Big Brother: Over the Top

Updated on Jan 03, 2024

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Big Brother: Over the Top is the first season of the American reality television series Big Brother that aired online exclusively. The season premiered on September 28, 2016 and ended after 65 days with a season finale on December 1, 2016 only on CBS All Access, an over-the-top subscription streaming service. This was the first season to air in the fall and was separate from the established series televised on CBS during the traditional summertime period. This season was officially confirmed by CBS on August 3, 2016, while Big Brother 18 was still in progress.

As with the televised series, the group of contestants—referred to as HouseGuests—are enclosed in the Big Brother House under constant surveillance of cameras and microphones. Each week a HouseGuest will be evicted until the final three HouseGuests remain on finale night. For the first time since Big Brother 1, the viewers will vote for one HouseGuest to win the program. Julie Chen will continue to host the season premiere and finale, and conduct weekly eviction interviews. In the season finale, the voting public awarded Morgan Willett with the $250,000 grand prize over Jason Roy and Kryssie Ridolfi.

Development

The season was officially announced on August 3, 2016 by CBS while the eighteenth season was still in progress. The series will continue to air on the CBS television network during the summer while the fall edition will air exclusively on the over-the-top streaming service CBS All Access which has been the broadcaster of the live Internet feeds since the seventeenth season. The season will utilize the same production team from past seasons with executive producers Allison Grodner and Rich Meehan for Fly on the Wall Entertainment in association with Endemol Shine North America. Julie Chen, who has been the host of the series since its inception, will also be part of this season. However, Robyn Kass, who has cast the program since the second season, will not cast this season. The shortest season since Big Brother 10, the season will last nine weeks. This will be the first edition of the overall Big Brother franchise to air live exclusively online around the world and the second season overall to air only online after the first Chinese season, which was pre-recorded and aired at a later date in 2015.

Broadcasts

There will be no television coverage for this season; instead, it will be completely streamed online at CBS All Access. There will be weekday replays that will be scheduled to transmit on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays at 10:00pm ET/7:00pm PT that will summarize the events of the previous day in the House. On Wednesdays starting at 10:00pm ET/7:00pm PT, there will be a weekly recap episode followed by the live eviction with the Head of Household competition shortly after the eviction. On Thursdays, Julie will have a live Q&A with the HouseGuests and interview the recently evicted HouseGuest. Special episodes will air on Tuesdays and Fridays at 10:30pm ET/7:30pm PT after the weekday replay where viewers can watch live diary room sessions. Have Nots for the week will be shown on Saturdays at 4:00pm ET/1:00pm PT with the weekly safety ceremonies shown on Saturdays and Sundays at 10:00pm ET/7:00pm PT with the weekly nominations revealed live on Sundays.

While the live Internet feeds will not have any scheduled blackouts, slanderous statements and singing of copyrighted music will be blocked for legal reasons. For the first time in the history of the program the HouseGuests entered the House one by one live on the Internet feeds after host Julie Chen introduced the audience to the program and short introductory videos were shown.

Format

The format of this season will vary slightly from previous seasons that have aired on CBS. The contestants referred to as "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. At the start of each week, the HouseGuests compete in the Head of Household (HoH) competition. The winner of the HoH competition is immune from eviction and will select two HouseGuests to be nominated for eviction.

Each week, six HouseGuests are selected to compete in the Power of Veto (PoV) competition: the reigning HoH, the nominees are guaranteed to play with the remaining slots being given to other HouseGuests selected by random draw. The winner of the PoV competition wins the right to either revoke the nomination of one of the nominated HouseGuests or leave them as is. If the veto winner uses this power, the HoH must immediately nominate another HouseGuest for eviction. The PoV winner is also immune from being named as the replacement nominee.

On eviction night, all HouseGuests must vote to evict one of the nominees, with the exception of the nominees and the Head of Household. This compulsory vote is conducted in the privacy of the Diary Room. In the event of a tie, the HoH must break the tie publicly. The nominee with the most eviction votes will be evicted from the house on Wednesday.

Safety Ceremony

The Nomination Ceremony from the broadcast edition is replaced with the new Safety Ceremony. This ceremony takes place over two days with two separate ceremonies. During the ceremony, the HoH will be sequestered in the HoH room while the other HouseGuest will be downstairs with their "Block Pass". When instructed by Big Brother, the HoH will activate the "Block Pass" of a HouseGuest of their choosing. This will make the pass illuminate green and show that the HouseGuest is safe from nominations.

The first ceremony takes place on Saturday night with the HoH being instructed to save a predetermined number of HouseGuests. The second ceremony takes place on Sunday night with the HoH being instructed to save all but two of the remaining non-safe HouseGuest. The HouseGuests who do not have their "Block Pass" activated at the end of the second ceremony are the HoH's two nominees.

America's Vote

This edition will feature greater participation from the viewing public than the broadcast edition. Each week, the American public will be given several opportunities to affect the game:

America's Nominee: Each week, the viewers will vote on a third nominee who will be nominated with the HoH's nomination. No HouseGuest can be nominated by America in back to back weeks and, should America's Nominee be vetoed, there will be no replacement nominee, with only the HoH's two nominees facing the eviction vote.

America's Eviction Vote: Each week, the viewers will vote between the nominated HouseGuests for who should be evicted. This vote will count as one eviction vote and be tallied with the HouseGuest's eviction votes. As with all eviction votes, the result of America's Eviction Vote will not be revealed to the HouseGuests.

America's Care Package: Each week, the viewers will vote to give one HouseGuest per week a special power or "care package". This twist was first seen on Big Brother 18.

America's Have-Nots: Each week, the viewers will vote for three HouseGuests to be the Have-Nots of the week.

America's Winner: For the first time since Big Brother 1, the viewers will vote for the winner among the 3 finalists, meaning that there will be no jury of evicted HouseGuests.

HouseGuests

12 of the 13 HouseGuests were announced on September 26, 2016, including a pair of sisters, Alex and Morgan Willett. The final HouseGuest was chosen by a public vote between two HouseGuests from the broadcast version: Jason Roy from Big Brother 17 and Jozea Flores from Big Brother 18. During the season premiere, it was revealed that Jason won the vote.

America's Care Package

Each week, voters will choose which of the HouseGuests will receive a special power. As on Big Brother 18, all Care Packages were revealed to the public upon the commencement of the first vote. The HouseGuests were made aware of this twist, though the weekly rewards were left unspecified until the package was dropped in the backyard for public unboxing. Once a HouseGuest receives a Care Package, they are ineligible to receive another one until all other remaining HouseGuests have received one. During week 8 no voting for "The Final Four Challenge" Care Package took place as all houseguests remaining had received a carepackage except for Justin. Thus, the care package was awarded to him.

America's Have-Nots

The HouseGuests were chosen by public vote; the week's Head of Household was automatically exempted from the vote, as were the previous week's Have-Nots. During Week 6, no Have-Not voting took place as only three houseguests were eligible as Have-Nots. Shelby won Head of Household, Jason received the Co-HoH care package, and Justin, Kryssie, and Whitney were ineligible as the previous Have-Nots.

Voting history

In this edition, America will vote to nominate one HouseGuest each week in addition to the Head of Household's nominations. This nomination is shown in bold. If that nominee were to be saved by the Power of Veto, there would not be a replacement nomination. Viewers will also have a vote to evict one of the nominated HouseGuests each week, the nominee that receives the most votes from the viewers will gain one extra eviction vote in addition to the votes cast against them by their fellow HouseGuests.

Notes

^Note 1 : For winning the "Save-a-Friend" Care Package, Kryssie earned the power to grant immunity to another HouseGuest; she chose Jason.

^Note 2 : For winning the "Pick-a-Veto" Care Package, Scott was able to choose one of three special Vetoes for the week; he chose the Double Veto, therefore two Vetoes were awarded in that week's competition. Justin used his veto on Kryssie, and Alex decided to not use hers.

^Note 3 : As Head of Household, Scott was forced to break the tie between Shane and Danielle on Day 22.

^Note 4 : For winning the "Safety Servant" Care Package, Alex was awarded immunity for the week.

^Note 5 : For winning the "Eliminate Three Eviction Votes" Care Package, Shelby earned the power to block three HouseGuests from voting in that week's eviction; She chose Jason, Justin, and Kryssie.

^Note 6 : For winning the "Co-HoH" Care Package, Jason was named Co-Head of Household. As Co-Heads of Household, Shelby and Jason alternated awarding safety to the other HouseGuests at the Safety Ceremony until two remained; Shelby and Jason then claimed one of the two nominees as theirs, earning the right to name the replacement nominee if that nominee was removed. Jason's nominations are in italics.

^Note 7 : Day 43 was a double eviction night. Immediately following Alex's eviction, the remaining HouseGuests played a week's worth of game, including an HoH competition and Safety, Veto and Eviction ceremonies, over the course of several hours, culminating in a second eviction that night. America was not given a nomination or an eviction vote, nor was there a Veto Competition; instead, the Veto was awarded to the winner of the Care Package.

^Note 8 : For winning the "Double Eviction Veto" Care Package, Morgan won the Power of Veto during the double eviction; as this Care Package was awarded before the initial nominations, the veto also awarded Morgan immunity for the round.

^Note 9 : As Head of Household, Danielle was forced to break the tie on Day 43.

^Note 10 : From Week 8 onwards, there was no America's Nomination and America's Eviction Vote.

^Note 11 : As the only HouseGuest yet to receive a Care Package, Justin automatically earned the "Final Four Challenge" Care Package, earning the right to compete in a special challenge to earn immunity for the week; for completing the task, Justin became immune for the week.

^Note 12 : During Week 9, there was no Veto competition or eviction vote; instead the two nominees competed in a sudden death competition on Day 63, with the loser being evicted. Justin lost the competition to Morgan, evicting Justin.

^Note 13 : America voted for the winner of Big Brother: Over The Top.

References

Big Brother: Over the Top Wikipedia

(Text) CC BY-SA

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