Today Big Brother starts in Brazil and if you were out of the planet for twenty-one years I’m going to talk about the most famous reality of the world and how it works.
Big Brother was invented by John de Mol, a dutch billionaire and television producer who created this format in 1999, its first broadcast was in the Netherlands, however the program spread all over the world in a short time.
In Brazil, the reality arrived by the Globo network, that bought the format in 2002. The Big Brother Brazil, known as BBB was an extremely success, achieving the highest ratings of all the brazillian TV’s history on its last episode of season one. Then, the Globo creates another season in the same year and one season for each year until nowadays, totalling twenty-one editions.
This reality show is broadcasted in over 60 countries, how do you think it’s the success of them? And plus: how is it around the world? Let’s check it.
Brazil
Let’s start for our dear BBB, it consists of a group of people – from 12 to 20, it depends on the season – confined into a house for some months, usually two and a half or three. As the weeks are passing by, the houseguests are evicted one for week until the end, when the champion gets the one and a half million reais nowadays – in the beginning it was a half million – the public choose who is going to be evicted, according to the game into the house – a leader – person who wins the leader competition of the week – chooses someone to eviction and all of the houseguests choose one or two people for eviction. Brazillians do the rest. The game is characterized by a lot of dynamics and twists, which increases emotion to the show.
United States
The Americans already had twenty-two editions of Big Brother and the success is even bigger than here. Americans literally stop to watch Big Brother, but the game is a kind different there: The public votes few times: on twists inside the game or in the final season when the America chooses the favorite houseguest who receives 25 thousand dollars, different from the winner of the game who receives a half million dollars, however that one is not chosen by the public votes, but by the juror votes. WHAT??? Yes, on Big Brother US the person we know as leader is the head of household and it has the responsibility to nominate two persons for eviction and the houseguests choose who will get out from the house. Some of these houseguests are going to compose the jury that will define who wins the game at the finale night.
Canada
Big Brother Canada is very known as well, even people from other countries stop to watch the show, there are seven seasons complete of the reality in Canada, because the eighth season was cancelled in 2020 because of the pandemic of covid-19. The dynamic of the game is kind similar to the big brother us, the head of household chooses two people for eviction and the houseguests do the work to evict. Counting with the jury house as well, the winner receives 100 thousand canadian dollars. In addition, there is a night when three, THREE houseguests get out from the house! It’s the triple eviction night. The houseguest is evicted and then another head of household is defined but now three people will be nominated and two of them is going to say ‘bye’ to the others. A crazy night, by the way.
Australia
The country is now on the twelfth season, considering that Australia didn’t have seasons since 2014. In the land of kangaroos the dynamic was very similar to Brazil, with the public deciding who would be evicted and who would win. Until now, because in 2020 Big Brother Australia decided to follow the format similar to the USA and Canada.
Italy
In Italy, the show gains another name: Grande Fratello and it’s divided in two kind of format: Grande Fratello and Grande Fratello VIP, the houseguests of the first format are anonymous and of the second are famous people, like sub celebrities, artists, ex-realities, etc. Some brazilians have already participated in Grande Fratello Vip, including the current season “Grande Fratello VIP 5” and the brazillian Dayane Mello, who is going too far in the game.
participation on ‘Big Brother Brazil 19’
Nigéria
The last Big Brother we are going to see more is the Big Brother Naija, from Nigeria. The houseguests compete for a cash prize worth 85 millions Nigerian Naira.The first exhibition was in 2006, but the low ratings made the show out of the nigerians’ tv until 2017, when the program started in a new Network and now it’s a huge success even out of the country. Here, the dynamic is way too different: the housemates choose two people for eviction and the public decides who will leave. Sometimes, the public votes in all the houseguests, except the head of household and decides who is going to be nominated and this way, the houseguests choose who is going home.
It is interesting how a franchise of reality is a success around the world, in many countries and for a lot of years! Well, I like all of them, and follow almost all LOL. How about you, do you like Big Brother? Which of them do you watch?