The first season of Big Brother, the American reality TV show, aired in the summer of 2000, with seventy episodes from July 5 to September 29 and followed the same format as the international version, in that the viewing public voted by 900 number for which contestant to be evicted from the house after each contestant put two people up. The top two vote getters, including anyone tied for second, were "marked for banishment." Unlike later seasons the show aired six times a week; a one hour live studio show, four half-hour daily recap episodes, and a one hour weekly recap episode.
The theme song for Season One was called "Live," and was performed by Jonathan Clarke. Bits and pieces of the song were played during the closing credits of each episode, but was never played in its entirety. The song is available on a hard-to-find soundtrack CD produced by the Dutch show's producers, along with the first-season theme songs of shows in Argentina, Spain, and Germany. An instrumental version of the theme, heavy on acoustic guitar and/or saxophones, were used for the opening credits and interstitials.
The first season of Big Brother was considered a disappointment in terms of ratings. Despite being heavily promoted, it failed to match the viewership of the international versions. It also failed to reach the level of wild popularity that Survivor: Borneo enjoyed the same summer. The home-viewer voting technique resulted in the most controversial contestants being evicted early in the game, leaving the least troublesome contestants in the house.
For example, William Collins was evicted first after he called out fellow houseguest Brittany Petros on her supposedly racist ways. Karen Fowler was voted out, ostensibly, when the audience sympathized with her when she went through a breakdown of sorts on the program, but did not like it when she admitted to wanting a divorce from her husband on live television.
One of the best-known houseguests was Jean Jordan, who played instigator in the house and was evicted for making waves with the other contestants. Notably, Jordan was the only Big Brother contestant to receive major media coverage upon leaving the house. Unlike the Survivor contestants, Jordan was the only houseguest to appear on The Late Show with David Letterman and later went on to mock Big Brother in the media, noting what a bad show it was, and saying that she should have held out for Survivor: The Australian Outback. In one of the series' most memorable moments, Jordan went so far as to ridicule the corny theme song on the final episode, telling host Julie Chen "... You know, I'm just living like I'm living today, I'm feeling the thrill of life, and I'm not afraid, Julie."
As the number of houseguests dwindled, the show started losing viewers, and producer Paul Römer hoped to spice up the proceedings on Day 64 by bribing one of the houseguests with $20,000 to leave and replace them with a new, more interesting houseguest. Römer bragged in the media that they'd have no problem getting a contestant to leave. On the Wednesday live show, viewers were introduced to Beth, an alternate from the casting process who described herself as being "opinionated" and "a bitch." Despite prodding from Julie Chen to take what began as $20,000, and was increased to $50,000, none of the houseguests would take the money and leave the game.
Ultimately, Eddie McGee survived to the end, and won the $500,000 grand prize, with Josh Souza coming in second.
One of the more interesting elements of the season was not introduced by CBS or the houseguests, but by people with no official connection to the show. Although the houseguests were cut off from the outside world, the courtyard of the house was completely uncovered. Viewers quickly realized this and began to hire airplanes pulling large banners containing messages meant to communicate with the houseguests. This continued on the second season but by the third season the houseguests were instructed to not read plane banners.
The first season of Big Brother has generally been ignored by CBS after it has aired. While all others seasons had a "Where are they now?" segments on the following season, this did not occur for the Season 1 contestants on Big Brother 2. The official website for Big Brother 1 has been removed, although this is because the site was maintained by AOL, not CBS.com, and was deleted prior to the premiere of Big Brother 2. Will Kirby, the eventual winner fo the following season, admitted on the live feeds during Big Brother 7: All-Stars that during Big Brother 2, the producers had told the houseguests not to mention Big Brother 1. Clips from Big Brother 1 were shown on Big Brother All-Stars: America's Vote, as George Boswell is the only potential candidate for this season. A never-used version of the present Big Brother logo, Big Brother 1, replaced the logo originally used for that season. Big Brother 1 wasn't mentioned by the contestants of subsequent seasons until season 7.
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