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Big Brother: New To The Show? Here's Everything You Need To Know
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Big Brother is a reality show in which a number of strangers (often called hamsters by the fans) 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 executively-produced by Alison Grodner & Rich Meehan. Arnold Shapiro (who formerly produced Rescue 911) stepped down as executive producer following All-Stars and now serves as executive consultant.
Since its second season, the American Big Brother continues to use different rules from 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 seven complete seasons of the U.S. version of the show; all have been broadcast on CBS. Another difference, at least between the U.S. and U.K. versions, is that there has not been a season of celebrity contestants.
For all seasons, the eviction-night is hosted by 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.
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.....
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