Big Brother
The US version of Big Brother is based on a series already airing in Europe. The format was that the contestants, confined to the house, have all their movement recorded and filmed. Houseguests form alliances to help further themselves in the game, with "floaters" being houseguests that have no particular alliance. The winner receives $500,000 while the runner-up receives only $50,000.
Season One of Big Brother
In the first season, as in the European series, the viewing public called a 900 number to vote out a houseguest. Allowing the viewing public to vote didn't work well in America - they evicted the controversial houseguests first, leaving the less troublesome ones in the house. As the more controversial houseguests went, so did the viewers. Ratings for the first season were low, despite heavy promotion. To try to revive ratings, producer Paul Romer offered houseguests $20,000 to leave so he could replace them with new, more exciting contestants. When no one took it, the fee was raised to $50,000, but no one left. The eventual winner was Eddie McGee with Josh Souza as the runner-up.
Season Two of Big Brother
CBS was not ready to give up on Big Brother after the poor ratings of the first season, so they decided to change the rules. The big change was the elimination process. The Head of Household (HOH) position was added. This was won through a competition and the HOH would put up two houseguests for eviction, as well as receive benefits like food and a private bedroom. The houseguests, not the viewing public, would choose who to evict from the two selected. At the end of the season, the evicted houseguests would choose the winner. However, the final two would each choose an evicted houseguest who could not vote.
Season two started out with controversy when Justin placed a knife Krista's neck and asked if she'd be mad if he killed her. Both houseguests had been drinking and Justin was disqualified and evicted. There were three houseguests left when the terrorist attacks of September 11th occurred. Breaking the normal rules of no outside news, the houseguests were told of the tragedy.
With nine houseguests evicted and two not allowed to vote by the remaining two houseguests, five voted for Will Kirby, making him the winner. Nicole Nilson Schaffrich won the runner-up prize.
Season Three of Big Brother
In Season Three, the Power of Veto (POV) was added. The winner of this competition could veto a houseguest placed on the eviction nomination block, however, they could not use it on themselves, at least initially. Late in the season, the ruling was changed, however, failing to use the veto on himself proved detrimental to Marcellas. The winner of season three was Lisa Donahue and the runner-up was Danielle Reyes.
Season Four of Big Brother
This season was quite different because of the X-Factor. Eight houseguests were introduced, but five had exes who were also to live in the house. Scott had an ex-girlfriend move in the house, but became violent and was eventually disqualified and evicted. The POV became the Golden Power of Veto when it was announced that houseguests could use the veto on themselves. The winner of season four was Jun Song and Alison Irwin was the runner-up.
Season Five of Big Brother
The twist for season five was called Project Do Not Assume or Project DNA. Two of the houseguests, Michael and Jennifer were unaware they were half siblings, but once they discovered it, they revealed it to the rest of the house. The other part of the twist was one houseguest was not a single individual, but two identical twins who switched playing one part. If undiscovered after five weeks, they could both live in the house. Adria and Natalie were introduced to the other houseguests on Day 35.
Backdooring was also introduced in season five. Backdooring occurs when the HOH puts up two people for eviction, but doesn't really want them to leave. The two nominated and the HOH make a pact to get rid of another, more threatening houseguest. During the veto competition, the three choose only players they feel will use the veto and when the veto is used, the threatening player is put up on the nomination block. This ensured the POV was used more often and made the competition more exciting. The winner of season five was Drew Daniel with Michael "Cowboy" Ellis as the runner-up.
Season Six of Big Brother
In season six, the house received a renovation. Additions included a second story, a secret room, a private bathroom for the HOH and a co-ed shower. The theme of season six was Summer of Secrets. Every houseguest had a secret "partner" but were lead to believe they were the only one with a partner. It was eventually announced that everyone had secret partners, but the houseguests had already figured it out. Host Julie Chen revealed that if one pair of partners made it to the final two, the winner would receive $1,000,000 and the runner-up would receive $250,000.
Maggie Aushburn and Ivette Corredero, who were not partners, made it to the final two. Shortly after Maggie was announced as the winner, she announced that she would "share" her winnings with her secret partner, Eric Cappy Littmann. This created controversy as it is forbidden by the rules for the winner to split his or her winnings with another houseguest.
Season Seven of Big Brother
The current season of Big Brother is the All-Star season, bringing back the favorite houseguests of previous seasons. The viewing public voted to bring back the four women (Janelle, Erika, Nakomis, and Diane) and four men (Howie, Kaysar, James, and Jase) as well as six additional houseguests (Will, Danielle, Marcellas, Alison, Mike, and George). There was one houseguest from season one (George), two from season two (Will and Mike Boogie), two from season three (Danielle and Marcellas), two from season four (Alison and Erika), three from season five (Nakomis, Jase, and Diane), and four from one of the most popular seasons, season six (Howie, Kaysar, Janelle, and James). So far, Alison, Jase, Diane, and Nakomis have been eliminated. The Big Brother six houseguests have proven to be a strong alliance so far.
It seems that with each new season, Big Brother becomes more popular because, rather than use the same format, it reinvents itself to keep the viewing public interested. Big Brother Season Seven: All Stars stands to be one of the most popular seasons ever!
Additional Big Brother Resources
Big Brother 8 TV Listings, Episode Guide, Photos, Message Board, Cast and More TVGuide.com
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