Is Big Brother always watching?

Inside scoop on what really goes on inside the Big Brother House.

Big Brother is a game show that follows a group of contestants, House Guests, who are living together in a custom built house under constant surveillance. The House Guests are completely disconnected from the outside world, no phones, internet, TV, or newspaper. The contestants compete weekly, and have evictions that determine who will win the $500,000 prize. Head Of Household (HOH) competitions are held at the beginning of each week and determines who is in power that week. Power Of Veto (POV) competitions allows the winner to remove themselves from the Block, or another house guest. Despite the addicting drama, Big Brother gives you an inside look at relationships between strangers, how alliances are made and how they break, and the weekly changing cast.

Paul Abrahamian, Nicole Franzel, and James Huling competing in the final HOH.

Big Brother sets up its week with a HOH competition, you see a physically draining competition to decide which house guest will have power that week. In most episodes we see the elapsed times of the competitions, which could be an hour to 6 hours in length. Viewers see the house guests fall, make gains, and fail some more throughout the competition, making it known that these competitions aren't easy, at all. Seeing these contestants fall and spend hours doing these competitions, viewers can connect with the house guests, because the house guests aren't idealized in unrealistic ways. Big Brother also uses POV competitions to get the audiences at the edge of their seat. During any POV comp, you'll see each house guest compete for immunity. These competitions differ from HOH competitions because they are more skill based in nature. Regardless of which competition it is, the HOH and POV comps show how hard contestants work for the win.

Big Brother puts a lot of focus on "showmances," in fact, some of these silly showmances have blossomed into lasting relationships and even marriages. Jeff Schroeder and Jordan Lloyd met on Big Brother season 11, and sparks flew. They returned to Big Brother for season 13 as a competing pair.  And in 2016 they welcomed their baby boy Lawson into the Big Brother world. Hayden Voss and Nicole Franzel met on season 16 of Big Brother, and fell head over heels for each other, they were seen together after the show ended, but Nicole's recent showmance with Corey Brooks proves that not every showmance lasts. Putting any group of adults in a confined space will lead to the best and the worst to come out. Not everyone gets into s showmance, there are quite a few house guests that can't be near each other.  These people are confined together with very little to do, so they start to think of ways to solidify their fortune, and with that, anger, resentment and mischief comes out to play.

Cody Calafiore and Derrick Levasseur, the Hitmen.

Alliances are a big part of Big Brother, which house guests will team up and dominate the game? contestants spend days, weeks and sometimes the whole game trying to figure out if someone is getting close to them for friendship, or for the information they have. One of the most famous alliances in Big Brother history were the "Hitmen," from season 16. This alliance included, Winner of season 16 Derrick Levasseur, Cody Calafiore, Caleb Reynolds, Frankie Grande, and Zach Rance. After all, the Hitmen ultimately became Derrick and Cody in the end, taking each other to final 2. While team members often turn their backs on each other, alliances have helped secure a path to victory, like Derrick's win in season 16 with the help of fellow alliance member, Cody. But, not all alliances lead to victory, we have seen numerous alliances crumble under pressure of drama and conflict.

You never know which house guest will be going home, or which house guest will be staying for another week. This is ultimately up to the the winner of the HOH competition, and who is in control of the POV for that week. But not every eviction goes as planned, there have been back door evictions which stir up the house into a pot of drama. What keeps viewers watching, is the lack of knowing if their favorite house guest will stay or go, and even if you're so sure about who is going home, that can change in any moment. Towards the end of the season, you see a lot more betrayal between house guests. In season 18, you see Paul put up Nicole and Corey, ultimately sending one half of the showmance to the Jury House, when the original plan was to put up James, and send him home.

Julia and Liz Nolan with Julie Chen.

Big Brother likes to add twists into each season, some being more crazy than others. One of the more recent twists, was the "Twin Twist," in season 17. Julia and Liz Nolan were switching places in the game for weeks. The only real reason anyone found out, was Liz's relationship with Austin, he noticed each girl was slightly different, and it started to cause speculations. Another big twist was "The Battle Of The Block," Which allowed 2 Heads of Household to nominate 2 house guests for eviction. Each nominee would then compete for safety, and the losing team would be forced to play in the POV comp, and whichever HOH nominated them, would be stripped of their powers. Each twist comes with its pros and cons, if you complete the twist you will be rewarded, but if you fail the twist, you'll suffer consequences. Viewers are left in the dark as much as the house guests are, they don't know when twists are coming, and it can potentially ruin their whole game plan. Planned evictions cant be finishes, back doors are being thought about, its all a crazy whirl wind.

Big Brother wouldn't be anything without the competitions, showmances, alliances, the changing cast, or the BB twists. All of these simple things make us love Big Brother and keeps us on our toes.

Works Cited

Bignell,Jonathan. "Big Brother: Reality TV in the twenty-first century." Palgrave Macmillan, 2005.


Hoyt, Eric. "Keeping it real." World Policy Journal. Vol. 27, no.3. fall2010. pp 47-55.

Rubinstein, Gidi."Modesty doesn't become me:Narcissism and the Big Five among male and female candidates for the Big Brother TV show." Journal of Individual Differences, Vol 37, no. 4, 2016, pp.223-230

Which houseguest will win 500k?: Big Brother season 18, Episode 41 recap. CBS.http://www.cbs.com/shows/big_brother/news/1005854/which-houseguest-will-win-the-500k-big-brother-season-18-episode-41-recap/. 16 September 2016.