Big Brother Brasil is the Brazilian version of the popular reality franchise Big Brother.
How it Works[]
Overview[]
Big Brother is a reality television show in which a group of people live together in a large house, isolated from the outside world but continuously watched by television cameras. Each series lasts for around three months, and there are usually 12-22 participants. The housemates try to win a cash prize by avoiding periodic evictions from the house.
Brazilian series[]
The Brazilian version of Big Brother follows elements from both the original Big Brother version and the North American version. The series combines public interaction gameplay seen on many international versions while adding most of American version's gameplay alongside it. Among the elements that the series shares with its American counterpart include the Líder (Head of Household), Paredão (Nomination Block) and Anjo (Power of Veto).
Prova do Líder[]
Prova do Líder (eng. Leader Competition) is the Brazilian version of the Head of Household. Every week, the housemates compete in the Prova do Lider wherein the winner of the challenge would be named as the Líder and would gain a power to select one housemate to become a nominee.
Just like the HoH, the Lider will be given various perks throughout the week. These perks include special access to the Lider's own private suite and receiving photos or gifts from home, as well as, starting with Big Brother Brazil 20, being allowed to choose which housemates they want to bring along to the VIP (Have). They may also get the chance to veto one or more housemates from participating in the next Prova do Líder. Also starting in BBB20, the Líder is rewarded with a party themed after them in the end of their tenure, named Festa do Líder (Leader's Party).
Prova do Anjo[]
Since Big Brother Brazil 3, a weekly immunity challenge called Prova do Anjo takes place in the house, wherein the winner, called "Anjo" (Angel) gains a power to bestow immunity to a fellow housemate and save them from nominations. The immunity bestowal happens right before the nominations. While the Anjo usually has to chose someone else to save besides themselves most of the time, it's common for some weeks to have an auto-immunity benefit, which is only revealed to them during the bestowal ceremony, either before or after they announce the housemate they intended to immunize. Big Brother Brazil 7 had a lottery after the bestowal ceremony that allowed one randomly chosen contestant to either veto or keep the immunity given by the Anjo, but this was discontinued in the season after, and exclusive to Big Brother Brazil 24, the Anjo was auto-immune and also had the power to immunize someone else, but this perk was also abandoned in the following season.
Along with the immunity perk, the Anjo is also gifted with the Almoço do Anjo (Angel's Lunch) perk, which allows them to invite two other housemates for a special meal in a private room inside the house, where the Anjo also receives video messages from home.
Monstro[]
Starting with Big Brother Brazil 8, the Anjo of the week must also choose either one or two housemates to be the week's Monstro (Monster). The Monstro, for the three day period between the Prova do Anjo and the nomination ceremony, has to perform a specific punishment, usually wearing some kind of costume and repeating tedious or otherwise uncomfortable tasks, such as being forced to stand in place for hours on end or having to dance whenever a music cue is played by the production. The Monstro also loses Estalecas, the house currency, and, following Have/Have-Nots changes in Big Brother Brazil 20 may also be moved from a Have to a Have-Not.
In some rare cases, the Monstro is associated with other house dynamics and may have different or additional punishments, such as being eligible for a special nomination by the Anjo or being sent into the The White Room. The public is warned a week beforehand about those such cases.
Nominations[]
For the Brazilian's nomination process, the Líder gains the responsibility to choose one nominee. However, alongside his choice, the rest of the house must select other nominees that would complete the Paredão (nomination block), usually one nominee, but sometimes two or more. On every nomination night, the housemates go to the Diary Room individually to cast their nomination vote, and the housemates with most voted housemate will joining Lider's nominee on facing the public vote. In case of a tie, the Líder chooses between the two most voted contestants. Sometimes, there's face-to-face nominations, in those cases, the voting order is chosen by lottery ballot instead of alphabetical order.
Early seasons almost always had two contestants facing the public vote, but a progressive shift happened and, nowadays, almost all but a few blocks occur between three contestants. The third nominee is usually chosen by twist, by being the second most voted contestant in the house nominations and through ranking last on a competition. There has been special twists such as where all of the house was sent to the chopping block or votes were to save instead of to nominate, and those are announced to the viewers a week beforehand.
Nominated contestants are allowed a 30-second speech to justify why they deserve to stay.
Prova Bate & Volta[]
Since Big Brother Brazil 20, the nominated players, besides the one chosen by the Líder, had the chance to compete in the Bate & Volta (Back-and-Forth) competition, a variation of the Second Chance Challenge where the winner was saved from the block.
Public Vote and Eviction[]
Each week, after the final nominees have been announced, voting lines open for the public to choose who they want to evict. The nominee with the highest percentage of votes is eliminated. During the first season, Big Brother Brazil 1, the public could vote via phone calls and SMS, and Big Brother Brazil 2 also added the option to vote online through TV Globo's official site, which is now known as GShow. There was no limit to the number of votes a viewer could cast, whether by phone, SMS, or online. At the premiere of Big Brother Brazil 18, it was announced that voting by phone and SMS would be discontinued, leaving online voting as the sole way to participate, and it has been the only method of voting since them. Over the course of the franchise, several changes were made to the online voting process:
- During Big Brother Brazil 16, a regional voting system was introduced after the fifth week. Internet votes were divided into five groups based on the voter’s region: Central-West, Southeast, South, North, and Northeast of Brazil. A sixth group was designated for SMS and phone call votes. Votes cast from outside Brazil were evenly distributed among the five regional groups. Each group counted as one point, awarded to the contestant who received the most votes within that group. The contestant with the most points across all six groups was evicted. In the event of a tie, the contestant with the highest total number of votes across all groups would be eliminated. This system saw only one instance of a non-unanimous result in the eleventh week, when Geralda Diniz received five points to Ronan Veiga’s one. The system was discontinued in the following season, with the show returning to the standard voting process.
- Starting with Big Brother Brazil 18, a GShow account became mandatory for casting votes. Before that, all voters needed to do was access the site and cast their vote. Creating an account is free and requires the voter to provide their name, email address, and date of birth. After signing in, viewers could still vote as many times as they wished. This change was implemented to better monitor voting behavior and reduce fraud and automated voting, and the account requirement remains in place to this day.
- Starting with Big Brother Brazil 24, the votes were split into two groups, namely "Voto da Torcida" (Fan Vote) and "Voto Único" (Single Vote). Fan Vote was functionally identical to the standard voting procedure from past seasons and was set in place to cater to organized fandoms that emerged, but Single Vote could only be cast once per person and required their Physical Persons Register's number (CPF) to be validated, aiming to amplify the influence of individual viewers. Both systems contribute a weighted average of 50% to the final result. While both groups aligned in outcomes during their debut season, they began to diverge in Big Brother Brazil 25, notably with the winner Renata Saldanha, who had a lower percentage of Single Votes] to win against Guilherme Vilar. This dual-voting system remains in place to this day.
While most votes on Big Brother Brazil are to evict a housemate, there have been a few notable instances of “vote to save” formats, most prominently during the early weeks of the twenty-fourth season. Additionally, fake eviction twists have served as special cases where voting benefits a player rather than eliminates them. These unique voting formats are typically announced to the public about a week in advance. The recurring Glass House twist also features audience participation, allowing viewers to decide which contestants should join the main cast, and several other minor twists and public interaction are defined by vote. The winner is also chosen by public vote.
Evictions in Big Brother Brazil typically generate significant vote totals, often reaching a minimum of ten million votes in modern seasons. Notably, the eviction in the tenth week of Big Brother Brazil 20, which saw Felipe Prior eliminated against Manu Gavassi and Mari Gonzalez, entered the Guinness World Records for the "Most public votes received by a television programme," totaling 1.5 billion votes.
Main Twists[]
Aside from the main gameplay of the series, other reoccurring twists have also appeared in the show, affecting certain aspects of the format such as the casting, gameplay, and social dynamics in the house.
- Since Big Brother Brazil 8, "Big Fone", or Big Phone, twist has appeared in most of the succeeding seasons and became a recurring element of the series. A special telephone is placed at the garden area of the house and will ring randomly throughout the season. The housemates must take the call, and the housemate who would take the call will receive a special message from Big Brother, either a punishment, a reward and/or a task. The message will take effect within the week only. Starting with Big Brother Brazil 12, there may or may not have two Big Fones in the house, with both playing at the same time but one being fake.
- Introduced in Big Brother Brazil 9, the "Casa de Vidro" (Glass House), originally known as "A Bolha" (The Bubble), is a twist where potential housemates are placed inside a glass structure, either in the outer area of the house or, in some editions, inside a mall. Passersby can interact with them, and the public votes to decide which one or two contestants will join the main house as official participants. Usually, there's four contestants, two males and two females, with one of each being allowed a spot. This twist was adapted in Big Brother Brazil 11 and Big Brother Brazil 22. In BB11, previously eliminated contestants were brought back for the public to vote on, while in BB22, there were only two potential housemates, and the vote determined whether or not they would be allowed to enter the game.
- Also introduced in BBB9 was the "Quatro Branco" (White Room), where three contestants chosen through Big Fone would be placed inside a claustrophobic all-white room where they would have to stay until one of them pressed the red button in the center of the room, walking from the game, or if the contestant that they joint nominated beforehand was evicted. It ended with Leonardo Jancu pressing the button and walking from the game. The popularity of this twist prompted it's return in the following season, albeit altered so that the chosen contestants would only have to stay until the end of the week, and the public could vote to give immunity to one of the punished contestants. Lastly, it returned in Big Brother Brazil 20, once again altered, with the contestants only staying for less than a week, and pressing the button would have the contestant automatically nominated instead of ejected, while reaching the end of the twist without nobody pressing it at all would mean all three of them would be nominated.
- Fake Evictions were first introduced Big Brother Brazil 11, a twist were the public may vote to benefit a contestant and send them to a special secret room where they're allowed to watch the other contestants before eventually returning the following week with immunity and, sometimes, other perks. Usually, fake evictions happen in seasons where a housemate has already been ejected or walked, serving to fill in the week gap where someone else should've been eliminated. A special case happened in Big Brother Brazil 25, where, due to the pairs twist, the public had to choose someone to be evicted and their partner would be fake evicted, in this case being Gracyanne Barbosa. This is the only instance where a fake eviction was a vote to evict rather than a vote to benefit.
Food Challenge and Estalecas[]
During the first four season, the housemates used to compete in food competitions to receive the week's groceries. However, starting with Big Brother Brazil 5, a special currency called estaleca (Z$), which could be earned in the weekly food challenges and could be used to buy the week's food, has been introduced in the house and has been in use in seasons onwards, with the winner of the challenge have the responsibility to control the house's shopping budget and choose which groceries the house should buy for the upcoming week. During all of it subsequent appearances, in some unforeseen cases, the value of the estaleca currency may inflate or deflate.
Starting with Big Brother Brazil 8, a Have and Have-Not system was introduced, with the Haves called "Luxo", which means "Luxury", and the Have-Nots called "Xepa", which is Brazilian slang for food left over in the streets markets. Every Food Challenge had the HoH or a luck draw divide the house in two groups to compete and the winner group, the one to amount the most estalecas in the challenge, would be the Luxo, while the loser one would be the Xepa. Both groups had different kitchens and dining rooms, and sometimes bedrooms too, and the Xepa had a smaller amount and variety of food available, which depended on the season but was usually rice, beans, a randomly choose protein and goiabada.
With Big Brother Brazil 19, the Food Challenge is now extinct and, exclusively for the season, a different system was in place: estalecas were discounted if the contestants broke minor house rules. Every contestant in the house was automatically a Have, called "Tá com Tudo", which means "Has it All", and only if the total amounts of estalecas in the house goes below a treshold or if the house went above the maximum amount of water's consumption limit that they would all be switched over to Have-Nots, called "Tá com Nada", which means "Has Nothing" and would have their food options' limited.
The system was them changed again Big Brother Brazil 20, the HoH is now tasked with choosing a set amount of people to be Haves, which are now renamed "VIP", while everyone else is automatically a Have-Not, which retains the name "Xepa" from the previous seasons. Estalecas are now gained by participating on competitions, the house dynamics and from doing daily confessional sessions and is lost from being punished by the PoI, from sporadic twists or from breaking minor house rules. Each side of the house is asked to contribute with a amount of estalecas of their choosing, and each groups get a total from the sum of each housemate's contribution, which is them used to buy food. VIP gets access to cheaper and higher quality food while Xepa has less choices which are more expensive and of lesser quality. The daily water consumption limit is still in place, however, and reaching the maximum limit will send the whole house to the Tá com Nada state for the rest of the week, and everyone will be limited to eating rice, beans and goiabada regardless if they were VIP or Xepa as a punishment.
This current dynamic has been unchanged and ongoing ever since it's debut.
Live Final[]
In the series, only the final three (final two in early seasons) will be eligible to continue in the finale night wherein the viewers have the power to elect the winner of the season via Vote to Win process. The housemate who gained the highest amount of public votes will be declared the winner and will be welcomed by a cheering crowd along with his/her runner-ups. After Big Brother Brazil 20, however, the cheering crowd was retired over concerns related to the Covid-19 pandemic and hasn't returned since.
Big Brother House[]
Main Article: Big Brother House/Brazil
Editions[]
Trivia[]
- Big Brother Brazil is the first non-English speaking franchise and the first franchise outside the North American region to adopt elements from the North American version of Big Brother. However, the franchise does not strictly follow the North American format, as the Brazilian series combines it with gameplay from the original Big Brother format, most notably the viewer voting aspect of the original format, which has been removed in the North American version since Big Brother 2 (US).
- Big Brother Brazil 20 was the first series to cast celebrity contestants.
- Big Brother Brazil is the third franchise to feature a season with a mixed set of cast.
- There have been 13 women and 12 men who have won Big Brother Brazil.
References[]
| Big Brother Franchises | ||
|---|---|---|
| Africa | Africa (Secret) · Angola · Cameroon · Liberia · Nigeria · South Africa | |
| Americas | Argentina · Brazil · Canada (Quebec) · Chile · Colombia · Ecuador · Mexico · Pacific · Panama · Peru · United States (Spanish) | |
| Asia-Pacific | Arab States · Australia · China · India · Indonesia · Israel · Mongolia · Pakistan · Philippines · Thailand · Vietnam · Turkey | |
| Europe | Albania · Balkans · Belgium · Bulgaria · Croatia · Czechia · Denmark · Finland · France (Loft) · Germany · Greece · Hungary (Való Világ) · Italy · Kosovo · Lithuania · Malta · Netherlands · Norway · Poland · Portugal (Secret) · Romania · Russia · Scandinavia · Slovakia · Slovenia · Spain (Secret)· Sweden · Switzerland · Ukraine · United Kingdom | |
| Virtual | Second Life | |