Big Brother 2 (UK)

Big Brother 2001, also known as Big Brother 2, was the second series of the British reality television series Big Brother. It is based upon the Netherlands series of the same name, which gained notoriety in 1999 and 2000. The series premiered on Channel 4 on 25 May 2001 and lasted nine weeks until the live finale on 27 July 2001. The second series continued the success of the original, being a ratings success for the company. There was a total of 7.3 million votes in the final week. In terms of ratings, it matched the success of the first with a series average of 4.5 million viewers.

The premise of the series remained largely unchanged from the previous installment in the series. The series revolves around ten strangers living in a house together with no communication with the outside world. They are filmed constantly during their time in the house, and can have no communication with those filming them. Each week, each contestant, referred to as "housemates", choose two people to be up for nomination. The two or more people with the most votes will be nominated to leave the house. The viewers then decide which of the nominees should leave, with the selected person leaving during a live show. This process continued until only three housemates remained, in which the viewers would decide which of the housemates would win the £70,000 grand prize. A housemate can be ejected from the show for breaking rules, such as discussing nominations when not permitted. Later in the season, an intruder entered the game, the first in Big Brother history, bringing the total number of housemates to 11. The series ended after 64 days, in which housemate Brian Dowling was crowned the Winner, and Helen Adams the Runner-Up.

Since their appearance on this series, various housemates have gone on to appear in other editions of the series. Housemate Narinder appeared in the spin-off Big Brother Panto in 2004, along with other former Housemates. Housemate Dean later returned for Big Brother 10 in 2009 as part of a task celebrating ten years of Big Brother. Winner Brian Dowling was an official housemate for Ultimate Big Brother, in which he became the only person to win the game of Big Brother twice. Housemate Amma returned that season as well, though it was only to participate in a shopping task. Brian later returned to Big Brother again in 2011, when he became the host of the new Channel 5 version of the show, replacing Channel 4 host Davina McCall. In 2009, housemate Stuart Hosking announced plans to launch Big Brother: The Musical in London's West End theatre, and was granted approval by Endemol.

Prizes
The ten housemates in the game are competing for the grand prize of £70,000. Each week, the housemates attempted to complete various tasks assigned by Big Brother in exchange for a weekly budget, which they used to buy food and luxuries; this included buying things such as alcohol and cigarettes. Big Brother 2, much like the premiere season, did not feature luxury competitions or prizes throughout the season.

House
For the first two series, the house was located in Bow, London near to the 3 Mills Studios. The second series had a bigger budget, and the house used was renovated for a new look. Despite a similar layout to the original house, the decorations and furniture were completely different. The new House had a "Cabin fever" theme, as the format of the show was similar to the feeling of having cabin fever. With this theme, there were wooden walls throughout the majority of the house. There was a living room, where important news such as nominations were revealed to the housemates. The kitchen remained simple, with only necessities such as an oven, fridge, and sink. In the "Diary Room", in which housemates may speak privately and reveal their true feelings to the public, there is a more interesting look to it. The background of the room has the appearance of a garage door, with the Big Brother eye logo imprinted on it. Like the previous season, there is a men's and women's bedroom, each with five beds in them. One of the five in each room is larger than all of the others. Unlike the previous season, however, the men and women were allowed to choose which bedroom belonged to which gender. The outside of the house features a chicken coop, with seven hens and one rooster. The housemates must care for the chickens during their stay in the house, and must also use the eggs from the chickens to eat, otherwise they must use some of their budget to buy eggs. The house also features a garden, which the housemates use to grow plants and vegetables to eat. The Housemates were later given a hot tub to use in the backyard, placed close to the garden. A new feature this year was the addition of the den outside, a small area in the backyard in which housemates could enter to lounge and speak to one another. There were no couches or seats, but there were various pillows scattered around.

Format
Big Brother is a game show in which a group of contestants, called housemates, live in isolation from the outside world in a custom built "house", which includes everyday facilities such as a fully equipped kitchen, garden, two bedrooms, and a bathroom. The house is also a television studio with cameras and microphones in most of the rooms to record the activities of the housemates. The only place where housemates can escape the company of the other contestants is the Diary Room, where they are encouraged to voice their true feelings. Not all Diary Room footage is broadcast due to the privacy of the contestants. Each week all housemates nominate two of their fellow contestants for potential eviction. Failure to do so may result in a punishment, such as a reduction in the prize fund. The two, or more, housemates with the highest number of nominations face a public vote conducted by phone, with the contestant receiving the most votes being evicted from the house. The last contestant remaining in the house is declared the winner and is awarded a cash prize of £70,000. On eviction night, there were two live eviction shows held. In the first, host Davina McCall would reveal to the housemates who had been evicted from the house, though the percentages were withheld from the group. Following the announcement, the evicted housemate had two hours to back their belongings and prepare to leave the house. At the start of the second episode, McCall would inform the evicted housemate that they had only moments to walk out the door. Upon exiting through the house's front door, McCall led the evictee into a studio where they met with their family and friends. While in the studio, McCall had an interview with the evicted housemate, and showed their best bits - a video compilation of their time in the house.

Over the duration of the series, the Housemates are given a series of tasks by Big Brother which test them in many ways. They are also put to the test by their own ideals, prejudices and opinions against other people from different walks of life; something that has survived from the original "social experiment" of Big Brother 1. They live in the communal House and share cooking and cleaning chores among themselves, which usually provides plenty of tension. Housemates are forbidden to sleep during daylight hours (unless unwell) - Big Brother plays the wake-up call persistently in the morning if housemates do not wake up and will play an alarm clock noise into the house if a housemate falls asleep during the day. Housemates must also live by the fundamental rules of Big Brother; if the rules are broken it can result in formal warnings, various punishments or even a housemate's removal from the House. They must wash their own clothes by hand, and they have to make their own bread from scratch. Each week Big Brother sets the Housemates a task in order to determine the shopping budget for the following week. They must work together to win the tasks in order to win a luxury shopping budget which changed based on the amount of people remaining in the house. If all food runs out in the House, Big Brother provides emergency rations of chickpeas and rice. Housemates are responsible for their own shopping and decide which items the budget will allow them to have. Only a small percentage of the overall budget can be spent on alcohol.

In an attempt to shake things up during the first night in the house, viewers were shown three new housemates: Josh, Anne, and Natasha. Josh claimed that he had "made a million dollars, and then lost it", while Anne was an elderly woman who described herself as a "late night talker". Natasha promised the viewers she would be sassy and sexy if she entered the house. The public would vote during the first week to decide which of these three housemates would be able to enter the game as an official housemate. As to not spoil the events of the game to these potential housemates, they were sequestered in Portugal while the public decided which of them should enter. On Day 16, Josh entered the house as the eleventh and final housemate. Referred to as intruders, new housemates entering the game would later become a major element for future Big Brother series in the country.