page_title: Big Brother (American TV series)
section_title: Broadcast
hierarchical_section_title: Big Brother (American TV series) / Broadcast
caption_attribution_description: English: Julie Chen and Les Moonves at the Vanity Fair celebration for the 2009 Tribeca Film Festival.
context_page_description: Big Brother is a television reality game show based on the Dutch TV series of the same name created by producer John de Mol and Ron Diesel in 1997. The series takes its name from the character in George Orwell's 1949 novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. The series launched on July 5, 2000 on CBS and is currently the second longest-running adaptation in the Big Brother franchise to date after the Spanish version. The show followed the premise of other versions of the format, in which a group of contestants, known as "HouseGuests" live together in a specially constructed house that is isolated from the outside world. The HouseGuests are continuously monitored during their stay in the house by live television cameras as well as personal audio microphones. Throughout the course of the competition, HouseGuests are evicted from the house, by being voted out of the competition. The last remaining HouseGuest wins the competition and is awarded a cash prize of $500,000. In its inaugural season, ratings declined and critical reaction grew increasingly negative prompting the series to be revamped for the second season.
context_section_description: Since its launch in the United States, Big Brother has aired on CBS. The show is simulcast in Canada on Global. The fourth and ninth seasons have both aired in the United Kingdom, the latter airing in the Spring season. The first season featured a total of six episodes per week, though all future installments would air three nights per week. Of these three episodes, the weekly eviction episode is the only one that is live; this is the only episode to feature host Julie Chen. This show generally airs on Thursdays. To date, there have been a total of 746 episodes of the series to air. With the exception of the ninth season, the series typically airs once a year during the summer season. The first 15 seasons aired in standard definition, with the 16th season being the first to be produced in HD. However, the live internet feeds would not broadcast in HD until Big Brother 17. Before the series made the transfer, it was the last remaining regularly scheduled prime-time series to remain in standard definition. CBS released the entire third season as a nine-disc set on Region 1 DVD. This made it the first season to receive an official release, and has since become a rare item to find. The fourth season saw the release of a two-disc highlights DVD, featuring previously unseen footage deemed too racy for the main broadcast. To date, these are the only seasons to see a physical release. Beginning with the seventh season, all future seasons are available for purchase on digital retail sites. With the 15th season, TVGN (now Pop) began airing re-runs of the series at later dates, making it the first season to be aired following its premiere; this continued with the 16th season. Subscribers to CBS All Access are able to stream the complete run of Big Brother-- including the differently-formatted first season-- and an episode of Big Brother 2 that did not air in most markets due to ongoing coverage of the September 11 attacks. CBS aired the spin-off series Celebrity Big Brother from February 7–25, 2018. It was the first spin-off to air on the broadcast network and the second season overall to air in the winter television season (the other being season 9). The celebrity edition aired in a concentrated run with fewer episodes, but with multiple episodes each week.
caption: Julie Chen, seen here with Les Moonves, has hosted the series since its premiere.
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