Regional versions Due to the intelligibility of certain languages across several nations, various regional versions of
Big Brother have been produced. Some countries have multiple franchises based on language, for example, the United States has English- and Spanish-language versions of the show.
Twists involving single franchises Multiple areas and houses In 2001,
Big Brother 3 of the Netherlands introduced the "Rich and Poor" concept, in which the house is separated into a luxurious half and a poor half, and two teams of housemates compete for a place in the luxurious half. The Dutch version continued this concept to the end of its
fourth season. Other versions later followed and introduced a similar concept, of which some have their own twists:
Africa (in
2010,
2011,
2012 and
2013),
Albania (in
2010),
Australia (in
2003 and
2013),
Balkan States (in
VIP 2010 and
2011),
Brazil (
2009–present),
Canada (
2013–
2024),
Denmark (in
2003),
Finland (in
2009 and
2014), France (in
2009,
2011–
2017),
Germany (in
2003,
2004–05,
2005–06,
2008,
2008–09 and since
Celebrity 2014),
Greece (in
2003),
India (in
2012 and
2013),
Israel (in
2009),
Italy (in
2006 and
2007),
Norway (in
2003),
Philippines (in
2009,
Teen 2010 and
2011),
Poland (in
2002),
Portugal (in
VIP 2013 and
2016),
Slovakia (in
2005),
Slovenia (in
2008,
2015 and
2016),
Scandinavia (in
2005),
South Africa (in
2014),
Spain (in VIP 2004,
2008,
2009–10 and
2010),
United Kingdom (in
2002,
Celebrity 2007,
2008,
Celebrity 2013 and
2016),
United States (
2009–present) and
Tamil Nadu, India (
2023–24) In 2011–12, the
seventh Argentine series added
La Casa de al Lado ("The House Next Door"), a smaller, more luxurious house which served multiple functions. The first week it hosted 4 potential housemates, and the public voted for two of them to enter the main house. The second week, two pairs of twins competed in the same fashion, with only one pair allowed in. Later, the 3rd, 4th and 5th evicted contestants were given the choice of staying on their way out and they competed for the public's vote to reenter the house. Months later, after one of the contestants left the house voluntarily, the House Next Door reopened for four contestants who wanted to reenter and had not been in such a playoff before. The House Next Door was also used in other occasions to accommodate contestants from the main house for limited periods of time, especially to have more privacy (which of course could be seen by the public). The
ninth Brazilian season featured the "Bubble": a glass house in a shopping mall in Rio de Janeiro where four potential housemates lived for a week. Later in the season, a bubble was built inside the Big Brother house, with another two housemates living in it for a week until they were voted in and the glass house dismantled. The Glass House was reused in the
eleventh season, featuring five evicted housemates competing for a chance to join the house again, and in the
thirteenth season, with six potential housemates competing for two places in the main house. A dividing wall from the ninth season was reused in the
fourteenth Brazilian season, when mothers and aunts of the housemates entered for
International Women's Day and stayed in the house for 6 days, though they could not be seen by the housemates. Every season brings back the glass house. Some editions also featured an all-white panic room, where contestants were held until one of them decided to quit the show. In the
fourth English-Canadian season, two house guests were evicted and moved into a special suite where they were able to watch the remaining house guests. A week later, the houseguests were required to unanimously decide which of them to bring back into the house.
Evil Big Brother In 2004, the
fifth British series introduced a villainous
Big Brother with harsher punishments, such as taking away prize money, more difficult tasks and secret tricks. This concept has also been used in Australia, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Finland, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, South America,
Scandinavia, Serbia, Spain, Thailand, Philippines and Mexico.
Twin or triplet housemates In 2004, the
fifth American season introduced twins who were tasked with secretly switching back and forth in the house; they were allowed to play the game as individual house guests after succeeding at the deception for four weeks. This twist was reused in the
seventeenth American season without the deception element – the pair simply needed to survive five weeks without being
evicted. HouseGuests who discovered this twist could use the twins to their strategic advantage. This twin or triplet twist was used in several countries. Some made modifications to this twist; others have had twins in the house together without this element of secrecy. The following are the countries that have featured twins or triplets: Australia (in
2005), Germany (in
2005–06), Brazil (in
2006 and
2015), Bulgaria (in
2006,
2012 and
VIP 2017), United Kingdom (in
2007,
Celebrity 2011,
Celebrity 2012,
2013,
2015,
2016 and
Celebrity 2017), France (in
2007,
2011,
2013,
2015 and
2016), Spain (in
2007 and
2013), Poland (in
2007 and
2019), India (in
2008), Africa (in
2009), Balkan Region (in
2009 and
2013), Philippines (in
2009,
Teen 2012 and
2014), Portugal (in
2010 and
2012), Israel (in
2011), Ukraine (in
2011), Argentina (in
2011 and
2016), Albania (in
2013,
2017,
Celebrity 2021–22 and
Celebrity 2022–23), Greece (in
2020) and Kosovo (in
Celebrity 2022–23).
Pairs competitions Several versions of the program feature variations of the housemates competing in pairs: • In the
sixth American season, each HouseGuest had a secret partner with whom had a pre-existing relationship, with each pair being informed that they were the only secret pair. While each player was nominated and evicted as an individual, each pair had the goal of reaching being the Final 2 HouseGuests remaining. Should a secret pair succeed in this goal, the prize money awarded to the winner and runner-up would jackpot – the winner's prize doubling from $500,000 to $1,000,000 and the runner-up's prize quintupling from $50,000 to $250,000. • During the tenth week of the
seventh British series, the housemates were paired with their "best friend" in the house and had to nominate and face eviction as couples. • The
ninth American season added a romantic theme by pairing up the HouseGuests with their "Soulmate" and having them compete as couples. This twist was active for the first 3 weeks of the season. • The
13th American season featured a further twist to the pairs format by introducing the "Dynamic Duos" twist, where contestants formed pairs that would be nominated together but evicted separately. The nominee not evicted would be immune from further nomination until there were 10 HouseGuests remaining, at which point the pairs were dissolved. This twist was repeated in
24th American season, except with the surviving partner joining another pair to compete alongside. • The second season of the
Philippine teen edition also featured the parents or guardians of the teens staying in the house; if a teen housemate was evicted, the coinciding parent or guardian would also be evicted. A similar twist was used on the
fourth Greek season was dubbed
Big Mother; it featured housemates accompanied by their mothers. • In the ninth season of
Indian Big Brother,
Big Boss: Double Trouble, contestants entered the house tied up in pairs by the waist. They had joint chairs, beds, spoons, and even mugs. The twelfth season of
Indian Big Brother,
Bigg Boss 12 also featured jodis (pairs) who were Teacher-Student, Policeman-Lawyer, sister-sister, etc. • In the
ninth Albania season, all the housemates wherever were in couples and for the first time in the history of
Big Brother Albania, the winner was a couple (Danjel Dedndreaj and Fotini Derxho).
Secret missions Secret missions are a common element of the show since their introduction during the
sixth British series. During these missions, one or more housemates are set a task from
Big Brother with the reward of luxuries for the household and/or a personal reward if the task is successful. Some versions of
Big Brother have secret tasks presented by another character who lives in plain sight of the housemate. Such characters include Marsha the Moose (from
BB Canada) and Surly the Fish (from
BB Australia). The
third Belgian season introduced a mole. This housemate was given secret missions by
Big Brother. The sixth Australian season featured The Insider. Voted on by Australia, the Housemates deemed "The Most Competitive" had to complete secret missions tasked by Big Brother in order to win immunity from Nomination Voting and hence, Eviction. Failure in a mission would result in Automatic Nomination. The
eighth American season introduced "America's Player", where a selected house guest must complete various tasks (determined by public vote) in secret for the duration of their stay in the house in exchange for a cash reward. It was repeated in the
tenth American season for a week. The
eleventh American season featured Pandora's Box, in which the winning head of household was tempted to open a box, with
unintended consequences for the house. The
twelfth American season featured a saboteur, who entered the house to wreak havoc with tasks suggested by viewers. The
sixteenth American season featured "Team America", in which 3 houseguests were selected to work as a team to complete tasks (determined by public voting) for a cash reward; this continued for the entire season despite the eviction of a team member. The
fourth Argentine series added a telephone in the living room. This telephone rang once a week for ten seconds, and the person to pick up the receiver was given an order or news from Big Brother (which typically no other housemate could hear). The order could be beneficial or detrimental, but a refused order resulted in the nomination for eviction. If nobody picked up the call, the whole house would be nominated for eviction.
Opening night twists Since
Big Brother 2, the
British series has opened with a twist. This has included having potential Housemates being voted upon by the public for one to enter the house (
Big Brother 2 &
Big Brother 13); public voting for least-favourite housemates, with the housemates choosing between two nominees to evict (
Big Brother 3); first-night nominations (
Big Brother 4 &
Big Brother 13); suitcase nominations (
Big Brother 5); Unlucky Housemate 13 (
Big Brother 6); Big Brother Hood (
Big Brother 7); an all-female house and a set of twins as contestants (
Big Brother 8); a couple entering as housemates, who must hide their relationship (
Big Brother 9); housemates having to earn housemate status (
Big Brother 10, with an altered version of the twist appearing in
Big Brother 21); a
mole entering the house with an impossible task (
Big Brother 11);
Pamela Anderson entering as a guest for 5 days (
Big Brother 12); a professional actor posing as a housemate and a mother and daughter as contestants (
Big Brother 14); one contestant gets a pass to the final (
Big Brother 15); first night eviction (
Big Brother 16); two houses with "the other house" featuring enemies from the main house housemates past (
Big Brother 17);
Jackie Stallone entering a house containing her son's ex-wife
Brigitte Nielsen (
Celebrity Big Brother 3); a "fake celebrity" (a civilian contestant pretending to be a celebrity) in a celebrity edition (
Celebrity Big Brother 4); a visit from
Jade Goody's family (
Celebrity Big Brother 5) and unlocked bedrooms allowing housemates to immediately claim beds with the last housemate becoming the Head of House (
Celebrity Big Brother 6). A common opening twist is to introduce only a cast of a single sex on the premiere of the show while having members of the opposite sex introduced over the next few days. The
eighth British series first used this twist with an initial all-female house, adding a male housemate two days later. The same twist was used in the
fourth Bulgarian series, and an all-male premiere was used on
Big Brother Africa 4. The
second Belgian season was used a similar twist in 2001, where eleven male housemates and one female housemate entered the house on launch night and the second female housemate entered the house on the third day.
Fake evictions The
fifth British series introduced fake evictions, where Big Brother misleads housemates that eviction has taken place, only for the "evicted" housemate to reenter the house sometime later. In the
eighth British series, one housemate was evicted, interviewed and sent back into the house. In the
fifth Philippine season, four housemates were fake-evicted and stayed in a place called
bodega. In the second batch of the
eight Philippine season, four housemates were fake-evicted due to losing their duel challenge and temporarily stayed in a secret room. In the adult edition of the
tenth Philippine season, two housemates, and later three more, were fake evicted after failing in two different
Ligtask challenges and temporarily stayed in the task room until the end of their weekly task. The concept of the fake-eviction was incorporated into the Australian series for the first time in the
sixth Australian season, when housemates Camilla Severi and Anna Lind-Hansen were both fake-evicted in Day 8 and were moved into a secret room in the house, the Revenge Room. Severi and Lind-Hansen could see who nominated them for eviction and were given the opportunity to wreak havoc upon the house and those who nominated them by constructing extravagant tasks for the housemates to complete and for making mess in the house when they were not looking. Severi and Lind-Hansen returned to the house in a live special on Day 10. In the
tenth Australian season, Benjamin Zabel was fake evicted for 24 hours before being returned to the house with immunity from eviction for that week. In the
eleventh Australian season Travis Lunardi was fake-evicted and received advice from Benjamin Zabel for 24 hours; Travis returned to the house after a 3-day absence with immunity from eviction for that week. In the
thirteenth Brazilian series, Anamara Barreira was fake evicted. She was removed and put into a small private apartment without the other housemates knowing she was still in the house. After 24 hours, she returned to the house as Head of Household and with immunity from eviction that week. In the
sixteenth Brazilian series, Ana Paula Renault was similarly fake evicted, put into a small private apartment, and returned after 48 hours with immunity from eviction that week. In the
eighteen Brazilian series, Gleici Damasceno was similarly fake evicted, put into a small private apartment, and returned after 72 hours with immunity from eviction and with the power to put someone to eviction. In the
first Turkish series, there is a fake eviction in week 10. The Indian version
Bigg Boss sees frequent fake evictions. In
Bigg Boss Kannada season 4, winner Pratham and co-contestant Malavika were kept in secret room after fake eviction for one week and they were both allowed in the Bigg Boss house. Similarly, in
Bigg Boss Kannada season 5, firstly Jaya Srinivasan and Sameer Acharya were put into the secret room after fake eviction for one week and then Sameer Acharya was allowed into the house, but Jaya Srinivasan was evicted from the secret room itself. In the same season, the runner up Divakar was put into the secret room after fake eviction for one week.
Coaches The fourteenth American season had four house guests from past seasons return to coach twelve new house guests, playing for a separate prize of $100,000. However, in a reset twist, they opted to join the normal game alongside the other house guests.
Red button The seventh Argentine series incorporated a red button into the Confession Room, which would sound an alarm throughout the house. This button was to be used when a contestant wanted to leave the house voluntarily, and the contestant would be given five minutes to leave the house. A red button is also used in
Secret Story series, however, in this case whoever presses the button will try to guess someone's secret.
Legacy rewards or penalties In
Celebrity Hijack UK, evicted housemates were given the opportunity to choose if a "ninja" delivered good or bad gifts to the house. Later that year, the
eighth Australian series introduced the Housemate Hand Grenade, where an evicted housemate decided which remaining housemate received a penalty. A similar punishment used on
Big Brother Africa was called the Molotov Cocktail, Dagger or Fuse.
Most valuable player The
fifteenth American season allowed viewers to vote for a house guest to be made M.V.P., who then secretly nominates a third houseguest for eviction (in addition to the two selected by the Head of Household). In a further twist introduced part-way through the MVP twist, the viewers themselves decided who the third nominee would be, with the HouseGuests still thinking one of their own is the MVP. Like many such twists, this was ended halfway into the season as the pool of contestants shrank.
Multiple heads of household The
sixteenth and
seventeenth American seasons featured two Heads of Household every week and had four houseguests nominated for eviction. There was also a "Battle of the Block" competition where the two sets of nominees competed to save themselves; the winning pair not only saved themselves but dethroned the Head of Household who nominated them, who was then vulnerable as a replacement nominee if a veto was used. It is also used in specific weeks in Brazil since
Big Brother Brasil 16 where the HOH's have to choose which HoH will get
R$10,000 and who is the one that will win immunity.
America's Favorite HouseGuest In the American version, each season there are three cash prizes: $750,000 for the winner, $75,000 for second, and $50,000 for who was voted by the viewers to be America's Favorite HouseGuest.
Multiple winners In 2011,
Big Brother Africa season 6 was the first season of
Big Brother to have two winners, each getting US$200,000. In 2012, the four finalists from
Gran Hermano 12+1 (Spain) were given the chance to choose a formerly evicted housemate to be their partner. The companion of the winner became the "+1 winner" and received a secondary prize of €20,000. In 2015, the
sixth Philippine season, also had two winners; one from the
teens and one from the
regular adults. Each of which received PHP1,000,000.
Bigg Boss 8 (India) ended with a twist, where the top five contestants were crowned 'champions'. The season was extended by 35 days (total 135) as a spin-off called
Bigg Boss Halla Bol, where ex-contestants from previous seasons entered the house to compete with the five champions.
Reserve housemates The
fourth Philippine season introduced the concept of having reserved housemates, those of whom are short-listed auditioners who were given a chance to be a housemate by completing tasks assigned by Big Brother. It was eventually done also in the
eighth Philippine season where the reserved housemates were placed in a camp (a separate House but is just adjacent to the Main House) and that reserved housemate must compete amongst other reserved housemates while gaining points by participating in various tasks, including those that required the participation of doing such tasks outside of the Big Brother House premises. As the eviction was done weekly, once an official housemate is evicted from the Main House, the with the most points earned for that particular week crossovers to the Main House and becomes an official housemate. These reserved housemates twist was also used in Argentina's
seventh season and Brazil's
ninth season.
Big Brother Zoom In 2020, due to the
COVID-19 pandemic, the
Big Brother Portugal revival started with a twist, where all the contestants were isolated in different apartments for 14 days, in line with World Health Organisation (WHO) recommendations. Cameras were filming them 24 hours a day as usual, and they were able to communicate with each other and host Cláudio Ramos using tablets.
Twists involving multiple franchises Housemate exchanges In 2002, the
Mexican and Spanish editions (
BBM1 and
GH3) made temporary housemate exchanges. Mexico's Eduardo Orozco swapped with Spain's Andrés Barreiro for 7 days. In 2010, the first 2-housemate exchange was held by Spain and
Italy (
GH11 and
GF10). Gerardo Prager and Saray Pereira from Spain were swapped with Carmela Gualtieri and Massimo Scattarella of Italy for 7 days. In later years, several housemate exchanges were done around the world:
Argentina (
GH3) and Spain (
GH4),
Ecuador (
GH1) and Mexico (
BBM2), and Africa (
BBA1) and United Kingdom (
BB4) in 2003;
Scandinavia (
BB2) and
Thailand (
BBT2) in 2006;
Philippines (
PBB2) and
Slovenia (
BB1), and
Argentina (
GH5) and Spain (
GH9) in 2007; Africa (
BBA3) and
Finland (
BB4) in 2008;
Finland (
BB5) and
Philippines (
PBB3) in 2009;
Finland (
BB6) and
Slovenia (
BBS1) in 2010; Spain (
GH12) and Israel (
HH3) in 2010–11;
Finland (
BB7) and
Norway (
BB4) in 2011;
Argentina (
GH7) and Israel (
HH4) in 2012; Mexico (
BB4) and Spain (
GH16) in 2015; and Spain (
GHVIP5) and Brazil (
BBB17) in 2017.
Evicted housemate exchanges In 2003, Mexico's Isabel Madow (
BB VIP2) and Spain's Aída Nízar (
GH5) were swapped for 7 days. This twist was also done between Russia (
BBR1) and Pacific (GHP1) in 2005, and Argentina (
GH4) and Brazil (
BBB7) in 2007.
Other exchanges In 2009, as part of the casting process for Italy's
GF9, Doroti Polito and Leonia Coccia visited Spain's
GH10. In 2012, four contestants from Denmark's
BB4 visited Sweden's
BB6 and competed in a Viking-themed challenge. The Danish team won and 'kidnapped' Swedish contestant Annica Englund to the Denmark house for the following week. In 2012, evicted housemate Laisa Portella of Brazil (from
BBB12) was a guest on Spain's
Gran Hermano 13 for a week; the following week, non-evicted Noemí Merino of GH13 stayed in the Brazilian Big Brother house for 5 days. In 2016,
Big Brother UK housemate
Nikki Grahame and
Big Brother Australia housemate Tim Dormer were voted in by Canada to be houseguests on the 4th season of
Big Brother Canada. Similarly,
Big Brother UK housemate
Jade Goody appeared as a housemate on the
2nd season of
Bigg Boss Hindi.
Big Brother Australia (2015) contestant Priya Malik joined
Bigg Boss 9 (India) the same year as a wild card. In 2017,
GHVIP5 contestant Elettra Lamborghini visited Brazil's
BBB17. In 2019, the winner of Italy's
GF15, Alberto Mezzetti visited Brazil's
BBB19. In 2022, Bindhu Madhavi, 4th Runner-up of
Bigg Boss Tamil 2017 made her entry as a contestant in a Telugu back to win spin-off named
Bigg Boss Non-Stop and emerged as the winner of that show respectively. After winning the
debut season of
Bigg Boss Marathi (regional version of
Big Brother), winner Megha Dhade made her entry in
Bigg Boss season 12 as a wild card contestant. After winning
season 2 of
Bigg Boss Marathi (regional version of
Big Brother), winner Shiv Thakare made her entry in
Bigg Boss 16.
Evicted housemate visits Anouska Golebiewski, an evicted housemate from the United Kingdom (housemate from
BB4) visited Australia (
BB3) in 2003. In 2005, United Kingdom (Nadia Almada of
BB5) visited Australia (
BB5) again. In 2006, United Kingdom (
Chantelle Houghton of
CBB4) visited Germany (
BBG6). This twist was used in later years by other countries: Africa (Ricardo Ferreira of
BBA3) visited Brazil (
BBB9) in 2009; Germany (Annina Ucatis and Sascha Schwan of
BBG9) visited the Philippines (
PBB3), and Italy (George Leonard and Veronica Ciardi of
GF10) visited Albania (
BB3) in 2010; Sweden (Martin Granetoft and Peter OrrmyrSara Jonsson of
BB5) visited Norway (
BB4) in 2011; Brazil (Rafael Cordeiro of
BBB12) visited Spain (
GH12), and Argentina (Agustín Belforte of
GH4) visited Colombia (
GH2) in 2012; United States (Dan Gheesling of
BB10/
BB14) visited Canada (
BB1 and the
BB2 Jury) in 2013; Canada (Emmett Blois of
BB1) visited South Africa (
BBM3) in 2014; and Spain (Paula Gonzalez of
GH15) visited Mexico (
BBM4) in 2015. A similar event took place between the United States and Canada in 2014 wherein
Rachel Reilly (from
BB12/
BB13) made a video chat to Canada (
BB2). Rachel Reilly also appeared on
Big Brother Canadas side show, which airs after the eviction episode.
Housemates competing in another country There were occasions that a former housemate from one franchise participated and competed in a different franchise: Daniela Martins of France (SS3) competed in Portugal (SS1); Daniel Mkongo of France (SS5) competed in Italy (GF12);
Brigitte Nielsen of Denmark (BB VIP) competed in the United Kingdom (CBB3);
Jade Goody of the United Kingdom (BB3, BB Panto, and CBB5) competed in India (
BB2); Sava Radović of Germany (BB4) competed in the
Balkan States (VB1); Nikola Nasteski of the Balkan States (VB4) competed in Bulgaria (BB All-Stars 1); Žarko Stojanović of France (
SS5) competed in the Balkan States (
VB VIP5); Željko Stojanović of France (
SS5) competed in the Balkan States (
VB VIP5); Kelly Baron of Brazil (
BBB13) competed in Portugal (
BB VIP);
Lucy Diakovska of Bulgaria (
VIP B4) competed in Germany (
PBB1); Leila Ben Khalifa of Italy (
GF6) competed in France (
SS8);
Priya Malik of Australia (
BB11) competed in India (
BB9); Tim Dormer of Australia (
BB10) and
Nikki Grahame of the United Kingdom (
BB7,
UBB) competed in Canada (
BB4) after beating Jase Wirey of the United States (
BB5,
BB7) and Veronica Graf of Italy (
GF13) in a public vote; Leonel Estevão-Luto of Africa (
BB4) competed in Angola & Mozambique (
BB3);
Frankie Grande of the United States (
BB16) competed in the United Kingdom (
CBB18); Fanny Rodrigues of Portugal (
SS2) competed in France (
SS10); and Tucha Anita of Angola (
BB3);
Amor Romeira of Spain (
GH9) competed in Portugal (
SS6) and Alain Rochette of Spain (
GH17) competed in France (
SS11); Despite being American,
Brandi Glanville competed first in the United Kingdom (
CBB20) then later competed in first Celebrity series in the United States (
CBB1); Aída Nizar of Spain (
GH5 and
GHVIP5) competed in Italy (
GF15); Ivana Icardi of Argentina (
GH9) competed in Italy (
GF16); Gianmarco Onestini of Italy (
GF16) competed in Spain (
GHVIP7); Michael Terlizzi of Italy (
GF16) competed in Spain (
GHVIP8); Heidi Baci of Italy (GF17) competed in Albania (
BBVIP3).
Multiple-franchise competitions Eurovision Song Contest == Special editions ==