Big Brother (American TV series)

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

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 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..." 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

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. 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.

	# Of Times¹
Janelle Pierzina	9
Erika Landin	8
James Rhine	7
Amy Crews, George Boswell	6
Curtis Kin, Diane Henry, Nakomis Dedmon	5
Alison Irwin, Eddie McGee, Howie Gordon, Ivette Corredero, Kaysar Ridha, Marcellas Reynolds, Marvin Latimer, Will Kirby	4
Adria Montgomery-Klein, Cassandra Waldon, Danielle Reyes, Jack Owens, Jase Wirey, Josh Souza, Maggie Ausburn, Michael Ellis, Mike "Boogie" Malin, Roddy Mancuso	3
April Lewis, Holly King, Jamie Kern, Jean Jordan, Jee Choe, Josh Feinberg, Jun Song, Karen O'Neil Ganci, Kent Blackwelder, Krista Stegall, Lisa Donahue, Nicole Nilson-Schaffrich, Rachel Plencer, Robert Roman	2
Amanda Craig, Ashlea Evans, Autumn Daly, Beau Beasley, Brittany Petros, Bunky Miller, Chiara Betri, Dana Varela, David Lane, Drew Daniel, Eric Littman, Eric Ouellette, Gerry Lancaster, Hardy Hill, Jennifer Vasquez, Justin Giovinco, Karen Fowler, Lori Olsen, Lori Valenti, Michael Donnellan, Michelle Mardie, Mike Lubinski, Monica Bailey, Natalie Montgomery-Carroll, Nathan Marlow, Sarah Hrejsa, Scott Long, Shannon Dragoo, Sheryl Braxton, Tonya Paoni, William Collins, Will Wikle	1
Jason Guy	0

Template:FnbThis total does not reflect unofficial and automatic nominations which occur when the playing field is narrowed down to three houseguests. The two houseguests who are not Head of Household face eviction. Will Kirby, Monica Bailey, Jason Guy, Danielle Reyes, Jun Song, Robert Roman, Diane Henry, Michael Ellis, Maggie Ausburn, Erika Landin, and Janelle Pierzina on two occasions have all been unofficially nominated in this manner.

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	4	Phone call home Set visit to Two and a Half Men Entry into BB All Stars House Big Brother Prom Queen
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	1	Internet chat with fans
Danielle Reyes	1	Video from home
Jason Guy	1	Letter from home
Lisa Donahue	1	Internet chat with fans
Marcellas Reynolds	1	Private dinner date
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

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. In Season 7 (All-Stars), The Season 6 alliance continued to run the house winning HOH 5/6 weeks as of now. Season 6 included Howie, Janelle, Kaysar and James. Another returning aliance was season 2's Chilltown (Will and Boogie). A surprising alliance in Season 7 was the "Legion of Doom" alliance, formed around Week 4, and consisted of BB2's Will and Mike Boogie, BB3's Danielle and BB6's James. According to Will, however, the Legion of Doom alliance, while being completely unknown to the rest of the house, has fractured from the inside, as he and Boogie both evicted James. As the week continued Will worried about Danielle and where she may turn so in week 8 Will and Boogie convinced Dani's ally Erika to nominate Danielle once the veto was used, this resulted in a 3-0 eviction of Danielle (BB3).

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 Head of Household or Golden Power of 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 gave cause for nomination the following week. Winning competitions often guarantees another week in the game. However, power gained from winning competitions will mark a contestant as being a strong player. Exercising this power may also upset other contestants. 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 and Michael in Season 6, Scott and Jase in Season 5, and Alison in season 7. More successful contestants have been those who have had quieter personalities, including Season 3 finalists Lisa and Danielle, Season 5 winner Drew, Erika, who made it to Week 9 in Season 4, Jack who made it to Week 7 in Season 4, and "Chicken" George in season 7. 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 subsequently deny 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, and in season 7 has thrown power of veto competitions.

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 rather than Diane (his girlfriend at the time) to the final two because Cowboy was seen as a useless player, unworthy of earning the big prize, and Drew won by a vote of 4-3.

The "Six Finger" or "Backdoor" Plan

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 three competitors are not chosen by the nominees and HOH, but rather they are randomly selected originally by spinning a wheel with the houseguests' names on it, and later by picking from a bag containing balls which either have a houseguest's name on them (red) or are "Houseguest's Choice" balls (blue) which allow the houseguest picking to choose whomever they want to participate in the competition. It is worth noting, however, that all of the evicted in Season 7, with the exception of Alison, Nakomis, James, George, and Janelle have been technically "Backdoored" whether intentionally or not.

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.

"Pawns"

One recurring theme of Big Brother since nominations for elimination have been made by the Head of Household is the "pawn/target" nomination. This strategy involves picking a true target that the HOH truly wishes eliminated, paired up with a well-liked nominee who is unlikely to be eliminated. This allows a surgical strike against a particular houseguest - for example, during season 7 when George from Big brother 1 placed James, his true target due to James' previous nomination of George himself, and Erika, who had survived several previous nominations easily. However, this strategy is not foolproof. The power of veto often forces the HOH to focus on a secondary target (as George in the above example was forced to do when James saved himself by winning the Veto competition, electing Howie by group consensus in his place). Also, the HOH may not be able to guarantee the votes to save the pawn and eliminate the true target. This was exemplified when Marcellas was nominated by Janelle in Big Brother 7 after being assured of his safety, then was voted off, largely due to the machinations of the Chilltown (Will and Mike) alliance.

The "Will" Strategy

The "Will" strategy refers to a unique, bizarre, and sometimes humorous set of techniques used by, of course, Will Kirby. He is often referred to as best player in Big Brother history. Will won Big Brother 2 despite being nominated 4 times and was the last of the previous champions who played in Big Brother 7 All-Stars. His proclaimed strategy is to win no competitions (except the Game), tell people he will lie to them, and then lie to them. How can they be upset? In season 7, he often wears a T-shirt stating, "I'm probably lying." Another strategy Will and his Chilltown cohort Mike "Boogie" Malin used in season 7 is that they have made secret alliances with almost everybody else in season 7 and played everyone against each other. Both Will and Mike have won prizes in competitions where the winner of the prize is not announced to the other houseguests, for instance in season 7 Will won $5000 and Mike won a plasma TV and a trip for two to Aruba during a power of veto competition and they told the other houseguests that Marcellas Reynolds won those prizes, thus making Marcellas look greedy.

Naïveté

A new strategy introduced in the seventh season by "Chicken" George Boswell is a strategy of naïveté. George has reacted with shock, rather than glee, when things go his way. He acts as if the Big Brother game is new to him, and as if he doesn't know what he's doing, possibly because this is the truth. Normally, this sort of act wouldn't get people far in the game, but strangely enough, it has worked for George, as he finished in fifth place. George has said it was not strategy and that he really had no idea what he was doing since this game was so much different from the one played in season 1.

Items of note

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

As of July 20, 2006, Danielle Reyes and Will Kirby attained one hundred days in the Big Brother house between their respective original seasons along with the All Star season. Since then, "Chicken" George Boswell, Diane Henry, Janelle Pierzina, Marcellas Reynolds, Erika Landin, Howie Gordon, James Rhine and Mike Malin have attained the 100-day mark as well. Fellow BB7 All Stars houseguests Alison Irwin & Jennifer "Nakomis" Dedmon barely missed the mark when Alison was evicted first in BB7 after just 11 days, and Jennifer 2nd after 18 days, bringing both their total to 93 days. Should both of them had survived their respective evictions, they would have both obtained 100 days.
Will Kirby holds the most days playing the game with 147, followed by Janelle Pierzina with 143, Danielle Reyes with 142, Erika Landin with 140 and George Boswell with 138 days.
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 63 different houseguests. 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. All three of them were evicted during the season.
As of the end of the seventh season, 15 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 runners-up (two from season one): Josh Souza, Curtis Kin, Nicole Saffarich-Nilson, Danielle Reyes, Alison Irwin, Michael "Cowboy" Ellis, and Ivette Corredero. In addition, Mike Malin and Erika Landin, whose placement in the game is soon to be determined.
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. In the fifth week of season seven, Kaysar was evicted a third time, making him the only houseguest evicted three times, taking him two seasons to accomplish the feat.
Jennifer Vasquez, Beau Beasley, Marvin Latimer, Howie Gordon and Monica Bailey are the only five Big Brother contestants who were evicted during pre-taped episodes. Howie, Jennifer, Beau and Marvin all left the house during double eviction weeks, in which the eviction was pre-taped 24 hours in advance. As for Monica, the eviction scheduled to take place on September 13, 2001 was pre-empted by the terrorist attacks of September 11. Her eviction instead took place on September 15 and was aired on television on September 18. Howie was evicted live during season 6 and pre-taped during season 7.
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. Michelle will most likely hold this record, since the minimum age to become a houseguest has since been raised to 21.
The most times a player has been nominated at some point during the game is nine. Janelle Pierzina of seasons 6 and 7 was nominated by Eric, Maggie, Ivette, April and Jennifer during season 6 and by Mike (x2), Danielle, and Erika in season 7.
The most times a player has been nominated in the course of one season is Amy Crews, who was nominated six times (by Lisa, Roddy, Danielle, Marcellas, and twice by Jason) during season three.
The most times a player has won an eviction vote (in other words, nominated, not vetoed off, but not the one evicted) is currently five. Curtis Kin was the first to do this, going 5-0 in season one before finishing third. (Fellow housemate Eddie McGee went four straight weeks marked for banishment and won each vote, still a record mark.)
The mark for the most times a player has won an eviction vote in multiple seasons is seven, held by Erika Landin, her only loss coming in the round of four in season four.
The record for the most times a player has won the Power of Veto contest is currently held by Janelle Pierzina, of seasons 6 and 7, with 7. Janelle won the Veto twice in season 6 and five times in season seven.
The record for the most times that a houseguest has been saved by the Power of Veto is six. Janelle Pierzina was saved by herself and by April Lewis during season 6. She saved herself four times during season seven.
Janelle Pierzina holds the record for winning the most Head of Household (HoH) contests in the span of two seasons, and overall as well. She won two HoH competitions in the sixth season. During the seventh season, she won four HoH competitions, for a grand total of six. Janelle's first three HoH weeks of season 7 came within the season's first six weeks, making her the fastest houseguest to win not only two HoHs (in four weeks), but the fastest to three HoH wins and four HoH wins.
Drew Daniel (during season 5) and Janelle Pierzina (during season 7) tie the record for winning the most Head of Household (HoH) contests in the span of one season, with a total of four.
The record for most total individual contests (HoH, POV, and America's Choice; not including Luxury and Food Competitions, which are for the most part group efforts) won by one person is held by Janelle Pierzina with sixteen. She won six in season six (two HoHs, two POVs, and two America's Choices), and ten more so far in season seven (one shared HoH, three solo HoH, five POVs, and one America's Choice). The ten in one season and the sixteen 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.
In the sixth week of season seven, there were also two Head Of Households, but instead of the two sharing power, one merely replaced the other. It appeared to the CBS TV audience watching the Big Brother live show on August 10, 2006 that Erika Landin had won Head Of Household, but during the contest, Howie Gordon had openly complained that there was a technical glitch with his signaling device that didn't allow his answer to be shown. The contest continued, with Landin outlasting James Rhine. Later that night, the producers decided to strip Landin due to the technical glitches, and another contest was held, won by Janelle Pierzina.
With houseguests being brought back into the house, many marks were set in the opening weeks of the all-star season for feats in multiple seasons. Janelle Pierzina became, along with Jase Wirey, the first HoHs of multiple seasons. Janelle also became the first POV holder and multi-time HoH holder in multiple seasons, completing all of these feats within the first 25 days of season seven. Alison Irwin was the first houseguest nominated in different seasons, but it wasn't until Jennifer "Nakomis" Dedmon, the season's second eviction, until someone had been evicted in two different seasons. With the third eviction of season seven, Jase Wirey holds the dubious mark of missing the jury or being a finalist (by making the final nine) in his first season, season five, and missing the jury again in season seven. With his 12th and 10th place finishes, respectively, Jase is also the first player in show history to score double-digit finishes (tenth or worse) in two different seasons. In week four, Diane Henry was nominated for a second time, making her the first houseguest to be nominated more than once in multiple seasons. In week five, Janelle Pierzina added to her long list of feats in Big Brother USA by winning the Power Of Veto a second time, making her the first multi-holder of the POV in two seasons. At the end of the week, Kaysar Ridha duplicated Wirey's feat of missing the jury in both their respective season and the all-star season. Ridha was also the first houseguest to miss the jury by one spot in both seasons, the first houseguest to finish in the same position each season (tenth in season six and seven), and the first houseguest in season seven who didn't finish worse than their respective original season. On Day 47, Howie Gordon was evicted, making him the first sequestered juror in multiple seasons.
As well as houseguests doing things in two different seasons, houseguests have also done things in the all-star season seven that they didn't do in the previous season they had appeared in. Danielle Reyes was formally nominated in the first week, something she didn't officially face in her season, season three. Alison Irwin not only faced the possibility of being evicted for the first time (having been vetoed off the three times she was "on the block"), but was evicted, two things that didn't happen to her in season four. "Chicken" George Boswell and Mike "Boogie" Malin have each won Power Of Veto contests, something they couldn't have done in their seasons because such competitions didn't start taking place until season three. Then, on Day 46, George Boswell won Head of Household, something Boswell couldn't have done in season one there was no Head of Household - the Head of Household did not debut until season two. Also on that night, Marcellas Reynolds became the first member of season seven's sequestered jury. Reynolds had a vote into who won the third season, but the sequestering of juries didn't begin until season four. Will Kirby, Danielle Reyes amd George Boswell will also be serving on the Big Brother jury for the first time, with Danielle and Will getting their first evictions ever on Days 60 and 65 respectively. Will Kirby has also lost the game for the first time ever.
Mike "Boogie" Malin was the first ever winner of two different contests. In the very first week of season two, he captured the first ever Head Of Household. In week six of season seven, the Coup D'Etat was introduced, also won by Malin, a returning houseguest for the all-star season.
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 in the game's seven seasons.
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). Danielle eventually finished sixth, being evicted on Day 60 of season seven.
Only Alison Irwin of Season 4 and Drew Daniel of Season 5 have gone their entire season without facing the possibility of eviction after nominations and Veto were done. However, when Alison re-entered the house for the seventh season, she was nominated, not saved by the Power of Veto, and was evicted, making Drew the only person to not face the possibility of eviction after nominations and Veto.
Will Kirby, the season two winner, holds the distinction of being the only winner that has never won any Head of Households or Vetos. Michael Ellis also made it to the last day of season five without being HoH (he won a Veto, though), 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 Plencner, Eric Littman, Kaysar Ridha, Maggie Ausburn, Howie Gordon, Jennifer Vasquez, Janelle Pierzina, Beau Beasley, and April Lewis all won HoH before Howie became a repeat winner.
Big Brother 6 also holds the record for having the most number of different contestants who became HoH at some point, with a total of ten. Those ten are the nine HoH mentioned above (Rachel, Eric, Kaysar, Maggie, Howie, Jennifer, Janelle, Beau, and April), as well as Ivette Corredero. James Rhine was not one of them, but he would eventually become HoH for the first time in Big Brother All-Stars.
Big Brother 5 and Big Brother 2 on the other hand, had the least number of unique Heads of Household. Only Jase, Marvin, Drew, Diane, Nakomis and Adria served as the Head of Household throughout season 5, and only Mike, Krista, Hardy, Kent, Nicole and Monica throughout season 2.
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. The first season of the series was also the first one have an all same sex final three, which was three males.
In each complete season since the format change, six houseguests per season were evicted in a unanimous decision. Autumn, Shannon, Kent, Krista, Hardy and Monica in season 2, Amy (twice), Josh, Gerry, Roddy, and Jason in season 3, Amanda, Dana, Nathan, Jee, Erika and Robert in season 4, Mike, Adria, Marvin, Karen, Nakomis and Michael in season 5, and Kaysar, Rachel, James, Beau, April and Janelle in season 6 were all evicted without opposition. Season 7 continued this pattern. Jase, Marcellas, Danielle, George, Will and Janelle have been unanimously evicted.
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, Janelle), 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.
The CBS broadcast on June 21, 2006 to introduce the 20 houseguests the audience voted 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.
Currently, Janelle Pierzina is in the lead in every category. She has won the most HOH challenges with 6, the most POV challenges with 7, and the most America's Choices with 4. She has also been saved the most amount of times with the POV with a total of 6, five of which were by herself.
During season 7, there have been three seperate occasions in which three Heads of Household reigned over a period of less than 6 hours. The first occasion occured when Janelle and Jase finished their co-HoH reign on day 11, with Kaysar assuming the role thereafter. The second occasion was on day 39. Danielle finished her HoH reign on this day, handing over the key to Erika after she won the HoH competition. However, when the competition was deemed to be faulty, Janelle took the reins. Finally, on day 60, Erika finished her reign as HoH, after which Janelle assumed the reins. However, Janelle's reign was extremely brief as it was a double eviction night. Later that evening, Mike took the reins as the third HoH of the day.
Janelle Pierzina and Nicole Nilson-Schaffrich are the only houseguests who have ever hosted a Head of Household competition.
On two occassions did a house guest win HoH twice in a row. The first being Drew Daniel in Season Five, and the second being Mike Malin in Season Seven. Both occured in the Final Three, the only occassion where the previous HoH can compete for the power.
Since the current final HoH format debuted (in season 3), Mike Malin is the first person to have not won part 1 of the final HoH Competition, but won the competition overall. Past final HoHs (Lisa, Alison, Drew and Ivette) all won part one of the competition.
The most times the Power of Veto has been used in one season is 9 times during season 7. It was used by Janelle on four occasions, and once each by George, Mike, Danielle, James and Erika. All of these uses of the Veto were to save themselves, marking the first season since the PoV debut that the Veto has not been used by one person to save another.
Janelle Pierzina and April Lewis are the only HoHs who have changed their own nominations through the use of the Power of Veto. Janelle initially nominated Maggie and Jennifer for eviction in season 6, won the Power of Veto, saved Maggie, and nominated Ivette in her place. April initially nominated Janelle and Howie for eviction, won the Power of Veto, saved Janelle, and nominated James in her place.

Timeline of Notable Events

Season 1 (2000)

First set of nominees: William Collins and Jean Jordan
First player to survive an eviction: Jean Jordan
First evicted houseguest: William Collins
First winner: Eddie McGee

Season 2 (2001)

First nominees under the new format: Nicole Nilson Schaffrich and Sheryl Braxton
First expelled houseguest: Justin Sebik
First Head of Household: Mike "Boogie" Malin
First unanimously evicted houseguest: Autumn Daly
First Head of Household to vote to break a tie: Hardy Ames-Hill
First houseguest to be evicted after HoH tiebreaker: Bill "Bunky" Miller
First season with two finalists
Most unanimous voting results: 4
The game was disrupted due to the September 11, 2001 attacks; producers suspended the rule about participants not being informed of outside world events.

Season 3 (2002)

First season with a Power of Veto
First Power of Veto winner: Gerry Lancaster
First non-usage of Power of Veto: Danielle Reyes
First houseguest to be evicted twice: Amy Crews
First houseguest to be allowed back into the house: Amy Crews
First Head of Household to also hold Power of Veto in the same week: Jason Guy
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

Season 4 (2003)

Youngest houseguest: Michelle Maradie, 19
Oldest houseguest: Jack Owens: 58
First season where all Power of Veto competitions are Golden Power of Veto competitions
First usage of a Golden Power of Veto: by Nathan Marlow, saving Alison Irwin
First jury to be sequestered
First season with a Diamond Veto
First person to win the Diamond Veto: Alison Irwin

Season 5 (2004)

First season where Power of Veto competitions only involve a maximum of six people
Only season with related houseguests: Jennifer Dedmon and Michael Ellis as well as Adria Montgomery-Klein and Natalie Montgomery-Carroll.
First double elimination week
First season with a talk show: House Calls
Most houseguests: 14
Last season to use the original house.

Season 6 (2005)

First two-story house
First house with a secret room
Only secret partners
- April and Jennifer (Sorority Sisters)
- Ashlea and Janelle (Former Roommates)
- Beau and Ivette (Co- Workers)
- Eric and Maggie (Friends)
- Howie and Rachel (Friends)
- James and Sarah (Dating)
- Kaysar and Michael (Neighbours)

Big Brother 7: All-Stars (2006)

Only time two people shared HoH: Week one, with Janelle Pierzina and Jase Wirey.
Only person to have been evicted three times: Kaysar Ridha (2 on season 6 and 1 on season 7).
Only time an HoH competition was re-done: Week 6 started off with Erika Landin winning HoH. The competition was re-done because of technical difficulties with many houseguests' buzzers, including Howie Gordon's and Mike Malin's. The redo was then won by Janelle Pierzina.
Only Coup d'Etat : Won by Mike Malin (it ended up not being used).
Only time two houseguests were evicted within the same night: Danielle Reyes and George Boswell
Most vetos won in the same season: Janelle Pierzina with 5
Only time a houseguest won seven HoH's and seven veto's in the span of two seasons: Janelle Pierzina.
Only season to have 2 jury houses: The original sequester house had to be evacuated due to Hurricane John.
First Person to win Big Brother Prom Queen: Janelle Pierzina
First Person to be the last person evicted (3rd place) twice in a row: Janelle Pierzina

Big Brother on DVD

File:Bigbrother3dvd.jpg

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 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.