I hope it is ok to start this, as I think it might be useful. Some of us are new to the show, and we would love answers from the long-time viewers. I try to search for things, but sometimes a "basic" term is in a million places. My specific question: what is the "sequester" part of BB? To me, living in the the house itself is being sequestered, as they are confined to one place without access to the outside world. Except for Julie Chen...might I hope that during the "sequester" part I won't have to see her anymore?

Hi harrietthespy! (By the way, I loved your contribution to the BB quotes thread. Mmmmm hmmm!)

After a certain point in the game, when contestants are eliminated, they don't get to go home to their families / normal lives, but instead are sequestered somewhere together, like a resort or hotel. So they're still living together, just outside of the BB house, and stripped of the chance of winning the prize. The Sequester House isn't featured prominently during the show, but we do get to see some clips of what's going on there.

I find it pretty interesting to see how the eliminated, sequestered houseguests interact once the pressure of the prize / alliances are eliminated.

I'm not sure if there's any rule / standard that applies to when eliminated guests are sent to sequester, but I'd imagine not for a couple of weeks.

It would be the jury, wouldn't it? So it's after the fifth eviction, I think, that evictees are sequestered.

So this means that Carol and Joe are home now? I guess that is the difference between a "live" reality show like BB and ones that are aired after completion.
This show is like crack, and for all these years I snootily-snooted to my mom, who loves it, that I wouldn't watch a show about "people sitting around a house."

Thanks for the answer! I hope this is helpful for other people too.

OK, I have another question, concerning the food. They often show people talking in a storage room full of food, but last week's competition suggested that they would all be eating only what they "won." Did TPTB then go in and remove all the things that weren't won, or is there an "honor system," which also presumably kept the slop-eaters from eating other foods.
Also, is it customary to stop forcing people to eat slop, as they seem to have done with last week's food comp? Or did they change things because one of the contestents looked like she was melting away?

George, one of last season's HGs, spent much of his stay in the BB house on slop. I don't recall the actual amount of time, but at least six or seven weeks. He had a few intermittent weeks where he was on regular food (when Marcellas gave him a "Slop Pass" won during a competition), but for the most part, the dude was eating the protein shake/oatmeal mix. I don't think the BB producers care much about the contestants and their hunger pains, as long as it's making good television (and no one is dying).

The producers will go into the storage room and remove whatever food wasn't eaten from the previous week. So that means if there's chocolate in the storage room from the second week, but the third week the house didn't win chocolate, the producers remove it. If I recall correctly as well, food never carries over from week to week, so often HGs will try to eat whatever food is in the storage room before the end of the week when the producers take it away.

The only exception to that is when BB has given a second chance and brought back a previously booted houseguest. Amy in S3, and Kaysar in S6. During those seasons, all the early evictees were in sequesterville until Amy and Kaysar were brought back in the house.

Just to correct - season 3 actually had no sequester house. Popular opinion states that the concept was introduced because of how Danielle got gypped in that season after jury people went home and saw her Diary Room confessions.

Was the MRA the least effective alliance in BB history? Have prior HGs aligned with less spectacular results?

Well, the Mr. and Mrs. Smith alliance never made it past week 4. MRA still has Kail, so they could tie. There's also that "Original 8" alliance on BB4 which presumably ended when they voted out Amanda (in week 1, no less).

Amanda wasn't in the original 8. She was an ex. One of the 8 were removed for throwing chairs, though.

I didn't realize that, Joran. I always thought they were in sequester, but saw the Danielle's DR sessions just prior to voting.

Right... the Big Brother jury IS sequestered... I've always said that the most boring place to be (other than ON Big Brother) has to be the Big Brother jury sequester. I'm serious here. As it stands right now, there are two more evictions before sequester. Currently, the rules are that the last 7 guests evicted are sent to a "Jury house" where they continue to do absolutely nothing. Except they have no chance to win, and there are much fewer cameras (only one, used for a filler segment on Thursday evictions). All the jury members do is drink and gripe about how they were "stabbed in the back" or "screwed" by some other player. Anyway, the current jury format has been in place since season 5. Season 1 was more like International Big Brother, with the results up to the viewers. In seasons 2 and 3, there was no sequestered jury, and all evicted houseguests had a vote. Will won in season 2 because of his DR entries - they were the only place people saw his gameplan (which was to throw every competition, and seem like a weak player - while manipulating the house to evict the people he was on the block against). Danielle in season 3, however, lost because of her DR entries - she played a great game, but was hated by the jury because of her DR entries. Because of this, in season 4, CBS decided to institute the "Sequestered Jury" house. In season 4, all evicted houseguests were sequestered in the jury house. However, in Season 5, they limited it to the last 7 evicted houseguests. Anyway, part of the deal with the sequestered jury is that every week, the evicted person brings a video tape showing the competitions and ceremonies for the week (HoH comp, food/luxury comps, nomination ceremony, PoV comp and ceremony). That tape is all the Big Brother information the people on the jury get to see. All other information pertaining gameplay must come from the houseguest(s) evicted that week. At the end of the show, these 7 people vote on "Who played the best game". Of course, this is really a misnomer, because if a player is in the final 2, they must have done SOMETHING right, and there are so many ways to play BB well (and poorly) that it's not even funny. The question SHOULD be "Who's gameplan did you like the best?"

This thread is a very good idea. Thank you.

harrietthespy, I have searched all over online looking for an answer to this question since the last BB I watched was Season 2 but apparently never thought to ask anyone, sheesh. :) Thank you veterans for explaining the sequester/jury thing to us. I cannot imagine how horrible it would be to be evicted yet still be stuck with these people.

So when it gets to the final two, the jury decides the winner, is that correct?

Another question I have is does anyone know why there seems to be a distinct lack of alcohol in the house? I know they won some beer this week in the food comp, but don't reality show producers generally encourage alcohol fueled drama?

They drink CONSTANTLY. We just don't see it on-air. Two nights ago the entire Sho2 broadcast was basically a game of quarters with revolving players. That huge round dinner table was almost entirely covered in beercans by 10 CST/8pm PST.

ETA: Jessica and Jameka were both adorable throughout, as per usual. Speaking of things we don't see.

Just wanted to add that being in sequester isn't all THAT bad, since they still receive a weekly stipend, and are usually housed in a resort-like house in Mexico. Last year there was a cyclone down there, so they moved them back to L.A., but still, it's not exactly purgatory.

They also have limited, monitored phone calls to family, plus unlimited booze (there have been many a story).

Can someone please explain the concept of the "backdoor strategy"? I've tried Wikipedia/Google, but I get a lot of conflicting info, including something that says it can't be done anymore because of changes in the rules. That doesn't make sense to me at all since people are still talking about backdooring other people in the current threads.

Backdooring is still possible.

Its the act of putting two people up for nomination knowing that one will likely get taken off with POV. Then nominating the actual target for eviction. The reason you do this is to prevent the actual target from being able to save themselves in the POV competition.

Its a little more difficult now because 3 POV competitors are basically random.

And this is where the ever-popular "pawns" come in. ;)

Do they get money for making it to the sequester house? Like, $10,000 for the first person there, $20,000 for the next, etc. Is there any reward for making it further in the game?

I think they get a weekly stipend if they make it to sequester. I remember someone just trying to make it to the house to pay off her bills. I think (correct me if I'm wrong) it was somewhere around $600 a week if I recall correctly.

Amanda wasn't part of the Original 8; her ex Scott was. (He was kicked out in the first week for talking like Dick and throwing chairs around in an empty room.) That alliance was in pieces and evicting its own members by the third week, when Alison and her lapdog Nathan went independent and Dana and Justin started rubbing up on each other. Most of them were never that dedicated to it anyway, because eight is way too many in the first place, especially when they have nothing more in common than being in a room together for ten extra minutes.

I have been wondering about some of the "rules" of the house. I have the impression that an announcement is made in the morning to wake the HGs up, but it seems like it is OK if they nap all day. Besides the singing ban (which I think is funny), what are some other "rules" of living in the house?

No singing, no reading (except for the Bible or other religious texts), no talking about people outside of the house who haven't signed a release, no contact with the outside world (unless won in an America's Choice poll or extenuating circumstances, such as 9/11). That's all I know.

PowerofK, thanks for your sequester explanation. I have a question, that probably isn't here or there...

Were the 2nd and 3rd seasons of Big Brother before or after Survivor? I thought that Survivor kind of started the reality show craze, but I could be wrong. The reason I ask is, I thought Survivor long ago figured out that if you allow voting contestants to see private interviews it would influence their decision, and, more importantly, contestants would learn to not really say anything in the confessionals/private interviews so as not to be penalized by them later, and the PTB would thereby lose an entertaining portion of their show. I'm surprised that Big Brother seemed to ignore this basic rule of reality television.

BB1 aired at the same time as the first Survivor, though obviously that was a different animal entirely. BB2 aired in summer of 2001, and by then Survivor 2 had finished its run; by the time they started sequestering the jury (BB4), Survivor had already done six seasons. I guess they figured that since letting jurors out in the world didn't really hurt them in BB2, so they didn't bother changing it for BB3; it was after Danielle got "robbed" that they began sequestering, finally understanding that:
I think they realized people would try to avoid Danielle's fate, and never say a mean thing about anybody, use the DR sessions to suck up, etc., and changed the game accordingly. The thing is, some people, like Will & Roddy understood how to use the Diary Room to their advantage (Will was entertainingly devious, Roddy was diplomatic), so I don't think Danielle had any excuse.

Survivor 1 and Big Brother 1 aired pretty much concurrently in the summer of 2000, however, Survivor 1 started about a month before Big Brother 1.

The original runs were: Survivor 1 - May 31 to August 23, 2000 (filmed March 13 - April 20, 2000)
Big Brother 1 - July 5 to September 29, 2000

These airdates are courtesy of wikipedia. And remember, Big Brother 1 used the international Big Brother setup, in which each member of the house nominates 2 people in the Diary Room and the viewing public votes someone out. This format is incredibly popular in Europe (especially the UK and Germany) and Australia, but flopped miserably in the United States.

Just for the record, The Real World debuted in 1992. As far as I know, it was the first "Let's put a bunch of strangers together and video tape them constantly and distill/edit it into a show" type thing. I loved it, but boy, it drove my mother crazy. ;-)

(edited for typo)

The Real World might be considered a reality show, but really it was Survivor that is the grandfather of all of the competitive reality shows. I think part of the reason why Big Brother Classic failed so miserably is because Survivor Classic was such a huge hit. After watching Survivor, who really wanted to see a bunch of boring people sitting around in a house doing boring things like putting together dominoes?

I think that the voting scheme of Survivor coupled with the poor interest in Big Brother influenced the changes in voting for Big Brother 2. I remember being quite shocked when they announced that Big Brother 2 was returning, because it had been such a failure.

Has anyone from BB ever gone on the record as to saying that Danielle lost because of the Diary Room, and that's why the changes were made for Season 4? I think Julie might have said that she should have won. But I think Danielle would have lost even without her DR clips. The only people who were negatively influenced by those were Amy and Marcellas, I thought. A lot of the others were already predisposed to vote for Lisa because of the Eric/Roddy connection.

Not to get off-topic, but I think the classic BB could be a success today if done with the style and finesse of the current BB. I was watching videos of the first season, and everything about it was just awful. The casting, the production, the house, even Julie was terrible. After eight seasons though, the producers are definitely much more savvy and I believe that could make a BB season done in the classic format a success. I also think that during that first season, America wasn't in love with the idea of being able to directly vote on contestants of a reality show. Today, with programs such as American Idol and So You Think You Can Dance, the public is keen on the idea.

I was thinking "The Real World/Road Rules Challenge," but your mileage may vary. :)

I didn't know that they couldn't sing. Why not? And if no singing means no music then what is Nick listening to when he has his headphones on?

He can listen to music. It's not a punishment, its an attempt to keep copyrighted material from going out on the live feeds. If CBS would stop with the stupid fees (like they did in BB1), they might not have those problems.

I agree. The other flaw with BB1 was that it was on all but one or two nights a week and if nothing all that interesting happened in the previous 24 hours, well, you get the highlight reel of all those shenanigans. If this America's Player thing pans out, I could see TPTB considering reviving the classic format or creating some sorta hybrid.



"No singing" (and I guess "no humming" or "tra-la-la-ing") has to do with music clearance issues. Artists get paid for the use of songs on TV shows/movies/public performances/24-hour-internet-feeds and can get even more money if the songs aren't cleared ahead of time. Since the songs on the HoH CD are listened to only by the houseguest with the headphones, there isn't a clearance issue. There was a live show back on BB2 where Julie asked Will how he felt about being on the block and he responded: "First I was afraid. I was petrified." As he got deeper into his response and the house started singing along, Julie blew a circuit and cut him off. Awesome.

I also seem to recall back in BB2 the HoH would say which CD they got, but now the CD is just in a Big Brother CD case in the goodie basket.

I think the HoH getting a CD of his/her choice didn't start until Season 3? I remember how excited they got. Amy picked Sarah Brightman's Eden and couldn't stop talking about it.

Am I misremembering this, or did they get CDs during Season 2? I remember Monica winning some kind of reward (it might have been one of those pick a present challenges) and it was the use of a Discman and a CD of her choice. She chose something by Michael Jackson and I remember clips of her strutting around the house while holding the thing and dancing and bobbing her head. If every HoH had gotten a CD for the week I don't think this would have been as big a deal as it seemed to be.

What season did they start having a HoH? I know it wasn't there in the beginning. Same with the PoV.

HOH was introduced in Season 2, along with the players voting each other out instead of the viewers voting. POV was introduced in Season 3.

HoH started during Season 2. Lisa was the first HoH based pretty much on some kind of random spin-the-wheel thing.

Power of Veto was introduced during Season 3. In the beginning, everyone was too afraid to use it, and I remember a Veto competition (the one with the ping pong balls and air guns) where people actively tried to help others to "win" because they didn't want it. Gerry used it to save Marcellas in the infamous "I have two black nephews and know lots of gay people and MY! SOUL! is NOT! for! SALE!" speech.

During the last Power of Veto, when there were only a few houseguests left, they called it the "Golden" Power of Veto and enabled someone to save themselves. Danielle won and saved herself.

Then it was Golden ever since and Vetoing ones own nomination is usually the way it is used most.

I believe BB4 had a "Diamond" power of Veto. There were only 4 houseguests left. One is HoH, two are on the block, and one person wins. The person who wins the veto will not be on the block and thus is going to be the only person voting. So thus winning this veto gave the person not only the power to take themselves off the block, but to determine who went home. Alison won.

I don't think this Diamond veto has appeared ever since?

I don't think they call it Diamond Veto anymore, but that's the way it still works. If you are nominated at final four and win veto you can take yourself off and the other person is automatically up and you decide who to keep. If HOH wins veto I think they have the option of vetoing one of their noms and giving the power to that person, but it's unlikely the HOH would do that at that point in the game.

Also, Mike Boogie was the first HOH ever, in season 2, but it was some kind of spinning wheel thing.

What is the point of the last HOH nominating people. No matter who wins it, they are going to be the one to vote on who goes home.

Still on the subject of rules: what are the penalties if the HGs break the rules? I, for instance, would have a hard time not singing (badly) as my brain is a jukebox. I'm sure the announcer warns them, but what happens if they persist? Has anyone ever been evicted for willfully breaking house rules.

My mom told me one season there was a particularly annoying HG, so TBTB kept giving him even more things to annoy the others (a drum set?!) Does this happen often, because I think it would be rad!

Also, I am gald this topic is helping other people, because I felt almost presumptuous starting it.

Justin from BB2 got "expelled" for putting a knife to Krista's throat and asking her if she would be upset if he killed her. Scott from BB4 got "expelled" after having a temper tantrum, throwing chairs, and telling people he was really irritable because his genital herpes was flaring up. (I'm not kidding, he said it was his genital herpes.) These two were removed because they were deemed dangerous to the house.

There's been a lot of talk about the elusive "penalty nomination". It has never happened in the U.S. version. Supposedly if a houseguest continues to break rules but is not considered dangerous, BB will threaten that HG with a penalty nomination.

Another term that is heard frequently is the "D.O.R." which stands for "drop on request". As in, "I'm so friggin tired of this place, I swear that if so-and-so keeps verbally accosting me I'm going to push the button and turn in my D.O.R.". As far as I know, nobody has ever submitted a D.O.R. and been removed before voting for the week.

Generally the contestants have been good enough that it hasn't gone past warnings. The ultimate penalty is obviously eviction, but I think the last time that happened was in BB2 when the guy held a knife to a woman's throat or something along those lines. I think someone was also evicted for throwing a chair or something like that.

I think other possible punishments they could use for rule-breakers are putting them on slop/PB&J or disqualifying them from the next competition, but I'm not sure if either of those has ever happened.

As for the music, I noticed one time when Nick had the headphones on I could totally hear the music anyway, since it was on loud and close to his mic. But I assume they clear the music on the CD so that wouldn't be an issue.

If you choose to believe Dr. Will which can be dangerous, on All-Stars he reported that CBS had to pay out somewhere around two hundred thousand dollars for the BB 2 "I Will Survive" incident. (Sorry, I don't remember the exact amount.)

Other notable songs on the live feeds of previous seasons. BB 1 had "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling" (for at least one night). BB 4 Erika/Allison's "This Is My Song". BB 6 "What Up Gangsta" which evolved into Whaddup Kaysar. The Pillow Biter song. Howie's Busto song. Kaysar and Janelle sang "Cold Hearted" for Jennifer. Janelle sang alot of Madonna on BB 6 and especially 7. BB 7 had "Chichu Mugachu" based on U2's "With or Without You". And Janelle's "Whatta Man". Sometimes BB was quick to the button for a camera switch or a verbal warning and sometimes not.

Right... I don't remember these happening in the US version, though both happen on the international versions fairly often. I think part of the reason that "Penalty noms" aren't used too much in the US version is because only two people can be nominated at once, and a penalty nom would cut into the HoH's power of making nominations. On the international version, there are unlimited nominations (because if a player is even nominated by one or two people in the house, they are put on the nomination list - often all members currently in the house are fair game for the viewers to vote off). And I think the reason why the DOR is so rarely (if ever) used in US BB has to do with... well, if I win HoH next week, I can probably get the house to evict so-and-so. In the International versions, the houseguests have little, if any, power to control their own fates, and often the most controversial members of the house continue to stay there for a while. Because of this, houseguests have been known to quit. And seriously, imagine getting stuck in a Big Brother setting for a whole year, which is what happened in Germany a few seasons back.

Since there are no stupid questions...

Why is this so? I've read a bunch of posts and seen on the show this season, I think, that the HoH is seen to have influencing powers. Why would this be? Once they decide who to put on up for eviction, they should be a lame duck. Why would anyone feel compelled to listen to them if they wouldn't otherwise? Maybe I'm misinterpreting what's happening - I think Kael was even saying that Dick had all this influencing power because he was HoH. The only power I see them having is deciding who to put up for eviction - and that can change with the PoV - I can see no reason why anyone would feel compelled to vote for whomever was the HoH, just because they are the HoH. Is there an explanation or am I reading the situation wrong?

I guess I understand the point of this, because reading is socially isolating, and I know other shows have this rule as well. But if you are allowed to stay in bed all day (becuase you are napping or giggling with just one other person), I think you ought to be able to take a book to the pool.
CBS should partner with Milton Bradley and have a lot of board games. That would be entertaining, especially to see how these HGs fared at Scrabble, or to hear ED ripping someone to shreds over their Candyland strategy...

OK, a question: do the HGs do all of the cleaning? Who polishes the eleventy billion mirrors, or washes all the windows that Jen counted?



Good gravy! How did that happen?

They've never used a penalty nom, have they? It's been an empty threat, and one which the HGs exploited immeasurably last season.

The Final HoH is slightly different. It is a 3 part competition where the winner of the first round gets a bye to Round 3. The other two houseguests compete in Round 2 and the winner goes to Round 3. Round 3 takes place on the live show, with the winner choosing who gets evicted almost immediately.