Big Brother 11 (U.S.)

Big Brother 11 (U.S.)

Big Brother 11 was the eleventh season of the American reality television series Big Brother. It is based upon the Netherlands series of the same name, which gained notoriety in 1999 and 2000. The series premiered on CBS on July 9, 2009 and lasted ten weeks until the live finale on September 15, 2009. The eleventh season saw a slight increase in ratings when compared to the past season of the series, which had some of the lowest ratings to date. The season premiered to a total of 6.59 million viewers, a slight increase from the previous season's launch. Despite this, it is the second lowest premiere for a season, only behind Big Brother 10. The season finale had a total of 7.78 million viewers, continuing to average slightly above the past season. In total, the series averaged 7.19 million viewers, higher than that of the previous two seasons. Big Brother 11 featured a total of 13 HouseGuests, one of which was a returning player from a previous season. The series ended after 73 days, in which HouseGuest Jordan Lloyd was crowned the Winner, and Natalie Martinez the Runner-Up.

The premise of the series remained largely unchanged from previous editions of the series, in which a group of contestants, known as "HouseGuests," compete to win the series by voting each other off and being the last HouseGuest remaining. One HouseGuest, known as the Head of Household, must nominate two of their fellow HouseGuests for eviction. The winner of the Power of Veto can remove one of the nominees from the block, forcing the HoH to nominate another HouseGuest. The HouseGuests then vote to evict one of the nominees, and the HouseGuest with the most votes is evicted. When only two HouseGuests remained, the last seven evicted HouseGuests, known as the Jury of Seven, would decide which of them would win the $500,000 prize. A HouseGuest can be expelled from the show for breaking rules, such as discussing nominations when not permitted. This season introduced the "Cliques" twist into the game, in which HouseGuests were split into four teams and played as groups for the first three weeks. Though competing in competitions and being evicted as individuals, a HouseGuest could not nominate a member of their clique should they win Head of Household; they were free to use the Power of Veto however they saw best fit and could vote against their clique members. This season also introduced Pandora's Box, a twist which would appear in all subsequent seasons. The Coup d'Etat secret power, first debuted in Big Brother: All-Stars, was also brought into play this season.

Following their appearance on this season, numerous HouseGuests have went on to appear in various other editions of the series. Winner Jordan Lloyd and fellow HouseGuest Jeff Schroeder returned for Big Brother 12 the following year to participate in a Power of Veto competition. Jordan and Jeff later returned as HouseGuests to compete in Big Brother 13 in 2011; they placed 4th and 7th respectively.