Big Brother 1 (UK)

Big Brother 1 (UK)

Big Brother 2000, also known as Big Brother 1, was the first series of the British reality television series Big Brother, which had previously gained notoriety in the Netherlands. The series debuted on Channel 4 on July 14, 2000 and ran for nine weeks until September 15, 2000. Early in its run, the series was met with controversy for numerous reasons, including its use of profession psychiatrists who analyzed the personalities and actions of the contestants. Despite the large amount of controversy, the series was a major success. Forty thousand people applied to participate in the first series. The first week of the series had over 400,000 voters call in to choose to evict someone, while the final week had 7.8 million voters. The series averaged 4.5 million viewers, with a series high of 10 million viewers on the final night.

The series revolves around ten strangers living in a house together with no communication with the outside world. They are filmed constantly during their time in the house, and can have no communication with those filming them. Each week, each contestant, referred to as "housemates", choose two people to be up for nomination. The two or more people with the most votes will be nominated to leave the house. The viewers then decide which of the nominees should leave, with the selected person leaving during a live show. This process continued until only three housemates remained, in which the viewers would decide which of the housemates would win the £70,000 grand prize. A housemate can be ejected from the show for breaking rules, such as discussing nominations when not permitted. If a housemate were to be ejected from the game - as in the fifth week - then a replacement housemate would enter the House in a matter of days. One replacement housemate entered this season, bringing the total number of housemates to 11. The show lasted for a total of 64 days, culminating in housemate Craig Phillips winning the grand prize, and Anna Nolan coming in second place.

Several housemates from Big Brother 1 returned to later seasons of the series. Eventual winner Craig returned in Big Brother 10 to participate in a task. Ejected housemate Nick returned with other former housemates to compete in Ultimate Big Brother, and entered on Day 1. He ultimately came in 5th place. Anna, Darren, Carolina and Craig all returned for Ultimate Big Brother as well, participating in various tasks.