Big Brother

Start date: 1999 Country of Origin: other country Genre: reality Director: John de Mol (creator), Mark Adamson, David McEvoy (directors) Producer: Kris Noble, Tim Toni Writer: Shannon Fitzgerald Cast: Kyle Sandilands & Jackie O, Gretel Killeen, Mike Goldman, Bree Amer, Ryan Fitzgerald Quirky Quote: “I think it is just a question of good taste. Here is a great opportunity for Channel Ten to do a bit of self-regulation and get this stupid program off the air” - former Prime Minister John Howard following an alleged sexual assault during Big Brother 6

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Beginning in The Netherlands in 1999, the TV show Big Brother was a huge success and has since been adapted for 36 countries worldwide. Developed by Endemol, the production company of Big Brother creator John de Mol, the show, essentially a real life soap opera, has been a frontrunner of the “reality TV” phenomenon. Whilst the show varies slightly for each different national version, its format remains essentially the same: contestants, or “housemates”, are selected from the public and are confined to the “Big Brother house” for a period of around three months.

Whilst inside the house they are filmed 24 hours a day and broadcast to the whole nation, interacting with each other and competing in set tasks. Contestants are denied contact with the outside world and each week they must nominate other housemates for eviction from the house. The viewing public then votes between a certain number of housemates with the most nominations, usually the top two or three. The final contestant left in the house is announced as the winner of a grand prize – normally a large amount of money, a holiday or a car, depending on the national version of Big Brother.

The show’s title and theme comes from George Orwell’s 1949 novel “Nineteen Eighty Four”, which described a “future” existence where all thoughts and actions are monitored by a totalitarian leader known as “Big Brother”. The first series of Australian Big Brother began in April 2001.