Big Brother: Story, Cast and Series Facts

Story and premise

Big Brother is the UK's biggest reality TV show and is one of the most talked-about shows in British TV history. 

Big Brother takes place entirely within the confines of the Big Brother House. It's essentially a competition between the housemates, the object of which is to be the last remaining housemate in the House. At least one housemate will leave the House every week by a process of nomination and public eviction. Housemates will nominate each other for eviction and those with the most votes from their peers face a public vote. The housemate that receives most public votes leaves the House and is out of the competition. 

Housemates are provided with a shopping budget each week to buy food and other necessities. Throughout the series housemates will be asked to complete tasks set by Big Brother. If the group does well in the tasks they get rewarded with a bigger shopping budget, plus special treats. On the final night of Big Brother the public vote on which housemate they want to win the show. The housemate with most votes wins a fabulous cash prize!

Series details

• Title: Big Brother
• Format: Reality
• Language: English
• Premiere date: 2000-07-18
• Final broadcast date listed: 2018-11-05
• Status in TVmaze: Ended
• Network listed by TVmaze: 5
• Network country: United Kingdom
• Typical episode runtime: 61 minutes
• TVmaze community rating: 6.9/10
• TVMaze ID: 1514

Cast and credited roles

• Marcus Bentley — Narrator
• Davina McCall — Presenter
• Emma Willis — Presenter
• Brian Dowling — Presenter

Seasons in the TVmaze catalogue

• Season 1: premiered 2000-07-18; final listed air date 2000-09-15.
• Season 2: premiered 2001-05-26; final listed air date 2001-07-27.
• Season 3: premiered 2002-05-24; final listed air date 2002-07-26; episode order: 73.
• Season 4: premiered 2003-05-23; final listed air date 2003-07-24.
• Season 5: premiered 2004-05-28; final listed air date 2004-08-08.
• Season 6: premiered 2005-05-27; final listed air date 2005-08-13.
• Season 7: premiered 2006-05-18; final listed air date 2006-08-20; episode order: 108.
• Season 8: premiered 2007-05-30; final listed air date 2007-09-07; episode order: 97.
• Season 9: premiered 2008-06-05; final listed air date 2008-09-12; episode order: 109.
• Season 10: premiered 2009-06-04; final listed air date 2009-09-04.
• Season 11: premiered 2010-06-09; final listed air date 2010-08-24.
• Season 12: premiered 2011-09-09; final listed air date 2011-11-11; episode order: 71.
• Season 13: premiered 2012-06-05; final listed air date 2012-08-13; episode order: 74.
• Season 14: premiered 2013-06-13; final listed air date 2013-08-19; episode order: 69.
• Season 15: premiered 2014-06-05; final listed air date 2014-08-15; episode order: 73.
• Season 16: premiered 2015-05-12; final listed air date 2015-07-16; episode order: 66.
• Season 17: premiered 2016-06-07; final listed air date 2016-07-26; episode order: 51.
• Season 18: premiered 2017-06-05; final listed air date 2017-07-28; episode order: 54.
• Season 19: premiered 2018-09-14; final listed air date 2018-11-05; episode order: 45.

Source and licence

Adapted from Big Brother on TVmaze. The synopsis is reproduced as plain text; catalogue facts, cast and season records are selected and reformatted. This adapted text is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, following the TVmaze API licence. Network and web-channel credits identify the service listed in this source; they do not establish current streaming availability.