Big Brother 2 (U.S.)

Big Brother 2 (U.S.)

Big Brother 2 is the second edition of the American reality series Big Brother. The series premiered on July 5, 2001 on CBS. The second season lasted a total of 82, culminating on September 20 when Will Kirby was crowned the winner in a five to two jury vote. The format of the program underwent serious changes after the first season, and began focusing more on competitions and gameplay. Big Brother 2 is the first season to feature the HouseGuests voting on whom would be evicted, whereas the viewers chose who was evicted in the first season. This season also featured 12 HouseGuests, as opposed to the ten that entered the previous year, and allowed the HouseGuests to choose the winner of the series as well. The players are secluded from the outside world, a part of the format that remained unchanged from the previous season. The second season of the series saw a ratings decline in the show, with the premiere episode earning 8.20 million viewers as opposed to Big Brother 1's 22.4 million. Despite this, the season finale for season 2 had an audience of 12.3 million, beating out the previous years' finale. In total, the season averaged 7.9 million viewers. As of August 2012, the season premiere is the sixth most watched premiere episode for the series, while the finale is the second watched finale of the series, only behind Big Brother 3 by .64 million viewers.

Following their appearance on this season, Winner Will Kirby and fellow "Chilltown" member Mike "Boogie" Malin returned to compete in Big Brother: All Stars in 2006, where they placed 4th and 1st, respectively. Fellow HouseGuests Monica Bailey and Bunky Miller were contenders to be featured on the series, but ultimately did not return. Bunky also later returned in All Stars for an HOH competition. Although she wasn't an option to enter the game, Runner-Up Nicole Schaffrich appeared twice on All Stars, hosting a Veto competition and being a judge for a food competition. Bill "Bunky" Miller went on to make an appearance in Big Brother 10 as part of a food competition celebrating ten seasons of Big Brother. He was the representative for the second season. Malin would later return to the house for a third time in Big Brother 14, along with three other former HouseGuests, as a "mentor" for 12 new HouseGuests. Later in the season, however, he entered the game as an official HouseGuest. He came in 10th place.