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"Big Brother" is a popular reality television format, where, over 10 weeks or so, a number of contestants (typically 10 or 12) try to avoid periodic publicly-voted evictions from a communal house and hence win a cash prize. The show, a kind of 'real life soap', was invented by John de Mol of the Netherlands and developed by his production company, Endemol. It has been a prime-time hit in nineteen different countries, earning Endemol large sums. 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.
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Initially shown in the Netherlands in September 1999, and subsequently cloned across the world, the "housemates" are confined inside a specially designed house, and not permitted any contact with the outside world: no TV, radio, telephone, internet or other media are available to the housemates, not even writing materials. Private chats with a psychologist are a special exception. At weekly intervals, the public is invited to vote to evict one of the contestants. The last remaining is the winner. It is similar to the balloon problem where a balloon is sinking and someone has to be forced to bail out in order to keep the balloon afloat.
The programme is based around four basic elements: the stripped-bare back to basics environment in which they live, the evictions system, the weekly tasks set by 'Big Brother', and the "diary room", in which the housemates individually convey their thoughts, feelings, frustrations and their eviction nominees.
The hostel in which they reside for the duration of the competition is very basic. Although essential amenities such as running water, furniture and a limited ration of food is provided, luxury items are forbidden. This adds an element of survival into the show, thus increasing the potential for tensions within the house.
To fill in time, the residents have various chores to maintain the house, and are set apparently random tasks by the producers of the show, who communicate with the housemates through one (unseen) individual issuing commands, termed "Big Brother". The tasks are designed to test their team-working abilities and community spirit. The housemates have a weekly allowance with which they can buy food and other essentials. To obtain a greater allowance, they may gamble some of their initial amount on the success of the completion of tasks. Of course, their allowance is lessened if they fail to complete the weekly task.
Each week, the housemates each privately nominate two people who they wish to see removed from the house more than the other residents. The three (two in the United Kingdom - unless there is a tie, when it can be three or more) with the most nominations are then named on the television show, and viewers can call a special premium rate telephone number or send a premium rate text message to vote for whom they want to evict. The substantial profits from the calls and text messages are split between the phone companies and the producers.
After the votes are tallied, the "evictee" leaves the house and is interviewed on-camera by the host of the show, usually in front of a live studio audience. The last remaining housemate is declared the winner and receives a substantial sum in prize money, the amount of which has varied widely around the world.
The series is notable for involving the Internet. Although the main show, typically broadcast daily with a weekly roundup, is by necessity heavily edited, viewers can also watch a continuous, 24-hour feed from multiple cameras on the web. These websites were highly successful, even after some national series started charging for access to the video stream. In some countries, the Internet broadcasting was supplemented by updates via email, WAP and SMS. In the UK, the house is even shown live on satellite television (with a 10-15 minute delay to permit muting of unacceptable content). Indeed, John de Mol has said: "We aren't really a television producer at all anymore. We are a content provider for multiple platforms."[1] (http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2003/0317/088_print.html)
The format has been developed further in some nations. The third Dutch edition introduced the notion of "The Battle", in which the house is separated into a luxurious and a poor half, with two teams of housemates constantly fighting for time in the luxurious half. The fifth German edition, running for a full year, separated the contestants into three teams (rich, regular, survivor) and equivalent living areas.
In the UK there have been two 'Celebrity Big Brother' series, which have drawn huge viewing figures and raised money for charity.
Despite derision from many intellectuals and other critics, the show has been a commercial success around the world. Criticisms typically are based on the ironic aspects of George Orwell's dystopic vision of Nineteen Eighty-Four being consciously aped by producers for public entertainment. More generally, the voyeuristic nature of the show, where contestants volunteer to surrender their privacy in return for minor celebrity status and a comparatively small cash prize, has attracted much scorn.
While any pretences to be a cultural experiment are dubious, reports of the different results of the show around the world have been mildly interesting from a pop-anthropology standpoint; in Australia after a few weeks it became clear that most of the remaining housemates liked each other and had no particular desire to evict each other, whereas other versions have involved plotting in the vein of Survivor. Some European versions have been filled with sex-crazed housemates, whereas the Anglo-Saxon versions have been mostly sex-free, although two couples indulged in oral sex during the third British series (one of the pairings later married) and the second and fifth British series were both marked by emerging romances between contestants. The amount of sex shown on the televised versions varies from country to country depending on censorship rules, with some countries editing out all sex and nudity, and others allowing the show to verge on the pornographic.
The majority of winners have been men, although a number of countries have now had a female winner. In Sweden, however, the reverse applies. Although a number of countries have (knowingly) included transsexual contestants, only one has won.
An interesting development in Big Brother is that German scientists have discovered that former contestants may be at risk from Post Container Stress Disorder, a condition sometimes suffered by those who leave the armed forces. Indeed, in the second Polish edition, one of housemates was taken to a psychiatric hospital.
The format has also spawned novels, in particular Ben Elton's book Dead Famous about the televised death of a housemate.
American Big Brother currently uses different rules than other countries' versions of the show, as it has starting with its second season. (The first season followed the traditional format.) In the US version, viewers do not vote for eviction; all voting is done by houseguests. The US has seen five complete seasons; with the fifth being completed in September 2004. All have been shown by CBS.
For all five seasons the eviction-night host has been Julie Chen. The continuity announcer, who was an active part of illustrating the story in the first season but is now relegated to the opening and closing parts of the show, is Phil Proctor.
Australian Big Brother has just completed its fourth season, the winner being Trevor.
Big Brother (UK TV series) has seen five complete series to date, and all have been shown by Channel 4. There have also been two Celebrity Big Brother series - week-long versions with minor celebrities as housemates, with a proportion of the profits from eviction votes going to charity.
For all five series the eviction-night host has been Davina McCall, and the daily updates have been narrated by Marcus Bentley. A second daily show, Big Brother's Little Brother (presented by Dermot O'Leary), has shown news, gossip and behind-the-scenes details. The fifth series saw the start of a talk show about the happenings in the house called Big Brother's EFourum hosted by Russell Brand, shown on digital-only channel E4 with late-night repeats being aired on Channel 4.
Big Brother UK was the first and only country from which a Big Brother has flirted with housemate and has dated them.
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