Big Brother 2 (U.S.) - Format

Format

The second season of the series featured several dramatic changes to the format from the first season. HouseGuests are sequestered in the Big Brother House with no contact to or from the outside world. Each week, the HouseGuests take part in several compulsory challenges that determine who will win food, luxuries, and power in the House. The winner of the weekly Head of Household competition is immune from nominations and must nominate two fellow HouseGuests for eviction. After a HouseGuest becomes Head of Household, he or she is ineligible to take part in the next Head of Household competition. HouseGuests also take part in food competitions in which they must win in order to eat regular foods. Losers of the competition are put on a peanut butter and jelly diet.

On eviction night, all HouseGuests except for the Head of Household and the two nominees vote to evict one of the two nominees. This compulsory vote is conducted in the privacy of the Diary Room by the host Julie Chen. In the event of a tie, the Head of Household must cast the deciding vote, announcing it in front of the other HouseGuests. Unlike other versions of Big Brother, the HouseGuests may discuss the nomination and eviction process openly and freely. The nominee with the greater number of votes will be evicted from the House on the live Thursday broadcast, exiting to an adjacent studio to be interviewed by Chen. HouseGuests may voluntarily leave the House at any time and those who break the rules may be expelled from the house by Big Brother. Following their eviction, all of the previously evicted HouseGuests return home until the show's finale. The evicted HouseGuests then vote on whom they feel should win the $500,000 prize. Big Brother 2 did not allow Justin, who was expelled the first week, to cast a vote at the finale.

Big Brother 2 did feature minor differences from subsequent seasons. One of the main differences is the inclusion of the "Monday Meeting", in which the HouseGuests had a weekly discussion in the living room in terms of tasks to be performed around the house. During this meeting, the two nominees also gave a speech to the others in the house on why they should stay in the house. This was the only season to feature the Monday Meeting, which may be due to the premiere of the Power of Veto in Big Brother 3. Another format twist was that all of the previously evicted HouseGuests except Justin, could vote on whom they wanted to win the game. Although the following season did this as well, they are the only two seasons to allow this. Subsequent seasons would feature the Jury of Seven, in which the last seven evicted HouseGuests returned to vote on whom they wanted to win. The final two HouseGuests were each given an option during the final to nullify one evicted HouseGuests vote on who they wanted to win. This led to only seven votes for the winner, instead of nine.