Big Brother 1 (UK)

Big Brother 2000, also known as Big Brother 1, was the first series of the British reality television series Big Brother, which had previously gained notoriety in the Netherlands. The series debuted on Channel 4 on 18 July 2000 and ran for nine weeks until 15 September 2000. Early in its run, the series was met with Controversy and criticism for numerous reasons, including its use of professional psychiatrists who analyzed the personalities and actions of the contestants. Despite the large amount of controversy, the series was a major success. Forty thousand people applied to participate in the first series. The first week of the series had over 400,000 voters call in to choose to evict someone, while the final week had 7.8 million voters. The series averaged 4.5 million viewers, with a series high of 10 million viewers on the final night.

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 1, unlike other editions of the series, did not feature luxury competitions or prizes throughout the series.

House
The Big Brother house was located in Bow, London, east London. The house for the first series was very basic, as part of the theme of the series. A living room was featured in the house, with blue walls lining it and the kitchen, which featured a stove and sink, along with the fridge. The house featured two nearly identical bedrooms, one for the men and one for the women. Each room featured five beds, with matching sheets and furniture. There was a shower room and toilet in the house as well. Housemates could communicate with producers in the room known was the "Diary Room". The Diary Room for the first season featured a simple design, being a small chair with a white background. Future seasons of the series would feature more elaborate Diary Rooms. The Diary Room was where nominations took place, and where housemates could reveal their thoughts. As seen in the third week, housemates could be seen by a medical professional in the Diary Room if necessary. The outside of the house featured a chicken coop with various chickens inside, from which the housemates collect eggs. Unlike other editions of the show, Big Brother 1 did not feature a swimming pool or hot tub for the housemates to use. There was also a garden in the backyard, which featured a vegetable patch which the housemates could use. Various two way mirrors are in the house, with a camera crew behind him. There are also various cameras and microphones throughout the house, providing the housemates with no privacy. While in the house, the housemates made various changed to the house. On Day 3, housemate Nichola began putting clay on her body and pressing herself against the wall, making body art on the living room walls. The others later joined her, leaving various hand prints and body figures on the walls. They also made letters out of clay and hung them on the walls. On Day 15, the housemates were allowed to paint portraits of a fellow housemate shortly before the first eviction. The house later decided to hang their paintings on the walls. Housemate Nichola later used magazines to make art on the walls in various rooms of the house, including a musical note in the girls' bedroom and a hand next to the Diary Room door. On Day 41, housemates were given a jacuzzi to use.

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. Each night, the housemates were also given a discussion topic, and they would have group discussions in the living room.