Big Brother is a TV reality show shown on Channel 4 in which a number of contestants live in an isolated house trying to avoid being evicted by the public with the aim of winning a large cash prize at the end of the run. It is based on the Big Brother series produced by Endemol.

Main series
The sixth main series started on 27 May 2005 and Davina McCall has been the eviction night host in all the runs to date. Daily updates are narrated by Marcus Bentley. A second daily show, Big Brother's Little Brother, presented by Dermot O'Leary, shows news, gossip and behind-the-scenes details. The fifth series saw the start of a talk show about the happenings in the house called Big Brother's EFourum hosted by Russell Brand, shown only on digital channel E4 with late-night repeats aired on Channel 4. The sixth series saw EFourum replaced by Big Brother's Big Mouth.

Series 1 (2000) 
Series 2 (2001) 
Series 3 (2002) 
Series 4 (2003) 
Series 5 (2004) 
Series 6 (2005) 

Series 7 Auditions
Series 7 is planned, and on the 20th of January details about auditions were released on the Official Big Brother website[1]. Auditions will be held:

Saturday 4th February – Glasgow 
Saturday 11th February – Newcastle 
Wednesday 15th February – Dublin 
Saturday 18th February – Manchester 
Wednesday 22nd February – Cardiff 
Saturday 25th February – Birmingham 
Saturday 4th & Sunday 5th March – London 

Aspect Ratio
Big Brother is one of very few programmes on mainstream British terrestrial television that is still broadcast in the old 4:3 aspect ratio as opposed to the more common 16:9 widescreen format. The reason for this is unclear, but believed to be because of the size of some of the hidden cameras.


Location
For the first two series, the house was located in Bow, London near to the Three Mills Studios which housed Davina's interviews and the production crew. After planning permission expired after two main seasons (and the first Celebrity Big Brother), Newham Council ordered the complex to be returned to a natural habitat. [2] Subsequent seasons have taken place at Elstree Studios, which offers more security than the Bow site (which had a public footpath running alongside the southern border). Even the Elstree site has problems, however: it is close to a residential area, attracting complaints from locals about crowd noise on eviction night. Permission has recently been granted to extend the lease of the house for seasons 7 and 8 (2006 and 2007 respectively).


Live
The action from within the house is streamed live over the internet (for a monthly fee). Since the second series Channel 4's sister station E4 has also carried live pictures and audio from the Big Brother house. However the stream had a delay of 15 minutes so that audio and/or pictures can be edited out to comply with TV regulations. An interactive service available to digital viewers allows 24/7 access to the stream, even when E4 is carrying normal programming. In 2005 for Series 6 this service became available and free for 5.1 million viewers who have access to Freeview. During series 2 - 4 the interactive service via digital TV also carried up to 4 separate video streams; 2 containing live footage from the house, both focussing on different groups of people in different areas of the house whilst the others contained highlights from recent house action. Unfortunately only a single feed appeared from Series 5 onward.

From Series 7, live streaming will be available via the internet and also E4 (edited with a 15 minute delay). However, Channel 4 and Endemol are planning a new subscription channel to launch exclusively for the series (currently codenamed Big Brother 777) which will focus on more uncut streaming. Due to new TV regulations the channel will be able to broadcast swearing and nudity during the day, as long as the channel remains under PIN protection to ensure that only adults can gain access. The channel will be enhanced with an 8 screen interactive service. Currently planned are 6 live video streams from the house (2 containing audio) including a stream which will focus exclusively on the shower area. The only time when the audio feeds will be cut are for libel or legal reasons. The service is currently being developed by BSkyB for Channel 4 and will be a stand alone subscription channel.


Special versions

Celebrity Big Brother
Main article: Celebrity Big Brother (UK) 
There have been four Celebrity Big Brother series featuring well-known names as housemates (apart from the 2006 winner).

The winners of the past series are:

Jack Dee (March 2001) 
Mark Owen (November 2002) 
Bez (January 2005) 
Chantelle Houghton (January 2006) 

Teen Big Brother
A special version of Big Brother, featuring eight 18-year-old teenagers, was broadcast in October 2003 on Channel 4 and E4 as Teen Big Brother.

Unlike all other Big Brother series, Teen Big Brother was shown after the teenagers were inside the house, once the winner had been determined. Also unlike the other Big Brother programs, there was only one nomination and eviction and the remaining seven housemates decided amongst themselves who would win the series. The series was shot over ten days.

In Teen Big Brother, for the first time in UK Big Brother history, two of the housemates, Jade Dyer and Tommy Wright, had sex, sparking massive controversy from the media and safe sex campaigners.


Big Brother Panto
E4 and T4 broadcast the special Big Brother Panto series, bringing together selected members of the various Big Brother series to perform a pantomime of Cinderella during December 2004. The people who took part in the pantomime were:

Nick Bateman (series 1) 
Tim Culley (series 3) 
Victor Ebuwa (series 5) 
Anouska Golebiewski (series 4) 
Jade Goody (series 3) 
Melanie Hill (series 1) 
Narinder Kaur (series 2) 
Kathryn "Kitten" Pinder (series 5) 
Marco Sabba (series 5) 
Spencer Smith (series 3)