Big Brother Brasil^{[lower-alpha 1]} is the Brazilian version of the Big Brother reality franchised television show based on the original Dutch television series of the same name, that was created in 1997 by John de Mol.^[1] It is the second one with more finished seasons (only after the American version) and the only one with more than 20 years of uninterrupted annual transmission in the same channel.

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Quick Facts Big Brother Brasil, Also known as ...

Big Brother Brasil
Also known as	BBB
Genre	Reality competition
Based on	Big Brother by John de Mol
Directed by	Rodrigo Dourado (general) Pedro Carvana Mario Meirelles Mila Abrahão Mario Marcondes Vitor Campos Fábio Brandão Grasielle Bitencourt Ana Paula Morais Patricia Félix Warllem Machado Vanessa Rabello
Creative director	Boninho
Presented by	Marisa Orth (2002) Pedro Bial (2002–16) Tiago Leifert (2017–21) Tadeu Schmidt (2022–)
Opening theme	"Vida Real" by RPM
Country of origin	Brazil
Original language	Portuguese
No. of seasons	24
No. of episodes	2006
Production
Production locations	Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro
Running time	25–60 minutes
Production companies	Endemol Globo (2002–17) Endemol Shine Group (2017–20) Banijay (2020–present)
Original release
Network	TV Globo
Release	29 January 2002 (2002-01-29) – present
Related
Big Brother Canada Big Brother (British TV series) Big Brother (American TV series) Big Brother franchise

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The show is based on a group of strangers, known as housemates, living together twenty-four hours a day in the "Big Brother" house, isolated from the outside world (primarily from mass media, such as newspapers, telephones, television and the internet) while having all their steps followed by cameras around-the-clock, with no privacy for three months.

The housemates compete for the chance to win the grand prize by avoiding weekly eviction, until the last housemate remains at the end of the season that can claim the grand prize. The show's current host is journalist Tadeu Schmidt.

TV Globo's website and a Globo-owned pay-per-view channel offer round-the-clock coverage. Sabrina Sato (season 3) used to be one of the hosts of Panico na TV and now hosts her own TV program, Juliana Alves (season 3) and Grazi Massafera (season 5) are soap opera actresses at TV Globo, Íris Stefanelli and Flávia Vianna (season 7) were reporters for many years in a show called TV Fama. The five can be considered the most successful contestants of the show, although none of them have won the show. The only three winners who enjoyed success after the show are Jean Wyllys, who had been following a political career as a federal deputy since winning the fifth season until leaving Brazil in 2019. Thelma Assis , who became a TV presenter for the station, in addition to having contracts with several brands. And Juliette Freire who became an internet phenomenon by reaching 24 million Instagram followers during the show's 21st season. After the show, she devoted herself to building a successful music career.

The twentieth season of the show had the biggest participation in the world of votings in an eviction, reaching over 1.5 billion votes. The previous record, also achieved by Big Brother Brasil in the same season, was 416 million votes. Advertising quotas reached R$78 million, with a total collection of R$530 million.

The Big Brother Brasil house is located inside Estúdios Globo, the Globo's production center in Rio de Janeiro. The house is considered by most Big Brother specialists as the biggest and most extravagant house of all Big Brothers.

The external area of the house is approximately 700 square meters (m²) while the internal areas is about 200 m². The house has three bedrooms (two for the regular contestants and one for week's Head of Household), a living room, two bathrooms (one inside a bedroom), a big garden, two kitchens (one for the Haves and another for the Have-nots), a gym, a Jacuzzi, a pool, a laundry room, a Diary Room and a separate area, called "another dimension", which was once the white bedroom (ninth and tenth seasons) and the surprise bedroom (eleventh season).

Usually Big Brother contestants are already forgotten by the time of the next season, but there are a few exceptions of contestants who became national stars. Juliana Alves, Sabrina Sato, Grazi Massafera, Íris Stefanelli and Juliette Freire are probably the biggest celebrities coming out of the reality show.

Sabrina Sato became a personality on the country after appearing in the third season. She posed naked twice for Playboy magazine and is one of the hosts of Pânico na TV, a very popular TV show among teenagers and Rede TV!'s most-watched show. She now has one of Record Network's biggest contracts and is also the spokesperson for several companies.

After her participation in the fifth season, where she was billed as extremely charismatic and nice, Grazielli Massafera also became a huge celebrity appearing in over 130 magazine covers, posing naked for Playboy magazine, starring in over 13 commercials and winning an important role on TV Globo's 9 o'clock soap opera Páginas da Vida, where she received bad critics. Grazi is now a public and critically acclaimed actress and one of the most popular celebrities in the country and married Cauã Raymond, one of Brazil's most popular and eligible young actors. In 2016, she was nominated for the International Emmy Award for Best Actress.

Íris Stefanelli attracted huge attention during her time in the house and achieved extreme popularity, thanks to her charisma. She became a personality in the country after appearing in the seventh season, She received a big paycheck to pose naked for Playboy. Globo decided not to take into consideration "Siri" (as she was nicknamed in the house) huge popularity and decided not to give her a long-term contract. She was contracted by small RedeTV! to co-host celebrities show TV Fama. Her lucrative deal was highlighted by the media. Íris is still a host on the show after the huge buzz that ensued her participation on the house.

Another contestant Jean Wyllys started his career in politics after participating in the program and was elected federal deputy in 2010, 2014 and 2018. Thelma Assis became a tv presenter and model. Juliette Freire became a singer, scoring her first EP on pre-saves on Spotify on Brazil .

Big Brother Brasil 3 began on January 14, 2003, and was controversial. One of the contestants was the current Miss Brazil, Joseane Oliveira. Rules of the Miss Brazil contest forbid participation of married women but Joseane stated she was single. As a consequence of the exposure during the reality show, some magazines discovered she was married even before winning the beauty contest.

Once the marriage was proven, Joseane was stripped of her crown, and Thaisa Tomsem was crowned Miss Brazil 2002. Also, contestant Dilson Walkarez was not aware of Joseane relationship's status and tried to start a romantic relationship with her during the show. Due to her refusals, he felt unmotivated and left the show voluntarily. Housemate Harry Grossman replaced him at February 26 and became the first housemate not to enter the show on its first day.

During Big Brother Brasil 8, the contestant Juliana Goes fainted during an endurance task where the contestants had to remain perfectly still inside a glass chamber. Newspapers and websites accused the show of being inhumane. However, the show was unaffected by the negative press.

In Big Brother Brasil 10, Marcelo Dourado, a returning contestant from BBB4, was accused of being homophobic but that was ignored and he eventually won his second season.

But the biggest scandal of the show happened on Big Brother Brasil 12 when contestant Daniel Echaniz was accused of raping one of the contestants. He was expelled during the first week and denied the accusations, which were eventually dropped.

In Big Brother Brasil 19, only a few days after the beginning of the show, contestant Vanderson Brito faced rape accusations published online by his former girlfriend. He was expelled after police subpoenaed him for an interview, violating the house rule of having no contact with the outside world.^[9] Contestant Hariany Almeida was also expelled, after a party night where she was drunk lead to her pushing another contestant, violating the house rule of no violence.^[10] The show also faced considerable criticism as the house divided into two groups, separated by class and race, which lead to considerable racist comments and even police investigations regarding religious intolerance.^[11]

In Big Brother Brasil 21, the contestant Karol Conká behavior and actions towards other housemates garnered a very negative reception from the viewers and public personalities. This included Karol's encouragement of outcasting certain housemates, aggressive comments that sparked discussions regarding psychological abuse and prejudiced comments that ranged from gaslighting, xenophobia, religious intolerance and sexual harassment, resulting in her cancellation with loss of followers on social networks and being evicted with the highest rejection of all the seasons, with 99.17% of the votes.^[12][13]

In 2011, Brazilian sociologist Silvia Viana Rodrigues wrote a thesis at University of São Paulo analyzing reality shows as spectacles that proliferate rituals of suffering.^[14] She analyzes such rituals in various cultural products from Hollywood and Brazilian television, with special attention to Big Brother Brasil. When investigating the openly eliminatory and cruel face of the game,^[15] Silvia Viana points out that such characteristics are liable to be entertainment with great and crucial public engagement because such processes of elimination, competition, exclusion, the affirmation of the war of all against all, of self-management and personal self-control through socio-emotional skills, entrepreneurship, the banality of evil, the naturalization of torture, the "battle for survival" logic and the incorporation of Nazi language and elements are already part of contemporary social life, especially in the context of work under neoliberalism.^[16][17] The thesis was later published as a book.