Big Brother: All you need to Know about the Most Popular Reality TV Show

Big Brother is one of the most popular Reality TV game show in the world, the show has had 445 seasons in over 54 franchise countries and regions as of 26 November 2018 since the inception in 1999.

Big Brother “BB” is a reality TV competition franchise which was created by John de Mol Jr. and was first broadcasted in the Netherlands in 1999, half a century after the book which inspired the show was published.

The show comprises of contestants who are referred to as Housemates or House Guest who live together in an isolated house from the outside world. The housemates don’t have access to television, radio or the internet. The housemates are competing to remain in the isolated house until one of them finally wins the prize. There is usually a set date for the show to end and the last housemates standing on the day are the finalist and one of them will be the winner of the prize.

Origin

The show was inspired by George Orwell’s novel titled Nineteen Eighty-Four. The book offered a vision of the future in which the citizens of the world were under constant surveillance by the state and the government has absolute power.

The anti-columnist book which was written in 1949 is set in the year 1984 and it is about a man’s struggle against the CCTV-loving state – and it’s all-seeing, all-powerful figurehead, Big Brother.

Big Brother

Big Brother is an unseen, godlike figure, who controls the housemate’s lives and emotions by doling out privileges or inflicting punishments.

According to the book, if someone ever sets a foot wrong, Big Brother sees it and knows about it, and at the same time, he’s the only person they can ever speak to who isn’t a fellow housemate.

Big Brother sees and knows everything which is the inspiration behind the official logo [The all-seeing eyes], While he sees all the actions of the housemates, Big Brother is invisible to them.

Housemates/Contestants

The housemates of the show are continuously monitored during their stay in the house by live television cameras and personal audio microphones.

Like citizens in Orwell’s book, the housemates are encouraged to turn on each other, and are constantly in competition – in this case, to keep their place on the show. At regular intervals, the housemates privately nominate a number of their fellow housemates whom they wish to be evicted from the house.

The housemates with the most nominations are then announced, and viewers are given the opportunity to vote via telephone for the nominee they wish to be evicted or saved from eviction. Recently some editions of the show have included additional methods of voting, such as voting through social media and smartphone applications.

Throughout the course of the competition, the housemates are voted out (usually on a weekly basis) until only one remains and wins the cash prize.

The Show

The show is set to elapse at a certain date and the last housemate standing wins the prize at the end of the date. At interval during the show (usually weekly) housemates compete to be the Head of the House [HOH] which comes with benefits. While the benefits is not certain every week some of the common ones are Immunity to Nominations (The Head of House is save from being nominated from possible evictions for the week), Save and Replace (The HOH can save a nominated housemates and replace him/her with another housemate; sometimes this can be ‘save only’ without replace and some other twist decided by Big Brother).

There are several twist on the show which is determined by the organizers of the show. Some of the common twits are,

Fake Evictions

Big Brother misleads housemates that an eviction has taken place, only for the “evicted” housemate to reenter the house sometime later in the show.

Pairing

Big Brother pair housemates together which make them play the game with a partner, this twist is sometimes used to determine the fate of the paired housemates’ stay in the house as they can be evicted together and sometimes they can be evicted as individuals.

Fake Housemates

Big Brother introduces housemates into the house that are not competing for the prize, sometimes these housemates are encouraged by Big Brother to stir up the house. They are evicted once their assignment is complete in the house.

Secret Tasks/Mission

Secret missions are a common element of the show. During these missions, one or more housemates are set a task from Big Brother with the reward of luxuries for the household and/or a personal reward if the task is successful.

There are also some special editions of the show such as Celebrity and VIP Big Brother in which local celebrities participate in the competition as housemates.

In some countries, the prize money normally awarded to the winning housemate is donated to a charity, and all celebrities are paid to appear in the show as long as they do not voluntarily leave before their eviction or the end of the series. The rest of the rules are nearly the same as those of the original version

Spanish editions of the Big Brother are translated as Gran Hermano (GH). The show is distributed by Dutch-based media company, Endemol.

 

References

1. Wikipedia, Big Brother (franchise) and Big Brother (Dutch TV series)