Bigg Boss is a television reality show broadcast on Colors channel in India. It follows the Big Brother format, which was first developed by Endemol in the Netherlands. Within a span of 11 years of telecast, Bigg Boss has rolled out 10 Seasons and one spin-off version thus establishing itself as one of the most popular Reality TV Series in India.
Bigg Boss is a reality show based on the original Dutch Big Brother format developed by John de Mol. A number of contestants (known as "housemates") live in a purpose-built house and are isolated from the rest of the world. Each week, housemates nominate two of their peers for eviction, and the housemates who receives the most nominations would face a public vote. Of these, one would eventually leave, having been "evicted" from the House. However, there were exceptions to this process as dictated by Bigg Boss. In the final week, there were three housemates remaining, and the public voted for who they wanted to win. The housemates in the Indian version are primarily celebrities with the exception of one who is a non-celebrity selected via auditions. Housemates are overseen by a mysterious person known as 'Bigg Boss', whose only presence in the house is through his voice.
A Bigg Boss House is built for every season. The house was earlier located in the tourist place of Lonavla, Pune district of Maharashtra, however the house for the fifth season was located ND Studios in Karjat. The house is well-furnished and decorated. It has all kinds of modern amenities, but just one or two bedrooms and four toilet bath rooms. There is a garden, pool, activity area and gym in the House. There is also a Confession Room, where the housemates may be called in by Bigg Boss for any kind of conversation, and for the nomination process.
The House has no TV connection, no telephones, no Internet connection, clocks, pen or paper.
While all the rules have never been told to the audience, the most prominent ones are clearly seen. The inmates are not permitted to talk in any other language than Hindi. They are not supposed to tamper with any of the electronic equipment or any other thing in the House. They cannot leave the House premises at any time except when permitted to. They cannot discuss the nomination process with anyone. They cannot sleep in day time.
Sometimes, the housemates may be nominated for other reasons, such as nomination by a person who has achieved special privileges (via tasks or other things), for breaking rules or something else. If something is very serious, a contestant may be evicted directly.
The main television coverage takes the form of a daily highlights programme and the weekly eviction show on Fridays that are aired on Colors TV, while the first season was aired on Sony TV. Everyday's episodes contain the main happenings of the previous day. Every Saturday episode mainly focuses on an interview of the evicted contestant by the host. The episode on Sunday, named differently across seasons, contains extra footage of the week, which was not included in any episode.
Highest viewing figures.
Lowest viewing figures.
Soon after the entry of Kashif Qureshi, a common man chosen via auditions held across India, as an inmate of the house the whole exercise of selecting an unknown person to be part of Bigg Boss seemed to have come into question and has been reportedly a planned one. After Kashif was selected from the three short-listed hopefuls to enter the house the media scrutinized every detail that linked to Kashif's background. Unexpectedly Qureshi was found to personally know Salman Khan since he was shooting Wanted.
The introduction of special panel members on occasional eviction episodes came under controversy during the season. The production team was mainly accused for violating the concept of the original Big Brother franchise and allowing interference from external agents into the house environment. The second week saw appearances from Andy and Kamya who were seen forcing their opinions on the housemates by calling it a guide to their stay. However Kamya, on a relative off-note, went on to malign targeted housemates' stance and reputation by wording her take as the 'viewer's point of view'. Subsequent to the episode's airing critics termed her conduct as 'adding script to a rather spontaneous programme'. A similar incident took place in the fourth week where Sargun Mehta's argument with Minissha received much backlash from viewers. Despite demands and complaints from viewers, the broadcaster declined the opportunity to explain the addition. Furthermore, Salman Khan was also criticized for siding with Sonali Raut without a hint of care for housemates' or viewers' opinion and judgement citing the live feed as enough proof for evaluation. However viewers expressed disapprobation since the live feed being released on the channel's website was only broadcasting previously recorded content.
This series was marked by a number of downfalls for the Big Brother franchise in India. The continuation of the regular celebrity season into an All-Stars version garnered initial media and viewer attention but the ratings for the show decreased to an all-time low with the final only managing to score a TRP of 2.82. The official tabulators for the show being Ernst & Young allegedly had formed the final result based on a number of votes which was not only less than the previous seasons but also the evictions for the same series. An additional statement released by the firm revealed that the percentage separating the final two contenders was lower than one whole unit indicating figurative comparison to a photo finish.
The voting rules for the final week were changed abruptly following Rohan Mehra's eviction. The previous rule which allowed multiple votes, capped at 99, per IP and phone number were brought down to 1. This created uproar from the viewers who were not officially or appropriately informed of the tweak. The voters were not refunded money for any additional votes they had made since 1 vote submission from online and offline sources was recorded and the rest were discarded. Viacom 18 received 570 complaints during the night of the final when Manu Punjabi was shown to have quit the competition before the results were announced. Realizing that the final was pre-recorded with the outcome known to the producers before the episode aired the viewers were appalled that voting lines for Manu were kept open throughout. The complaints increased overnight to a record 1140 after the final had finished airing.
Celebrity guests to appear on the series include:
