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** Kent Blackwelder and Bunky Miller, from Season 2 (US) became friends on the show despite their differences. More than a decade later and they are still close friends.
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The US version notably abandoned the public-voting-out after the first season and went to a more ''Series/{{Survivor}}''-like system where the house guests vote each other out. However, they must vote out one of two contestants nominated by a third contestant who won the "Head of Household" title that week. Therefore, there is less safety in the large, unconcealed alliances you see on ''Series/{{Survivor}}''. The change also meant that the show didn't have to manufacture drama purely by casting the looniest people alive.
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The US version notably abandoned the public-voting-out after the first season (the public kept voting out the trouble-makers, who the producers saw as "more interesting" [[ExecutiveMeddling and wanted to keep]]) and went to a more ''Series/{{Survivor}}''-like system where the house guests vote each other out. However, they must vote out one of two contestants nominated by a third contestant who won the "Head of Household" title that week. Therefore, there is less safety in the large, unconcealed alliances you see on ''Series/{{Survivor}}''. The change also meant that the show didn't have to manufacture drama purely by casting the looniest people alive.
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Moving from the YMMV page.
* ActuallyPrettyFunny: Jessie's appearance in Big Brother 12. Yeah, the guy's a CreatorsPet and all, but that was actually pretty funny. Britney opened Pandora's Box and was told that she would be given tips from a former Big Brother player. Except they never mentioned what ''kind'' of tips she'd be given, so [[ExactWords Jessie gave her tips on weight-lifting while the rest of the house got a luau]].
* AmbiguouslyBrown: Several contestants are of mixed race.
* AmbiguousDisorder: People have suspected Ian as potentially having Aspergers.
* AmbiguousDisorder: People have suspected Ian as potentially having Aspergers.
* AttentionWhore: This trope could be called "The Rachel". Part of the reason people hate her? She also [[SpotlightStealingSquad always manages to get it no matter what]].
* AwesomeButImpractical: The strategy of winning competitions so people can't touch you. What happens when you become ineligible to compete or fall a bit short? Everyone takes aim at that target at your back, and...
* BoringButPractical: During the first couple weeks of the American series, you want to fly under the radar and not piss anyone off since you can be evicted because you're annoying, and you don't want to win any of the competitions unless you need to (Veto). You want to avoid winning competitions because then you get marked as a threat and can be evicted. You don't want to be on the outskirts of the house because then you'll be marked as a throwaway. You also don't want to make alliances with ''everyone'' because then they won't be able to trust you and see you as a threat. As the number of potential targets dwindles, ''then'' you want to start winning competitions so that you can ensure your safety. It works, but really, it's more interesting when people start fights in the first couple weeks.
** Not to mention, making people think they ''can'' beat you. A good part of surviving in the american version as well as more social game shows in general is making others think you're worthless, which often involves ObfuscatingStupidity.
** Rob Cesternino, considered one of the most DangerouslyGenreSavvy players to ''ever'' play ''Series/{{Survivor}}'', has been asked about this game during his podcast. His response was that "Floating" is actually a ''very'' practical strategy. If you stay outside of the [[AHouseDivided dominant alliances]], or are seen as the "Low man on the totem pole", you can get ''quite'' far, since if the players decide to target you, they're essentially wasting a week, and a lot more can happen in a week than in three days of survivor. This was pretty much what allowed Sharon, Kevin, Alison, and Sheila to get as far as they did, and was part of why Will, Jun, and Jordan won.
** Not to mention, making people think they ''can'' beat you. A good part of surviving in the american version as well as more social game shows in general is making others think you're worthless, which often involves ObfuscatingStupidity.
** Rob Cesternino, considered one of the most DangerouslyGenreSavvy players to ''ever'' play ''Series/{{Survivor}}'', has been asked about this game during his podcast. His response was that "Floating" is actually a ''very'' practical strategy. If you stay outside of the [[AHouseDivided dominant alliances]], or are seen as the "Low man on the totem pole", you can get ''quite'' far, since if the players decide to target you, they're essentially wasting a week, and a lot more can happen in a week than in three days of survivor. This was pretty much what allowed Sharon, Kevin, Alison, and Sheila to get as far as they did, and was part of why Will, Jun, and Jordan won.
** The spelling Veto in season 11, with Jeff trying to spell "technotronics" (which isn't even a word, mind you) and ending up with "tectronics". What pushes it into Epic Fail territory is that, had he have simply ditched the R, he would've had "tectonics", which ''is'' a word and would've beaten Russell's seven-letter "shotgun" handily.
** A more hilarious example: In Season 8's luxury challenge, everyone had to put on bunches of clothing and then strip them off one by one, eventually unscrambling the letters to spell a word. Dick, Eric, and Zach didn't quite catch on that it was clothing-themed words and had [[CrowningMomentOfFunny spelled "Goat" instead of "Toga".]]
** A more hilarious example: In Season 8's luxury challenge, everyone had to put on bunches of clothing and then strip them off one by one, eventually unscrambling the letters to spell a word. Dick, Eric, and Zach didn't quite catch on that it was clothing-themed words and had [[CrowningMomentOfFunny spelled "Goat" instead of "Toga".]]
* MoralityPet: Evel Dick again, with Danielle. As you probably figured out from the above, he was ''not'' an easy guy to be around. What kept him from seeming like a total jackass is that he really did care about his daughter and wanted to get closer to her.
* ProperlyParanoid: The fanbase was afraid that there would be more returnees, especially at the prospect of infamous [[CreatorsPet Creators Pets]] returning. Season 14 appears to have evidence that there are once again more returnees.
** Not to mention, there's been a rumour that ever since 2009, they'd cast [[Series/{{Survivor}} Russell Hantz]] or a member of his family to be on the show. People kept worrying and worrying that there'd be a Hantz on ''BigBrother'', after other [[CreatorsPet Network Pets]] showed up on ''Series/TheAmazingRace'' and other shows. As of 2012, one of the contestants was revealed to be ''Russell's brother'', Willie Hantz.
** Not to mention, after season 13, people were dreading that season 14 will have returnees. Sure enough, the "Twist" is mentors, featuring returnees. At first, it appeared that they were not actually playing the game, but sure enough, they became players after a reset button was activated. They have been getting [[SpotlightStealingSquad most of the screentime]], though it's not ''nearly'' as bad as the editing last year.
** Willie in the first week tried to turn the ''entire'' house against the Coaches because he thought they would be entering the game. One week after his eviction...[[IKnewIt the coaches entered]].
** Not to mention, there's been a rumour that ever since 2009, they'd cast [[Series/{{Survivor}} Russell Hantz]] or a member of his family to be on the show. People kept worrying and worrying that there'd be a Hantz on ''BigBrother'', after other [[CreatorsPet Network Pets]] showed up on ''Series/TheAmazingRace'' and other shows. As of 2012, one of the contestants was revealed to be ''Russell's brother'', Willie Hantz.
** Not to mention, after season 13, people were dreading that season 14 will have returnees. Sure enough, the "Twist" is mentors, featuring returnees. At first, it appeared that they were not actually playing the game, but sure enough, they became players after a reset button was activated. They have been getting [[SpotlightStealingSquad most of the screentime]], though it's not ''nearly'' as bad as the editing last year.
** Willie in the first week tried to turn the ''entire'' house against the Coaches because he thought they would be entering the game. One week after his eviction...[[IKnewIt the coaches entered]].
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*** She was evicted in the end though, to choirs of boos from the crowd. You could even consider her interview an example of this trope, she totally bashed each member of The Outsiders and acted very strangely, making some question if she was even mentally stable. The abuse that the crowd was yelling at her probably didn't help.
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*** She was evicted in the end though, to choirs of boos from the crowd. You could even consider her interview an example of this trope, she totally bashed each member of The Outsiders and acted very strangely, making some question if she was even mentally stable. The abuse that the crowd was yelling at her probably didn't help. help.
* VotedOffTheIsland: US version only.
** Australian version mixes this and the normal voting system. Housemates narrow the voting-off list down to the least popular group of housemates, then they get voted off out of that group. The only exception was the first three evictions of season 8, where the voting public narrowed it down to three housemates that the housemates then had to vote to evict.
* VotedOffTheIsland: US version only.
** Australian version mixes this and the normal voting system. Housemates narrow the voting-off list down to the least popular group of housemates, then they get voted off out of that group. The only exception was the first three evictions of season 8, where the voting public narrowed it down to three housemates that the housemates then had to vote to evict.
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* WorthyOpponent: Jessie actually admitted this in season eleven. Jeff won a game changing power called Coup de tat and used it to put Jessie and Natalie on the block. Kevin had the insight to cast the deciding vote to evict Jessie as a bigger threat. Jessie even said in his interview that it was a very good move on Jeff's part and that he would vote for him if he made it to the end.
** Brendon to Daniele. In the same season after Jeff was evicted, Rachel and Jordan said that they saw Kalia as the most deserving winner...before [[ScrewTheRulesIMakeThem the show was promptly fixed]]
** Boogie said this about Ian, saying that he really did learn from the best.
** Brendon to Daniele. In the same season after Jeff was evicted, Rachel and Jordan said that they saw Kalia as the most deserving winner...before [[ScrewTheRulesIMakeThem the show was promptly fixed]]
** Boogie said this about Ian, saying that he really did learn from the best.
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** Fans also suggest executive meddling by producers turning a blind eye to rule violations or equipment malfunctions. Key examples being Jeff in the teacup challenge somehow getting away with using his hands to hold soap and not just cover it, and Dick and Daniele supposedly not being penalizd at for violating slop restrictions, as well as Dick not getting yelled at for burning Jen with the cigarette or not getting yelled at for having a code written by his son in a letter from home. Jameka evidently had an equipment failure in Season 8; but this has neither been confirmed or denied. (The other main equipment failure was ''very'' obvious since buttons wouldn't work for a couple players; requiring them to reshoot the challenge.)
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** Fans also suggest executive meddling by producers turning a blind eye to rule violations or equipment malfunctions. Key examples being Jeff in the teacup challenge somehow getting away with using his hands to hold soap and not just cover it, and Dick and Daniele supposedly not being penalizd penalized at for violating slop restrictions, as well as Dick not getting yelled at for burning Jen with the cigarette or not getting yelled at for having a code written by his son in a letter from home. Jameka evidently had an equipment failure in Season 8; but this has neither been confirmed or denied. (The other main equipment failure was ''very'' obvious since buttons wouldn't work for a couple players; requiring them to reshoot the challenge.)
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** One case where this actually turned out [[TropesAreTools for the better]] was in Big Brother Canada, when a houseguest was found to have been cheating in a competition. So as a result, they redid the competition but did not allow him to compete.
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** Peter from Season 1 of Big Brother Canada is on Dan's level of Diary Room shouting.
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* AcCENTUponTheWrongSylLAble: Hayden from Season 12 (U.S.) tends to do this.
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* AcCENTUponTheWrongSylLAble: AcCENTUponTheWrongSylLABle: Hayden from Season 12 (U.S.) tends to do this.
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* {{Metagame}}: BBUS is getting a pretty well defined one. The first few weeks are spent making allies, and the ideal place to put yourself within an alliance is in the middle. Don't act annoying during the first few weeks - you can be evicted for simply being annoying if nobody else is a target. Throw Head of Household because the first few Head of Households will be forced to announce their targets to the house and possibly invoke a RoaringRampageOfRevenge. Within an alliance, you force somebody else to win Head of Household and take the fall for you. Unless you or a close ally is nominated, don't win veto (and don't ''use'' it.) When the time comes, start knocking out the people who can win competitions.
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* SpringtimeForHitler: When racing pundit John [=McCririck=] went into the house for ''Ultimate Big Brother'', the UK edition's finale, he openly announced that he had gotten all of his friends and family to place large bets on him being the first to be evicted, and intended to behave in such a disgusting and offensive manner that he would definitely be the first person voted out. The trope was ultimately averted; despite an internet campaign to keep him in until at least the second eviction, [=McCririck=] was indeed the first person voted out (he wasn't the first person to ''leave'', since Josie Gibson walked out the day before his eviction, but as [=McCririck=] himself pointed out, that wouldn't affect any bets on him being the first to be evicted by the public).
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* SpringtimeForHitler: When racing pundit John [=McCririck=] went into the house for ''Ultimate Big Brother'', the UK edition's finale, SeriesFauxnale, he openly announced that he had gotten all of his friends and family to place large bets on him being the first to be evicted, and intended to behave in such a disgusting and offensive manner that he would definitely be the first person voted out. The trope was ultimately averted; despite an internet campaign to keep him in until at least the second eviction, [=McCririck=] was indeed the first person voted out (he wasn't the first person to ''leave'', since Josie Gibson walked out the day before his eviction, but as [=McCririck=] himself pointed out, that wouldn't affect any bets on him being the first to be evicted by the public).
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** Transgender housemates are no guarantee to win whoever, as Pete Burns from CBBUK 2006 and Sam Brodie from BBUK 2006 proved.
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** Several housemates have come out after leaving the show as being transgendered. Notable examples are Kemal Shahin from BBUK 2006 and Rodrigo Lopes from BBUK 2010.
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** '''At the end of the day''' is a meme that somehow appears every single bbuk season. One person starts saying it and it spreads to every other housemate like the flu.
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Few more BBUK spin offs added
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** The UK series has most notably had: ''Big Brother's Little Brother'', a BB news fanzine; ''Big Brother's Big Mouth'', a BB public opinion/talk show; ''Big Brother Live'', live streaming from the house; and ''Diary Room Uncut'', in which notable Diary Room conversations were played in full. With the show's move to Channel 5, a new spinoff known as ''Big Brother's Bit on the Side'' exists: it functions similarly to BBLB and Big Mouth six days of the week, and on Sundays it's a quiz show.
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** The UK series has most notably had: ''Big Brother's Little Brother'', a BB news fanzine; ''Big Brother's Big Mouth'', a BB public opinion/talk show; ''Big Brother Live'', live streaming from the house; and ''Diary Room Uncut'', in which notable Diary Room conversations were played in full. With the show's move to Channel 5, a new spinoff known as ''Big Brother's Bit on the Side'' exists: it functions similarly to BBLB and Big Mouth six days of the week, and on Sundays it's a quiz show. Also on C4 there was "Big Brother's Big Brain" and "Big Brother On The Coach", both of which were psychology shows. As well as a podcast "Big Brother's Big Ears".
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** The current Brazillian version has Ariadna, a male-to-female transsexual hairdresser. Unlike Alejandro, she already made her sex change operation and is [[DroppedABridgetOnHim actually a pretty damn convincing female.]]
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** The current Brazillian version has Ariadna, a male-to-female transsexual hairdresser. Unlike Alejandro, she already made her sex change operation and is [[DroppedABridgetOnHim [[UnsettlingGenderReveal actually a pretty damn convincing female.]]
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*** Rachel was the most frequent HOH winner of Season 13 with four wins; combined with her two veto wins, it makes her the most decorated houseguest of the season total. By winning her fourth HOH, she is now on par with Drew, Janelle, and Ian (from [=BB5, BB7, and BB14=] respectively), sharing a record for four HOH wins in one season. Even nomination-wise, she bests everybody else; she was nominated '''5''' different times during the season!
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*** Rachel was the most frequent HOH winner of Season 13 with four wins; combined with her two veto wins, it makes her the most decorated houseguest of the season total. By winning her fourth HOH, she is now on par with Drew, Janelle, Hayden, and Ian (from [=BB5, BB7, BB12, and BB14=] respectively), sharing a record for four HOH wins in one season. Even nomination-wise, she bests everybody else; she was nominated '''5''' different times during the season!
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Rename.
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* AdNauseam: Within the show, nonetheless. In the more recent editions of Big Brother Brasil, the Brazilian version, every competition for leadership or immunity is themed with a certain brand. Say the characters need to grab the highest amount of BrandX objects. The whole scenario will be covered with ads of the brand, the host will repeat the brand name every time it refers to the object, there will be massive close-ups on the objects in case, and when counting the amount of objects grabbed, the characters must say the brand name for each object they grabbed. Taking batteries for example, if they got 15 batteries, they will say the brand and the specific type of battery 15 times.
** The last five series of Big Brother Australia (2004-08) were sponsored by KFC, to the extent that Friday Night Live had the KFC Twister Instant Replay, and in-store promotions were available with Big Brother-branded items. The season 9 revival is also sponsored by them.
** The last five series of Big Brother Australia (2004-08) were sponsored by KFC, to the extent that Friday Night Live had the KFC Twister Instant Replay, and in-store promotions were available with Big Brother-branded items. The season 9 revival is also sponsored by them.
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* RepeatingAd: Within the show, nonetheless. In the more recent editions of Big Brother Brasil, the Brazilian version, every competition for leadership or immunity is themed with a certain brand. Say the characters need to grab the highest amount of BrandX objects. The whole scenario will be covered with ads of the brand, the host will repeat the brand name every time it refers to the object, there will be massive close-ups on the objects in case, and when counting the amount of objects grabbed, the characters must say the brand name for each object they grabbed. Taking batteries for example, if they got 15 batteries, they will say the brand and the specific type of battery 15 times.
** The last five series of Big Brother Australia (2004-08) were sponsored by KFC, to the extent that Friday Night Live had the KFC Twister Instant Replay, and in-store promotions were available with Big Brother-branded items. The season 9 revival is also sponsored by them.
** The last five series of Big Brother Australia (2004-08) were sponsored by KFC, to the extent that Friday Night Live had the KFC Twister Instant Replay, and in-store promotions were available with Big Brother-branded items. The season 9 revival is also sponsored by them.
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** Also from Season 6, when Howie received lightsabers in his HoH basket, the others commented in the Diary Room about how he was carrying them everywhere. When Howie was talking in the Diary Room, it said "Jedi In Training" under his name.
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** ''The Three Amigos'''
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** ''The '''The Three Amigos'''
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** '''Big Brother 14 (''AlphaOmegaBye''):''' Britney (Blue Oni) & Danielle (Red Oni)
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** '''Big Brother 14 (''AlphaOmegaBye''):''' (''Alpha Omega Bye''):''' Britney (Blue Oni) & Danielle (Red Oni)
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** '''The Silent 6'''
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** '''The '''''The Silent 6'''6'''''
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** ''Sovereign Six''
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** ''Sovereign Six'''''''Sovereign Six'''''
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** ''The Veterans Alliance''
*** The Head: Dick Donato
*** The Head: Dick Donato
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** ''The '''''The Veterans Alliance''
Alliance'''''
*** The Head:Dick DonatoDick
*** The Head:
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* FreudianTrio: ''The Three Stooges'' from [=BB4=], ''Dan/Danielle/Shane'' from [=BB14=], ''The Three Amigos'' from [=BB14]
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* BrainsAndBrawn: Dan and Memphis (''Renegades'') from [=BB10=] (US).
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* BrainsAndBrawn: Dan and Memphis (''Renegades'') from [=BB10=] (US).(US), Dr. Will and Boogie (''Chilltown'') from [=BB2=] and [=BB7=] (US)
** '''Chilltown:'''
*** Brains: Dr. Will
*** Brawn: Boogie
*** Brains: Dr. Will
*** Brawn: Boogie
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* FourTemperamentEnsemble: ''The Brigade'' from [=BB12=] (US), ''The Four Horsemen'' from [=BB5=] (US), ''The Quack Pack/Team Touche (Minus Ian)'' from [=BB14=] (US).
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* FourTemperamentEnsemble: ''The Brigade'' from [=BB12=] (US), ''The Four Horsemen'' from [=BB5=] (US), ''The Quack Pack/Team Touche (Minus Ian)'' from [=BB14=] (US).(US), ''Mrs. Robinson Alliance'' from [=BB8=] (US), ''The Regulators'' from [=BB13=] (US)
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** '''Mrs. Robinson Alliance'''
*** Sanguine: Nick
*** Choleric: Kail
*** Melancholic: Mike
*** Phlegmatic: Zach
** '''The Regulators'''
*** Sanguine: Lawon
*** Choleric: Keith
*** Melancholic: Cassi
*** Phlegmatic: Dominic
* FreudianTrio: ''The Three Stooges'' from [=BB4=], ''Dan/Danielle/Shane'' from [=BB14=], ''The Three Amigos'' from [=BB14]
**'''The Three Stooges'''
*** Jee (Superego)
*** Robert (Ego)
*** Justin (Id)
**'''Dan, Danielle and Shane'''
*** Dan (Id)
*** Danielle (Ego)
*** Shane (Superego)
**''The Three Amigos'''
*** Shane (Superego)
*** Danielle (Ego)
*** Frank (Id)
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* RedOniBlueOni:
** '''Big Brother 14 (''The Surgeons''):''' Dan (Blue Oni) & Danielle (Red Oni)
** '''Big Brother 10 (''The Renegades''):''' Dan (Blue Oni) & Memphis (Red Oni)
** '''Big Brother 14:''' Boogie (Blue Oni) & Frank (Red Oni)
** '''Big Brother 11/13:''' Jeff (Red Oni) & Jordan (Blue Oni)
** '''Big Brother 12/13:''' Brendon (Blue Oni) & Rachel (Red Oni)
** '''Big Brother 14:''' Shane (Blue Oni) & Danielle (Red Oni)
** '''Big Brother 14 (''AlphaOmegaBye''):''' Britney (Blue Oni) & Danielle (Red Oni)
** '''Big Brother 2/7 (''Chilltown'')''' Dr. Will (Blue Oni) & Boogie (Red Oni)
** '''Big Brother 12 (''Raisin Bran''):''' Lane (Blue Oni) & Britney (Red Oni)
** '''Big Brother 13:''' Brendon (Blue Oni) & Jeff (Red Oni)
** '''Big Brother 13:''' Dominic (Red Oni) & Danielle (Blue Oni)
** '''Big Brother 14:''' Rachel (Red Oni) & Jordan (Blue Oni)
** '''Big Brother 14 (''The Surgeons''):''' Dan (Blue Oni) & Danielle (Red Oni)
** '''Big Brother 10 (''The Renegades''):''' Dan (Blue Oni) & Memphis (Red Oni)
** '''Big Brother 14:''' Boogie (Blue Oni) & Frank (Red Oni)
** '''Big Brother 11/13:''' Jeff (Red Oni) & Jordan (Blue Oni)
** '''Big Brother 12/13:''' Brendon (Blue Oni) & Rachel (Red Oni)
** '''Big Brother 14:''' Shane (Blue Oni) & Danielle (Red Oni)
** '''Big Brother 14 (''AlphaOmegaBye''):''' Britney (Blue Oni) & Danielle (Red Oni)
** '''Big Brother 2/7 (''Chilltown'')''' Dr. Will (Blue Oni) & Boogie (Red Oni)
** '''Big Brother 12 (''Raisin Bran''):''' Lane (Blue Oni) & Britney (Red Oni)
** '''Big Brother 13:''' Brendon (Blue Oni) & Jeff (Red Oni)
** '''Big Brother 13:''' Dominic (Red Oni) & Danielle (Blue Oni)
** '''Big Brother 14:''' Rachel (Red Oni) & Jordan (Blue Oni)
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* FourPhilosophyEnsemble: ''The Brigade'' from [=BB12=] (US).
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* FourPhilosophyEnsemble: ''The Brigade'' from [=BB12=] (US).(US), ''The Four Horsemen'' from [=BB5=] (US), ''The Quack Pack/Team Touche (minus Ian)'' from [=BB14=] (US), ''The Mrs. Robinson Alliance'' from [=BB8=] (US), ''The Regulators'' from [=BB13=] (US)
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* FourTemperamentEnsemble: ''The Brigade'' from [=BB12=] (US).
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** '''The Four Horsemen'''
*** The Cynic: Scott
*** The Optimist: Drew
*** The Realist: Jase
*** The Apathetic: Michael
**'''The Quack Pack/Team Touche (Minus Ian)'''
*** The Cynic: Britney
*** The Optimist: Shane
*** The Realist: Dan
*** The Apathetic: Danielle
**'''Mrs. Robinson Alliance'''
*** The Cynic: Nick
*** The Optimist: Kail
*** The Realist: Mike
*** The Apathetic: Zach
**'''The Regulators'''
*** The Cynic: Keith
*** The Optimist: Lawon
*** The Realist: Dominic
*** The Apathetic: Cassi
* FourTemperamentEnsemble: ''The Brigade'' from [=BB12=] (US), ''The Four Horsemen'' from [=BB5=] (US), ''The Quack Pack/Team Touche (Minus Ian)'' from [=BB14=] (US).
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** '''The Four Horsemen'''
*** Sanguine: Jase
*** Choleric: Drew
*** Melancholic: Scott
*** Phlegmatic: Michael
** '''The Quack Pack/Team Touche (- Ian)'''
*** Sanguine: Britney
*** Choleric: Shane
*** Melancholic: Dan
*** Phlegmatic: Danielle
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* TwoGuysAndAGirl: Shane/Danielle/Dan in [=BB14=] (US), Shane/Danielle/Frank in [=BB14=] (US).
**'''Shane, Danielle & Dan'''
*** TheHero: Shane
*** TheLancer: Dan
*** TheChick: Danielle
**'''Shane, Danielle, Frank (The Three Amigos)'''
*** TheHero: Shane
*** TheLancer: Frank
*** TheChick: Danielle
**'''Shane, Danielle & Dan'''
*** TheHero: Shane
*** TheLancer: Dan
*** TheChick: Danielle
**'''Shane, Danielle, Frank (The Three Amigos)'''
*** TheHero: Shane
*** TheLancer: Frank
*** TheChick: Danielle
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* BrainsAndBrawn: Dan and Memphis (''Renegades'') from [=BB10=] (US).
** '''The Renegades''':
*** Brains: Dan
*** Brawn: Memphis
** '''The Renegades''':
*** Brains: Dan
*** Brawn: Memphis
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* SixStudentClique: ''The Silent Six'' from [=BB14=] (US)
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* SixStudentClique: ''The Silent Six'' from [=BB14=] (US), ''Sovereign Six'' from [=BB6=] (US), The Veterans Alliance [=BB13=] (US)
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** ''Sovereign Six''
*** The Head: Kaysar
*** The Muscle: James
*** The Quirk: Howie
*** The Pretty One: Janelle
*** The Smart One: Sarah
*** The Wild One: Rachel
** ''The Veterans Alliance''
*** The Head: Dick Donato
*** The Muscle: Jeff
*** The Quirk: Brendon
*** The Pretty One: Jordan
*** The Smart One: Daniele
*** The Wild One: Rachel
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* [[ThreeAmigos The 3 Amigos]]: ''The Three Amigos'' from [=BB14=] (US).
** '''The 3 Amigos'''
*** TheHero: Shane
*** TheLancer: Frank
*** [[TheSmurfettePrinciple The Token Girl]]: Danielle
** '''The 3 Amigos'''
*** TheHero: Shane
*** TheLancer: Frank
*** [[TheSmurfettePrinciple The Token Girl]]: Danielle
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Changed line(s) 45,56 (click to see context) from:
** Danielle
** Shane
** Willie
** Ian
** Frank
** Kara
** Jo Jo
** Joe
** Jodi
** Jenn
** Ashley
** Wil
** Shane
** Willie
** Ian
** Frank
** Kara
** Jo Jo
** Joe
** Jodi
** Jenn
** Ashley
** Wil
to:
** Danielle
Danielle: To Dan
**Shane
Shane: To Britney
**Willie
Willie: To Britney
**Ian
Ian: To Boogie
**Frank
Frank: To Boogie
**Kara
Kara: To Dan
** JoJo
Jo: To Britney
**Joe
Joe: To Janelle
**Jodi
Jodi: To Dan
**Jenn
Jenn: To Boogie
**Ashley
Ashley: To Janelle
**WilWil: To Janelle
**
**
**
**
**
** Jo
**
**
**
**
**
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* FourPhilosophyEnsemble: ''The Brigade'' from [=BB12=] (US).
** '''The Brigade'''
*** The Cynic - Enzo
*** The Optimist - Hayden
*** The Realist - Matt
*** The Apathetic - Lane
*** The Conflicted - Britney
* FourTemperamentEnsemble: ''The Brigade'' from [=BB12=] (US).
** '''The Brigade'''
*** Sanguine: Enzo
*** Choleric: Hayden
*** Melancholic: Matt
*** Phlegmatic: Lane
** '''The Brigade'''
*** The Cynic - Enzo
*** The Optimist - Hayden
*** The Realist - Matt
*** The Apathetic - Lane
*** The Conflicted - Britney
* FourTemperamentEnsemble: ''The Brigade'' from [=BB12=] (US).
** '''The Brigade'''
*** Sanguine: Enzo
*** Choleric: Hayden
*** Melancholic: Matt
*** Phlegmatic: Lane
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** Janelle Pierzina (BB6, BB7, BB14) (US)
* TheApprentice: All of the newbies of BB14 (US), in which they had coaches mentoring them throughout the game.
* TheApprentice: All of the newbies of BB14 (US), in which they had coaches mentoring them throughout the game.
to:
** Janelle Pierzina (BB6, BB7, BB14) ([=BB6=], [=BB7=], [=BB14=]) (US)
* TheApprentice: All of the newbies ofBB14 [=BB14=] (US), in which they had coaches mentoring them throughout the game.
* TheApprentice: All of the newbies of
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* FiveManBand: ''The Quack Pack'' from BB14 (US).
** The Quack Pack'''
** The Quack Pack'''
to:
* FiveManBand: ''The Quack Pack'' from BB14 [=BB14=] (US).
**The '''The Quack Pack'''
**
Changed line(s) 203 (click to see context) from:
* HelloNurse: Maggie from BB6 (US), Danielle from BB14 (US).
to:
* HelloNurse: Maggie from BB6 [=BB6=] (US), Danielle from BB14 [=BB14=] (US).
Changed line(s) 317 (click to see context) from:
* SixStudentClique: ''The Silent Six'' from BB14 (US)
to:
* SixStudentClique: ''The Silent Six'' from BB14 [=BB14=] (US)
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Changed line(s) 43,44 (click to see context) from:
** Janelle Pierzina (=BB6=, =BB7=, =BB14=)
* TheApprentice: All of the newbies of BB14, in which they had coaches mentoring them throughout the game.
* TheApprentice: All of the newbies of BB14, in which they had coaches mentoring them throughout the game.
to:
** Janelle Pierzina (=BB6=, =BB7=, =BB14=)
(BB6, BB7, BB14) (US)
* TheApprentice: All of the newbies ofBB14, BB14 (US), in which they had coaches mentoring them throughout the game.
* TheApprentice: All of the newbies of
Changed line(s) 51 (click to see context) from:
** JoJo
to:
** JoJoJo Jo
Changed line(s) 185,186 (click to see context) from:
* FiveManBand:
** '''Big Brother 14 - The Quack Pack'''
** '''Big Brother 14 - The Quack Pack'''
to:
* FiveManBand:
FiveManBand: ''The Quack Pack'' from BB14 (US).
**'''Big Brother 14 - The Quack Pack'''
**
Changed line(s) 203 (click to see context) from:
* HelloNurse: Maggie from [[=BB6=]], Danielle from [[=BB14=]]
to:
* HelloNurse: Maggie from [[=BB6=]], BB6 (US), Danielle from [[=BB14=]]BB14 (US).
Changed line(s) 317,318 (click to see context) from:
* SixStudentClique:
** '''Big Brother 14 - The Silent 6'''
** '''Big Brother 14 - The Silent 6'''
to:
* SixStudentClique:
SixStudentClique: ''The Silent Six'' from BB14 (US)
**'''Big Brother 14 - The '''The Silent 6'''
**
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Added DiffLines:
** Janelle Pierzina (=BB6=, =BB7=, =BB14=)
* TheApprentice: All of the newbies of BB14, in which they had coaches mentoring them throughout the game.
** Danielle
** Shane
** Willie
** Ian
** Frank
** Kara
** JoJo
** Joe
** Jodi
** Jenn
** Ashley
** Wil
* TheApprentice: All of the newbies of BB14, in which they had coaches mentoring them throughout the game.
** Danielle
** Shane
** Willie
** Ian
** Frank
** Kara
** JoJo
** Joe
** Jodi
** Jenn
** Ashley
** Wil
Added DiffLines:
* BashBrothers:
** Dan and Memphis - ''The Renegades'' (Big Brother 10)
** Dr. Will and Boogie - ''Chilltown'' (Big Brother 2 and 7)
** Boogie and Frank (Big Brother 14)
** Dan and Memphis - ''The Renegades'' (Big Brother 10)
** Dr. Will and Boogie - ''Chilltown'' (Big Brother 2 and 7)
** Boogie and Frank (Big Brother 14)
Added DiffLines:
* FiveManBand:
** '''Big Brother 14 - The Quack Pack'''
*** The Leader: Dan
*** The Lancer: Britney
*** The Smart Guy: Ian
*** The Big Guy: Shane
*** The Chick: Danielle
** '''Big Brother 14 - The Quack Pack'''
*** The Leader: Dan
*** The Lancer: Britney
*** The Smart Guy: Ian
*** The Big Guy: Shane
*** The Chick: Danielle
Added DiffLines:
* HelloNurse: Maggie from [[=BB6=]], Danielle from [[=BB14=]]
Added DiffLines:
* SixStudentClique:
** '''Big Brother 14 - The Silent 6'''
*** The Head: Dan
*** The Muscle: Shane
*** The Quirk: Boogie
*** The Pretty One: Danielle
*** The Smart One: Britney
*** The Wild One: Frank
** '''Big Brother 14 - The Silent 6'''
*** The Head: Dan
*** The Muscle: Shane
*** The Quirk: Boogie
*** The Pretty One: Danielle
*** The Smart One: Britney
*** The Wild One: Frank
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* ChekhovsHobby: In US Season 8, several of the contestants passed time in the house by playing beer pong. Later on, one of the food competitions was a giant game of beer pong.
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Changed line(s) 208 (click to see context) from:
* KarmaHoudini: Surprisingly, Jeff. Throughout both his seasons, he's displayed homophobia, calling Russell a "Faggot", even [[WhatTheHellHero implying that he thinks gay people are pedophiles]] while insulting ''HarryPotter'' amongst constantly bad-mouthing his fellow players (even ''his own alliance members''!) Homophobia normally gets you ''instantly'' hated by the fans (Unless you get over it like Kent did to Bunky) and yet, thanks to [[ManipulativeEditing this behaviour being pretty much completely ignored on the highlights]], people still claim he's one of the most likable people on the show, and he's even considered a "Spokesman" For CBS, getting his own show with Jordan.
to:
* KarmaHoudini: Surprisingly, Jeff. Throughout both his seasons, he's displayed homophobia, calling Russell a "Faggot", even [[WhatTheHellHero implying that he thinks gay people are pedophiles]] while insulting ''HarryPotter'' ''Literature/HarryPotter'' amongst constantly bad-mouthing his fellow players (even ''his own alliance members''!) Homophobia normally gets you ''instantly'' hated by the fans (Unless you get over it like Kent did to Bunky) and yet, thanks to [[ManipulativeEditing this behaviour being pretty much completely ignored on the highlights]], people still claim he's one of the most likable people on the show, and he's even considered a "Spokesman" For CBS, getting his own show with Jordan.
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->''"I don't watch Big Brother to see people cleaning their teeth or having a shower. I watch Big Brother to see George Galloway pretending to be a cat. That is funny."''
-->Guy on the One Show.
-->Guy on the One Show.
to:
-->Guy
-->-- Guy on
Changed line(s) 28 (click to see context) from:
*** Rachel was the most frequent HOH winner of Season 13 with four wins; combined with her two veto wins, it makes her the most decorated houseguest of the season total. By winning her fourth HOH, she is now on par with Drew, Janelle, and Ian (from BB5, BB7, and BB14 respectively), sharing a record for four HOH wins in one season. Even nomination-wise, she bests everybody else; she was nominated '''5''' different times during the season!
to:
*** Rachel was the most frequent HOH winner of Season 13 with four wins; combined with her two veto wins, it makes her the most decorated houseguest of the season total. By winning her fourth HOH, she is now on par with Drew, Janelle, and Ian (from BB5, [=BB5, BB7, and BB14 BB14=] respectively), sharing a record for four HOH wins in one season. Even nomination-wise, she bests everybody else; she was nominated '''5''' different times during the season!
Changed line(s) 35 (click to see context) from:
*** The UK series usually has two main warring factions. One made up of the "underdogs", the other made up of "populars". Notable examples are Team Richard vs The Plastics (BB7), B Block vs The Whisper Club (BB9), The Insiders vs The Outsiders (BB13, ironically, The Outsiders are much more popular with the public).
to:
*** The UK series usually has two main warring factions. One made up of the "underdogs", the other made up of "populars". Notable examples are Team Richard vs The Plastics (BB7), ([=BB7=]), B Block vs The Whisper Club (BB9), ([=BB9=]), The Insiders vs The Outsiders (BB13, ([=BB13=], ironically, The Outsiders are much more popular with the public).
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* BigBrotherIsWatching - Inverted. [[IncrediblyLamePun We're]] [[ExactWords watching]] ''[[RussianReversal Big Brother.]]''
to:
* BigBrotherIsWatching - BigBrotherIsWatching: Inverted. [[IncrediblyLamePun We're]] [[ExactWords watching]] ''[[RussianReversal Big Brother.]]''
Changed line(s) 76 (click to see context) from:
** "But First" from the American version. Particularly because Julie Chen has a tendency to say "But first" all of the times...sometimes making the ''exact'' same movements as she did before, a common meme is to call her the "Chenbot" and make a compilation of her saying "But First" - it's amazing how she does this so perfectly!
to:
** "But First" from the American version. Particularly because Julie Chen has a tendency to say "But first" all of the times...sometimes making the ''exact'' same movements as she did before, a common meme is to call her the "Chenbot" and make a compilation of her saying "But First" - -- it's amazing how she does this so perfectly!
Changed line(s) 121 (click to see context) from:
** In ''Big Brother 6'', the houseguests were in an endurance competition called the pressure cooker that was not physically challenging; but they all lasted at least ''six hours''. This wasn't how long the competition lasted - that was how long it took ''before the first person was eliminated''. By the time the competition finished? It was the early morning. ''The next day.'' Even if it wasn't physically taxing, that's some epic willpower.
to:
** In ''Big Brother 6'', the houseguests were in an endurance competition called the pressure cooker that was not physically challenging; but they all lasted at least ''six hours''. This wasn't how long the competition lasted - -- that was how long it took ''before the first person was eliminated''. By the time the competition finished? It was the early morning. ''The next day.'' Even if it wasn't physically taxing, that's some epic willpower.
Changed line(s) 142 (click to see context) from:
** Jordan of S11 is probably the standard; and she even [[LampshadeHanging is self-aware]] - saying several times about how stupid she is.
to:
** Jordan of S11 is probably the standard; and she even [[LampshadeHanging is self-aware]] - -- saying several times about how stupid she is.
Changed line(s) 154 (click to see context) from:
*** Fans have even been suspecting them of intentionally ''casting'' players to be living props, (since it worked so well in ''Series/{{Survivor}}'''s 22nd season) knowing that they wouldn't be mourning the newbies if they were evicted since they wanted to see their old favourites - and if they stood against the veterans? Zero percent approval rating. Add in a bit of ManipulativeEditing to portray them as a villain, and voila.
to:
*** Fans have even been suspecting them of intentionally ''casting'' players to be living props, (since it worked so well in ''Series/{{Survivor}}'''s 22nd season) knowing that they wouldn't be mourning the newbies if they were evicted since they wanted to see their old favourites - -- and if they stood against the veterans? Zero percent approval rating. Add in a bit of ManipulativeEditing to portray them as a villain, and voila.
Changed line(s) 170 (click to see context) from:
** However, he doesn't really ''[[StraightGay seem]]'' that gay if you watch it - ''Memphis'' actually has more stereotypical gay traits in terms of his clothing!
to:
** However, he doesn't really ''[[StraightGay seem]]'' that gay if you watch it - -- ''Memphis'' actually has more stereotypical gay traits in terms of his clothing!
Changed line(s) 198 (click to see context) from:
** Also happened in the Bulgaria Big Brother - where a contestant goaded another player by insulting his heritage and resulted in a small riot.
to:
** Also happened in the Bulgaria Big Brother - -- where a contestant goaded another player by insulting his heritage and resulted in a small riot.
Changed line(s) 246 (click to see context) from:
*** Averted when Chima was ejected from the house, though - before her outbursts, we had seen her make a racist tirade that was censored and...that's just about it, outside of verbally abusing Russell. However; the houseguests mention that Chima has broken rules from day one, but we hadn't seen any of this. Cue a flashback montage of Chima doing stuff like refusing to come to the diary room when called, covering cameras with blankets, and saying that she was going to say a bunch of terrible stuff on live television.
to:
*** Averted when Chima was ejected from the house, though - -- before her outbursts, we had seen her make a racist tirade that was censored and...that's just about it, outside of verbally abusing Russell. However; the houseguests mention that Chima has broken rules from day one, but we hadn't seen any of this. Cue a flashback montage of Chima doing stuff like refusing to come to the diary room when called, covering cameras with blankets, and saying that she was going to say a bunch of terrible stuff on live television.
Changed line(s) 249 (click to see context) from:
** On the UK version, Bonnie Holt's entire career as a social worker is one whole NoodleIncident in itself - making this trope merge with WhatExactlyIsHisJob in a way.
to:
** On the UK version, Bonnie Holt's entire career as a social worker is one whole NoodleIncident in itself - -- making this trope merge with WhatExactlyIsHisJob in a way.
Changed line(s) 254 (click to see context) from:
*** Hilariously lampshaded by his family - Sarah introduces herself as Joe's wife and says, "I'm Sarah and-no wait, I'M SARAH AND I AM JOE'S WIFE!" and then his four children tell him to stop shouting.
to:
*** Hilariously lampshaded by his family - -- Sarah introduces herself as Joe's wife and says, "I'm Sarah and-no wait, I'M SARAH AND I AM JOE'S WIFE!" and then his four children tell him to stop shouting.
Changed line(s) 304 (click to see context) from:
* TokenMinority: Most US seasons seem to be contractually obligated to have at least one black person, and at least one gay man, who almost always has to be CampGay. (Curiously, there have to date only been four bisexuals - two of each gender - two lesbians - [[TwoferTokenMinority both Latinas]] - and no transgender people.)
to:
* TokenMinority: Most US seasons seem to be contractually obligated to have at least one black person, and at least one gay man, who almost always has to be CampGay. (Curiously, there have to date only been four bisexuals - two (two of each gender - gender), two lesbians - [[TwoferTokenMinority ([[TwoferTokenMinority both Latinas]] - Latinas]]), and no transgender people.)
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->''"I don't watch Big Brother to see people cleaning their teeth or having a shower. I watch Big Brother to see George Galloway pretending to be a cat. That is funny."''
-->Guy on the One Show.
''Big Brother'' is a [[TropeMaker groundbreaking]] RealityShow that started in the Netherlands in 1999, and has since spread around the world -- there have been versions in the United States, Brazil, Australia, the Middle East (where it was canceled after ten days due to religious protests), Africa (where it caused a constitutional crisis in Malawi), throughout Europe, and (in Asia) India, briefly Thailand, the Philippines and Canada. However, by far the most famous version of the show is the British version, which was so popular that a CelebrityEdition was made. Brazil also had a CelebrityEdition but it wasn't by the same network that held the broadcasting rights to Big Brother and wasn't different enough to avoid being ScrewedByTheLawyers. Said edition was known as "Casa dos Artistas" (House of the Artists). The 2007 version of ''Celebrity Big Brother'' set the UK record for most complaints about a TV programme, mostly due to the Shilpa Shetty racism row.
The premise is simple: lock several "ordinary" people in house, ply them with alcohol, and watch the results on omnipresent cameras. Viewers can watch the edited highlights in the evening, or watch it live on cable or the Internet. The public then proceed to vote them out every so often.
The US version notably abandoned the public-voting-out after the first season and went to a more ''Series/{{Survivor}}''-like system where the house guests vote each other out. However, they must vote out one of two contestants nominated by a third contestant who won the "Head of Household" title that week. Therefore, there is less safety in the large, unconcealed alliances you see on ''Series/{{Survivor}}''. The change also meant that the show didn't have to manufacture drama purely by casting the looniest people alive.
A common twist is a "Big Brother goes evil" or "Hell" twist, where Big Brother is psychologically abusive to the houseguests or where they are put in a bad environment.
Homaged by the ''Series/DoctorWho'' episode "[[Recap/DoctorWhoNSS1E12BadWolf Bad Wolf]]", with a [[{{Dystopia}} dystopian]] future version where the contestants are disintegrated when they're voted out. This is often assumed to be a parody or a TakeThat against RealityTV, but WordOfGod confirms it as [[AffectionateParody a tribute.]] The show also inspired the MiniSeries ''Series/DeadSet'' by CharlieBrooker, in which seven contestants and some of the show's backstage staff battle a ZombieApocalypse. Both feature cameos by host Davina [=McCall=].
It's often actually turned into Machinima, see SBBBrothers for just one example.
Not to be confused with George Orwell's classic work ''Literature/NineteenEightyFour,'' in which Big Brother represents the totalitarian Party that treats free thought as a crime. Its name is, however, based on the fact that in the book cameras are everywhere, with everyone being watched by "Big Brother", which is about all most people (think they) know about it. For information on that trope, see BigBrotherIsWatching.
Check out and help build the [[Characters/BigBrother character sheet.]]
----
!!This TV series has examples of the following tropes:
* AcCENTUponTheWrongSylLAble: Hayden from Season 12 (U.S.) tends to do this.
* ActionGirl: Janelle Pierzina and Daniele Donato both won plenty of competitions in their respective seasons.
** Not to mention in Big Brother 12, Britney managed to toss Veto back and forth with Brendon for a couple weeks before winning it twice in a show. Some people did think she was the next Janelle or Daniele.
** In Big Brother Australia, season 8 had fitness freak Alice, who spent so much time on the treadmill a fight broke out when the other housemates tried to trade it to Big Brother for toilet paper, and who during the fake snap eviction in the final week jogged up and down the holding room (the 'plane') after she was evicted so she wouldn't cry.
** Rachel Reilly from the American version deserves mention. She's ''very'' good at thinking challenges and puzzles.
*** During Season 12, she won 2 of the 3 HOH competitions she was eligible for. If she had stayed after her second HOH week, it's possible she could have won it even more.
*** Rachel was the most frequent HOH winner of Season 13 with four wins; combined with her two veto wins, it makes her the most decorated houseguest of the season total. By winning her fourth HOH, she is now on par with Drew, Janelle, and Ian (from BB5, BB7, and BB14 respectively), sharing a record for four HOH wins in one season. Even nomination-wise, she bests everybody else; she was nominated '''5''' different times during the season!
* AHouseDivided: A quite literal example occurs in Big Brother 6. After Kaysar's friend Michael was evicted, he forms a counter alliance made up of everyone in the house who's not already in the Friendship alliance: [[ActionGirl Janelle]], Howie, [[OnlySaneMan Rachel]], [[EnemyMine James]] and [[TheChick Sarah]]. Following Eric/Cappy's eviction, the HOH flips week to week between the Friendship and Kaysar's alliance (dubbed the Sovereign Six), and no one except for James ever even attempts to make a deal with a member from the other side following Kaysar's second eviction. You could ''taste'' the vitriol the two opposing alliances had for each other.
** Possibly the most famous instance was in Big Brother 2002 UK when the house was divided into two, the Rich Side and the Poor Side, with live tasks determining who would live on which side for a week.
*** This made somewhat of a comeback in Big Brother 2008 UK, when there was a "Heaven" and a "Hell" side of the house.
*** It was also seen in Big Brother 2006 UK during the Prison task, when the Prison wardens lived in the main house whilst the prisoners moved next door into a prison cell. Unbeknownst to the wardens, the prisoners were [[JailBake given instructions]] on how to find the [[LuxuryPrisonSuite secret hideaway]].
*** In the Celebrity version of the UK series in 2007, Jade Goody, her mother and her boyfriend entered the main house, and all bar Shilpa Shetty, Jermaine Jackson and Ken Russell moved into the servants quarters, as part of a Masters and Servants task which involved the servants waiting hand and foot on the Goody clan and the remaining celebrities in the main house, much to [[GreatEscape Donny Tourrete's dismay]].
*** Big Brother 13 had the veteran players go up against the newbies. While the veterans were in power for a few weeks, had newbie allies and were in control of the first three evictions, Daniele double-crossed the veterans and started her own alliance with Kalia, Lawon, and later Porsche and Shelly who turned on the veterans as well. They took control of the house for the next three weeks and even though they lost Lawon and then their leader, Daniele, they took control of the house again after evicting the veteran alliance's leader, Jeff, and after a member of the alliance became the Head of Household.
*** The UK series usually has two main warring factions. One made up of the "underdogs", the other made up of "populars". Notable examples are Team Richard vs The Plastics (BB7), B Block vs The Whisper Club (BB9), The Insiders vs The Outsiders (BB13, ironically, The Outsiders are much more popular with the public).
* AdNauseam: Within the show, nonetheless. In the more recent editions of Big Brother Brasil, the Brazilian version, every competition for leadership or immunity is themed with a certain brand. Say the characters need to grab the highest amount of BrandX objects. The whole scenario will be covered with ads of the brand, the host will repeat the brand name every time it refers to the object, there will be massive close-ups on the objects in case, and when counting the amount of objects grabbed, the characters must say the brand name for each object they grabbed. Taking batteries for example, if they got 15 batteries, they will say the brand and the specific type of battery 15 times.
** The last five series of Big Brother Australia (2004-08) were sponsored by KFC, to the extent that Friday Night Live had the KFC Twister Instant Replay, and in-store promotions were available with Big Brother-branded items. The season 9 revival is also sponsored by them.
* {{Adorkable}}: Jon Tickle in [=BB4=] (UK) and Eugene Sully in [=BB6=] (UK).
** Ian Terry in [=BB14=](US)
** Bradley in [=BB9=] (AUS)
* AffablyEvil: Dr Will so much.
* AlphaBitch: The UK series had plenty over the years, but one who fits the trope closest was Grace in the seventh series. She was relentlessly bitchy and snobby, and called housemates who were outside her clique "freaks". She had a VillainousBreakdown after hearing the audience loudly chanting "Get Grace Out!". It later became expected for an unpopular housemate to have their name chanted in such a way, but at the time it was a shock to all the housemates that one of them could be so disliked by the public, not least Grace herself who sobbed that she had never been unpopular in her life.
** Maggie from [=BB9=] (US) certainly fits the bill.
* ArchEnemy: Danielle to Rachel and Brendon in Season 13, moreso Brendon because Danielle was the one who put him out. Twice.
* AscendedMeme: Jessie [[OnlyKnownByTheirNickname "Mr. Pectacular"]] Godderz. Where do we begin...
** He was originally a houseguest during Season 10, who then came back (by ''un''popular demand) for Season 11, who ''then'' was a suggested possibly-returning houseguest for Season 13.
** As well, he's made the most amount of (consecutive) in-house seasonal appearances of any Big Brother houseguest; not only on the US edition, but over ''every'' international edition of the show. He's basically a [[FirstLawofResurrection horror movie villain; you can't kill him.]]
*** Weeks after being evicted during Season 10, he was brought for a few hours back to pester the remaining houseguests... [[StealthInsult in a gorilla costume.]]
*** He has also appeared as part of the Pandora's Box twist during Seasons 12 and 13 in which Britney Haynes and Rachel Reilly respectively were locked in a room with him, while the the other houseguests received some sort of luxury prize.
*** In Season 14, not only did he return through Pandora's Box for the third season in a row but this time he was unleashed on the house, replacing all of the house's food with healthier alternatives.
* AudienceParticipation: Obviously it's a public vote.
** The American version minimized it after season one. Partly because in season one, people organized huge efforts to slant the game in their favour. Normally it is "Who may/will re-enter the house?", "What will the have-nots eat?". but when they affect gameplay, such as the Coup'de'Tat? People ''botted the site''.
*** Season 8 and 10 featured one called "America's Player". In season 8, it was all season long where the audience would vote for what America's Player would do. Originally, they didn't really know what to do, and at first tried to sabotage Eric by making him vote against the house, even saving the Fan Favourite player. However later on, they begun to tell Eric to vote and act in ways that would help him get further in the game, or provide a bit of entertainment for the viewers. In season 10, Dan was chosen as America's Player and this only lasted a week. Season 12 had the Saboteur twist where people would send in suggestions for pranks to pull. The original Saboteur (Annie) was evicted week 1 and the replacement saboteur (Ragan) did his job and nobody figured him out.
* AxCrazy: Contestants have, in rare cases, been ejected for violent behavior, including one who held a knife to a housemate's throat, and another who threatened to have people killed for nominating them.
* BerserkButton: Chima's the Head Of Household, and she puts Russell up for nomination because she wants him evicted. You'd better not use that mysterious power to mess with her nominations...
* BettyAndVeronica: Briefly in Big Brother 14(U.S) Ian indirectly causes this with Shane (Archie), Danielle (Betty) and JoJo (Veronica). In this case Danielle wins because JoJo was voted out that week.
* BigBrotherIsWatching - Inverted. [[IncrediblyLamePun We're]] [[ExactWords watching]] ''[[RussianReversal Big Brother.]]''
* BlackDudeDiesFirst: Will "Mega", the very first evictee on the US version.
** Keith from US season 13 arguably counts as well. Despite being the second to leave the house, he was the first to actually be evicted. Subverted in that that season has two other black houseguests.
** Jodi from US season 14.
*** Jodi is a particularly bad example, as not only was she first evicted, she was evicted on ''Day 1''.
* BornLucky: The veterans in US S13. They come back knowing the game from the first time they played. Then they manage to get a bunch of competitions thrown at them that they've already done before. Rachel and Jordan are probably the luckiest. When things look bad for them, Pandora's Box conveniently saves them both as the veto is a competition that Rachel had literally won the first week of the season. Then Rachel talks about a have not challenge she did very good at last year and a couple days later, a similar challenge is the next head of household. [[SarcasmMode That's some amazing luck]].
* BrainlessBeauty: Many of both genders.
* CallBack: Episodes will frequently feature flashbacks not only to past episodes but even past '''seasons'''.
** Not in the British version. The British version is musicless and it's very "real" compared to other ones.
** In [=BB9=] (AUS), the ninja in the Unwelcome Guests task in which Michael stealthily brings attention to it by telling the others he was nicknamed the "Ginger Ninja" in school (the "Ginger Ninja" being a main ninja in the Friday Night Games from the previous seasons).
* CampGay:Dicesar and Serginho in BR S10; Daniel and Lucival in BR S11.
** The CampGay is a mandatory member in every BR season from 10 onwards (probably since Jean managed to avoid elimination in the first week by playing the "just because I'm gay" card in season [[OrSoIHeard 9 or something]]). Season 13 features a two-for-one minority who's both gay and black.
** The US version has (in order): Marcellas (3&7), Will (5), Beau (6), Joe & Dustin (8), Neil & Joshuah (9), Steven (10), Kevin (11), Ragan (12), Lawon (13), and Wil (14)
** Marco, Kemal, Shahbaz, Dennis, Tom and Scott in the UK series. You could also make a case for [[AmbiguouslyGay Craig]] from the 2005 series.
*** The increasing levels of campness are hilariously mocked by LeeMack [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCA5z3KJClY&t=0m5s in his stand up show]]
* CashCowFranchise: It made its creator (who was, admittedly, fortunate to begin with) rich enough to launch his own TV station in the Netherlands
* CassandraTruth: "If Ian gets to the end of Big Brother, he'll win." A surprising number of people thought, "Nah, ''him''?!"
* CatchPhrase: Quite a few during the Brazilian version. In fact, at one point the most noteworthy S9 catchphrases were mashed all into [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCCx5cXeQdg a song]]. Also, not really a phrase, but one season of the same version had a fairly popular {{Mondegreen}}ified rendition of "We Are the World" called "Iarnuou", sung by one of the contestants.
** "I'd do that for a dollar!" Invoked in season 8 (US)
** "But First" from the American version. Particularly because Julie Chen has a tendency to say "But first" all of the times...sometimes making the ''exact'' same movements as she did before, a common meme is to call her the "Chenbot" and make a compilation of her saying "But First" - it's amazing how she does this so perfectly!
*** The contestants and Chen are actually ''aware'' of this, and have called her the "Chenbot". Heck, official videos from ''CBS'' had "Chenbot" in the keywords!
** The UK version: "Big Brother house, this is Davina. You are live on channel 4. Please do not swear!" or "You have 30 seconds to say your goodbyes. I'm coming to get you!"
** Also "Dear 25 in tha Big Brutha howse, an Dearvid is summoned to the diary room." Not so much a CatchPhrase as a Catch ''Accent''. Marcus Bentley's (natural) County Durham accent is such an iconic element of the series that he's been known to exaggerate it for effect.
** Season one of Big Brother Australia had a rule that the audience were not to cheer during evictions, so that the housemates didn't know there was a live eviction audience. This led to host Gretel Killeen repeatedly reminding the audience “quiet as a mouse while we cross to the House”.
** Also from Big Brother Australia, whenever the host crossed to the house: 'Hello house!'
** The second season of the french version gave us immortal lines which are still quoted ten years later, even by people who never watched the show. Among the best:
*** A mispronunciation of "thyme" followed by the candidate's explanation that he'd never seen the word written down before.
*** A conversation on whether the word "ingenue" exists and an argument on whether it's the same as "a genius".
*** And the classic "Je t'emmerde avec un grand A!", which literally means "Well, fuck you with a capital P!" No, that wasn't a joke. The candidate spelt the word "emmerde" with a capital a and the sound-bite was used over and over in commercials for the show.
** Rachel from US Season 12 wants you to know that "Nobody gets between me and my man!"
*** Or her "Tequila!"
*** "I ''am'' Vegas, Brendan."
** "AWK-WAAAARRRRD!"
** Again from the Brazillian version, this time from S11, is Igor's VerbalTic of "Tá ligado?" (translating to something akin to "Get it?").
* [[LipstickLesbian Chapstick Lesbian]]: Diana, BR S11.
* CharacterShilling: The veterans in U.S. season 13. Where to begin..
** Jordan was apparently supposed to be a better competitor than the "newbies". She somehow managed to win ''less'' competitions than people flagged as "floaters" by the fanbase did, and wouldn't win competitions ''that were clearly slanted for her or Rachel''.
* TheChessmaster: Kaysar Ridha from Big Brother 6 and 7 tried very hard to be this, but never even reached the jury. He should have taken lessons from Will Kirby, who is still generally regarded as the most evil and manipulative house guest ever, in ''any'' of the Big Brother series around the world. Not only did the man manipulate his way into winning the US Season 2, he engineered a win for his friend and business partner, Mike "Boogie" Malin, in the American ''All Stars'' season.
** SarcasticConfession: The best part of "Evil Doctor Will" being TheChessmaster is that at the beginning of Season 2, Will literally told ''everyone'' else in the house that he was going to lie, cheat, and steal in order to win, and that ''none'' of them, not even his friend Mike, should trust him as far as they could comfortably spit the Chrysler Building, and that he would betray any so-called "alliance" the moment he saw profit in it. They all thought he was being funny... except that's precisely what he did in order to walk away with the prize.
*** Other examples include Danielle from Big Brother 3, Maggie from Big Brother 6, Dan from Big Brother 10, Natalie and Kevin from Big Brother 11 (only near the end), and The Brigade from Big Brother 12 (mainly Matt and Enzo).
** Makosi in sixth UK series. She manipulated and controlled the whole house, turned situations to her advantage in a magnificent away, and sent most of her main rivals AND her main allies to the door. She was a favourite to win at one point, but she took her tactics too far by pretending to be pregnant. Public opinion quickly turned against her, and, [[ChronicBackstabbingDisorder two-faced backstabber]] though she was the harsh reception she got from the crowd made for uncomforable viewing.
* ChronicBackstabbingDisorder: Easier to pull off in the US show than in ''Survivor'', due to its structure.
** James Rhine may be the king of this trope when it comes to Big Brother. The man couldn't go two weeks without trying to backstab his alliance.
** Noirin and Bea from the tenth UK series surely qualify. By the time each were evicted, they had succeeded in alienating the vast majority of their housemates. They just had no concept of loyalty ... to ANYONE!
*** And no, this shared trait didn't help them bond. They hated each other just as much as everyone else, coming close to a full-on bitchfight once.
** Makosi in the sixth UK series. She backstabbed from week one all the way to the final!
** In Big Brother 14, Janelle and her team seem to do this alot so far allying with Britney's Team in Week 1, then Boogie's Team in Week 2 and then trying to ally back with Britney and Shane in Week 3.
* ClusterFBomb: Nobbi from Big Brother Australia 2008 was so unhappy at housemate Terri's re-entry to the house that the live broadcast was interrupted by, according to Big Mouth host Tony Squires, “about thirty seconds of continual bleeping”.
* CrazyEnoughToWork: Some of the plans pulled off in past seasons of the US show (Nakomis's five-fingered plan, for example).
** Which later turned into an often used strategy itself, called "Backdooring."
** The Evil Doctor Will openly told people from the start that a) they could not trust him and b) he would lie, cheat, and steal to win. Apparently no one thought he'd do that after ''telling'' them he'd do that, but he did. And it worked.
** A particularly crazy example from Season 14 (US) was Dan's funeral. As HOH, Frank nominated him alongside Danielle, and after Jenn won the veto, Dan hosted his "Big Brother Funeral". He had kind words for everyone...except his closest ally Danielle, who he berated. This left everyone in shock, which created a distraction for Dan to make a deal with Frank and Jenn to save himself and evict Britney instead.
* TheCobblersChildrenHaveNoShoes: Natalie, a Tae Kwon Do Champion who did ''terribly'' at physical challenges.
* CompletelyMissingThePoint: BR calls the participants "brothers" and "sisters", sometimes prefaced with the adjective "Big" (GratuitousEnglish at its best), ignoring completely that the titular BigBrother was supposed to be the viewer. Or the director.
* ContinuityCavalcade: In one of the final weeks of Big Brother Aus 2012, the weekly task was to ignore all unwelcome guests which included several former housemates from previous seasons, a ninja and narrator Mike Goldman.
* CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass:
** Season 11: Jordan spends the entire season riding on Jeff's coattails and her one head of household victory was handed to her. Then in the final three, she competes in the final head of household round with Kevin and...''wins''. See the MomentOfAwesome page.
*** From the same season, Kevin. Had it not been for Jordan's own CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass, Kevin would have won that season. He basically spent the entire season hiding behind bigger targets in his alliance like Jessie and Ronnie, manipulating others' perceptions into thinking he was worthless, so they would target Lydia (who had not won a single non-food competition) over him. When Jeff finally set his sights on Kevin and he failed to win veto, Kevin walked right up to Jeff, suggested that Russell was a bigger threat because he was more likely to flip. He then persuaded Jeff to backdoor Russell, and he even used the veto ''on Kevin'', no doubt. This forced Jeff's alliance into having a roughly 50/50 shot in the next head of household challenge.
** Season 13: Shelly, Kalia, and Porsche were thought of as "floaters" despite Kalia's Head of Household win that was ''not'' given to her. Shelly then realizes that even though nobody has any intention of getting her out, Jeff and Jordan are a nigh unbreakable alliance and the biggest threat of his group with the mentally unstable Rachel and TheLoad Jordan. Kalia then wins head of household AGAIN and then Porsche, accused of being a floater, wins veto ''AND'' a Head of Household after she slips through by not being perceived as a threat. Even ''Adam'' got this when he wins a crucial veto to keep himself off the block in the final five, and then proceeds to get all six questions right in the penultimate head of household.
** Bonnie Holt, from the UK version, but then disappeared.
* {{Cult}}: The Friendship/Nerd Herd from Season 6.
** Jeff and Jordan almost kept the newbies like this.
* DeadpanSnarker: Britney of S12/14 is the undisputed queen of this trope as far as the show goes.
* {{Determinator}}: Several. From the American version:
** In ''Big Brother 6'', the houseguests were in an endurance competition called the pressure cooker that was not physically challenging; but they all lasted at least ''six hours''. This wasn't how long the competition lasted - that was how long it took ''before the first person was eliminated''. By the time the competition finished? It was the early morning. ''The next day.'' Even if it wasn't physically taxing, that's some epic willpower.
** Diane and Jase in Big Brother 5 for how long they were on the challenge.
** Evel Dick and Zach had cold water poured on them for about eight hours before dropping out of an endurance competition.
** Several houseguests such as Ragan, Kail, Kevin, Adam, and Frank applied numerous times. In Adam's case; he even lost ''a hundred pounds'' in the process of getting on Big Brother. That really shows how determined he is.
* DisproportionateRetribution: Rachel doesn't like a comment that Cassi says about Porsche in an off-hand comment. Rachel then campaigns to get Cassi evicted from the house.
* DoubleStandard: Why does nobody like Craig from [=BB6=] UK? Because A) he's gay and B) he cried. Even if women are the target audience.
** I think it was more to do with the fact that he was obsessed with Anthony, the straight male housemate who went on to win, and was disturbingly possessive of him, to the point of throwing hissy fits if he thought Anthony was spending too much time with anyone else.
*** Also before he even went in the house he said he was going to exploit other people's weaknesses. And he was very shallow, selfish and bitchy. And he constantly sucked up to whoever he thought was most powerful in the house regardless of badly they acted. There were plenty of reasons Craig was unpopular other than him crying. Crying isn't uncommon on Big Brother anyway, for male or female contestants, and most of the time it isn't considered a big deal if they do it because of what a strange environment it appears to be. The fact that he was gay had little to do with his unpopularity either, some of the most popular housemates from Big Brother UK have been gay men.
** The US version switched away from public voting after Season 1 because the [[JerkAss JerkAsses]] were getting voted out early, leaving the less entertaining contestants (Sans George) behind. [[hottip:*:Part of the reason they changed from it was because of George's hometown organized a ''mass'' callout to save him. Even in future seasons where viewers could impact the game, people attempted to do just that. In Season 11, Ronnie's wife posted instructions on how to bot the CBS website, and there were ''plenty'' of bots that countered the pro-Ronnie ones. When viewers sent saboteur suggestions in US Season 12, several of the messages were attempting to spoil secrets the saboteur(s) couldn't have known]]
** Emily Parr and the whole NWordPrivileges. Nobody raised a fuss about ''Charley'' using the N-Word, but ''Emily'' said it?!? KICK HER OUT OF THE HOUSE!!!!
*** If it wasn't for the Celebrity edition scandal a mere four months earlier, Emily most likely would have got away with a formal warning. They were terrified of another backlash. Ironically, the only backlash was anger against Emily's unfair explulsion!
** A common one from the American series: "It's alright for ''me'' to nominate ''you'' because I see you as a threat, but ''you'' nominate ''me'' for the same reasons?! How ''dare'' you!
*** Very commonly, people gloat in the diary room to the ConfessionCam about how good their game is and how good they are when things are going their way and they're making smart moves by evicting certain players. However, if ''another'' player makes a smart move and it doesn't benefit ''them'', they get all pissy about it and oftentimes insult the player in question. Especially if they are doing something to make themselves ''huge'' targets in the game like Rachel, Kaysar, James, Jeff....
*** Brendon and Rachel and most recently Jeff and Jordan thanks to their influence complain about people who float along or hide in the numbers so that they are ''not'' perceived as a threat and targeted by whoever is in power. One could wonder if they'd consider Jun&Alison, Sharon, Dr. Will, and Kevin terrible gameplayers because getting people to ''not'' perceive you as a threat is what keeps you in the game. (Jeff also doesn't seem to have a problem with Jordan, who won one head of household by herself in both seasons and has relied on Jeff and the rest of her alliance to carry her.)
*** And likewise, fans seem to be saying it was perfectly alright for someone playing the game...but if they're female, they're called a "Bitch" or a "hag" amongst other things. Only if your boyfriend is MrFanservice do you get away with it.
** Someone gets far by lying, backstabbing, and coasting through and not winning competitions? FLOATER! Terrible player! Dr. Will gets far and even ''wins once'' by doing ''just'' that? Best player ever. Why is Dr. Will allowed to get away with it? Three words: MrFanservice.
** Anyone who claims that if you don't win competitions you are a floater and are a terrible gameplayer. This doesn't apply to Jordan who in Season eleven, won due to a CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass (Which was well deserved) but up until that point, had more or less rode Jeff's coattails through the game. And in season 13, she somehow managed to do even ''less'', only winning a luxury competition by herself (her head of household was, like the first one, obviously thrown by everyone else). Even people who have won more competitions on their own merits had people hiss, "Floater! Floater!"
* DrJerk: "Evil Dr. Will," an American fan favorite, who may also be considered a MagnificentBastard and MrFanservice.
* DumbBlonde: There's usually one. In Britain, Helen Adams ([=BB2=]) and Jade Goody [=BB3=] became iconic (but not in a good way, at least in Goody's case). Sophie Reade in [=BB10=] who went on to win that series.
** Subverted with blonde twins Amanda and Sam Marchant in [=BB8=] UK. They at first appeared to be blonde bimbo girls, as they were giggly, excitable and loved wearing pink, but turned out to be quite intelligent. For example Amanda once added up the entire shopping budget on her own, when usually several housemates contribute to that task, and the other housemates commented that Amanda did a better job of it than anyone else had before. Keep in mind that Amanda was [[GeniusDitz the ditzier]] of the two!
** Arguably subverted with Chantelle Houghton in Celebrity Big Brother 4 in that she wasn't so much "dumb" as starstruck and nervous. She was told before she went in that the series would be a mixed celebrity/members of the public series, but on launch night they told her that not only was she the only ordinary member of the public there, but she had to convince the celebrities that she was a real celebrity. She succeeded in this, just about, and went on to win the series.
** Jordan of S11 is probably the standard; and she even [[LampshadeHanging is self-aware]] - saying several times about how stupid she is.
** Averted ''hard'' with Janelle from S6 US; while she appeared that way at first glance, she soon proved herself to be one of the [[ObfuscatingStupidity smartest, most ruthless players]] the game had ever (and, at the rate it's going, ''will'' ever) seen.
** Also averted with Britney, but not to the level of Janelle.
** Porsche in season 13, ''full stop''. Just to give you an example of how moronic she can be: One luxury competition involved guessing a celebrity who would visit the house. Porsche guessed... Michael Jackson. Even if he ''was'' willing to appear on a show like this, there's the whole "dead" thing getting in the way!
** Ashley in season 14 saying things like how Shane was emancipated. one has to wonder if they were trying to find an {{Expy}} of Jordan, since Ashley ''is'' nice-spirited like Jordan.
* DysfunctionalFamily: The fifth US season included identical twins playing one and half-siblings who didn't know each other existed until after the show started ({{Squick}} thankfully averted). And in Season Eight US, there was the estranged father and daughter that grew close and went on to win the two prizes.
* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: The first season of the U.S. version was much more similar to the UK, which had 10 contestants and allowed for audience nominations. They changed formats with season 2, upped the contestants number to 12 (and sometimes 14, though season 14 had 16, the largest amount of Houseguests to date), and introduced in-house nominations/evictions and Head of Household and picked the winner, as opposed to the audience really doing anything more than picking what losing Houseguests will eat.
* EntitledBastard: Rachel would regularly insult people and play the game very personally, then wondered why a bunch of people hated her and couldn't stand her.
** Jeff also would regularly insult the newbies and walked in claiming he deserved to win...and was ''dumbfounded'' when they went after him.
* EpicFail: In US season 14, Joe lasts a total of two minutes in an endurane competition. The first thing he says? That his kids will ''still'' be laughing at him when he gets back home.
* ExecutiveMeddling: Producers have the power to slant the show via ObviousRulePatch, such as evacuating the houseguests if they are injured or if something happens, showing that it is [[TropesAreTools not a bad thing]]. But a lot of the times, people just mention them trying to manipulate the game.
** Fans suspect that the producers interfere with on-line fan polls and in the game itself for ratings. Season 13 has so far been a hotbed of suspicion--Brendon, a CreatorsPet, beat out Keith, Cassi and Dominic (the latter two very popular with fans) in America's Vote to come back into the house after being evicted, and the challenge where he had to face the fifth evictee Lawon in to get back in was a physical challenge, which Brendon is excellent at and especially that kind. During the teacup challenge, they seemed to have been dumping a ''lot'' more soap suds over some lanes, with Jordan, Porsche and Adam getting it the worst and Shelly and Rachel getting it the least. Then, Jeff appeared to be drawn for literally every veto whether he was on the block or not; fans have suspected this wasn't just darn luck. Several Feed watchers have apparently overheard Rachel claim that the producers promised they (The veterans) would all make Jury. Later, a feature called "Pandora's Box" returned, allowed Porsche to get 5000 dollars but at the cost of an unknown twist being introduced--the twist turned out to be pairing up the houseguests for that week only, and by pairing up Rachel and Jordan which Porsche had no hand in, it was ensured that if either of them won the Veto then both of them stayed for that week, since the [=HoH=]'s two nominees for eviction have to be a pair. Given that Rachel and Jordan are the only two Vets left in the house, the timely introduction of this twist when their enemy Porsche was [=HoH=] has saved them both. Conveniently; the veto competition was an endurance challenge...and almost literally the ''same'' endurance challenge that Rachel won first in the season. Even former player Matt joked that Pandora's Box was just ExecutiveMeddling, calling it "Producers Box", and Porsche has even confirmed on the feeds that she ''was'' forced to open it.
*** Fans have even been suspecting them of intentionally ''casting'' players to be living props, (since it worked so well in ''Series/{{Survivor}}'''s 22nd season) knowing that they wouldn't be mourning the newbies if they were evicted since they wanted to see their old favourites - and if they stood against the veterans? Zero percent approval rating. Add in a bit of ManipulativeEditing to portray them as a villain, and voila.
** Fans also suggest executive meddling by producers turning a blind eye to rule violations or equipment malfunctions. Key examples being Jeff in the teacup challenge somehow getting away with using his hands to hold soap and not just cover it, and Dick and Daniele supposedly not being penalizd at for violating slop restrictions, as well as Dick not getting yelled at for burning Jen with the cigarette or not getting yelled at for having a code written by his son in a letter from home. Jameka evidently had an equipment failure in Season 8; but this has neither been confirmed or denied. (The other main equipment failure was ''very'' obvious since buttons wouldn't work for a couple players; requiring them to reshoot the challenge.)
** This is essentially the reason the Mexican edition of ''Big Brother'' died quickly. Initial expectations were based on the European editions where you had the participants engaging in sex and other stuff normally not seen on TV. Unfortunately, Televisa turned it mostly into a mostly scripted interaction, the first member that almost got laid was surprisingly the first one voted out; the "international exchange" member was found out to already have his plane ticket purchased ''before the voting to select said member had finished'', among other irregularities in the very first season. Then add up that Televisa oversaturated the format by doing many ''Big Brother VIP'' editions (the Mexican equivalent to the ''Celebrity'' editions) down to the point that everyone stopped caring watching actors past their prime basically doing ''real-life telenovela'' on the BB set.
* ExpositoryHairstyleChange: Daniele Donato of the US version had hair that reflected her persona during each season she competed in; in Season 8, [[LightIsGood she had blonde hair and was seen as the young ingenue of the house]], but when she returned for Season 13, [[DarkIsEvil it was dyed dark brown, which was more in line with her ruthless, take-no-prisoners approach that year]].
* FanService: A lot of people watch it just because they are waiting for someone to take a shower. And the sole purpose of some challenges seems to be to get the contestants to show some skin. Wet T-Shirt contest in Big Brother Czech, anyone?
** Big Brother Brasil inserts more of this each year, to the point of suggesting oral sex under the couches. And there always will be a girl who "accidentally" exposes a critical area every now and then.
** Averted in one season of Big Brother Australia; one contestant insisted on wearing a bikini while bathing. So much so that "Jemma in the shower" became somewhat of a IRL Meme.
** The Dutch version contestants were GenreSavvy enough to see this coming, and spent the first episode having a hot tub orgy. [[RefugeInAudacity Really]].
** In the ninth UK series, Dale and Stuart were given tasks seemingly for no reason other than to show off their torsos.
* FatalFlaw: Jeff in season 13's biggest downfall was that he didn't win the veto competition that he could have saved himself, and got Rachel out instead. In this competition, houseguests had to find two yellow clown shoes in a ball pit, and [[http://forums.jokersupdates.com/ubbthreads/showthreaded.php?Cat=&Board=BBMedia&Number=16385273&page=0&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=31&rc=&fpart=1#Post16402187 Jeff accidentally threw his out of the pit]].
* {{Flanderization}}: Competitions were important in the early seasons of the U.S. season; but the social game was what won you the game over somebody else. When there's no real target in the house, who do you target? The person who you know can win competitions. People used to throw competitions all the time and nobody cared or batted an eyelash. Nowadays with how many people complain about "Floaters" or people who try to play the social game moreso than the competition game, you'd wonder if this was derived from ''Series/TheAmazingRace'' instead of ''Series/{{Survivor}}''.
* FollowTheLeader: Glass House in the U.S. uses a similar format to the original Big Brother season. [[http://www.vulture.com/2012/05/cbs-readies-lawsuit-against-new-abc-show.html CBS did not take kindly to this]].
** What's also rather funny is that roughly ''eighteen'' staff members from Big Brother US are now working on this show. One of the executive producers from Big Brother US was a former producer of Big Brother US.
* FunWithSubtitles: In season 6 (US), there was a part where Ivette was in the diary room and the subtitle said, "She's gay".
** And another time, Britney is in the diary room with Brendon handcuffed to him via a veto. Brendon is talking about having to take a chum bath, and you can see Britney mouthing, "Help me". They even subtitled it.
* GayCowboy: Big Brother 10 (US) had Steven Daigle, a self proclaimed "gay rodeo star," who has recently gone on to gay pornography.
** However, he doesn't really ''[[StraightGay seem]]'' that gay if you watch it - ''Memphis'' actually has more stereotypical gay traits in terms of his clothing!
* GeniusBruiser: Brendon is good at physical challenges (Being a swim coach) and is really book smart. He won't let you forget that he is a [=PhD=] student.
** Evel Dick is the Gameplay version. He was able to win physical challenges, and knew the game. Russell as well; since he is a mixed martial arts fighter.
* GossipyHens: Daniel and Lucival in BR S11, whose gossiping are nicknamed "Tricotando com [=DaLu=]" ("Knitting with [=DaLu=]").
* GuideDangIt:
** In Big Brother 9 (US), there was a head of household challenge where Julie Chen asked "True or false: There were more than two existing relationships in the house". There actually ''were'' only two existing relationships (Jacob and Sharon and Jen and Ryan) but anyone who said "False" was counted wrong...because the ''guinea pigs'' apparently were the third existing couple! This screwed Sharon over ''majorly'', and may count as ExecutiveMeddling (apparently, Chen paused before giving the answer because she was being given it herself).
** One could also argue that Pandora's Box applies; given that it very commonly gives very vague words as to what the consequence or even the reward is.
** A recent Head of Household competition was this; however it was moreso to the ''viewers'' rather than the players. The night before the head of household challenge, the fortune teller begun to spout predictions about what houseguests would do after the show for them to memorize. What was actually shown ''on'' the highlights show were a couple; and what Julie chen actually asked weren't shown. Basically; players didn't really know this given that these were played at 4 AM.
* HumiliationConga: Sometimes, competitions in the US versions are based on this trope, often "How many punishments are you willing to take in order to win?"
** Especially bad for Kail in Season 8. In week 5, she was nominated by the HOH Daniele, and competed in one of these competitions for the Veto. She accepted every punishment in full magnitude (This included wearing a bunny suit for 120 hours, having gunk dropped on her every hour for 24 hours, eating only slop for the next 30 days, and giving up the right to compete in the next 5 HOH competitions), except for the last one, thus losing the Veto to Jen. Jen used the Veto on herself, and Daniele put into motion a plan to backdoor Eric, but Kail was still evicted 4-3 after a blindside by Dustin, Jessica, and Jameka.
** John James in [=BB11=] UK in the last few weeks, as the producers and many viewers had got sick of his {{Jerkass}} SpoiledBrat behaviour. They made him wear ridiculous costumes for tasks and bought back evicted housemates he argued with. In the last few days leading up to his eviction they bought back Rachael. He bragged to the others about laying into her, but when he learned that she had hooked up with Nathan on the outside he literally started [[IWantMyMommy crying for his mummy]].
** Most of the series for [=BB13=] UK contestant Luke S. He had curry powder put in his protein shake by Benedict, who told him that as a parting shot just before he left the house. After accusing Deana of being a golddigger, she countered that his relationship with Ashleigh was fake for the cameras. In a task he was fooled into thinking a phony talent agent was really interested in signing him, which saw him doing a photoshoot for a cheesy calender and saying that Ashleigh annoyed him and when he left the house he would rather be a player than in a relationship. Later he overheard Ashleigh complaining that he smelt of onions and implying that she fancied Conor more. Worst of all, he and Conor were in the White Room task and were told that if one of them pressed a button they would win £50,000 but would have to leave the house immediately and the other would get a free pass to the final. Conor had said a few days before that getting to the final was the most important thing to him, but he pressed the button a split second before Luke S, leaving him crying and kicking the furniture in anger. It didn't end there either. Conor said in his interview that despite being allies in the house he never liked Luke S much, and in the last week in the house [[DeadpanSnarker Deana]] couldn't resist making jokes about Luke S not pressing the button. Then when it came to the final Luke S was out first and 'Push The Button' by the Sugababes was played as he exited the house.
* {{Hypocrite}}: Rachel in Season 13 has put people up on the block and had them evicted for stuff she does to other people. For a specific example, in week two she campaigned to get Cassi out because she didn't like what Cassi said about Porche in a single off-hand remark. Then in the veto competition Jeff got mad at Rachel for a snide remark she made towards his girlfriend Jordan. This prompted her to question [[FacePalm "Why is he so mad over a single comment?"]] Not to mention, Rachel spent half the week wangsting about how Brendon was evicted, then she says "Oh suck it up" to Kalia, who cried because she lost a challenge that more or less sealed her fate.
** In the same season, Danielle warned Porcshe that Brendon and Rachel will lie and backstab anyone they have to in order to win. Lying, backstabbing and manipulation is par for the course in the game, so the same could be said of pretty much any other contestant in the history of the show. This includes Danielle herself--the reason she split off from the veteran alliance is that they found out she was trying to get Jeff evicted.
*** To be fair, it was probalby a better idea to be in an alliance with Daniele than Brendon&Rachel and Jeff&Jordan....whose alliance(s) were pretty much set in stone from ''before the show even started''. You would have had a much better chance in an alliance of three or four with less concrete bonds to each other.
** In the american version, people often complain about being backstabbed after they backstabbed their own alliance members.
** The veterans basically ''lashed'' into Porsche for taking advantage of a twist (The "golden key") that got her further in the game. They apparently forgot that ''they'' were the ones who ''offered'' her the golden key in the first place, it was ''her'' who helped give them an immediate majority, and most importantly, that ''Rachel'' had ''also'' taken advantage of a convenient set of twists that helped get her to the end, and they even said they were promised jury.
* IconicLogo: The British version's eye.
* InformedAbility / PiratesWhoDontDoAnything: We're told houseguests are good at stuff and are told their jobs but we rarely see them do it in-game. Justifiable in that we're not following them on their jobs.
** This was what sealed Natalie's fate in Big Brother 11. She was supposedly a huge competitor (Being a competitor in Tae Kwon Dao tournaments) yet lost just about every individual competition she played in and made people wonder if she was even ''trying''. In the teacup challenge, she just stumbled around and wasn't even ''trying'' to catch up to everybody else, prompting Jessie and Lydia to reel in disgust.
** Jeff&Jordan and Brendon&Rachel are apparently very good game-players. Both times Jeff played, he either picked up the IdiotBall or overstepped and got evicted. CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass moment aside, Jordan was somehow unable to win a single competition without having someone give it to her, [[DoubleStandard aside from a luxury competition, which counted when saying she was a competitor]]. Likewise, Brendon and Rachel apparently are good at the game yet they were somehow unable to do so without alienating half the house. And all four somehow couldn't manage to win without blatant ExecutiveMeddling or exploiting a twist to help them.
* InformedFlaw: The editors don't know who some players are, yet it becomes weird when they start winning competitions or actually doing well. Porsche in season 13 did not do poorly in the competitions she needed to win, but got ultimately outplayed. (She finished in second quite a bit, even in the teacup competition) Rachel even said Porsche is not bad at competitions, or questions for that matter. Finally, she won two competitions that she really ''really'' needed to win.
* InSeriesNickname: The Brazilian version has its name officially shortened as "[[AddedAlliterativeAppeal BBB]]", and the contestants were occasionally nicknamed as "brothers" and "sisters". During the first season of this version, a contestant named the elimination process "Paredão" (literally "big wall" in Brazilian Portuguese, meaning the place where people are taken to be shot by a firing squad), which eventually became the official name.
* IncompatibleOrientation: In US S12, [[CampGay Ragan]] was obviously crushing on Matt. Who was straight. And married.
** Untrue. Matt isn't his type by self-admission; they think of each other like brothers. Ragan stated in the first episode of the season that, as he is the brains in relationships, his partner must be the brawn. (He only ever showed romantic interest in ''[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCQwMLGw2Rg#t=3m55s Brendan ]]'' of all people.)
* IrishNames: The most recent UK series has an Irish housemate named 'Caoimhe'. An utterly unremarkable female name in Ireland, it is brain breakingly difficult to spell and pronounce in Britain. Cue mass bafflement. Similarly there was Orlaith in the sixth series, Aisleyne in the seventh series (even though Aisleyne herself was only half-Irish) and Noirin in the tenth series.
* {{Irony}}: To avoid controversy due to the racist bullying in the previus Celebrity Edition, Emily Parr was ejected from Big Brother UK for [[NWordPrivileges using the N-word in a conversation with Charley]]. However, it sparked a controversy ''instead'' about how people viewed it as [[DoubleStandard Unfair]], since Charley was not even punished for saying it, and Emily had not offended any other houseguests.
* IShallTauntYou: Joe to Willie, and vice versa.
** Also happened in the Bulgaria Big Brother - where a contestant goaded another player by insulting his heritage and resulted in a small riot.
* ItsPersonal: A lot of players play personally. Among them, Rachel, Lydia, Amber. A good number of jury votes were personal.
* JawDrop: This was the reaction of arrogant [=BB7=] UK contestant Sezer after it was announced he was the latest evictee. His jaw almost dropped again when he was told that he had got an at the time record breaking 91.6% of the public vote to be evicted.
** In US BB 14, Danielle had a comically huge one after Dan had manipulated her into vetoing him off the block, placing her showmance partner Shane up in his place, then evicting Shane after ''swearing'' that he wouldn't do it.
* JerkAss: Most of the contestants, and most of the US winners. Not only that, but douchebags are often prized by the BB fandom (Chill Town and Evel Dick come to mind.) The only people that played the game well, won, and weren't jerks about it were Drew from Season 5, Dan from season 10, and Jordan from season 11.
** Plenty in BBUK too. Due to the vote to evict, they usually bit the dust as soon as they were on the block. Now the voting system has changed to "vote to save", controversial characters (such as The Shannon Twins) manage to survive longer (even make the final). But, in the end, good usually wins.
*** Of course, that depends on who you view as "good", as the majority have "jerkass" moments now and again.
** A lot of the contestants in current UK series. Due to them being able to talk about nominations right from the start, a lot of people are considering it the most bitchy house ever.
* [[KarmicDeath Karmic Eviction]]: Jeff in Season 13 won [=HoH=], put up Kalia and Porche, then won the Veto and removed Porche in favor of his primary target Danielle, who was evicted. However, it was a double eviction night--Kalia won [=HoH=], put up Jeff and Rachel, and Porsche won the Veto and kept the nominations the same, resulting in a tied vote which Kalia broke, voting out Jeff. To drive the point home, Porsche was heard saying "It's what Danielle wanted". Perhaps the most memorable moment of that season...
** James in Big Brother 9. He is constantly targeted, but then one by one, his alliance goes. Finally, he fails to win veto to remove himself and is then evicted over Sharon, nominated ''again''.
** Marcellas in season 3 who had the opportunity to get himself guaranteed safety to the final four. But he doesn't use the veto on the one time he could use it on himself and is promptly evicted, in what's seen as the original "Stupidest move in the game."
* KarmaHoudini: Surprisingly, Jeff. Throughout both his seasons, he's displayed homophobia, calling Russell a "Faggot", even [[WhatTheHellHero implying that he thinks gay people are pedophiles]] while insulting ''HarryPotter'' amongst constantly bad-mouthing his fellow players (even ''his own alliance members''!) Homophobia normally gets you ''instantly'' hated by the fans (Unless you get over it like Kent did to Bunky) and yet, thanks to [[ManipulativeEditing this behaviour being pretty much completely ignored on the highlights]], people still claim he's one of the most likable people on the show, and he's even considered a "Spokesman" For CBS, getting his own show with Jordan.
** Maybe not so much, as [[http://www.jokersupdates.com/jarticles/article.php?article=1894 people who've seen the feeds voted him the worst reality star of 2011]].
* KickTheDog: Rachel's farewell messages to Danielle and Shelly after they've been evicted have been very mean. YMMV if it crosses into KickTheSonOfABitch, depending on how you see the three of them. This is part of why she's so hated.
* LiteraryAllusionTitle
* LiveButDelayed: To keep excited contestants' swearing out of the mix on live eviction shows. One live episode in Season 11 had to be taped because Chima threatened to go ballistic if Russell wasn't evicted. She would be expelled from the game a few days later, but only because she damaged studio equipment by throwing a microphone into the pool.
** Chima also went on ''quite'' a racist tirade on the first live eviction, which was silenced out. And most recently, there was a blurb of silence in a live competition followed by Julie Chen telling Rachel to keep it civil.
** Season 13 has featured a ''lot'' of swearing on live shows. There was a blurb of silence when Rachel was eliminated from a live competition, and in the double eviction episode, even ''more'' random blurbs of silence.
** Season 14 has a rather famous moment wherein Janelle called Boogie a "Douchebag" and there was enough of a delay to silence it.
* TheLoad: There're some.
** Jordan. season 11, she was carried to the end but [[CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass managed to win two competitions by herself]]. Season 13, she [[DoubleStandard somehow does even less, yet is considered less of a load than Adam]].
** Jerry in season 10.
** Chicken George.
* LoopholeAbuse: Combined with FridgeBrilliance. In season five, Marvin and Nakomis set up a plan where they would nominate two people they have no intention of evicting. For the veto, they pick players who would either use the veto anyways or are in on the plan and would use it. Then at the veto meeting, whoever won the veto used it and then the Head of Household put up the real target. This strategy is called "backdooring", and it influenced how the game was played. Later seasons made it a little harder to do, as [[ObviousRulePatch players were picked through the veto by a random draw]], although there is still a "player's choice" option that can be drawn.
** When Rachel returned to the house as a guest in Big Brother 12, there apparently AintNoRule that says she couldn't leave a message to Brendon spelled out in pretzels. ("I <3 you | Matt")
** evidently, it's not classified as a "Game show" by the FCC. Thus, they're able to pull off RatingsStunt like borderline scripting the show.
* ManipulativeEditing: A lot of the stuff that happens in the house doesn't make it to the highlights show. Even then you don't see everything unless you watch all of the live feeds. This sometimes portrays a different character.
** It can be shocking to watch the feeds and find that someone who's edited to be mouthy on the show is actually quite silent on the feeds. (Daniele, Ragan.) Or how someone who appears to be quite innocent is ''quite'' a cusser (Jeff).
** What's probably the ''worst case'' was in week 5 of season 13. It was actually ''Shelly'' who approached Kalia with the idea to backdoor Porsche so that Jeff, Jordan, and Rachel would forgive Kalia and it would get her further in the game. Then that's when Daniele got upset with Kalia in the HOH room in that last part of the episode. However, the editors made it seem like ''Rachel'' did all the work and gave Shelly no credit whatsoever.
*** Not to mention, Jeff actually has a rather dark side to him. People who watch the feeds reported him calling fellow player Russell a "Faggot" numerous times, saying gay people were pedophiles, insulting houseguests behind their backs (Sometimes not even ''behind'' their backs!) and [[EntitledBastard saying he was the only one who deserved to win]]. In season 13, this behaviour was a ''lot'' more common...However, he is still considered one of the fan favourites, mostly because this side of him was left on the cutting room floor. You just ''know'' that if ''Adam'' was the one making these comments, it'd be crammed down our throats. Jeff even [[KarmaHoudini got away with causing a controversy]] by the fanbase...[[http://www.jokersupdates.com/jarticles/article.php?article=1894 until he was voted worst reality star in 2011]].
*** Brendon similarly is rather domineering and insulting towards Rachel, often bullying her and not letting her talk. Conveniently, all we saw of their relationship was the house wanting to get them our and them being all lovey dovey as misogynists are quickly booed off the camera. Granted, he hasn't ''quite'' gotten away with this as much as Jeff has...
* MediaWatchdog: Since the beginning, but especially after Evel Dick raised hell, the racist incident(s) in Celebrity Big Brother.
* MoralMyopia: James during Big Brother: All Stars has too many examples to list, but the gist of the story is that he wanted Janelle to make the nominations that HE wanted when she was HOH in week four, and when she didn't comply, he got all pissy at her for the entirety of the game. This happened in spite of James' multiple betrayals to the Sovereigns.
* MsFanservice: In the UK at least one every year. Usually ends up on ''Nuts'' magazine.
** Also in Brazil, where at least 3 end up on ''{{Playboy}}'' yearly. (which is probably why many end up as runner-ups but not first place, [[MoneyDearBoy the magazine's paycheck won't matter if they win...]])
** BB Australia had Krystal, a nineteen-year-old who had already had a boob job before entering the house.
** US Season 14 has Kara, who was Playboy Playmate of the year in 2006.
* MyFriendsAndZoidberg: Jessica from Season 8 describing her team in the first food challenge:
---> '''Jessica:''' "My team had all the big guys... and Eric."
* NeonSignHideout: When Aisleyne was "evicted" to the secret House Next Door in Big Brother UK Series 7, the housemates could hear noises from where the House Next Door was located and sussed that there was a secret place.
** In fact, the "sent next door" twist had been done so many times that in the 12th UK series, nominees Anton and Jay were secretly moved to the Big Brother Crypt, as they were "dead to the housemates". Despite the others being told that they had been evicted from the house they managed to suss that they were in fact living in a secret room.
* NoDamageRun: There were houseguests who managed to make it to the finale without being nominated or receiving ''very few'' nominations. Amanda&Sam in ''Big Brother 2007'' UK received no nomination votes, while Josie in ''Big Brother 2010'' never faced the public vote until the end.
** The American version also has Danielle, Jun, Alison, Drew, Mike/Boogie, Daniele (8), Adam, Dan, and Lane, who made it to the final two without having an eviction vote cast against them. Alison probably fits closest to this trope, since she was never even ''nominated''!
* NonGameplayElimination: Happens ''quite a bit'', house guests either break rules (Fight Night in UK Version, NWordPrivileges, Turkey Slapping in Australia, the "Knife incident" & "Hirochima" in America come to mind) and get kicked out, or decide to leave (Sometimes due to family emergencies, injuries like Rima in Australia or Keeley in ''2010'', or just not wanting to play the game).
** Interestingly, there have actually been a lot less house guests walking or being ejected in the US version. Only two house guests ever left the show (Neil in Season 9, who left because of a family emergency, Dick who also had a family emergency), while four were ejected. (Two of 'em being within the first week, and you may as well count Willie, since he was ejected the day after the first eviction) In a recent UK season, ''four'' people walked.
** NonGameplayElimination is even ''less'' common in the Brazilian Big Brother, wherein there have been ''no'' ejections and only ''three'' people leaving the show out of their own free will.
* NoodleIncident: Sometimes, houseguests talk about incidents and events that happened in the house but were not shown on the show.
** Sometimes; there is actually controversy around what happens on the live feeds that's not shown on the main show. Among these include comments and behaviour of Evel Dick that were not shown on the highlights, NWordPrivileges, Adam's comments towards Autistic people calling them "Retards", Jeff's homophobic comments towards ''Literature/HarryPotter'' (Especially worse since [[Film/HarryPotter the movie]] had ''just'' been released around the time), and a ''LOT'' of Chima's house-deeds.
*** Averted when Chima was ejected from the house, though - before her outbursts, we had seen her make a racist tirade that was censored and...that's just about it, outside of verbally abusing Russell. However; the houseguests mention that Chima has broken rules from day one, but we hadn't seen any of this. Cue a flashback montage of Chima doing stuff like refusing to come to the diary room when called, covering cameras with blankets, and saying that she was going to say a bunch of terrible stuff on live television.
** "Fibergate". Wherein Porsche put Fiber inside Muscle Milk. This wasn't aired on the live shows at ''all'', yet people were talking about it on fan sites.
** Jeff talking about his "Blow-up" with Shelly on live TV. This [[JustifiedTrope wasn't shown due to the Double Elimination show needing to be mostly filmed live]], but houseguests had been talking about it during the live show.
** On the UK version, Bonnie Holt's entire career as a social worker is one whole NoodleIncident in itself - making this trope merge with WhatExactlyIsHisJob in a way.
* NoIndoorVoice: Sharon in Big Brother 9 sounded like she shouted all the time
** Anamara in the tenth edition of the Brazillian version. And [[strike:she's]] she used to be ''a police officer''.
** Also, Hayden and Rachel from season 12 of the US version.
** JOE FROM SEASON 14 MOST DEFINITELY HAS NO INDOOR VOICE. DAN IS ALMOST AS BAD.
*** Hilariously lampshaded by his family - Sarah introduces herself as Joe's wife and says, "I'm Sarah and-no wait, I'M SARAH AND I AM JOE'S WIFE!" and then his four children tell him to stop shouting.
* NotCheatingUnlessYouGetCaught: not exactly cheating, but actually playing the game(e.g., forming alliances, trying to gain popularity with the audience, scheming to eliminate strong participants) might actually make you an [[TheScrappy unpopular]] character... unless you manage to play so well no one realizes what you're doing.
* ObfuscatingDisability: Rachel Rice in the UK season apparently faked an illness to get off from work and get on the show. Sharon in the American season said that she had a bad back and this was why she couldn't win an endurance challenge. Later in the season, she said that her biggest lie in the game was that she had a bad back.
** Bonnie Holt, in the UK version, with her AspergersSyndrome, but she also had ObfuscatingStupidity as well.
* ObfuscatingStupidity: Bonnie Holt in the UK version. Brian in the eighth series infamously claiming he had never heard of Shakespeare.
* ObviousRulePatch: US Season 4 switched to a Jury-of-7 vote with the jury sequestered after season 3, wherein Lisa won by a 9-1 vote to Danielle. most contestants changed their votes because of rude or insulting comments Danielle said about them in the dairy room. To be fair, Danielle knew the rules going in the game; but some felt this was a bit unfair.
** The Five-fingered plan in Season 5. It was a really ''really'' clever use of the rules to put someone on the block (and subsequently evict them) without even giving them a chance to defend themselves. However, after season 5, the rules were changed so the players would draw names out of a hat or a wheeland could only pick if they drew the "Houseguests' choice" token. This helped keep the shows from becoming too predictable since it was actually ''very'' easy to do.
* OddFriendship: More prevalent in the American season where after the show, people became friends with their SitcomArchNemesis. Key examples include Beau and Janelle and Ragan & Rachel.
** Aisleyne and Imogen from the seventh UK series. Imogen's closest friend, Grace, HATED Aisleyne, and the feeling was mutual. Somehow, after Grace's eviction, Aisleyne and Imogen became close friends, and they still are to this day.
** Odd Friendships are fairly common in Big Brother, because of the nature of the show thrusting large contrasting personalities together in a small house, it's surprising what bonds can form. Aisleyne made quite a few though. Who would have imagined the self-proclaimed "ghetto princess" would get on so well with posh [[ASpotOfTea tea drinking]] Susie? Then there's Aisleyne's friendship after the show with {{Charlie Brooker}}.
** The eighth Celebrity Big Brother UK series had {{The X Factor}} twins Jedward becoming good friends with Tara Reid, and Paddy Doherty from ''My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding'' bonding with Sally Bercow, wife of the Speaker of the House of Commons.
** Reformed gang member Adam and female-to-male transsexual Luke A in the latest UK series.
* OnceASeason: Certain shows have traditions, this show is no different.
* OutOfFocus: With [[SpotlightStealingSquad editors picking their favourites and keeping them perpetually in focus]], this sad fate is bound to happen to a couple houseguests.
* {{Pixellation}}
* RagtagBunchOfMisfits: The Sovereign Six from Big Brother 6 and Big Brother: All Stars
** Team Richard from Big Brother 7 UK, B Block from Big Brother 9 UK, the Soldiers/Outsiders from Big Brother 13 UK.
* RatingsStunt: Bringing back fan favourite duos, heavily slanting the season for them, casting new people as sacrificial lambs to be sent out while the returnees are promised jury, intentionally editing the newbies to be as OutOfFocus as possible, introducing a twist to sabotage them when things start going against the veterans, this sounds terrible, doesn't it? sad thing is...it happened. Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you...Season 13 US.
* RealityShowGenreBlindness: Specific examples include:
** In the UK version, about every year, people don't seem to remember that they aren't allowed to discuss nominations. This happens ''every year''.
** People who don't realize they'll be away from their families for awhile.
** Common strategic blunders such as letting a deadly floater slip through.
** Brendon telling Daniele that he and Rachel would win if they made it to the finals while trying to convince Daniele to ''not'' target them for eviction.
** In the American version, people tend to make ballsy gameplay moves and are surprised that this winds up putting a target on their backs. Or if their alliance is targeted, are surprised that ''they'' get targeted, too. Really, this is why you want to be the middle man, since #2 is always the main target if #1 gets veto'd off the block.
*** Not to mention; winning competitions that aren't Luxury or Food competitions makes people perceive you as a threat and often gets you directly attacked or "backdoored". The show has a track record of people who don't really win that many competitions getting far in the game. (Ragan, Zach, Jameka, Sharon, Sheila, Kevin, Lane, "Chicken" George, Amy, Renny) Sometimes even ''winning''. (Drew, Dan, Will, Lisa, Jordan, Maggie) And many times; they outlast "Power players" who win a bunch of competitions or try to be TheChessmaster but wind up being "Backdoored". (Jase, Kaysar, BB6 Eric, BB8 Eric, Jessica, Brian, Mike "The Don", BB9 James, BB10 April, BB10 Michelle, Jessie, Brendon, Rachel, Jeff)
** Volunteering to be nominated. On top of the counter-intuitive notion of immediately putting yourself at the mercy of your houseguests who can flip at the drop of a hat instead of getting guaranteed safety, especially in the early parts, this has proven to very rarely work.
*** And even though it worked for Evel Dick; he would have been the first member of the Jury had it not been for the tiebreaker being [[AudienceParticipation Eric, America's Player]].
** Opening Pandora's Box in the American version. In season 11, it seemed to give a bit of relatively harmless fun or catered to houseguests' greed. In season 12, it either stirred up drama in the house or affected the game (Diamond Power of veto, arguably Rachel coming in and leaving a message to evict Matt in Pretzels) However, in season 13, it basically threw a safety rope towards the Producers' Golden Girls and ''completely'' sabotaged the head of household week. One would wonder if it comes back again if people would even bother opening it!
*** Porsche actually confirmed on the feeds she was forced to open it. Most fans don't even think rejecting Pandora's Box is an option because every time it's been offered, it's been opened.
* RoaringRampageOfRevenge: Brendon planned to do so after showmance partner Rachel was evicted.
** On Season 6, Kaysar set up his own counter alliance against Eric/Cappy to avenge Michael's boot, and later in the season, Janelle uses her H.O.H win to avenge Kaysar's (second) boot.
** In Season 13, Rachel intends to do this if Brendon is evicted. It took a little before she pulled it off.
* ResetButton: Season 14 of the US version pulled this trope (''literally'') on the house on Day 27. After an online vote, the then-'coaches' were offered the chance to enter the competition as players; they accepted, which thusly 'reset' the game. Because of that, the prior four evictions were disavowed, and the first three to be evicted afterward would not be entering the Jury house upon elimination (which they already would have normally by that point).
* RoleEndingMisdemeanor: Subverted. See [[http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/tm_objectid=17140342&method=full&siteid=66633&headline=bonnie-on-bail-over-pizza-theft-claims--name_page.html here]].
* SceneryPorn: Some of the houses for these series have been ''very'' elaborate and ''very'' well-designed...[[SceneryGorn only to be covered in a huge mess in a couple weeks]].
* SdrawkcabName: Several veto competitions have featured some kind of mascot or creature named "Otev".
* ShownTheirWork: Ian is OneOfUs and is a huge nerd. On occasions he's spouted chemistry or astronomy trivia and fans have fact-checked to confirm that yes, Ian is absolutely right.
* TheSnarkKnight: Daniele Donato could be seen as this, especially during Season 13.
** Deana Uppal in [=BB13=] UK made many hilarious cutting remarks.
* {{Spinoff}}: Many, many type 9 spinoffs.
** The UK series has most notably had: ''Big Brother's Little Brother'', a BB news fanzine; ''Big Brother's Big Mouth'', a BB public opinion/talk show; ''Big Brother Live'', live streaming from the house; and ''Diary Room Uncut'', in which notable Diary Room conversations were played in full. With the show's move to Channel 5, a new spinoff known as ''Big Brother's Bit on the Side'' exists: it functions similarly to BBLB and Big Mouth six days of the week, and on Sundays it's a quiz show.
** The US version has ''Big Brother After Dark'', a 3-hour block of live streaming from the house. Until Season 11 the US version also had ''House Calls'', which was a talk show where viewers could call in questions.
** The Australian version had: Live Nominations, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin which broadcast the housemates' nominations live]]; Uncut/Adults Only, which broadcast material that didn't fit the PG rating; ''[=UpLate=]'', which was live streaming from the house late at night; and ''Friday Night Live'', which had the housemates competing in a series of games for prizes (both gameplay bonuses and tangible prizes). In its final season, the Australian version adopted ''Big Mouth'' from the UK version.
* SpringtimeForHitler: When racing pundit John [=McCririck=] went into the house for ''Ultimate Big Brother'', the UK edition's finale, he openly announced that he had gotten all of his friends and family to place large bets on him being the first to be evicted, and intended to behave in such a disgusting and offensive manner that he would definitely be the first person voted out. The trope was ultimately averted; despite an internet campaign to keep him in until at least the second eviction, [=McCririck=] was indeed the first person voted out (he wasn't the first person to ''leave'', since Josie Gibson walked out the day before his eviction, but as [=McCririck=] himself pointed out, that wouldn't affect any bets on him being the first to be evicted by the public).
* StealthPun: In season 5 of the US version, one luxury competition had houseguests run through a ''web'' of bungee cords to retrieve lettered balls and spell out a word. The word they had to spell: Internet.
* StoppedNumberingSequels: The US version stopped numbering its seasons after 10.
* StupidSexyFlanders: Matt not only found himself unwittingly in a homosexual showmance with Ragan, but near the end of his time in the house starting dreaming of [[WalkingShirtlessScene shirtless Hayden]].
* SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute: In the UK series at least, some newcomer housemates that enter late in a series tend to be suspiciously similar to big characters that have already been evicted.
* TallDarkAndSnarky: Dr. Will, Kaysar Ridha(occasionally filled this role), James Rhine(who doesn't have black hair, but fits the tall and snarky parts perfectly), Evel Dick, and Russell Kairouz.
* TheBadGuyWins: Will Kirby in US Season 2, Maggie Ausburn in US Season 6, Mike "Boogie" Malin in US Season 7 (All Stars) and "Evil" Dick Donato in US Season 8, Adam Jasinski in US Season 9 (he used his prize money to start a drug ring).
* TokenMinority: Most US seasons seem to be contractually obligated to have at least one black person, and at least one gay man, who almost always has to be CampGay. (Curiously, there have to date only been four bisexuals - two of each gender - two lesbians - [[TwoferTokenMinority both Latinas]] - and no transgender people.)
* TourettesShitCockSyndrome: Pete Bennett, winner of the 2006 season of Big Brother UK.
* {{Transsexual}}: This was featured in the Aussie version of Big Brother, where Miriam (of There's Something About Miriam fame) came on as a gag housemate. Famously featuring the line from hyperawareness-enabled housemate Ryan (Fitzy), "I see them frank-n-beans".
** Also featured in the UK version with Nadia, who was revealed to be a male-to-female transsexual. She went on to be that year's winner.
** Luke A in the thirteenth UK series is a female-to-male transsexual. He also went on to win that series.
** The recent (2009-10) Philippine (Pinoy) version with Rica, who was evicted but returned as a housemate due to Kuya's (Big Brother's) request. She was in quite a feud with her father who didn't accept her change, but reconciled with him in the show.
** The current Argentinian version has Alejandro, a female-to-male transsexual who entered the show expecting to obtain the money to pay for his sex change operation.
** The current Brazillian version has Ariadna, a male-to-female transsexual hairdresser. Unlike Alejandro, she already made her sex change operation and is [[DroppedABridgetOnHim actually a pretty damn convincing female.]]
* TurnCoat
* TwinSwitch: This has been a common twist in the show. Averted by Big Brother 2007 UK wherein Amanda and Sam played separately; but later on played as one person.
** Big Brother 5 US had this as one of the twists; and with a bit of FridgeBrilliance from the casting department. Adria and Natalie were the twins that were switching places...and several other contestants (Drew and Diane) had twins outside the house as well.
** In one of the Australian editions; this worked for three weeks until one of the twins cut himself.
* UnusualEuphemism: The Australian version's infamous "turkey-slapping"[[hottip:*:some guy teabagged a sleeping female housemate]]. [[MemeticMutation You can think the Australian media for that]].
* VillainousBreakdown: Brendan and Rachel in Season 13, mainly Rachel, whose had to have a ''psychiatrist called in to calm her down!''
** Chima's lead to her being the third houseguest to be forcefully ejected from the big brother house in the American series. During which, she threw her microphone into the hot tub.
** Luke in [=BB9=] UK had one after his romantic interest Rebecca was evicted. His bitching went into total overdrive and he became noticeably more aggressive. He was evicted the following week, his final words being "watch your back in here, Lisa".
** Bea in [=BB10=] UK had ''several''!
** Caroline from [=BB13=] UK. After hearing "Get Caroline out!" during a Live Eviction, she went up for eviction the next week and became adamant she would leave. She decided to have the last laugh by sabotaging the house shopping list by only buying chocolate, sweets, pancakes, doughnuts and all sorts.
*** She was evicted in the end though, to choirs of boos from the crowd. You could even consider her interview an example of this trope, she totally bashed each member of The Outsiders and acted very strangely, making some question if she was even mentally stable. The abuse that the crowd was yelling at her probably didn't help.
* WalkingShirtlessScene: Hayden, US S12.
* WhatDidIDoLastNight: Quite common in the Norwegian and Brazillian versions.
* WillTheyOrWontThey: For the couplings ("showmances") that sometimes happen on the show.
** Happening in the Filipino version with Jason and Melissa, affectionately dubbed "Melason".
*** A more famous Filipino example: Kim and Gerald ("Kimerald") from Pinoy Big Brother: Teen Edition
** Also occurring in Series 11 in the UK between chubby Bristolian Josie and Australian David Beckham lookalike John James. Unlikely to happen, but that doesn't stop the public from hoping.
** Season 11 and 13 of BBUSA gave us Jeff and Jordan, the OTP of the Big Brother world...
*** ...While Season 12 and 13 gave us the Brenchel.
* WritingAroundTrademarks: Live feeds are cut off when contestants sing, except as part of a challenge, or mention trademarks.
** If a contestant has a tattoo of something trademarked, it must be covered in a bandage or blurred out. (James in Big Brother 9.)
* WrongGenreSavvy: Lawon thought he had figured out the twist and assumed it to be a mock eviction; and asked to be voted out because he assumed he'd re-enter the house with "Special powers", which he assumed to mean Coup de Tat, Diamond Power of Veto, or something else.
* XanatosGambit: Watch BBUS 14. Observe Dan Gheesling's play after the coaches are no longer coaches. Be amazed.
* YouKeepUsingThatWord: From the American Version:
** '''Backdooring''' was used in Season 5 wherein through a play of LoopholeAbuse (see LoopholeAbuse) and FridgeBrilliance a player was put up on the block without even having a chance to defend himself. Nowadays, the term is essentially used for "evicting the Replacement Nominee" or "Putting up someone who most people did not expect to see nominated.". Nowadays; you can't really do true backdooring because a rule patch helped make it so that it wouldn't happen five or six times in a row every single year.
** A '''Floater''' is a player who does not commit to any alliance except ''maybe'' one ally and only votes with the majority and goes to whichever alliance has power at the moment so they don't get targeted. They intentionally don't try to win Head of Household challenges because the Head of Household is forced to reveal their alliance(s) to the house. A Floaters' goal is to just keep the target off their back by making it so the house wastes a week trying to evict them. The way "Floater" is used by Brendon, Rachel, and their fans is to describe "Whoever is not aligned with us." One would almost wonder if they would describe successful players like Dr. Will, Jun, and Alison as "Floaters", since that was essentially their entire strategy,
* YoungerAndHipper: The days that a big fat slob like Chicken George Boswell could come within sniffing distance of being a contestant are way, way, ''way'' over. Although season 14 (US) actually has ''two'' people who are over 40.
** Heck, even in other versions, the public normally keeps "interesting" houseguests in, which are often the neurotic ones or the eye-candy. In Big Brother 2012 (UK), the first person out was the oldest, Victoria.
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-->Guy on the One Show.
''Big Brother'' is a [[TropeMaker groundbreaking]] RealityShow that started in the Netherlands in 1999, and has since spread around the world -- there have been versions in the United States, Brazil, Australia, the Middle East (where it was canceled after ten days due to religious protests), Africa (where it caused a constitutional crisis in Malawi), throughout Europe, and (in Asia) India, briefly Thailand, the Philippines and Canada. However, by far the most famous version of the show is the British version, which was so popular that a CelebrityEdition was made. Brazil also had a CelebrityEdition but it wasn't by the same network that held the broadcasting rights to Big Brother and wasn't different enough to avoid being ScrewedByTheLawyers. Said edition was known as "Casa dos Artistas" (House of the Artists). The 2007 version of ''Celebrity Big Brother'' set the UK record for most complaints about a TV programme, mostly due to the Shilpa Shetty racism row.
The premise is simple: lock several "ordinary" people in house, ply them with alcohol, and watch the results on omnipresent cameras. Viewers can watch the edited highlights in the evening, or watch it live on cable or the Internet. The public then proceed to vote them out every so often.
The US version notably abandoned the public-voting-out after the first season and went to a more ''Series/{{Survivor}}''-like system where the house guests vote each other out. However, they must vote out one of two contestants nominated by a third contestant who won the "Head of Household" title that week. Therefore, there is less safety in the large, unconcealed alliances you see on ''Series/{{Survivor}}''. The change also meant that the show didn't have to manufacture drama purely by casting the looniest people alive.
A common twist is a "Big Brother goes evil" or "Hell" twist, where Big Brother is psychologically abusive to the houseguests or where they are put in a bad environment.
Homaged by the ''Series/DoctorWho'' episode "[[Recap/DoctorWhoNSS1E12BadWolf Bad Wolf]]", with a [[{{Dystopia}} dystopian]] future version where the contestants are disintegrated when they're voted out. This is often assumed to be a parody or a TakeThat against RealityTV, but WordOfGod confirms it as [[AffectionateParody a tribute.]] The show also inspired the MiniSeries ''Series/DeadSet'' by CharlieBrooker, in which seven contestants and some of the show's backstage staff battle a ZombieApocalypse. Both feature cameos by host Davina [=McCall=].
It's often actually turned into Machinima, see SBBBrothers for just one example.
Not to be confused with George Orwell's classic work ''Literature/NineteenEightyFour,'' in which Big Brother represents the totalitarian Party that treats free thought as a crime. Its name is, however, based on the fact that in the book cameras are everywhere, with everyone being watched by "Big Brother", which is about all most people (think they) know about it. For information on that trope, see BigBrotherIsWatching.
Check out and help build the [[Characters/BigBrother character sheet.]]
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!!This TV series has examples of the following tropes:
* AcCENTUponTheWrongSylLAble: Hayden from Season 12 (U.S.) tends to do this.
* ActionGirl: Janelle Pierzina and Daniele Donato both won plenty of competitions in their respective seasons.
** Not to mention in Big Brother 12, Britney managed to toss Veto back and forth with Brendon for a couple weeks before winning it twice in a show. Some people did think she was the next Janelle or Daniele.
** In Big Brother Australia, season 8 had fitness freak Alice, who spent so much time on the treadmill a fight broke out when the other housemates tried to trade it to Big Brother for toilet paper, and who during the fake snap eviction in the final week jogged up and down the holding room (the 'plane') after she was evicted so she wouldn't cry.
** Rachel Reilly from the American version deserves mention. She's ''very'' good at thinking challenges and puzzles.
*** During Season 12, she won 2 of the 3 HOH competitions she was eligible for. If she had stayed after her second HOH week, it's possible she could have won it even more.
*** Rachel was the most frequent HOH winner of Season 13 with four wins; combined with her two veto wins, it makes her the most decorated houseguest of the season total. By winning her fourth HOH, she is now on par with Drew, Janelle, and Ian (from BB5, BB7, and BB14 respectively), sharing a record for four HOH wins in one season. Even nomination-wise, she bests everybody else; she was nominated '''5''' different times during the season!
* AHouseDivided: A quite literal example occurs in Big Brother 6. After Kaysar's friend Michael was evicted, he forms a counter alliance made up of everyone in the house who's not already in the Friendship alliance: [[ActionGirl Janelle]], Howie, [[OnlySaneMan Rachel]], [[EnemyMine James]] and [[TheChick Sarah]]. Following Eric/Cappy's eviction, the HOH flips week to week between the Friendship and Kaysar's alliance (dubbed the Sovereign Six), and no one except for James ever even attempts to make a deal with a member from the other side following Kaysar's second eviction. You could ''taste'' the vitriol the two opposing alliances had for each other.
** Possibly the most famous instance was in Big Brother 2002 UK when the house was divided into two, the Rich Side and the Poor Side, with live tasks determining who would live on which side for a week.
*** This made somewhat of a comeback in Big Brother 2008 UK, when there was a "Heaven" and a "Hell" side of the house.
*** It was also seen in Big Brother 2006 UK during the Prison task, when the Prison wardens lived in the main house whilst the prisoners moved next door into a prison cell. Unbeknownst to the wardens, the prisoners were [[JailBake given instructions]] on how to find the [[LuxuryPrisonSuite secret hideaway]].
*** In the Celebrity version of the UK series in 2007, Jade Goody, her mother and her boyfriend entered the main house, and all bar Shilpa Shetty, Jermaine Jackson and Ken Russell moved into the servants quarters, as part of a Masters and Servants task which involved the servants waiting hand and foot on the Goody clan and the remaining celebrities in the main house, much to [[GreatEscape Donny Tourrete's dismay]].
*** Big Brother 13 had the veteran players go up against the newbies. While the veterans were in power for a few weeks, had newbie allies and were in control of the first three evictions, Daniele double-crossed the veterans and started her own alliance with Kalia, Lawon, and later Porsche and Shelly who turned on the veterans as well. They took control of the house for the next three weeks and even though they lost Lawon and then their leader, Daniele, they took control of the house again after evicting the veteran alliance's leader, Jeff, and after a member of the alliance became the Head of Household.
*** The UK series usually has two main warring factions. One made up of the "underdogs", the other made up of "populars". Notable examples are Team Richard vs The Plastics (BB7), B Block vs The Whisper Club (BB9), The Insiders vs The Outsiders (BB13, ironically, The Outsiders are much more popular with the public).
* AdNauseam: Within the show, nonetheless. In the more recent editions of Big Brother Brasil, the Brazilian version, every competition for leadership or immunity is themed with a certain brand. Say the characters need to grab the highest amount of BrandX objects. The whole scenario will be covered with ads of the brand, the host will repeat the brand name every time it refers to the object, there will be massive close-ups on the objects in case, and when counting the amount of objects grabbed, the characters must say the brand name for each object they grabbed. Taking batteries for example, if they got 15 batteries, they will say the brand and the specific type of battery 15 times.
** The last five series of Big Brother Australia (2004-08) were sponsored by KFC, to the extent that Friday Night Live had the KFC Twister Instant Replay, and in-store promotions were available with Big Brother-branded items. The season 9 revival is also sponsored by them.
* {{Adorkable}}: Jon Tickle in [=BB4=] (UK) and Eugene Sully in [=BB6=] (UK).
** Ian Terry in [=BB14=](US)
** Bradley in [=BB9=] (AUS)
* AffablyEvil: Dr Will so much.
* AlphaBitch: The UK series had plenty over the years, but one who fits the trope closest was Grace in the seventh series. She was relentlessly bitchy and snobby, and called housemates who were outside her clique "freaks". She had a VillainousBreakdown after hearing the audience loudly chanting "Get Grace Out!". It later became expected for an unpopular housemate to have their name chanted in such a way, but at the time it was a shock to all the housemates that one of them could be so disliked by the public, not least Grace herself who sobbed that she had never been unpopular in her life.
** Maggie from [=BB9=] (US) certainly fits the bill.
* ArchEnemy: Danielle to Rachel and Brendon in Season 13, moreso Brendon because Danielle was the one who put him out. Twice.
* AscendedMeme: Jessie [[OnlyKnownByTheirNickname "Mr. Pectacular"]] Godderz. Where do we begin...
** He was originally a houseguest during Season 10, who then came back (by ''un''popular demand) for Season 11, who ''then'' was a suggested possibly-returning houseguest for Season 13.
** As well, he's made the most amount of (consecutive) in-house seasonal appearances of any Big Brother houseguest; not only on the US edition, but over ''every'' international edition of the show. He's basically a [[FirstLawofResurrection horror movie villain; you can't kill him.]]
*** Weeks after being evicted during Season 10, he was brought for a few hours back to pester the remaining houseguests... [[StealthInsult in a gorilla costume.]]
*** He has also appeared as part of the Pandora's Box twist during Seasons 12 and 13 in which Britney Haynes and Rachel Reilly respectively were locked in a room with him, while the the other houseguests received some sort of luxury prize.
*** In Season 14, not only did he return through Pandora's Box for the third season in a row but this time he was unleashed on the house, replacing all of the house's food with healthier alternatives.
* AudienceParticipation: Obviously it's a public vote.
** The American version minimized it after season one. Partly because in season one, people organized huge efforts to slant the game in their favour. Normally it is "Who may/will re-enter the house?", "What will the have-nots eat?". but when they affect gameplay, such as the Coup'de'Tat? People ''botted the site''.
*** Season 8 and 10 featured one called "America's Player". In season 8, it was all season long where the audience would vote for what America's Player would do. Originally, they didn't really know what to do, and at first tried to sabotage Eric by making him vote against the house, even saving the Fan Favourite player. However later on, they begun to tell Eric to vote and act in ways that would help him get further in the game, or provide a bit of entertainment for the viewers. In season 10, Dan was chosen as America's Player and this only lasted a week. Season 12 had the Saboteur twist where people would send in suggestions for pranks to pull. The original Saboteur (Annie) was evicted week 1 and the replacement saboteur (Ragan) did his job and nobody figured him out.
* AxCrazy: Contestants have, in rare cases, been ejected for violent behavior, including one who held a knife to a housemate's throat, and another who threatened to have people killed for nominating them.
* BerserkButton: Chima's the Head Of Household, and she puts Russell up for nomination because she wants him evicted. You'd better not use that mysterious power to mess with her nominations...
* BettyAndVeronica: Briefly in Big Brother 14(U.S) Ian indirectly causes this with Shane (Archie), Danielle (Betty) and JoJo (Veronica). In this case Danielle wins because JoJo was voted out that week.
* BigBrotherIsWatching - Inverted. [[IncrediblyLamePun We're]] [[ExactWords watching]] ''[[RussianReversal Big Brother.]]''
* BlackDudeDiesFirst: Will "Mega", the very first evictee on the US version.
** Keith from US season 13 arguably counts as well. Despite being the second to leave the house, he was the first to actually be evicted. Subverted in that that season has two other black houseguests.
** Jodi from US season 14.
*** Jodi is a particularly bad example, as not only was she first evicted, she was evicted on ''Day 1''.
* BornLucky: The veterans in US S13. They come back knowing the game from the first time they played. Then they manage to get a bunch of competitions thrown at them that they've already done before. Rachel and Jordan are probably the luckiest. When things look bad for them, Pandora's Box conveniently saves them both as the veto is a competition that Rachel had literally won the first week of the season. Then Rachel talks about a have not challenge she did very good at last year and a couple days later, a similar challenge is the next head of household. [[SarcasmMode That's some amazing luck]].
* BrainlessBeauty: Many of both genders.
* CallBack: Episodes will frequently feature flashbacks not only to past episodes but even past '''seasons'''.
** Not in the British version. The British version is musicless and it's very "real" compared to other ones.
** In [=BB9=] (AUS), the ninja in the Unwelcome Guests task in which Michael stealthily brings attention to it by telling the others he was nicknamed the "Ginger Ninja" in school (the "Ginger Ninja" being a main ninja in the Friday Night Games from the previous seasons).
* CampGay:Dicesar and Serginho in BR S10; Daniel and Lucival in BR S11.
** The CampGay is a mandatory member in every BR season from 10 onwards (probably since Jean managed to avoid elimination in the first week by playing the "just because I'm gay" card in season [[OrSoIHeard 9 or something]]). Season 13 features a two-for-one minority who's both gay and black.
** The US version has (in order): Marcellas (3&7), Will (5), Beau (6), Joe & Dustin (8), Neil & Joshuah (9), Steven (10), Kevin (11), Ragan (12), Lawon (13), and Wil (14)
** Marco, Kemal, Shahbaz, Dennis, Tom and Scott in the UK series. You could also make a case for [[AmbiguouslyGay Craig]] from the 2005 series.
*** The increasing levels of campness are hilariously mocked by LeeMack [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCA5z3KJClY&t=0m5s in his stand up show]]
* CashCowFranchise: It made its creator (who was, admittedly, fortunate to begin with) rich enough to launch his own TV station in the Netherlands
* CassandraTruth: "If Ian gets to the end of Big Brother, he'll win." A surprising number of people thought, "Nah, ''him''?!"
* CatchPhrase: Quite a few during the Brazilian version. In fact, at one point the most noteworthy S9 catchphrases were mashed all into [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCCx5cXeQdg a song]]. Also, not really a phrase, but one season of the same version had a fairly popular {{Mondegreen}}ified rendition of "We Are the World" called "Iarnuou", sung by one of the contestants.
** "I'd do that for a dollar!" Invoked in season 8 (US)
** "But First" from the American version. Particularly because Julie Chen has a tendency to say "But first" all of the times...sometimes making the ''exact'' same movements as she did before, a common meme is to call her the "Chenbot" and make a compilation of her saying "But First" - it's amazing how she does this so perfectly!
*** The contestants and Chen are actually ''aware'' of this, and have called her the "Chenbot". Heck, official videos from ''CBS'' had "Chenbot" in the keywords!
** The UK version: "Big Brother house, this is Davina. You are live on channel 4. Please do not swear!" or "You have 30 seconds to say your goodbyes. I'm coming to get you!"
** Also "Dear 25 in tha Big Brutha howse, an Dearvid is summoned to the diary room." Not so much a CatchPhrase as a Catch ''Accent''. Marcus Bentley's (natural) County Durham accent is such an iconic element of the series that he's been known to exaggerate it for effect.
** Season one of Big Brother Australia had a rule that the audience were not to cheer during evictions, so that the housemates didn't know there was a live eviction audience. This led to host Gretel Killeen repeatedly reminding the audience “quiet as a mouse while we cross to the House”.
** Also from Big Brother Australia, whenever the host crossed to the house: 'Hello house!'
** The second season of the french version gave us immortal lines which are still quoted ten years later, even by people who never watched the show. Among the best:
*** A mispronunciation of "thyme" followed by the candidate's explanation that he'd never seen the word written down before.
*** A conversation on whether the word "ingenue" exists and an argument on whether it's the same as "a genius".
*** And the classic "Je t'emmerde avec un grand A!", which literally means "Well, fuck you with a capital P!" No, that wasn't a joke. The candidate spelt the word "emmerde" with a capital a and the sound-bite was used over and over in commercials for the show.
** Rachel from US Season 12 wants you to know that "Nobody gets between me and my man!"
*** Or her "Tequila!"
*** "I ''am'' Vegas, Brendan."
** "AWK-WAAAARRRRD!"
** Again from the Brazillian version, this time from S11, is Igor's VerbalTic of "Tá ligado?" (translating to something akin to "Get it?").
* [[LipstickLesbian Chapstick Lesbian]]: Diana, BR S11.
* CharacterShilling: The veterans in U.S. season 13. Where to begin..
** Jordan was apparently supposed to be a better competitor than the "newbies". She somehow managed to win ''less'' competitions than people flagged as "floaters" by the fanbase did, and wouldn't win competitions ''that were clearly slanted for her or Rachel''.
* TheChessmaster: Kaysar Ridha from Big Brother 6 and 7 tried very hard to be this, but never even reached the jury. He should have taken lessons from Will Kirby, who is still generally regarded as the most evil and manipulative house guest ever, in ''any'' of the Big Brother series around the world. Not only did the man manipulate his way into winning the US Season 2, he engineered a win for his friend and business partner, Mike "Boogie" Malin, in the American ''All Stars'' season.
** SarcasticConfession: The best part of "Evil Doctor Will" being TheChessmaster is that at the beginning of Season 2, Will literally told ''everyone'' else in the house that he was going to lie, cheat, and steal in order to win, and that ''none'' of them, not even his friend Mike, should trust him as far as they could comfortably spit the Chrysler Building, and that he would betray any so-called "alliance" the moment he saw profit in it. They all thought he was being funny... except that's precisely what he did in order to walk away with the prize.
*** Other examples include Danielle from Big Brother 3, Maggie from Big Brother 6, Dan from Big Brother 10, Natalie and Kevin from Big Brother 11 (only near the end), and The Brigade from Big Brother 12 (mainly Matt and Enzo).
** Makosi in sixth UK series. She manipulated and controlled the whole house, turned situations to her advantage in a magnificent away, and sent most of her main rivals AND her main allies to the door. She was a favourite to win at one point, but she took her tactics too far by pretending to be pregnant. Public opinion quickly turned against her, and, [[ChronicBackstabbingDisorder two-faced backstabber]] though she was the harsh reception she got from the crowd made for uncomforable viewing.
* ChronicBackstabbingDisorder: Easier to pull off in the US show than in ''Survivor'', due to its structure.
** James Rhine may be the king of this trope when it comes to Big Brother. The man couldn't go two weeks without trying to backstab his alliance.
** Noirin and Bea from the tenth UK series surely qualify. By the time each were evicted, they had succeeded in alienating the vast majority of their housemates. They just had no concept of loyalty ... to ANYONE!
*** And no, this shared trait didn't help them bond. They hated each other just as much as everyone else, coming close to a full-on bitchfight once.
** Makosi in the sixth UK series. She backstabbed from week one all the way to the final!
** In Big Brother 14, Janelle and her team seem to do this alot so far allying with Britney's Team in Week 1, then Boogie's Team in Week 2 and then trying to ally back with Britney and Shane in Week 3.
* ClusterFBomb: Nobbi from Big Brother Australia 2008 was so unhappy at housemate Terri's re-entry to the house that the live broadcast was interrupted by, according to Big Mouth host Tony Squires, “about thirty seconds of continual bleeping”.
* CrazyEnoughToWork: Some of the plans pulled off in past seasons of the US show (Nakomis's five-fingered plan, for example).
** Which later turned into an often used strategy itself, called "Backdooring."
** The Evil Doctor Will openly told people from the start that a) they could not trust him and b) he would lie, cheat, and steal to win. Apparently no one thought he'd do that after ''telling'' them he'd do that, but he did. And it worked.
** A particularly crazy example from Season 14 (US) was Dan's funeral. As HOH, Frank nominated him alongside Danielle, and after Jenn won the veto, Dan hosted his "Big Brother Funeral". He had kind words for everyone...except his closest ally Danielle, who he berated. This left everyone in shock, which created a distraction for Dan to make a deal with Frank and Jenn to save himself and evict Britney instead.
* TheCobblersChildrenHaveNoShoes: Natalie, a Tae Kwon Do Champion who did ''terribly'' at physical challenges.
* CompletelyMissingThePoint: BR calls the participants "brothers" and "sisters", sometimes prefaced with the adjective "Big" (GratuitousEnglish at its best), ignoring completely that the titular BigBrother was supposed to be the viewer. Or the director.
* ContinuityCavalcade: In one of the final weeks of Big Brother Aus 2012, the weekly task was to ignore all unwelcome guests which included several former housemates from previous seasons, a ninja and narrator Mike Goldman.
* CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass:
** Season 11: Jordan spends the entire season riding on Jeff's coattails and her one head of household victory was handed to her. Then in the final three, she competes in the final head of household round with Kevin and...''wins''. See the MomentOfAwesome page.
*** From the same season, Kevin. Had it not been for Jordan's own CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass, Kevin would have won that season. He basically spent the entire season hiding behind bigger targets in his alliance like Jessie and Ronnie, manipulating others' perceptions into thinking he was worthless, so they would target Lydia (who had not won a single non-food competition) over him. When Jeff finally set his sights on Kevin and he failed to win veto, Kevin walked right up to Jeff, suggested that Russell was a bigger threat because he was more likely to flip. He then persuaded Jeff to backdoor Russell, and he even used the veto ''on Kevin'', no doubt. This forced Jeff's alliance into having a roughly 50/50 shot in the next head of household challenge.
** Season 13: Shelly, Kalia, and Porsche were thought of as "floaters" despite Kalia's Head of Household win that was ''not'' given to her. Shelly then realizes that even though nobody has any intention of getting her out, Jeff and Jordan are a nigh unbreakable alliance and the biggest threat of his group with the mentally unstable Rachel and TheLoad Jordan. Kalia then wins head of household AGAIN and then Porsche, accused of being a floater, wins veto ''AND'' a Head of Household after she slips through by not being perceived as a threat. Even ''Adam'' got this when he wins a crucial veto to keep himself off the block in the final five, and then proceeds to get all six questions right in the penultimate head of household.
** Bonnie Holt, from the UK version, but then disappeared.
* {{Cult}}: The Friendship/Nerd Herd from Season 6.
** Jeff and Jordan almost kept the newbies like this.
* DeadpanSnarker: Britney of S12/14 is the undisputed queen of this trope as far as the show goes.
* {{Determinator}}: Several. From the American version:
** In ''Big Brother 6'', the houseguests were in an endurance competition called the pressure cooker that was not physically challenging; but they all lasted at least ''six hours''. This wasn't how long the competition lasted - that was how long it took ''before the first person was eliminated''. By the time the competition finished? It was the early morning. ''The next day.'' Even if it wasn't physically taxing, that's some epic willpower.
** Diane and Jase in Big Brother 5 for how long they were on the challenge.
** Evel Dick and Zach had cold water poured on them for about eight hours before dropping out of an endurance competition.
** Several houseguests such as Ragan, Kail, Kevin, Adam, and Frank applied numerous times. In Adam's case; he even lost ''a hundred pounds'' in the process of getting on Big Brother. That really shows how determined he is.
* DisproportionateRetribution: Rachel doesn't like a comment that Cassi says about Porsche in an off-hand comment. Rachel then campaigns to get Cassi evicted from the house.
* DoubleStandard: Why does nobody like Craig from [=BB6=] UK? Because A) he's gay and B) he cried. Even if women are the target audience.
** I think it was more to do with the fact that he was obsessed with Anthony, the straight male housemate who went on to win, and was disturbingly possessive of him, to the point of throwing hissy fits if he thought Anthony was spending too much time with anyone else.
*** Also before he even went in the house he said he was going to exploit other people's weaknesses. And he was very shallow, selfish and bitchy. And he constantly sucked up to whoever he thought was most powerful in the house regardless of badly they acted. There were plenty of reasons Craig was unpopular other than him crying. Crying isn't uncommon on Big Brother anyway, for male or female contestants, and most of the time it isn't considered a big deal if they do it because of what a strange environment it appears to be. The fact that he was gay had little to do with his unpopularity either, some of the most popular housemates from Big Brother UK have been gay men.
** The US version switched away from public voting after Season 1 because the [[JerkAss JerkAsses]] were getting voted out early, leaving the less entertaining contestants (Sans George) behind. [[hottip:*:Part of the reason they changed from it was because of George's hometown organized a ''mass'' callout to save him. Even in future seasons where viewers could impact the game, people attempted to do just that. In Season 11, Ronnie's wife posted instructions on how to bot the CBS website, and there were ''plenty'' of bots that countered the pro-Ronnie ones. When viewers sent saboteur suggestions in US Season 12, several of the messages were attempting to spoil secrets the saboteur(s) couldn't have known]]
** Emily Parr and the whole NWordPrivileges. Nobody raised a fuss about ''Charley'' using the N-Word, but ''Emily'' said it?!? KICK HER OUT OF THE HOUSE!!!!
*** If it wasn't for the Celebrity edition scandal a mere four months earlier, Emily most likely would have got away with a formal warning. They were terrified of another backlash. Ironically, the only backlash was anger against Emily's unfair explulsion!
** A common one from the American series: "It's alright for ''me'' to nominate ''you'' because I see you as a threat, but ''you'' nominate ''me'' for the same reasons?! How ''dare'' you!
*** Very commonly, people gloat in the diary room to the ConfessionCam about how good their game is and how good they are when things are going their way and they're making smart moves by evicting certain players. However, if ''another'' player makes a smart move and it doesn't benefit ''them'', they get all pissy about it and oftentimes insult the player in question. Especially if they are doing something to make themselves ''huge'' targets in the game like Rachel, Kaysar, James, Jeff....
*** Brendon and Rachel and most recently Jeff and Jordan thanks to their influence complain about people who float along or hide in the numbers so that they are ''not'' perceived as a threat and targeted by whoever is in power. One could wonder if they'd consider Jun&Alison, Sharon, Dr. Will, and Kevin terrible gameplayers because getting people to ''not'' perceive you as a threat is what keeps you in the game. (Jeff also doesn't seem to have a problem with Jordan, who won one head of household by herself in both seasons and has relied on Jeff and the rest of her alliance to carry her.)
*** And likewise, fans seem to be saying it was perfectly alright for someone playing the game...but if they're female, they're called a "Bitch" or a "hag" amongst other things. Only if your boyfriend is MrFanservice do you get away with it.
** Someone gets far by lying, backstabbing, and coasting through and not winning competitions? FLOATER! Terrible player! Dr. Will gets far and even ''wins once'' by doing ''just'' that? Best player ever. Why is Dr. Will allowed to get away with it? Three words: MrFanservice.
** Anyone who claims that if you don't win competitions you are a floater and are a terrible gameplayer. This doesn't apply to Jordan who in Season eleven, won due to a CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass (Which was well deserved) but up until that point, had more or less rode Jeff's coattails through the game. And in season 13, she somehow managed to do even ''less'', only winning a luxury competition by herself (her head of household was, like the first one, obviously thrown by everyone else). Even people who have won more competitions on their own merits had people hiss, "Floater! Floater!"
* DrJerk: "Evil Dr. Will," an American fan favorite, who may also be considered a MagnificentBastard and MrFanservice.
* DumbBlonde: There's usually one. In Britain, Helen Adams ([=BB2=]) and Jade Goody [=BB3=] became iconic (but not in a good way, at least in Goody's case). Sophie Reade in [=BB10=] who went on to win that series.
** Subverted with blonde twins Amanda and Sam Marchant in [=BB8=] UK. They at first appeared to be blonde bimbo girls, as they were giggly, excitable and loved wearing pink, but turned out to be quite intelligent. For example Amanda once added up the entire shopping budget on her own, when usually several housemates contribute to that task, and the other housemates commented that Amanda did a better job of it than anyone else had before. Keep in mind that Amanda was [[GeniusDitz the ditzier]] of the two!
** Arguably subverted with Chantelle Houghton in Celebrity Big Brother 4 in that she wasn't so much "dumb" as starstruck and nervous. She was told before she went in that the series would be a mixed celebrity/members of the public series, but on launch night they told her that not only was she the only ordinary member of the public there, but she had to convince the celebrities that she was a real celebrity. She succeeded in this, just about, and went on to win the series.
** Jordan of S11 is probably the standard; and she even [[LampshadeHanging is self-aware]] - saying several times about how stupid she is.
** Averted ''hard'' with Janelle from S6 US; while she appeared that way at first glance, she soon proved herself to be one of the [[ObfuscatingStupidity smartest, most ruthless players]] the game had ever (and, at the rate it's going, ''will'' ever) seen.
** Also averted with Britney, but not to the level of Janelle.
** Porsche in season 13, ''full stop''. Just to give you an example of how moronic she can be: One luxury competition involved guessing a celebrity who would visit the house. Porsche guessed... Michael Jackson. Even if he ''was'' willing to appear on a show like this, there's the whole "dead" thing getting in the way!
** Ashley in season 14 saying things like how Shane was emancipated. one has to wonder if they were trying to find an {{Expy}} of Jordan, since Ashley ''is'' nice-spirited like Jordan.
* DysfunctionalFamily: The fifth US season included identical twins playing one and half-siblings who didn't know each other existed until after the show started ({{Squick}} thankfully averted). And in Season Eight US, there was the estranged father and daughter that grew close and went on to win the two prizes.
* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: The first season of the U.S. version was much more similar to the UK, which had 10 contestants and allowed for audience nominations. They changed formats with season 2, upped the contestants number to 12 (and sometimes 14, though season 14 had 16, the largest amount of Houseguests to date), and introduced in-house nominations/evictions and Head of Household and picked the winner, as opposed to the audience really doing anything more than picking what losing Houseguests will eat.
* EntitledBastard: Rachel would regularly insult people and play the game very personally, then wondered why a bunch of people hated her and couldn't stand her.
** Jeff also would regularly insult the newbies and walked in claiming he deserved to win...and was ''dumbfounded'' when they went after him.
* EpicFail: In US season 14, Joe lasts a total of two minutes in an endurane competition. The first thing he says? That his kids will ''still'' be laughing at him when he gets back home.
* ExecutiveMeddling: Producers have the power to slant the show via ObviousRulePatch, such as evacuating the houseguests if they are injured or if something happens, showing that it is [[TropesAreTools not a bad thing]]. But a lot of the times, people just mention them trying to manipulate the game.
** Fans suspect that the producers interfere with on-line fan polls and in the game itself for ratings. Season 13 has so far been a hotbed of suspicion--Brendon, a CreatorsPet, beat out Keith, Cassi and Dominic (the latter two very popular with fans) in America's Vote to come back into the house after being evicted, and the challenge where he had to face the fifth evictee Lawon in to get back in was a physical challenge, which Brendon is excellent at and especially that kind. During the teacup challenge, they seemed to have been dumping a ''lot'' more soap suds over some lanes, with Jordan, Porsche and Adam getting it the worst and Shelly and Rachel getting it the least. Then, Jeff appeared to be drawn for literally every veto whether he was on the block or not; fans have suspected this wasn't just darn luck. Several Feed watchers have apparently overheard Rachel claim that the producers promised they (The veterans) would all make Jury. Later, a feature called "Pandora's Box" returned, allowed Porsche to get 5000 dollars but at the cost of an unknown twist being introduced--the twist turned out to be pairing up the houseguests for that week only, and by pairing up Rachel and Jordan which Porsche had no hand in, it was ensured that if either of them won the Veto then both of them stayed for that week, since the [=HoH=]'s two nominees for eviction have to be a pair. Given that Rachel and Jordan are the only two Vets left in the house, the timely introduction of this twist when their enemy Porsche was [=HoH=] has saved them both. Conveniently; the veto competition was an endurance challenge...and almost literally the ''same'' endurance challenge that Rachel won first in the season. Even former player Matt joked that Pandora's Box was just ExecutiveMeddling, calling it "Producers Box", and Porsche has even confirmed on the feeds that she ''was'' forced to open it.
*** Fans have even been suspecting them of intentionally ''casting'' players to be living props, (since it worked so well in ''Series/{{Survivor}}'''s 22nd season) knowing that they wouldn't be mourning the newbies if they were evicted since they wanted to see their old favourites - and if they stood against the veterans? Zero percent approval rating. Add in a bit of ManipulativeEditing to portray them as a villain, and voila.
** Fans also suggest executive meddling by producers turning a blind eye to rule violations or equipment malfunctions. Key examples being Jeff in the teacup challenge somehow getting away with using his hands to hold soap and not just cover it, and Dick and Daniele supposedly not being penalizd at for violating slop restrictions, as well as Dick not getting yelled at for burning Jen with the cigarette or not getting yelled at for having a code written by his son in a letter from home. Jameka evidently had an equipment failure in Season 8; but this has neither been confirmed or denied. (The other main equipment failure was ''very'' obvious since buttons wouldn't work for a couple players; requiring them to reshoot the challenge.)
** This is essentially the reason the Mexican edition of ''Big Brother'' died quickly. Initial expectations were based on the European editions where you had the participants engaging in sex and other stuff normally not seen on TV. Unfortunately, Televisa turned it mostly into a mostly scripted interaction, the first member that almost got laid was surprisingly the first one voted out; the "international exchange" member was found out to already have his plane ticket purchased ''before the voting to select said member had finished'', among other irregularities in the very first season. Then add up that Televisa oversaturated the format by doing many ''Big Brother VIP'' editions (the Mexican equivalent to the ''Celebrity'' editions) down to the point that everyone stopped caring watching actors past their prime basically doing ''real-life telenovela'' on the BB set.
* ExpositoryHairstyleChange: Daniele Donato of the US version had hair that reflected her persona during each season she competed in; in Season 8, [[LightIsGood she had blonde hair and was seen as the young ingenue of the house]], but when she returned for Season 13, [[DarkIsEvil it was dyed dark brown, which was more in line with her ruthless, take-no-prisoners approach that year]].
* FanService: A lot of people watch it just because they are waiting for someone to take a shower. And the sole purpose of some challenges seems to be to get the contestants to show some skin. Wet T-Shirt contest in Big Brother Czech, anyone?
** Big Brother Brasil inserts more of this each year, to the point of suggesting oral sex under the couches. And there always will be a girl who "accidentally" exposes a critical area every now and then.
** Averted in one season of Big Brother Australia; one contestant insisted on wearing a bikini while bathing. So much so that "Jemma in the shower" became somewhat of a IRL Meme.
** The Dutch version contestants were GenreSavvy enough to see this coming, and spent the first episode having a hot tub orgy. [[RefugeInAudacity Really]].
** In the ninth UK series, Dale and Stuart were given tasks seemingly for no reason other than to show off their torsos.
* FatalFlaw: Jeff in season 13's biggest downfall was that he didn't win the veto competition that he could have saved himself, and got Rachel out instead. In this competition, houseguests had to find two yellow clown shoes in a ball pit, and [[http://forums.jokersupdates.com/ubbthreads/showthreaded.php?Cat=&Board=BBMedia&Number=16385273&page=0&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=31&rc=&fpart=1#Post16402187 Jeff accidentally threw his out of the pit]].
* {{Flanderization}}: Competitions were important in the early seasons of the U.S. season; but the social game was what won you the game over somebody else. When there's no real target in the house, who do you target? The person who you know can win competitions. People used to throw competitions all the time and nobody cared or batted an eyelash. Nowadays with how many people complain about "Floaters" or people who try to play the social game moreso than the competition game, you'd wonder if this was derived from ''Series/TheAmazingRace'' instead of ''Series/{{Survivor}}''.
* FollowTheLeader: Glass House in the U.S. uses a similar format to the original Big Brother season. [[http://www.vulture.com/2012/05/cbs-readies-lawsuit-against-new-abc-show.html CBS did not take kindly to this]].
** What's also rather funny is that roughly ''eighteen'' staff members from Big Brother US are now working on this show. One of the executive producers from Big Brother US was a former producer of Big Brother US.
* FunWithSubtitles: In season 6 (US), there was a part where Ivette was in the diary room and the subtitle said, "She's gay".
** And another time, Britney is in the diary room with Brendon handcuffed to him via a veto. Brendon is talking about having to take a chum bath, and you can see Britney mouthing, "Help me". They even subtitled it.
* GayCowboy: Big Brother 10 (US) had Steven Daigle, a self proclaimed "gay rodeo star," who has recently gone on to gay pornography.
** However, he doesn't really ''[[StraightGay seem]]'' that gay if you watch it - ''Memphis'' actually has more stereotypical gay traits in terms of his clothing!
* GeniusBruiser: Brendon is good at physical challenges (Being a swim coach) and is really book smart. He won't let you forget that he is a [=PhD=] student.
** Evel Dick is the Gameplay version. He was able to win physical challenges, and knew the game. Russell as well; since he is a mixed martial arts fighter.
* GossipyHens: Daniel and Lucival in BR S11, whose gossiping are nicknamed "Tricotando com [=DaLu=]" ("Knitting with [=DaLu=]").
* GuideDangIt:
** In Big Brother 9 (US), there was a head of household challenge where Julie Chen asked "True or false: There were more than two existing relationships in the house". There actually ''were'' only two existing relationships (Jacob and Sharon and Jen and Ryan) but anyone who said "False" was counted wrong...because the ''guinea pigs'' apparently were the third existing couple! This screwed Sharon over ''majorly'', and may count as ExecutiveMeddling (apparently, Chen paused before giving the answer because she was being given it herself).
** One could also argue that Pandora's Box applies; given that it very commonly gives very vague words as to what the consequence or even the reward is.
** A recent Head of Household competition was this; however it was moreso to the ''viewers'' rather than the players. The night before the head of household challenge, the fortune teller begun to spout predictions about what houseguests would do after the show for them to memorize. What was actually shown ''on'' the highlights show were a couple; and what Julie chen actually asked weren't shown. Basically; players didn't really know this given that these were played at 4 AM.
* HumiliationConga: Sometimes, competitions in the US versions are based on this trope, often "How many punishments are you willing to take in order to win?"
** Especially bad for Kail in Season 8. In week 5, she was nominated by the HOH Daniele, and competed in one of these competitions for the Veto. She accepted every punishment in full magnitude (This included wearing a bunny suit for 120 hours, having gunk dropped on her every hour for 24 hours, eating only slop for the next 30 days, and giving up the right to compete in the next 5 HOH competitions), except for the last one, thus losing the Veto to Jen. Jen used the Veto on herself, and Daniele put into motion a plan to backdoor Eric, but Kail was still evicted 4-3 after a blindside by Dustin, Jessica, and Jameka.
** John James in [=BB11=] UK in the last few weeks, as the producers and many viewers had got sick of his {{Jerkass}} SpoiledBrat behaviour. They made him wear ridiculous costumes for tasks and bought back evicted housemates he argued with. In the last few days leading up to his eviction they bought back Rachael. He bragged to the others about laying into her, but when he learned that she had hooked up with Nathan on the outside he literally started [[IWantMyMommy crying for his mummy]].
** Most of the series for [=BB13=] UK contestant Luke S. He had curry powder put in his protein shake by Benedict, who told him that as a parting shot just before he left the house. After accusing Deana of being a golddigger, she countered that his relationship with Ashleigh was fake for the cameras. In a task he was fooled into thinking a phony talent agent was really interested in signing him, which saw him doing a photoshoot for a cheesy calender and saying that Ashleigh annoyed him and when he left the house he would rather be a player than in a relationship. Later he overheard Ashleigh complaining that he smelt of onions and implying that she fancied Conor more. Worst of all, he and Conor were in the White Room task and were told that if one of them pressed a button they would win £50,000 but would have to leave the house immediately and the other would get a free pass to the final. Conor had said a few days before that getting to the final was the most important thing to him, but he pressed the button a split second before Luke S, leaving him crying and kicking the furniture in anger. It didn't end there either. Conor said in his interview that despite being allies in the house he never liked Luke S much, and in the last week in the house [[DeadpanSnarker Deana]] couldn't resist making jokes about Luke S not pressing the button. Then when it came to the final Luke S was out first and 'Push The Button' by the Sugababes was played as he exited the house.
* {{Hypocrite}}: Rachel in Season 13 has put people up on the block and had them evicted for stuff she does to other people. For a specific example, in week two she campaigned to get Cassi out because she didn't like what Cassi said about Porche in a single off-hand remark. Then in the veto competition Jeff got mad at Rachel for a snide remark she made towards his girlfriend Jordan. This prompted her to question [[FacePalm "Why is he so mad over a single comment?"]] Not to mention, Rachel spent half the week wangsting about how Brendon was evicted, then she says "Oh suck it up" to Kalia, who cried because she lost a challenge that more or less sealed her fate.
** In the same season, Danielle warned Porcshe that Brendon and Rachel will lie and backstab anyone they have to in order to win. Lying, backstabbing and manipulation is par for the course in the game, so the same could be said of pretty much any other contestant in the history of the show. This includes Danielle herself--the reason she split off from the veteran alliance is that they found out she was trying to get Jeff evicted.
*** To be fair, it was probalby a better idea to be in an alliance with Daniele than Brendon&Rachel and Jeff&Jordan....whose alliance(s) were pretty much set in stone from ''before the show even started''. You would have had a much better chance in an alliance of three or four with less concrete bonds to each other.
** In the american version, people often complain about being backstabbed after they backstabbed their own alliance members.
** The veterans basically ''lashed'' into Porsche for taking advantage of a twist (The "golden key") that got her further in the game. They apparently forgot that ''they'' were the ones who ''offered'' her the golden key in the first place, it was ''her'' who helped give them an immediate majority, and most importantly, that ''Rachel'' had ''also'' taken advantage of a convenient set of twists that helped get her to the end, and they even said they were promised jury.
* IconicLogo: The British version's eye.
* InformedAbility / PiratesWhoDontDoAnything: We're told houseguests are good at stuff and are told their jobs but we rarely see them do it in-game. Justifiable in that we're not following them on their jobs.
** This was what sealed Natalie's fate in Big Brother 11. She was supposedly a huge competitor (Being a competitor in Tae Kwon Dao tournaments) yet lost just about every individual competition she played in and made people wonder if she was even ''trying''. In the teacup challenge, she just stumbled around and wasn't even ''trying'' to catch up to everybody else, prompting Jessie and Lydia to reel in disgust.
** Jeff&Jordan and Brendon&Rachel are apparently very good game-players. Both times Jeff played, he either picked up the IdiotBall or overstepped and got evicted. CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass moment aside, Jordan was somehow unable to win a single competition without having someone give it to her, [[DoubleStandard aside from a luxury competition, which counted when saying she was a competitor]]. Likewise, Brendon and Rachel apparently are good at the game yet they were somehow unable to do so without alienating half the house. And all four somehow couldn't manage to win without blatant ExecutiveMeddling or exploiting a twist to help them.
* InformedFlaw: The editors don't know who some players are, yet it becomes weird when they start winning competitions or actually doing well. Porsche in season 13 did not do poorly in the competitions she needed to win, but got ultimately outplayed. (She finished in second quite a bit, even in the teacup competition) Rachel even said Porsche is not bad at competitions, or questions for that matter. Finally, she won two competitions that she really ''really'' needed to win.
* InSeriesNickname: The Brazilian version has its name officially shortened as "[[AddedAlliterativeAppeal BBB]]", and the contestants were occasionally nicknamed as "brothers" and "sisters". During the first season of this version, a contestant named the elimination process "Paredão" (literally "big wall" in Brazilian Portuguese, meaning the place where people are taken to be shot by a firing squad), which eventually became the official name.
* IncompatibleOrientation: In US S12, [[CampGay Ragan]] was obviously crushing on Matt. Who was straight. And married.
** Untrue. Matt isn't his type by self-admission; they think of each other like brothers. Ragan stated in the first episode of the season that, as he is the brains in relationships, his partner must be the brawn. (He only ever showed romantic interest in ''[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCQwMLGw2Rg#t=3m55s Brendan ]]'' of all people.)
* IrishNames: The most recent UK series has an Irish housemate named 'Caoimhe'. An utterly unremarkable female name in Ireland, it is brain breakingly difficult to spell and pronounce in Britain. Cue mass bafflement. Similarly there was Orlaith in the sixth series, Aisleyne in the seventh series (even though Aisleyne herself was only half-Irish) and Noirin in the tenth series.
* {{Irony}}: To avoid controversy due to the racist bullying in the previus Celebrity Edition, Emily Parr was ejected from Big Brother UK for [[NWordPrivileges using the N-word in a conversation with Charley]]. However, it sparked a controversy ''instead'' about how people viewed it as [[DoubleStandard Unfair]], since Charley was not even punished for saying it, and Emily had not offended any other houseguests.
* IShallTauntYou: Joe to Willie, and vice versa.
** Also happened in the Bulgaria Big Brother - where a contestant goaded another player by insulting his heritage and resulted in a small riot.
* ItsPersonal: A lot of players play personally. Among them, Rachel, Lydia, Amber. A good number of jury votes were personal.
* JawDrop: This was the reaction of arrogant [=BB7=] UK contestant Sezer after it was announced he was the latest evictee. His jaw almost dropped again when he was told that he had got an at the time record breaking 91.6% of the public vote to be evicted.
** In US BB 14, Danielle had a comically huge one after Dan had manipulated her into vetoing him off the block, placing her showmance partner Shane up in his place, then evicting Shane after ''swearing'' that he wouldn't do it.
* JerkAss: Most of the contestants, and most of the US winners. Not only that, but douchebags are often prized by the BB fandom (Chill Town and Evel Dick come to mind.) The only people that played the game well, won, and weren't jerks about it were Drew from Season 5, Dan from season 10, and Jordan from season 11.
** Plenty in BBUK too. Due to the vote to evict, they usually bit the dust as soon as they were on the block. Now the voting system has changed to "vote to save", controversial characters (such as The Shannon Twins) manage to survive longer (even make the final). But, in the end, good usually wins.
*** Of course, that depends on who you view as "good", as the majority have "jerkass" moments now and again.
** A lot of the contestants in current UK series. Due to them being able to talk about nominations right from the start, a lot of people are considering it the most bitchy house ever.
* [[KarmicDeath Karmic Eviction]]: Jeff in Season 13 won [=HoH=], put up Kalia and Porche, then won the Veto and removed Porche in favor of his primary target Danielle, who was evicted. However, it was a double eviction night--Kalia won [=HoH=], put up Jeff and Rachel, and Porsche won the Veto and kept the nominations the same, resulting in a tied vote which Kalia broke, voting out Jeff. To drive the point home, Porsche was heard saying "It's what Danielle wanted". Perhaps the most memorable moment of that season...
** James in Big Brother 9. He is constantly targeted, but then one by one, his alliance goes. Finally, he fails to win veto to remove himself and is then evicted over Sharon, nominated ''again''.
** Marcellas in season 3 who had the opportunity to get himself guaranteed safety to the final four. But he doesn't use the veto on the one time he could use it on himself and is promptly evicted, in what's seen as the original "Stupidest move in the game."
* KarmaHoudini: Surprisingly, Jeff. Throughout both his seasons, he's displayed homophobia, calling Russell a "Faggot", even [[WhatTheHellHero implying that he thinks gay people are pedophiles]] while insulting ''HarryPotter'' amongst constantly bad-mouthing his fellow players (even ''his own alliance members''!) Homophobia normally gets you ''instantly'' hated by the fans (Unless you get over it like Kent did to Bunky) and yet, thanks to [[ManipulativeEditing this behaviour being pretty much completely ignored on the highlights]], people still claim he's one of the most likable people on the show, and he's even considered a "Spokesman" For CBS, getting his own show with Jordan.
** Maybe not so much, as [[http://www.jokersupdates.com/jarticles/article.php?article=1894 people who've seen the feeds voted him the worst reality star of 2011]].
* KickTheDog: Rachel's farewell messages to Danielle and Shelly after they've been evicted have been very mean. YMMV if it crosses into KickTheSonOfABitch, depending on how you see the three of them. This is part of why she's so hated.
* LiteraryAllusionTitle
* LiveButDelayed: To keep excited contestants' swearing out of the mix on live eviction shows. One live episode in Season 11 had to be taped because Chima threatened to go ballistic if Russell wasn't evicted. She would be expelled from the game a few days later, but only because she damaged studio equipment by throwing a microphone into the pool.
** Chima also went on ''quite'' a racist tirade on the first live eviction, which was silenced out. And most recently, there was a blurb of silence in a live competition followed by Julie Chen telling Rachel to keep it civil.
** Season 13 has featured a ''lot'' of swearing on live shows. There was a blurb of silence when Rachel was eliminated from a live competition, and in the double eviction episode, even ''more'' random blurbs of silence.
** Season 14 has a rather famous moment wherein Janelle called Boogie a "Douchebag" and there was enough of a delay to silence it.
* TheLoad: There're some.
** Jordan. season 11, she was carried to the end but [[CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass managed to win two competitions by herself]]. Season 13, she [[DoubleStandard somehow does even less, yet is considered less of a load than Adam]].
** Jerry in season 10.
** Chicken George.
* LoopholeAbuse: Combined with FridgeBrilliance. In season five, Marvin and Nakomis set up a plan where they would nominate two people they have no intention of evicting. For the veto, they pick players who would either use the veto anyways or are in on the plan and would use it. Then at the veto meeting, whoever won the veto used it and then the Head of Household put up the real target. This strategy is called "backdooring", and it influenced how the game was played. Later seasons made it a little harder to do, as [[ObviousRulePatch players were picked through the veto by a random draw]], although there is still a "player's choice" option that can be drawn.
** When Rachel returned to the house as a guest in Big Brother 12, there apparently AintNoRule that says she couldn't leave a message to Brendon spelled out in pretzels. ("I <3 you | Matt")
** evidently, it's not classified as a "Game show" by the FCC. Thus, they're able to pull off RatingsStunt like borderline scripting the show.
* ManipulativeEditing: A lot of the stuff that happens in the house doesn't make it to the highlights show. Even then you don't see everything unless you watch all of the live feeds. This sometimes portrays a different character.
** It can be shocking to watch the feeds and find that someone who's edited to be mouthy on the show is actually quite silent on the feeds. (Daniele, Ragan.) Or how someone who appears to be quite innocent is ''quite'' a cusser (Jeff).
** What's probably the ''worst case'' was in week 5 of season 13. It was actually ''Shelly'' who approached Kalia with the idea to backdoor Porsche so that Jeff, Jordan, and Rachel would forgive Kalia and it would get her further in the game. Then that's when Daniele got upset with Kalia in the HOH room in that last part of the episode. However, the editors made it seem like ''Rachel'' did all the work and gave Shelly no credit whatsoever.
*** Not to mention, Jeff actually has a rather dark side to him. People who watch the feeds reported him calling fellow player Russell a "Faggot" numerous times, saying gay people were pedophiles, insulting houseguests behind their backs (Sometimes not even ''behind'' their backs!) and [[EntitledBastard saying he was the only one who deserved to win]]. In season 13, this behaviour was a ''lot'' more common...However, he is still considered one of the fan favourites, mostly because this side of him was left on the cutting room floor. You just ''know'' that if ''Adam'' was the one making these comments, it'd be crammed down our throats. Jeff even [[KarmaHoudini got away with causing a controversy]] by the fanbase...[[http://www.jokersupdates.com/jarticles/article.php?article=1894 until he was voted worst reality star in 2011]].
*** Brendon similarly is rather domineering and insulting towards Rachel, often bullying her and not letting her talk. Conveniently, all we saw of their relationship was the house wanting to get them our and them being all lovey dovey as misogynists are quickly booed off the camera. Granted, he hasn't ''quite'' gotten away with this as much as Jeff has...
* MediaWatchdog: Since the beginning, but especially after Evel Dick raised hell, the racist incident(s) in Celebrity Big Brother.
* MoralMyopia: James during Big Brother: All Stars has too many examples to list, but the gist of the story is that he wanted Janelle to make the nominations that HE wanted when she was HOH in week four, and when she didn't comply, he got all pissy at her for the entirety of the game. This happened in spite of James' multiple betrayals to the Sovereigns.
* MsFanservice: In the UK at least one every year. Usually ends up on ''Nuts'' magazine.
** Also in Brazil, where at least 3 end up on ''{{Playboy}}'' yearly. (which is probably why many end up as runner-ups but not first place, [[MoneyDearBoy the magazine's paycheck won't matter if they win...]])
** BB Australia had Krystal, a nineteen-year-old who had already had a boob job before entering the house.
** US Season 14 has Kara, who was Playboy Playmate of the year in 2006.
* MyFriendsAndZoidberg: Jessica from Season 8 describing her team in the first food challenge:
---> '''Jessica:''' "My team had all the big guys... and Eric."
* NeonSignHideout: When Aisleyne was "evicted" to the secret House Next Door in Big Brother UK Series 7, the housemates could hear noises from where the House Next Door was located and sussed that there was a secret place.
** In fact, the "sent next door" twist had been done so many times that in the 12th UK series, nominees Anton and Jay were secretly moved to the Big Brother Crypt, as they were "dead to the housemates". Despite the others being told that they had been evicted from the house they managed to suss that they were in fact living in a secret room.
* NoDamageRun: There were houseguests who managed to make it to the finale without being nominated or receiving ''very few'' nominations. Amanda&Sam in ''Big Brother 2007'' UK received no nomination votes, while Josie in ''Big Brother 2010'' never faced the public vote until the end.
** The American version also has Danielle, Jun, Alison, Drew, Mike/Boogie, Daniele (8), Adam, Dan, and Lane, who made it to the final two without having an eviction vote cast against them. Alison probably fits closest to this trope, since she was never even ''nominated''!
* NonGameplayElimination: Happens ''quite a bit'', house guests either break rules (Fight Night in UK Version, NWordPrivileges, Turkey Slapping in Australia, the "Knife incident" & "Hirochima" in America come to mind) and get kicked out, or decide to leave (Sometimes due to family emergencies, injuries like Rima in Australia or Keeley in ''2010'', or just not wanting to play the game).
** Interestingly, there have actually been a lot less house guests walking or being ejected in the US version. Only two house guests ever left the show (Neil in Season 9, who left because of a family emergency, Dick who also had a family emergency), while four were ejected. (Two of 'em being within the first week, and you may as well count Willie, since he was ejected the day after the first eviction) In a recent UK season, ''four'' people walked.
** NonGameplayElimination is even ''less'' common in the Brazilian Big Brother, wherein there have been ''no'' ejections and only ''three'' people leaving the show out of their own free will.
* NoodleIncident: Sometimes, houseguests talk about incidents and events that happened in the house but were not shown on the show.
** Sometimes; there is actually controversy around what happens on the live feeds that's not shown on the main show. Among these include comments and behaviour of Evel Dick that were not shown on the highlights, NWordPrivileges, Adam's comments towards Autistic people calling them "Retards", Jeff's homophobic comments towards ''Literature/HarryPotter'' (Especially worse since [[Film/HarryPotter the movie]] had ''just'' been released around the time), and a ''LOT'' of Chima's house-deeds.
*** Averted when Chima was ejected from the house, though - before her outbursts, we had seen her make a racist tirade that was censored and...that's just about it, outside of verbally abusing Russell. However; the houseguests mention that Chima has broken rules from day one, but we hadn't seen any of this. Cue a flashback montage of Chima doing stuff like refusing to come to the diary room when called, covering cameras with blankets, and saying that she was going to say a bunch of terrible stuff on live television.
** "Fibergate". Wherein Porsche put Fiber inside Muscle Milk. This wasn't aired on the live shows at ''all'', yet people were talking about it on fan sites.
** Jeff talking about his "Blow-up" with Shelly on live TV. This [[JustifiedTrope wasn't shown due to the Double Elimination show needing to be mostly filmed live]], but houseguests had been talking about it during the live show.
** On the UK version, Bonnie Holt's entire career as a social worker is one whole NoodleIncident in itself - making this trope merge with WhatExactlyIsHisJob in a way.
* NoIndoorVoice: Sharon in Big Brother 9 sounded like she shouted all the time
** Anamara in the tenth edition of the Brazillian version. And [[strike:she's]] she used to be ''a police officer''.
** Also, Hayden and Rachel from season 12 of the US version.
** JOE FROM SEASON 14 MOST DEFINITELY HAS NO INDOOR VOICE. DAN IS ALMOST AS BAD.
*** Hilariously lampshaded by his family - Sarah introduces herself as Joe's wife and says, "I'm Sarah and-no wait, I'M SARAH AND I AM JOE'S WIFE!" and then his four children tell him to stop shouting.
* NotCheatingUnlessYouGetCaught: not exactly cheating, but actually playing the game(e.g., forming alliances, trying to gain popularity with the audience, scheming to eliminate strong participants) might actually make you an [[TheScrappy unpopular]] character... unless you manage to play so well no one realizes what you're doing.
* ObfuscatingDisability: Rachel Rice in the UK season apparently faked an illness to get off from work and get on the show. Sharon in the American season said that she had a bad back and this was why she couldn't win an endurance challenge. Later in the season, she said that her biggest lie in the game was that she had a bad back.
** Bonnie Holt, in the UK version, with her AspergersSyndrome, but she also had ObfuscatingStupidity as well.
* ObfuscatingStupidity: Bonnie Holt in the UK version. Brian in the eighth series infamously claiming he had never heard of Shakespeare.
* ObviousRulePatch: US Season 4 switched to a Jury-of-7 vote with the jury sequestered after season 3, wherein Lisa won by a 9-1 vote to Danielle. most contestants changed their votes because of rude or insulting comments Danielle said about them in the dairy room. To be fair, Danielle knew the rules going in the game; but some felt this was a bit unfair.
** The Five-fingered plan in Season 5. It was a really ''really'' clever use of the rules to put someone on the block (and subsequently evict them) without even giving them a chance to defend themselves. However, after season 5, the rules were changed so the players would draw names out of a hat or a wheeland could only pick if they drew the "Houseguests' choice" token. This helped keep the shows from becoming too predictable since it was actually ''very'' easy to do.
* OddFriendship: More prevalent in the American season where after the show, people became friends with their SitcomArchNemesis. Key examples include Beau and Janelle and Ragan & Rachel.
** Aisleyne and Imogen from the seventh UK series. Imogen's closest friend, Grace, HATED Aisleyne, and the feeling was mutual. Somehow, after Grace's eviction, Aisleyne and Imogen became close friends, and they still are to this day.
** Odd Friendships are fairly common in Big Brother, because of the nature of the show thrusting large contrasting personalities together in a small house, it's surprising what bonds can form. Aisleyne made quite a few though. Who would have imagined the self-proclaimed "ghetto princess" would get on so well with posh [[ASpotOfTea tea drinking]] Susie? Then there's Aisleyne's friendship after the show with {{Charlie Brooker}}.
** The eighth Celebrity Big Brother UK series had {{The X Factor}} twins Jedward becoming good friends with Tara Reid, and Paddy Doherty from ''My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding'' bonding with Sally Bercow, wife of the Speaker of the House of Commons.
** Reformed gang member Adam and female-to-male transsexual Luke A in the latest UK series.
* OnceASeason: Certain shows have traditions, this show is no different.
* OutOfFocus: With [[SpotlightStealingSquad editors picking their favourites and keeping them perpetually in focus]], this sad fate is bound to happen to a couple houseguests.
* {{Pixellation}}
* RagtagBunchOfMisfits: The Sovereign Six from Big Brother 6 and Big Brother: All Stars
** Team Richard from Big Brother 7 UK, B Block from Big Brother 9 UK, the Soldiers/Outsiders from Big Brother 13 UK.
* RatingsStunt: Bringing back fan favourite duos, heavily slanting the season for them, casting new people as sacrificial lambs to be sent out while the returnees are promised jury, intentionally editing the newbies to be as OutOfFocus as possible, introducing a twist to sabotage them when things start going against the veterans, this sounds terrible, doesn't it? sad thing is...it happened. Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you...Season 13 US.
* RealityShowGenreBlindness: Specific examples include:
** In the UK version, about every year, people don't seem to remember that they aren't allowed to discuss nominations. This happens ''every year''.
** People who don't realize they'll be away from their families for awhile.
** Common strategic blunders such as letting a deadly floater slip through.
** Brendon telling Daniele that he and Rachel would win if they made it to the finals while trying to convince Daniele to ''not'' target them for eviction.
** In the American version, people tend to make ballsy gameplay moves and are surprised that this winds up putting a target on their backs. Or if their alliance is targeted, are surprised that ''they'' get targeted, too. Really, this is why you want to be the middle man, since #2 is always the main target if #1 gets veto'd off the block.
*** Not to mention; winning competitions that aren't Luxury or Food competitions makes people perceive you as a threat and often gets you directly attacked or "backdoored". The show has a track record of people who don't really win that many competitions getting far in the game. (Ragan, Zach, Jameka, Sharon, Sheila, Kevin, Lane, "Chicken" George, Amy, Renny) Sometimes even ''winning''. (Drew, Dan, Will, Lisa, Jordan, Maggie) And many times; they outlast "Power players" who win a bunch of competitions or try to be TheChessmaster but wind up being "Backdoored". (Jase, Kaysar, BB6 Eric, BB8 Eric, Jessica, Brian, Mike "The Don", BB9 James, BB10 April, BB10 Michelle, Jessie, Brendon, Rachel, Jeff)
** Volunteering to be nominated. On top of the counter-intuitive notion of immediately putting yourself at the mercy of your houseguests who can flip at the drop of a hat instead of getting guaranteed safety, especially in the early parts, this has proven to very rarely work.
*** And even though it worked for Evel Dick; he would have been the first member of the Jury had it not been for the tiebreaker being [[AudienceParticipation Eric, America's Player]].
** Opening Pandora's Box in the American version. In season 11, it seemed to give a bit of relatively harmless fun or catered to houseguests' greed. In season 12, it either stirred up drama in the house or affected the game (Diamond Power of veto, arguably Rachel coming in and leaving a message to evict Matt in Pretzels) However, in season 13, it basically threw a safety rope towards the Producers' Golden Girls and ''completely'' sabotaged the head of household week. One would wonder if it comes back again if people would even bother opening it!
*** Porsche actually confirmed on the feeds she was forced to open it. Most fans don't even think rejecting Pandora's Box is an option because every time it's been offered, it's been opened.
* RoaringRampageOfRevenge: Brendon planned to do so after showmance partner Rachel was evicted.
** On Season 6, Kaysar set up his own counter alliance against Eric/Cappy to avenge Michael's boot, and later in the season, Janelle uses her H.O.H win to avenge Kaysar's (second) boot.
** In Season 13, Rachel intends to do this if Brendon is evicted. It took a little before she pulled it off.
* ResetButton: Season 14 of the US version pulled this trope (''literally'') on the house on Day 27. After an online vote, the then-'coaches' were offered the chance to enter the competition as players; they accepted, which thusly 'reset' the game. Because of that, the prior four evictions were disavowed, and the first three to be evicted afterward would not be entering the Jury house upon elimination (which they already would have normally by that point).
* RoleEndingMisdemeanor: Subverted. See [[http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/tm_objectid=17140342&method=full&siteid=66633&headline=bonnie-on-bail-over-pizza-theft-claims--name_page.html here]].
* SceneryPorn: Some of the houses for these series have been ''very'' elaborate and ''very'' well-designed...[[SceneryGorn only to be covered in a huge mess in a couple weeks]].
* SdrawkcabName: Several veto competitions have featured some kind of mascot or creature named "Otev".
* ShownTheirWork: Ian is OneOfUs and is a huge nerd. On occasions he's spouted chemistry or astronomy trivia and fans have fact-checked to confirm that yes, Ian is absolutely right.
* TheSnarkKnight: Daniele Donato could be seen as this, especially during Season 13.
** Deana Uppal in [=BB13=] UK made many hilarious cutting remarks.
* {{Spinoff}}: Many, many type 9 spinoffs.
** The UK series has most notably had: ''Big Brother's Little Brother'', a BB news fanzine; ''Big Brother's Big Mouth'', a BB public opinion/talk show; ''Big Brother Live'', live streaming from the house; and ''Diary Room Uncut'', in which notable Diary Room conversations were played in full. With the show's move to Channel 5, a new spinoff known as ''Big Brother's Bit on the Side'' exists: it functions similarly to BBLB and Big Mouth six days of the week, and on Sundays it's a quiz show.
** The US version has ''Big Brother After Dark'', a 3-hour block of live streaming from the house. Until Season 11 the US version also had ''House Calls'', which was a talk show where viewers could call in questions.
** The Australian version had: Live Nominations, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin which broadcast the housemates' nominations live]]; Uncut/Adults Only, which broadcast material that didn't fit the PG rating; ''[=UpLate=]'', which was live streaming from the house late at night; and ''Friday Night Live'', which had the housemates competing in a series of games for prizes (both gameplay bonuses and tangible prizes). In its final season, the Australian version adopted ''Big Mouth'' from the UK version.
* SpringtimeForHitler: When racing pundit John [=McCririck=] went into the house for ''Ultimate Big Brother'', the UK edition's finale, he openly announced that he had gotten all of his friends and family to place large bets on him being the first to be evicted, and intended to behave in such a disgusting and offensive manner that he would definitely be the first person voted out. The trope was ultimately averted; despite an internet campaign to keep him in until at least the second eviction, [=McCririck=] was indeed the first person voted out (he wasn't the first person to ''leave'', since Josie Gibson walked out the day before his eviction, but as [=McCririck=] himself pointed out, that wouldn't affect any bets on him being the first to be evicted by the public).
* StealthPun: In season 5 of the US version, one luxury competition had houseguests run through a ''web'' of bungee cords to retrieve lettered balls and spell out a word. The word they had to spell: Internet.
* StoppedNumberingSequels: The US version stopped numbering its seasons after 10.
* StupidSexyFlanders: Matt not only found himself unwittingly in a homosexual showmance with Ragan, but near the end of his time in the house starting dreaming of [[WalkingShirtlessScene shirtless Hayden]].
* SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute: In the UK series at least, some newcomer housemates that enter late in a series tend to be suspiciously similar to big characters that have already been evicted.
* TallDarkAndSnarky: Dr. Will, Kaysar Ridha(occasionally filled this role), James Rhine(who doesn't have black hair, but fits the tall and snarky parts perfectly), Evel Dick, and Russell Kairouz.
* TheBadGuyWins: Will Kirby in US Season 2, Maggie Ausburn in US Season 6, Mike "Boogie" Malin in US Season 7 (All Stars) and "Evil" Dick Donato in US Season 8, Adam Jasinski in US Season 9 (he used his prize money to start a drug ring).
* TokenMinority: Most US seasons seem to be contractually obligated to have at least one black person, and at least one gay man, who almost always has to be CampGay. (Curiously, there have to date only been four bisexuals - two of each gender - two lesbians - [[TwoferTokenMinority both Latinas]] - and no transgender people.)
* TourettesShitCockSyndrome: Pete Bennett, winner of the 2006 season of Big Brother UK.
* {{Transsexual}}: This was featured in the Aussie version of Big Brother, where Miriam (of There's Something About Miriam fame) came on as a gag housemate. Famously featuring the line from hyperawareness-enabled housemate Ryan (Fitzy), "I see them frank-n-beans".
** Also featured in the UK version with Nadia, who was revealed to be a male-to-female transsexual. She went on to be that year's winner.
** Luke A in the thirteenth UK series is a female-to-male transsexual. He also went on to win that series.
** The recent (2009-10) Philippine (Pinoy) version with Rica, who was evicted but returned as a housemate due to Kuya's (Big Brother's) request. She was in quite a feud with her father who didn't accept her change, but reconciled with him in the show.
** The current Argentinian version has Alejandro, a female-to-male transsexual who entered the show expecting to obtain the money to pay for his sex change operation.
** The current Brazillian version has Ariadna, a male-to-female transsexual hairdresser. Unlike Alejandro, she already made her sex change operation and is [[DroppedABridgetOnHim actually a pretty damn convincing female.]]
* TurnCoat
* TwinSwitch: This has been a common twist in the show. Averted by Big Brother 2007 UK wherein Amanda and Sam played separately; but later on played as one person.
** Big Brother 5 US had this as one of the twists; and with a bit of FridgeBrilliance from the casting department. Adria and Natalie were the twins that were switching places...and several other contestants (Drew and Diane) had twins outside the house as well.
** In one of the Australian editions; this worked for three weeks until one of the twins cut himself.
* UnusualEuphemism: The Australian version's infamous "turkey-slapping"[[hottip:*:some guy teabagged a sleeping female housemate]]. [[MemeticMutation You can think the Australian media for that]].
* VillainousBreakdown: Brendan and Rachel in Season 13, mainly Rachel, whose had to have a ''psychiatrist called in to calm her down!''
** Chima's lead to her being the third houseguest to be forcefully ejected from the big brother house in the American series. During which, she threw her microphone into the hot tub.
** Luke in [=BB9=] UK had one after his romantic interest Rebecca was evicted. His bitching went into total overdrive and he became noticeably more aggressive. He was evicted the following week, his final words being "watch your back in here, Lisa".
** Bea in [=BB10=] UK had ''several''!
** Caroline from [=BB13=] UK. After hearing "Get Caroline out!" during a Live Eviction, she went up for eviction the next week and became adamant she would leave. She decided to have the last laugh by sabotaging the house shopping list by only buying chocolate, sweets, pancakes, doughnuts and all sorts.
*** She was evicted in the end though, to choirs of boos from the crowd. You could even consider her interview an example of this trope, she totally bashed each member of The Outsiders and acted very strangely, making some question if she was even mentally stable. The abuse that the crowd was yelling at her probably didn't help.
* WalkingShirtlessScene: Hayden, US S12.
* WhatDidIDoLastNight: Quite common in the Norwegian and Brazillian versions.
* WillTheyOrWontThey: For the couplings ("showmances") that sometimes happen on the show.
** Happening in the Filipino version with Jason and Melissa, affectionately dubbed "Melason".
*** A more famous Filipino example: Kim and Gerald ("Kimerald") from Pinoy Big Brother: Teen Edition
** Also occurring in Series 11 in the UK between chubby Bristolian Josie and Australian David Beckham lookalike John James. Unlikely to happen, but that doesn't stop the public from hoping.
** Season 11 and 13 of BBUSA gave us Jeff and Jordan, the OTP of the Big Brother world...
*** ...While Season 12 and 13 gave us the Brenchel.
* WritingAroundTrademarks: Live feeds are cut off when contestants sing, except as part of a challenge, or mention trademarks.
** If a contestant has a tattoo of something trademarked, it must be covered in a bandage or blurred out. (James in Big Brother 9.)
* WrongGenreSavvy: Lawon thought he had figured out the twist and assumed it to be a mock eviction; and asked to be voted out because he assumed he'd re-enter the house with "Special powers", which he assumed to mean Coup de Tat, Diamond Power of Veto, or something else.
* XanatosGambit: Watch BBUS 14. Observe Dan Gheesling's play after the coaches are no longer coaches. Be amazed.
* YouKeepUsingThatWord: From the American Version:
** '''Backdooring''' was used in Season 5 wherein through a play of LoopholeAbuse (see LoopholeAbuse) and FridgeBrilliance a player was put up on the block without even having a chance to defend himself. Nowadays, the term is essentially used for "evicting the Replacement Nominee" or "Putting up someone who most people did not expect to see nominated.". Nowadays; you can't really do true backdooring because a rule patch helped make it so that it wouldn't happen five or six times in a row every single year.
** A '''Floater''' is a player who does not commit to any alliance except ''maybe'' one ally and only votes with the majority and goes to whichever alliance has power at the moment so they don't get targeted. They intentionally don't try to win Head of Household challenges because the Head of Household is forced to reveal their alliance(s) to the house. A Floaters' goal is to just keep the target off their back by making it so the house wastes a week trying to evict them. The way "Floater" is used by Brendon, Rachel, and their fans is to describe "Whoever is not aligned with us." One would almost wonder if they would describe successful players like Dr. Will, Jun, and Alison as "Floaters", since that was essentially their entire strategy,
* YoungerAndHipper: The days that a big fat slob like Chicken George Boswell could come within sniffing distance of being a contestant are way, way, ''way'' over. Although season 14 (US) actually has ''two'' people who are over 40.
** Heck, even in other versions, the public normally keeps "interesting" houseguests in, which are often the neurotic ones or the eye-candy. In Big Brother 2012 (UK), the first person out was the oldest, Victoria.
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