Trivia / Big Brother

• Baby Name Trend Killer: Jade had been a moderately popular name in the UK since the 1980s, but after Jade Goody was on the show, the name went from being in the top 30 to outside the top 100 in two years. This was most likely a result of Goody's perceived lack of intelligence and reports of rude behavior on-set.
• Cash-Cow Franchise: It made its creator (who was, admittedly, fortunate to begin with) rich enough to launch his own TV station in the Netherlands.
• Channel Hop:
  • The UK version from Channel 4 to Channel 5 in 2011. The 2023 revival saw the show move to ITV.
  • The Canadian version was promoted from Slice to its sister broadcast television network Global for season 3, though the Side Show remained on Slice.
• Character Overlap:
  • Allison Irwin, Jordan & Jeff, Brendon & Rachel and Cody & Jessica became the houseguests who went from debuting on Big Brother to play on The Amazing Race.
    • Cody & Jessica went on to become the first Big Brother alumni to win The Amazing Race.
  • Several contestants played a special BB crossover game on The Price Is Right, including Frankie and Will.
  • Frankie and Paul appeared on the ill-fated trainwreck that was a game show adaptation of Candy Crush.
    • Frankie in general has been almost 20 game shows, including the UK Celebrity Big Brother... and lost on all of them.
  • Tyler has played on Total Knockout before his season even began.
• Content Leak: Near the end of February 2024, The Sun newspaper leaked the lineup for the upcoming CBB UK revival series. These included former The X Factor judges Sharon Osbourne and Louis Walsh, Love Island winner Ekin-Su Cülcüloğlu, Strictly Come Dancing professional Nikita Kuzmin, former This Morning presenter Fern Britton, and perhaps the oddest example: Gary Goldsmith, uncle of Catherine, Princess of Wales. Additionally, it was stated that Sharon would not be there for the full duration of the series (she was later revealed on the show to be a "Celebrity Lodger").
• Descended Creator: Clayton Halsey, who is the Chief Editor and Announcer for the American version of Big Brother, played Santa in Big Brother: Reindeer Games.
• Executive Meddling:
  • UK version:
    • Charley Uchia from the 2007 series was kept in for as long as possible, due to being the closest thing that season had to a villain. Not even being warned when she and 2 other housemates said the N word on day 9 (of the 3, the only white one was thrown out at 1 am without so much as a warning). One week, she, Nikki and Billi all had their nominations cancelled for talking about them. Conveniently enough, this played out so that only Charley was actually removed from the eviction pool, and it would have been the first time she was actually up for eviction too. A few weeks later, she would have been up again but then the eviction that week was changed so that the evictee would be interviewed with the house watching without her knowledge, but then allowed back into the house. It took another 2 weeks (losing her one ally Nikki in the interim) before she was finally out. It emerged after the series that in the 6th week, she'd once again used the N word, and was reprimanded off screen.
    • In the 2024 Celebrity series, there were several twists with the nominations. Firstly, Sharon Osbourne, who only stayed for about a week as a Celebrity Lodger, was given a secret task along with Louis Walsh to judge the rest of the housemates based on first impressions, then choose three to consider for eviction; Sharon would then choose one of those three to face the vote later in the week. In the next round, Sharon was allowed to watch the housemate's nominations and choose someone up for eviction to save, and then replace with another. In the fourth round, during a fairytale-themed task, six of the housemates had to decide between them someone to take a killer nomination and face the vote (this ended up being Nikita Kuzmin). The very next day, for St. Patrick's Day, a housemate (who ended up being Fern Britton), was given the option to choose someone to instantly evict, only for that housemate to end up being granted immunity from nominations instead and go through to the final^note At least until it was revealed that there was going to be a shock eviction based purely on the public vote. Fern chose Louis, who had previously been nominated many times by the others, leading viewers to think that it was a Batman Gambit on the producer's part in order to keep Louis (who was shaping up to be the house villain) in, as was having to choose the two housemates they considered the most evil for the fairytale task, leading to Louis along with Zeze Millz being exempt from the killer nomination.
    • Going on from the above, Big Brother usually forbids discussing and revealing nominations, but the fairytale task had a quiz that asked about the number of times certain people had been nominated, which revealed that Nikita had nominated Fern every time so far. Since Nikita was one of the more polite housemates who had not yet recieved any nominations, many viewers think this was done just to involve him in more drama and tension, and also so he'd be more likely to be nominated (which became a moot point as he took the killer nomination later), and think it was unfair of the producers to reveal what was supposed to have been private information barring the face-to-face nominations.
  • US version:
    • Season 13. Pretty much every single twist happened to make sure any of the vets (except for Daniele) won that season.
    • Executive Meddling has been a force for good on occasion; in Season 15 they added the MVP twist; one player- nominated by America- would get to secretly name a third nominee. Elissa (Rachel Reilly's sister) won the MVP week after week and avoided the first 2 evictions due to it. BB then changed the MVP twist so that America would choose the third nominee. ^note They didn't tell the houseguests this; it took a while for the house to figure out Elissa didn't have the power anymore.
    • Season 19. It very blatantly stacked the odds in Paul's favor by giving him an almost guaranteed chance to reenter the house with a $25,000 temptation as bait, and then quickly used his popularity to manipulate America into voting him to pick up a convenient advantage that gave him three full weeks of safety in the house, and Paul enabled a lot of the houseguests' worst behaviors as the house's pedestal of worship, fueling an entire season of Paul-driven antics and puppet mastery that ended with most viewers expressing extreme feelings of revulsion at almost the entire post-jury game.
  • Canada had a rare good version. In season 2, the First Five alliance was dominating the game and had flawlessly gotten rid of everybody they targeted for the first four weeks, and managed to go completely unnoticed by those not in the alliance. So in week five, Canada was made HOH and given the power to pick two nominees and a replacement nominee should one of them come off. While it did screw up several players' games in favour of others, it was clear that had the alliance continued this way they would have stayed together until they were the only ones left, and the game would stagnate. By breaking them up, it made the game a lot more fluid, the alliances more fragile, and in general the season was much more entertaining than it would have been. Anybody who doubted this move only needs to look at BB16 US, where the exact same kind of alliance happened - except there was no executive meddling to stop them.
• Follow the Leader: Glass House in the U.S. uses a similar format to the original Big Brother season. CBS did not take kindly to this.
  • Several different versions of the show would eventually adopt some of the strategic elements the US version is known for. The UK, Australian, and Brazilian versions all eventually introduced Heads of Household who would have safety from nomination among other privileges, as well as competitions that would affect nominations depending on the results. Each time this was done, it was usually an attempt Retool the show in the face of dwindling ratings, often with mixed results. The Canadian version went a step farther adopted the entire US format from the moment its first season began in 2013. This is mainly because it was made by and for fans of the US version.
• Promoted Fanboy: For the second season, ensemble darkhorses Peter Brown and Gary Levi joined Arisa Cox in the Big Brother Canada Side Show to discuss the game.
• Role-Ending Misdemeanor:
  • Duane "Dog" Chapman's 1976 murder conviction (which was basically for being in the wrong place at the wrong time) scuttled his plans to appear on CBBUK. The UK routinely denies travel visas to those with a murder conviction on their record, and did so in Chapman's case, making it impossible for him to take part.
  • Jim Davidson was to be a contestant on the 2013 series, but got arrested following the Jimmy Savile scandal over allegations of historic sex offenses. He was cleared of any wrong-doing and went on to win the 2014 series. His book and live show No Further Action goes into more detail.
• Romance on the Set: Being in a house with nothing but the same people again and again can made sparks fly
  • US
    • Josh from Season 1 and Erika from Season 4, which fell through by Season 7.
    • Lisa and Eric in Season 3, though it did not last long
    • Amanda and David in Season 4, who infamously had the first televised sex scene of the US run. It didn't last long. Seriously- neither the relationship nor the sex.
    • Eric and Jesicca in Season 8, though they have now broken up
    • Nick with Daniele and Jen in Season 8, in the show and after the show respectively.
    • Jeff and Jordan in Season 11, who tied the knot in 2014 and are expecting a child.
    • Brendan and Rachel in Season 12, they tied the knot during 2012 and had their first child in 2016 and second child in 2020.
    • Daniele and Dominic in Season 13, they tied the knot during 2013, to the surprise of many.
    • Shelli and Clay are this in Season 17. In the first episode alone they have romantic thoughts of one another.
    • Cody and Jessica entered a full-blown relationship during the game in Season 19. They would later marry and since have had several children.
    • Matt and Raven from Season 19 quickly became a couple.
    • Mark and Elena are essentially a couple in Season 19, although Elena is initially skittish about it.
    • Nicole has gone from Hayden in 16 to Corey in 18 to finally Victor in 18, whom she later married.
    • Swaggy C and Bayleigh from 20 developed into a strong couple and later married.
    • Tyler and Angela from 20, were together for sometime and were even once engaged. However their engagement has since been called off.
    • All Stars 2, led to the surprising romantic pairing of Memphis and Christmas. They would also be married.
    • While Derek (Xiao) and Hannah were viewed as a pair by the fans in 23, Derek would later begin a long term relationship with Claire instead.
  • UK
    • Helen and Paul from series 2, made more awkward by the fact that Helen was seeing someone when she entered the house (he dumped her after it became clear she and Paul were falling for each other). They dated for several years but eventually broke up.
    • Chantelle and Preston in Celebrity Big Brother 4, who were wed just months after the season and divorced 10 months later. which resulted in a rather awkward reunion when they met each other again in Ultimate Big Brother.
  • Canada
    • Emmett and Jillian in season 1.
    • Jon and Neda (Season 2) are revealed to be dating after their season ended. They have since broken up, though.
  • Philippines
    • Jason Francisco and Melisa Cantiveros
    • Mickey Perz and Gee-Ann Abrahan
    • Bailey May and Ylona Garcia
• Stunt Casting: Seems to have become more common in recent years. Seasons 14-22 had at least 1 houseguest who is either quasi-famous in the outside world or related to a previous contestant.
  • Season 14 had Jenn, bassist for the heavy metal band Kittie and Willie, brother of famous Survivor villain Russell Hantz.
  • Season 15 had Elissa, sister of (in)famous BB12 and BB13 houseguest Rachel Reilly.
  • Season 16 had Frankie, brother of Ariana Grande and self-proclaimed social media mogul.
  • Season 17 had Vanessa, the No.4 female poker player in the poker player in the world who had won $4.5 million throughout her career as of Season 17 as well as former Amazing Race contestants Jeff & Jackie.
  • Season 18 had Tiffany, sister of BB17's Vanessa and Paulie, brother of BB16's Cody.
  • Seasons 19 and 22 had Christmas, an athlete and fitness blogger with 420K Instagram followers prior to entering the house.
  • Season 20 had Bayleigh, a beauty queen and the first African-American Miss Missouri.
  • Season 21 had Analyse a college soccer star from the University of Nevada.
• Similarly Named Works:It has the same name as the Hong Kong movie Big Brother (2018).
• Un-Canceled:
  • The Canadian version was placed on hiatus (essentially cancelled) after season 5. However a massive fan campaign helped the show gain footing back and it was renewed for a sixth season.
  • UK season 10 was so low rated that Channel 4 decided the next one would be the last. Thanks to fan support, a larger effort by the producers to find interesting people for Season 11, and a generally well received brief All Star season starting on the same day as the finale, Channel 5 was in talks to pick up the show by the time it was over.
• What Could Have Been:
  • In BB1 US, an eleventh houseguest named Beth could have been given entry into the game, but because this was the first season of the US run and not handled by the same production who knows how to make things interesting, it was squandered once it was presented to the remaining houseguests in such a way that was highly unappealing: they obviously didn't want to reduce their chances of winning by one.
  • In BB5 US, Nakomis and Cowboy's father was initially chosen for casting, which he declined. During the interview, he revealed that both of them never knew their existence, thus the second part of the DNA twist is born.
  • In BB6 US, Ivette's girlfriend was intended to be her partner, but was replaced with her friend, Beau.
    • Also, Dick and Daniele (both from BB8) made it to the finals in BB6 casting, but were not chosen.
  • In BB7 US, Bunky, Dana, Ivette, Lisa, Michael "Cowboy", and Monica were candidates to come back into the house, but lost both the public vote & the producer's vote.
  • In BB8 US, Jessica's nemesis was originally a rival from a dance team.
  • In BB11 US, Jessica (BB8, Popular), Micheal "Cowboy" (BB5, Offbeats) and Brian (BB10, Brains) are candidates to come back into the house, but their cliques lost the HOH competition to Jessie (BB10, Brawns)
  • In BB12 US, a fourteenth houseguest named Paola had been cast, but left during sequester and was not replaced. Also, the Saboteur twist could have gone on for much longer if Annie hadn't been evicted Week 1. Hayden had also tried out for Survivor, only for CBS to ask if he wanted to be on Big Brother. He would later go on that show a little later.
  • In BB13 US, a cast video of someone named "Jason" was actually filmed but for some reason, he was dropped during sequester.
  • In BB14 US, an early trailer showing some contestants showed someone named Mike but for some reason, was replaced with Joe for reasons unexplained. One-Steve Limit, maybe?
    • Also, Rachel from BB12 and BB13 US was supposed to be one of the coaches, but as she declined to get married with a TV special, Britney replaced her.
  • It is suggested that the "Takeover" twist from BB17 US was supposed to go on for longer than three weeks, but ended early either because the celebrities they had planned to takeover cancelled or the producers felt the season was strong enough to stand on its own without the need of a twist.
  • For BB19 US, Megan didn't get a comic book cover for BB Comics Week because she walked from the game and all subsequent parts of the season treated her as though she wasn't even part of it to begin with. Regardless, Megan has an honorary fan-made comic book cover displayed on her Twitter account.
  • In BB20 US, Julie shows during the house tour that the new monitor feature in the HOH Room features displays that let players see but not hear other players and speakers to let others know in different rooms when they're being watched. No houseguest has actually used them because they are counter-intuitive to secrecy, and no one has resorted to using them for intimidation or seems to understand how they even work because no one has discovered exactly what they do without instructions given or inherent understanding or curiosity of the monitors.
  • In GH17 (Spain), one of the season's novelties was "The Club", a secret room in which chosen contestants would get counseling from previous winners on how to win the competition, and get other privileges such as watching the other participants' nominations. Along with "The Club" came "The Counterclub", in which the early eliminated contestants would live with former contestants in hopes to get repechaged. When Pablo was the first contestant to enter "The Counterclub", Mayte Galdeano's over-the-top demeanor drove him so nervous that he requested to leave, so "The Counterclub" was quickly shut down for good. Host Jordi González commented on this on air:
  Jordi González: We promised a bombshell and we delivered, so much that it went off too early.
  • CBBUK 22 was supposed to feature Stormy Daniels as President of the house^note which was appropriately both Donald Trump and "Storm" themed, but she was going through a divorce at the time and she couldn't get proper childcare for her 7 year old daughter. Legal issues also prevented her appearing live on panel show Loose Women the next day to explain the situation, though a pre-recorded interview was later cleared to air.
  • Several big-name former houseguests were among the first people contacted for BB22 US, including Dan, Derrick, Rachel, Will, and Danielle Reyes. All of them turned down for various reasons. Rachel (who was pregnant at the time) proposed she compete as one houseguest with her sister Elissa from Season 15, with Elissa playing competitions for both of them. Production did not take her up on this offer.
  • It was implied by several houseguests on Season 22 that Josh Martinez and Kaycee were both supposed to be in the cast, but both got cut at the last minute for breaking COVID protocols and going to parties. Memphis and Keesha were alternates that were brought in to replace them.
  • Season 23 almost had a houseguest named Christie (Who was a founding member of Baldtourage) and another houseguest named Garrett, but both had to be replaced. Christie because she had tested positive for COVID, Garrett for an unknown reason. They were replaced by Claire and Christian, respectively.
  • A houseguest had been replaced after being announced for Big Brother 9 Canada thanks to inflammatory comments on Twitter.
  • The Big Brother 24 cast lineup originally contained a man named Marvin, who was pulled after it was discovered he had competed on America's Got Talent a few months prior and was thus under a no-compete contract with NBC. He was replaced by Joseph.
    • Julie reveals during the first eviction that the backstage twist would have resulted in one of the backstage houseguests facing off against the evicted houseguest in a competition to stay in the house. However, because Paloma had walked from the house the day before, the eviction was cancelled.
• Why Fandom Can't Have Nice Things: Thanks to people making huge efforts to slant the game in their favour in the first season, they put in limitations on how the audience can affect the game. In particular, people have botted the site so that Ronnie and later Jeff or Jordan would get the Coup de'Tat in season 11 (which also helped instigate Chima's infamous meltdown later that same season). CBS put in restrictions on how many votes can go, and then later on randomized the positions on the site so that if you clicked the same place twice, you wouldn't click on the same houseguest you clicked on previously. In BB16's America's Vote, you have to have an account with the site and can only vote ten times. By 2018, Big Brother has placed very stiff time limitations on the America's Vote feature and closes them well in advance of the episodes where the twists go into effect.

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