, the first three out always included at least two women.

The oldest houseguest in Big Brother history was Jack Owens, a retired FBI agent, who played in the fourth season at age 58. The youngest was 19 year-old Michelle Maradie, the ex-girlfriend of fellow houseguest David Lane, also in the fourth season.

The most times a player has been nominated at some point during the week is six, held by Amy Crews of Season 3. Amy was nominated twice before her first eviction, and four more times when she came back into the house.

The record for the most times a player has won the Power of Veto contest is currently held by James Rhine, who won that title four times in eight weeks inside of the house in the sixth season.

Drew Daniel holds the record for winning the most Head of Household (HoH) contests when he won his fourth on September 17, 2004. Drew is also the only person to be HoH on two back-to-back occasions. Normally, the outgoing HOH cannot continue to hold power when someone has been evicted, but when the houseguests are reduced to three, everyone, including the most recent HOH, competes for the position.

The record for most total contests (HoH, POV, and America's Choice) won by one person is held by Janelle Pierzina, who won six in season six (two HoH's, two POV's, and two America's Choices), and two more so far in season seven (one HoH, one POV). The six in a season and the eight overall are both the most by any person.

The first Head Of Household in season seven wasn't one person, but two co-holders. Jase Wirey and Janelle Pierzina were the co-winners of the HOH title in the first round of the season, and had to agree on who to nominate. Had they failed, they both would have been nominated and stripped of their duties. Had a tie occurred in the voting to evict, Janelle would have been the tie-breaking vote due to her veto win.

The most lopsided eviction occurred during the first week of the fifth season. In that round, Jennifer Dedmon and Mike Lubinski were nominated for eviction, with Mike being voted out, 10-0. The fourth season could have tied this record, but because contestant Scott was expelled before voting day, houseguest Amanda was evicted 9-0. Lubinski is also the only player to be the oldest in his or her season to be evicted first, going into season seven.

The most lopsided final vote occurred during the third season between finalists Danielle Reyes and Lisa Donahue. With all evicted houseguests able to compete in the final vote, Lisa won the one-sided final vote 9-1, with only Jason Guy voting Danielle to win the third season. The most lopsided vote with the jury format occurred during the fourth season between Alison Irwin and Jun Song. Jun won the game 6-1, with only Nathan Marlow voting for Alison to win.

The closest final vote was a one vote margin, which has occurred twice. Drew Daniel was the first to win by a one-vote margin when he defeated Michael "Cowboy" Ellis 4-3 to end Season 5. One season later, Maggie Ausburn defeated Ivette Corredero by the same 4-3 vote to win season six.

Only Danielle Reyes and Jason Guy, each from Season 3, went the entire season without being nominated in a nomination ceremony. But neither Danielle nor Jason won season three, finishing second and third, respectively, to winner Lisa Donahue. However, when Danielle re-entered the house for season seven, she was placed up as a nominee in the very first round of nominations, leaving Jason as the only houseguest in the show's history never to have been nominated or marked for banishment (as it was called in the first season).

Only Alison Irwin of Season 4 and Drew Daniel of Season 5 have gone the entire season without facing the possibility of eviction when the voting was done.

Will Kirby, the season two winner, holds the distinction of being the only winner that has never won Head of Household since the format change that took place after the first season. Michael Ellis also made it to the last day of season five without being HOH, but lost the final vote to Drew Daniel.

Big Brother 6 holds the record for going longest without a double Head of Household win by any of the contestants with nine consecutive times, starting at the beginning of the game. Rachel, Eric, Kaysar, Maggie, Howie, Jennifer, Janelle, Beau, and April Lewis all won HOH before Howie became a repeat winner.

The most people on the block in any one round in Big Brother history was six. In the fourth round of the first season of Big Brother, Eddie McGee, Josh Souza, Curtis Kin, Cassandra Waldon, George Boswell, and Brittany Petros were all nominated, with Petros being evicted. Since the rules changed when Big Brother 2 began in 2001, this is unlikely to be duplicated.

Season 6 was the first to have four females in the final four. After Howie Gordon's eviction, four females remained in the game: Janelle Pierzina, Ivette Corredero, April Lewis and Maggie Ausburn. It was also the first time that there had been an all same sex final four in Big Brother America history.

Lisa Donahue of season 3 is the only houseguest to win the first HoH Competition and be the winner of the season. All other first HoH'S (Mike, Nathan, Jase, and Rachel), were all evicted at some point or another.

Going into season seven, none of the original group of nominees up for eviction has ever won their season. Nicole Saffarich-Nilson came the closest to winning after defeating Sheryl Braxton in the opening vote to stay in the house, and stayed in until the final night, losing the final vote to Will Kirby.

Jennifer "Nakomis" Dedmon in season five has the distinction of being the only houseguest not evicted by vote, or expelled. With four players remaining in that season, Drew Daniel won HoH and nominated Diane Henry and Dedmon. Michael "Cowboy" Ellis won the last Power of Veto of that season, and because he casted the only vote anyway, had to use the veto. Ellis chose to save Diane from the block, and since the veto holder could not be placed up for nomination, Dedmon was eliminated without a vote.

The CBS broadcast on June 21, 2006 to introduce the 20 houseguests the audience will be voting for in six of the twelve positions was notable for two reasons. It was the first time a Big Brother show had aired on the network in June, and that it was the first time in Big Brother USA history that an episode didn't have houseguests in the Big Brother house in some form.

On September 11, 2001, during the second season, the remaining contestants were informed of the attacks of that day despite a rule that keeps contestants from finding out what is going on outside the house. Contestant Monica Bailey's cousin Tamitha was lost in the World Trade Center attack. The show was preempted for a week in favor of news coverage of the attacks. On finale night, it was learned that Tamitha died at the World Trade Center.

Season six marks the first season in which more than one of the first three evictees was male.

Timeline of Notable Events

2000

First Big Brother
First evicted houseguest: William Collins
First winner : Eddie McGee

2001

First expelled houseguest: Justin Sebik
First gay houseguest: Bill "Bunky" Miller
First Head of Household: Mike "Boogie" Malin
First season with two finalists
First female finalist (runner-up): Nicole Nilson Schaffrich

2002

First season with a Power of Veto
First person to win a Power of Veto: Gerry Lancaster
First person saved by a Power of Veto: Marcellas Reynolds
First houseguest to be evicted twice: Amy Crews
First houseguest to be allowed back into the house: Amy Crews
First season with a Golden Power of Veto
First person to win the Golden Power of Veto: Marcellas Reynolds
Most lopsided jury vote: 9-1
First female winner: Lisa Donahue

2003

First season with ex-partners in the house
Youngest houseguest: Michelle Maradie, 19
Oldest houseguest: Jack Owens: 57
First couple to have sex in the Big Brother house
First season where all Power of Veto competitions are Golden Power of Veto competitions
First season with a Diamond Veto
First person to win the Diamond Veto: Alison Irwin
First winner of Asian descent: Jun Song
First houseguest to appear on another reality show: Alison Irwin (Amazing Race)

2004

First season with twins living in the house
First houseguests to be related to each other: Jennifer "Nakomis" Dedmon and Michael Ellis
First season where Power of Veto competitions only involve five people
First double elimination week
First season with a talk show: House Calls
First jury vote to be 4-3

2005

Most houseguests in the Big Brother house: 14
First Muslim houseguest: Kaysar Ridha
First two-story house
Shortest duration: 80 days
First lesbian houseguest: Ivette Corredero
First season with two double eviction weeks
Person to win the Power of Veto the most times: James Rhine, 4 times
First season with a same sex final four
First season where two of the first three people evicted were male

2006

First all-star season
First time a runner-up was evicted: Alison Irwin, Day 11
First season with two Heads of Household
First time potential houseguests were chosen by the public
First time a previous winner was put back into the house: Will Kirby

American Big Brother on DVD

The complete season of ''Season 3, in a DVD box set.

Discs 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.

Notes

The first season of Big Brother had such a completely different format it can hardly 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 stabbing 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. Ratings since that time have remained steady and reliable, performing consistently well with younger viewers.

External links

[Official site of CBS] - Big Brother season [two], [three], [four], [five], [six], and [seven].
[RealityBBQ.com - Big Brother News and Chat]
[RealityNewsLive.com - Biggest Big Brother News Site]
[Big Brother Live Feeds]
[BigBrotherLink.com] - One of the longest running BB fansites.
[Happycrumb.com Big Brother 6]
[Big-BrotherTV.com - Big Brother news and gallery]
[eCenter] - Big Brother Forum.
[Big Brother (US)] on TV Squad
[Big Brother World]

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