Big Brother (Euro Republics)

Big Brother Euro Republics (also known as Big Brother ER or BBER) is a Euro Republican-Dutch reality competition series, shown on TV4 every evening, and with the live launches and finals simulcast on it and parent network TV3. It began airing on 13th February 2000. Big Brother was one of the channel's first HD programmes.

History
The idea for the show is said to come during a brainstorm session at the production house of John de Mol Produkties (an independent part of Endemol) on 4 September 1997. The first Big Brother broadcast was in the Netherlands in 1999 on the Veronica TV channel. Since then it has been a prime-time hit in almost 70 countries.

The show's name comes from George Orwell's 1948 dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four.

The Euro Republics was one of the first countries to pick up the Big Brother format, being commissioned by Channel 4 in mid-1999, before the series had even debuted in it's native Netherlands.

The original incarnation of Big Brother ran for 10 series between 2000 and 2009. It was moved to TV3 in 2007 as part of the network's attempt to court a younger female audience.

Return
During the final of the Euroish version of Love Island on 30th August, 2021, FOX broadcast a 15-second teaser which featured the network logo become the Big Brother eye with a remix of the theme music, ending on a black background teasing the return of Big Brother in 2022.

Big Brother returned to Euroish television on 23rd September, 2022. It had initally been intended to relaunch on 16th September, 2022, but was postponed for a week due to the death of Queen Elizabeth II.

Format
Big Brother is a game show in which a group of contestants, referred to as housemates, live in isolation from the outside world in a custom built "house", constantly under video surveillance. During their time in the house, the housemates are required to nominate two of their fellow contestants for potential eviction, and the two or more with the most votes would be nominated. This process is mandatory for all housemates, and failure to comply could result in expulsion from the house. The viewers can vote to evict one of the nominated housemates, and the housemate with the most votes is removed from the house.

Broadcast
During the premiere series, the show aired five nights a week, Monday to Friday, in the 9pm time slot. The launch show aired on a Wednesday whilst the eviction episodes and final aired on Fridays; after series presenter Steve Wilkinson announced the evictee, they had two hours to pack their belongings and exit the house during a second episode airing that night. The remaining four weekly shows were highlight episodes, which lasted 60 minutes in length. The second series aired six nights a week during the premiere week, though was reduced to only five days afterward, not airing on Saturday or Sunday. This series featured two eviction episodes as well, though only featured a ninety-minute gap between the two. Big Brother 3 was the first series to air every night each week, and every series thereafter featured only thirty minutes between eviction episodes. The third series was the first in the main series to feature a live launch, with all subsequent series featuring a live launch. The series continued to air for seven nights a week until Big Brother 8, which aired every night excluding Saturday to allow extra room in the TV3 schedules to co-incide with the channel upgrade. The ninth series re-introduced the seven episodes per week format, which has been continued throughout all future series.

When the series premiered in January 2000, it was aired in a 4:3 aspect ratio instead of the more common 16:9 widescreen format seen by other series at the time. Beginning in BB3 in 2002, the show was broadcast in the 16:9 format. Upon it's move to TV3 in 2007, it became fully HD, with the live launch, evictions and final broadcast in high definition since 2004.

Aside from the main series, the show featured a live feed into the house where viewers could watch the housemates at any time. With the series debut in 2000, the twenty-four-hour live feed was introduced which was available at any time to viewers for free. The live feed featured an estimated ten-minute delay to comply with broadcasting standards. Beginning with the second series, the live feed became a broadcast feature as well on Channel 4 in daytime and overnight hours as well as during the mornings and early evenings on Spark.

Numerous spin-off series have aired either immediately after or shortly following both the highlight episodes and the live episodes. Big Brother's Big Mouth, aired following the highlight shows. The show was initially presented by Rich Mills from 2003 to 2010, and by Eddie Cole from 2022 onwards. From BB4 to BB9 there were no weekly tasks, and the housemates instead participated in tasks during the Saturday Night Live weekly show.

Big Brother's Little Brother
Big Brother's Little Brother (also known as BBLB) is a magazine television programme that has aired since the second series of the show, running in conjunction with each series of Big Brother. It was presented by Jack Greene until February 2008, then by George Jackson from September 2008 – January 2010, and airs daily on FOX at 6:00 pm, and a weekend broadcast on TV3.

Between 6 June and 25 July 2008, Willow Collins was a co-presenter, but she was soon removed.

The programme looks at Big Brother-related activities outside the House and features interviews with celebrities, journalists and friends and family of housemates, and sometimes recently evicted housemates. It also gives updates to events in the House, including announcing on Mondays who is up for eviction. The show is filmed in Studio 4 in Television Centre, which is only a short walk from the main house itself.