How Big Brother works

Houseguests live together in a camera-filled house, cut off from the outside world, for roughly three months. Every week repeats one cycle (Head of Household, nominations, Power of Veto, live eviction) until a jury of evicted players picks the winner.

1. The players, called houseguests, share a purpose-built house that is filmed around the clock, with no outside contact except for medical or family emergencies.Wikipedia ↗
2. A season lasts about three months; the exact length changes from year to year.Wikipedia ↗
3. Since season 2 the houseguests themselves decide who leaves. Season 1 let viewers vote players out instead.Wikipedia ↗
4. A normal week runs: Head of Household competition, nominations, Power of Veto competition and meeting, then a live eviction vote.Wikipedia ↗
5. At the end, a jury of evicted houseguests chooses the winner from the last two players.Wikipedia ↗
6. The winner takes home $750,000 and the runner-up $75,000; before season 23 the prizes were $500,000 and $50,000.Wikipedia ↗
7. RHAP takeOn RHAP's "How to Win Big Brother" episode, Taran Armstrong and winner Rachel argue that in the modern game, social maneuvering and making your own luck count for more than piling up competition wins.RHAP ↗

Points marked Wikipedia adapt text from Big Brother (American TV series) (revision 1380892129), licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

The Head of Household runs the week. They win a competition, cannot be evicted that week, and decide who goes on the block.

1. Each week opens with an HOH competition, a feature of the game since season 2.Wikipedia ↗
2. The HOH is safe from eviction that week and nominates two houseguests, or three in seasons that use three nominees.Wikipedia ↗
3. The HOH gets perks, most famously a private bedroom.Wikipedia ↗
4. The outgoing HOH sits out the next week's HOH competition.Wikipedia ↗
5. HOH competitions are mostly quizzes, endurance tests or skill games, and some are finished during the live eviction show.Wikipedia ↗
6. The HOH does not vote at eviction unless the vote is tied, in which case they cast the deciding vote.Wikipedia ↗
7. RHAP takeRHAP's Taran Armstrong and data analyst Christina Z used past seasons' results to test the old question of whether winning the very first HOH helps or hurts a player.RHAP ↗
8. RHAP takeRHAP's Sa[BB]ermetrics column framed HOH as a trade-off: a week of guaranteed safety and control, paid for with a bigger target once the reign ends.RHAP ↗

Points marked Wikipedia adapt text from Big Brother (American TV series) (revision 1380892129), licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

The HOH puts players on the block as eviction nominees. A nominee can still escape through the Veto, and when they do the HOH has to name a replacement, which opens the door to a backdoor plan.

1. The HOH names two nominees, or three in seasons that use the Block Buster.Wikipedia ↗
2. If the Veto holder pulls a nominee off the block, the HOH must name a replacement nominee right away.Wikipedia ↗
3. Unlike many other versions of the format, American houseguests may talk openly about nominations and votes.Wikipedia ↗
4. A backdoor is a plan to evict someone who was never nominated at first: they only go up as the replacement, after the Veto has been played, so they never got to compete for it.Situation Room
5. RHAP takeRHAP's Sa[BB]ermetrics column crunched past seasons to see how often backdoor plans work, and argued that a target's motivation in the Veto competition is an underrated factor.RHAP ↗

Points marked Wikipedia adapt text from Big Brother (American TV series) (revision 1380892129) and Big Brother 16 (American season) (revision 1378579247), licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

A weekly competition whose winner can take one nominee off the block or leave the nominations alone. Deciding whether to use it is often the week's biggest move.

1. The Veto competition arrived in season 3 and is held after the HOH competition each week.Wikipedia ↗
2. Six houseguests play: the HOH, the nominees, and others; since season 7 the HOH and nominees draw the extra players at random.Wikipedia ↗
3. The winner can save one nominee or keep the nominations as they are, and announces the choice at the Veto meeting.Wikipedia ↗
4. Since season 4 a nominee who wins the Veto may use it on themselves. In season 3 that was not allowed until the final Veto of the season.Wikipedia ↗
5. When the Veto is used, the HOH names a replacement nominee on the spot.Wikipedia ↗

Points marked Wikipedia adapt text from Big Brother (American TV series) (revision 1380892129) and Big Brother 16 (American season) (revision 1378579247), licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Each week ends with a secret, live vote. Everyone except the HOH and the nominees votes to evict one nominee, and the HOH breaks any tie.

1. Every houseguest except the HOH and the nominees votes, one at a time and in private in the Diary Room, during the live show.Wikipedia ↗
2. Before season 10, early-season votes were recorded ahead of time; live voting began part way through the game.Wikipedia ↗
3. Most votes means eviction; if the votes split evenly, the HOH decides.Wikipedia ↗
4. The evicted houseguest walks out of the house to an interview with the host, and the cycle restarts.Wikipedia ↗
5. From season 27, once a vote is cast it is final and cannot be taken back.Wikipedia ↗

Points marked Wikipedia adapt text from Big Brother (American TV series) (revision 1380892129) and Big Brother 16 (American season) (revision 1378579247), licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Some live shows squeeze a whole week of the game into one night so that two (or even three) houseguests leave.

1. The first version, Fast Forward week, sped a week's events up so that two players left over the course of one week.Wikipedia ↗
2. Double Eviction Night, introduced in season 7, plays a full HOH, nomination, Veto and eviction cycle inside a single live episode; it is now a fixture of every season.Wikipedia ↗
3. Season 22 added a Triple Eviction Night, run the same way with three houseguests leaving.Wikipedia ↗
4. A related variant, "Hit the Road" (seasons 14, 18 and 27), had houseguests compete to stay, with the last-place finishers facing automatic nomination or outright eviction.Wikipedia ↗

Points marked Wikipedia adapt text from Big Brother (American TV series) (revision 1380892129), licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Each week some houseguests live on a punishing diet and in an uncomfortable room. Who ends up a Have-Not has been decided by competitions or by other players, depending on the era.

1. In the early seasons, Have-Nots could only eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.Wikipedia ↗
2. Since season 7, Have-Nots eat slop, sleep in a deliberately uncomfortable room and take cold showers.Wikipedia ↗
3. Since season 22, later weeks skip the Have-Not competition and the HOH or the previous Have-Nots choose instead.Wikipedia ↗
4. Breaking Have-Not rules can earn a penalty vote for eviction or an extra day as a Have-Not.Wikipedia ↗
5. RHAP takeRHAP's Sa[BB]ermetrics column looked at whether volunteering to be a Have-Not, as several BB15 players did, actually hurts a player's chances.RHAP ↗

Points marked Wikipedia adapt text from Big Brother (American TV series) (revision 1380892129), licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Big Brother reshapes its weekly cycle most seasons with twists: secret powers, viewer-controlled teams, returning evictees and more.

1. Big Brother 16's "Team America" was a secret trio picked by viewer vote that carried out missions from the audience for cash.Wikipedia ↗
2. Team America grew out of the "America's Player" twist used in seasons 8 and 10.Wikipedia ↗
3. RHAP takeTaran Armstrong and Bobby on RHAP ranked the five best uses of a secret power in the show's history, from the Coup d'Etat onward.RHAP ↗
4. RHAP takeAhead of season 25, RHAP's Big Brother hosts drafted the best twists from the first 24 seasons.RHAP ↗

Points marked Wikipedia adapt text from Big Brother 16 (American season) (revision 1378579247), licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Late-game evictees become jurors who live apart from the game and, on finale night, vote for the winner between the final two.

1. In seasons 2 and 3 every evicted houseguest voted for the winner.Wikipedia ↗
2. Since season 4, jurors are sequestered in a separate jury house. They see group events and competitions but not diary sessions or strategy footage.Wikipedia ↗
3. In Big Brother 16, for example, the jury was the last nine houseguests evicted.Wikipedia ↗
4. Before the finale, jurors agree on questions for each finalist. On finale night they question the final two, hear a closing speech from each, and then vote in order of eviction.Wikipedia ↗
5. Each juror's vote is a key with a finalist's name; the host reveals the keys, and the finalist with a majority wins.Wikipedia ↗
6. RHAP takeTaran Armstrong's RHAP episodes on the "bitter jury problem" and "jury management" ask whether a lost jury vote is the juror's fault or the finalist's.RHAP ↗

Points marked Wikipedia adapt text from Big Brother (American TV series) (revision 1380892129) and Big Brother 16 (American season) (revision 1378579247), licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

With three houseguests left, a final Head of Household competition is played in three rounds. The winner casts the last eviction vote and picks who sits beside them in front of the jury.

1. Regular weeks continue until three houseguests remain.Wikipedia ↗
2. The final HOH has three rounds: round 1 tests endurance, round 2 skill and round 3 knowledge.Wikipedia ↗
3. Whoever wins round 1 goes straight to round 3. The other two play round 2; its winner joins round 3 and its loser becomes a nominee.Wikipedia ↗
4. The round 3 winner alone votes in the last eviction, which decides who joins them in the final two.Wikipedia ↗

Points marked Wikipedia adapt text from Big Brother (American TV series) (revision 1380892129), licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

A fan-voted prize, separate from the game itself.

1. Since season 7, viewers at home have voted for an America's Favorite HouseGuest.Wikipedia ↗
2. The prize is $50,000 (it was $25,000 before season 23), and the result is announced at the finale.Wikipedia ↗

Points marked Wikipedia adapt text from Big Brother (American TV series) (revision 1380892129), licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Since season 26, three nominees face eviction night with one last chance: a competition whose winner comes off the block before the vote.

1. On eviction night the three nominees play a competition, and the winner is safe.Wikipedia ↗
2. The other two nominees then face the house vote as usual.Wikipedia ↗
3. It debuted in season 26 as the "A.I. Arena" and became a permanent part of the game, renamed the BB Block Buster, from season 27.Wikipedia ↗

Points marked Wikipedia adapt text from Big Brother (American TV series) (revision 1380892129), licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Big Brother 16's twist: two HOHs each nominated a pair, and the pairs fought for safety. The winning pair came off the block and the HOH who nominated them lost their power.

1. For part of Big Brother 16 there were two HOHs at once, and each nominated two houseguests, so four players started on the block.Wikipedia ↗
2. The two nominee pairs went head to head; the winning pair was safe for the week.Wikipedia ↗
3. The HOH whose nominees won was dethroned and could be named as a replacement nominee after the Veto.Wikipedia ↗
4. The other HOH kept power and immunity, and the rest of the week ran normally.Wikipedia ↗
5. The twist was dropped after week 8, leaving one HOH and two nominees.Wikipedia ↗
6. RHAP takeOn RHAP's premiere-night recap, Rob Cesternino, Brian Lynch and BB14 winner Ian Terry worked through how the new twist would work, including what happens if both HOHs want the same nominees.RHAP ↗

Points marked Wikipedia adapt text from Big Brother 16 (American season) (revision 1378579247), licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

A Big Brother term for a houseguest who avoids firm commitments and drifts toward whoever holds power that week.

1. A floater is a player who stays out of fixed alliances and attaches themselves to whichever side is winning at the moment.Situation Room
2. RHAP takeRHAP's Taran Armstrong traced where the word came from, what it has meant, and how both the strategy and the label have changed over the show's history, with input from BB15 winner Andy Herren.RHAP ↗