Big Brother 12

Big Brother 12 is the twelfth season of the American reality television series Big Brother. The season premiered on Thursday, July 8, 2010 and will be broadcast on CBS and Showtime 2 for 75 days, concluding on September 16, 2010 where the winner will be determined. The format of the program will remain largely unchanged from previous seasons; a group of contestants, referred to as HouseGuests, are enclosed in the Big Brother House under the surveillance of cameras and microphones. Each week the HouseGuests will vote to evict one of their own until two HouseGuests remain on finale night. The highlight programs are announced by Clayton A.S. Halsey. Julie Chen fronted the season premiere, evictions and the season finale.

The program includes thirteen participants while their fate in the House is decided by their peers. Originally fourteen participants were due to enter but one voluntary left during the pre-season sequester period and wasn't replaced. The HouseGuests are competing to win a $500,000 prize with a $50,000 prize offered to the runner up. One of the HouseGuests is known as the Big Brother Saboteur whose goal is to disrupt life in the House and cause as much havoc as possible. The Big Brother Saboteur will not compete for the grand prize but must complete five weeks of sabotage without being evicted. If successful, the Big Brother Saboteur will win $50,000 at the end of the first five weeks.

Production

Big Brother 12 will be produced by Endemol USA and Fly on the Wall Entertainment with Allison Grodner and Rich Meehan returning as executive producers. This season of the program was announced on September 10, 2009, five days before the season finale of Big Brother 11. Casting for the program began during the final week of Big Brother 11 with potential applicants submitting video tape submissions that were due by April 23, 2010. Open auditions began on March 27, 2010 in Los Angeles, California and continued across the nation in various cities including Chicago, Illinois, Washington, D.C., Las Vegas, Nevada, and Columbus, Ohio. Applicants chosen to be a finalist went to Los Angeles, California from which applicants were narrowed down to a pool of forty finalists. CBS warned people of unofficial casting companies charging a fee to audition for the show while casting ended on May 20, 2010.

Broadcasts and platforms

The main television coverage of Big Brother will be screened in three weekly highlight programs that will be transmitted on Sundays at 8 p.m. (ET/PT), Wednesdays at 8 p.m. (ET/PT), and Thursdays at 8 p.m (live ET/delayed PT) on CBS in the United States and Global Television Network in Canada. The episodes summarize the events of the previous two to three days in the House. Along side these shows is a spin-off show, Big Brother: After Dark on Showtime 2, which will air three hours live directly from the House.

Big Brother will maintain an online platform with live subscription feeds from RealNetworks, a redesigned and relaunched website, online videos, full episodes, a fantasy game, a mobile game based on Big Brother and two Twitter accounts; one featured updates from the production staff and one featured updates from the current Head of Household. The website will contain more videos, photos, content which will include summaries of events in the House, descriptions of weekly challenges and a voting history page. Episodes of Big Brother will continue to be streamed on CBS Mobile Channel on FLOTV. Mobile users were also able to interact and influence the show through SMS text messaging and a simulation game based on Big Brother will also available to mobile customers. New features include a video trivia game and the Big Brother Ultimate Fan contest where the winner will be able to attend the season finale and the chance to meet the HouseGuests.

Format

The format remained largely unchanged from previous seasons. HouseGuests were incarcerated in the Big Brother House with no contact to and from the outside world. Each week, the HouseGuests took part in several compulsory challenges that determined who would win food, luxuries and power in the House. The winner of the Head of Household competition was immune from nominations and was instructed to nominate two fellow HouseGuests for eviction. After a HouseGuest became Head of Household he or she was ineligible to take part in the next Head of Household competition.  HouseGuests also took part in Have vs. Have-Not competitions were they would be divided into either the "Haves" or the "Have Nots" depending on their performance in the competitions. HouseGuests that became "Have Nots" for the week were only allowed to eat slop and a weekly food restriction, chosen by the viewing public, cold showers and sleeping on uncomfortable beds. The winner of the Power of Veto competition won the right to save one of the nominated HouseGuests from eviction. If the Veto winner exercised the power, the Head of Household then had to nominate another HouseGuest for eviction.

On eviction night all HouseGuests except for the Head of Household and the two nominees voted to evict one of the two nominees. Before the voting began the nominees had the chance to say a final message to their fellow HouseGuests. This compulsory vote was conducted in the privacy of the Diary Room by the host Julie Chen. In the event of a tie, the Head of Household would break the tie and reveal their vote in front of the other HouseGuests. Unlike other versions of Big Brother, the HouseGuests could discuss the nomination and eviction process open and freely. The nominee with the most votes from the other HouseGuests was evicted from the House on Thursday and interviewed by Julie Chen. HouseGuests could voluntarily leave the House at any time and those who broke the rules were expelled by Big Brother. The last seven evictiees of the season form the Jury that voted for the winner on the season finale, they were known as the jury members. The jury members were sequestered in a separate house and was not allowed to watch the show except for segments that included all of the HouseGuests. The jury members were not shown any Diary Room interviews or any footage that included strategy or details regarding nominations.

Fourteen HouseGuests had been cast for this season, but one, Paolo Aviles, a 30-year-old real estate agent, voluntary left during the sequester period and was not replaced. The HouseGuests entered the House on July 3, 2010.

*Contestant's age at the start of the season.

Summary

During the first night the HouseGuests were informed of the Big Brother Saboteur. The Saboteur's goal is not to win the grand prize but to cause as much havoc and disrupt the lives of the HouseGuests as much as possible for five weeks. If the Saboteur avoids eviction for the first five weeks he or she will win $50,000 but if the Saboteur is evicted prior before the five weeks are over he or she would win nothing. The Saboteur can sabotage an individual, a group or all of the HouseGuests and is eligible to win Head of Household and the Power of Veto. A message from the Saboteur, with the voice distorted and the identity of the Saboteur blacked out, was then played on the plasma screen in the living room prior to the first Head of Household competition. The HouseGuests divided into two teams of six with Andrew volunteering to sit out of the competition becoming the mascot. Because the mascot was ineligible to become the first Head of Household, Andrew was given immunity from the first eviction. In the backyard was a giant grill with two over sized hot dogs hanging in the air. Each team used a series of pulleys to transfer a teammate from one side of the grill to the other on their respective team's hot dog. The first member of the winning team to make it on the other side would win $10,000, with the second receiving $1,000. Successive team members across the grill won less cash, but the final winning team member across became the first Head of Household.

During the competition, Britney fell off of the red team's hot dog injuring her knee. Kathy, from the yellow team, attended to Britney until the House medic arrived to examine the injury. While the injury was not serious the medic advised she should not continue in the competition. In the interest of fairness, the yellow team had to chose a red team member who had already crossed once to go again in place of Britney. [They chose Kristen and the red team managed to quickly get their team across. Hayden was last from the red team to cross becoming the first Head of Household with Monet winning $10,000. After the competition Big Brother turned off all the lights in the House while the Saboteur placed a padlock on the storage room door. When the lights came back on another message from the Saboteur was played informing the HouseGuests that all the food and supplies were locked in the storage room but slop was in the kitchen to eat. Brendon and Rachel were nominated for eviction by Hayden.

The immediately following Friday saw the season's first Power of Veto competition. In a contest titled "Cinco de Mayo", Rachel, Hayden, Brendon, Enzo, Monet, and Andrew had 10 minutes to retrieve letters from mayonnaise-filled piñatas scattered about the yard. The HouseGuest spelling the longest, correctly-spelled, valid word would win the competition. Andrew finished last with the incorrectly spelled word "PASTUERIZED" (sic), topped by Enzo with "FACTORY" (7), Monet with "CHEATERS" (8), Hayden with "POSSIBLE" (8), Rachel with "CHEMISTRY" (9), and Brendon with "UNDERSTANDING" (13).  Brendon therefore won the Power of Veto, which he used on himself. Forced to name a replacement nominee, Hayden chose to put up Annie in Brendon's place. Annie was evicted 10-0 on day 13 and revealed as the saboteur.

In Week 2, Rachel won the Head of Household competition "Majority Rules". Via video, Annie revealed to the HouseGuests that she had been the saboteur. At the nominations ceremony, Rachel nominated Britney and Monet for eviction, but Britney later won the Power of Veto in the "Big Brother Stockades" challenge and used it on herself. A punishment (not mentioned on the show) saw contestants from the veto competition in the stockades for a period of time. Rachel choose to replace Britney with Matt, and on Day 20, Monet was evicted by a vote of 7-2, with only Britney and Kathy voting to evict Matt.

In Week 3, Matt won the endurance Head of Household competition "Hang Ten" in slightly over 2 hours. He later nominated Andrew and Kathy for eviction. Brendon won the veto and the nominations didn't change. On day 27, Andrew was evicted by a vote of 8-0. Julie revealed that pandora's box will return and a player will have the opportunity to become the new saboteur; if they accept the position and complete 2 weeks of work they will receive $20,000.

In week 4, Rachel won her second HoH in a buzzer-based quiz competition, "BB Knockouts", and nominated both Kristen and Hayden for eviction. This week featured a luxury competition instead of Have/Have-Not competition in order to win an advance screening of the movie The Other Guys staring Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg. In a pinball-themed Power of Veto competition, "The Wizards of Pinball", Britney snagged the Golden Power of Veto. The competition also saw Enzo win a flat-screen, 3D Television, Rachel win $5,000, Ragan win a pass ensuring his place in next week's Veto competition, Kristen win a "hippie-tard" (a tie-dyed unitard), and Hayden a day in solitary confinement. Britney chose to keep the nominations the same. It was revealed to viewers that Kristen had a boyfriend before entering the house. On Day 34, Kristen was evicted in her "hippie-tard" by a vote of 6-1 with the only vote to save her coming from Kathy.

In week 5, Matt endured the Head Of Household competition "True Colors" and Kathy, who was the first contestant out, became the only Have-not for the week. Matt won an opportunity to open Pandora's Box, which he did, and like last season, it induced benevolent and malicious consequences. Matt won the Diamond Power of Veto, which allows the holder to remove any nominee from the block and replace him/her with a new nominee, valid for the next two evictions. However, this resulted in the houseguest chosen by the voting public, Ragan, getting an offer to become the new Saboteur, which he accepted with some hesitation. Matt later nominated Brendon and Rachel for eviction. Jeff and Jordan of Big Brother 11 and The Amazing Race 16 hosted the bowling Power of Veto competition, "Lovers' Lane", which Britney won and didn't use. On Day 41, Rachel was evicted by a vote of 6-0, but Julie Chen informed her, outside the House, that Rachel might not have seen the last of the House, yet. Rachel became the first BB juror.

In week 6, Brendon captured his first Head of Household of the season, after winning the "Oh What a Tangled Web" HoH competition (untangling a tether rope wrapped around rungs spaced above a trough of muddy water); he chose Britney, Matt, and Ragan to be have-nots for the week. Brendon nominated Lane and Ragan for eviction. On Day 43, because Brendon, who was the current HoH, opened Pandora's Box, he left the house for 24 hours and was replaced by Rachel, the last person evicted. Ragan won the Power of Veto and used it to take himself off the block. Brendon put Matt on the block to replace Ragan. On Day 48, during the live eviction, Matt used his Diamond Power of Veto to take himself off the block, and named Kathy as his replacement to go up on the block next to Lane. Kathy was evicted by a vote of 5-0 and became the second BB juror.

In week 7, Britney won her first Head of Household after winning the competition entitled "Big Brother Says", a true or false game where Julie repeated several quotes from a game played by Big Brother earlier in the week that was similar to Simon Says, and houseguests had to correctly identify whether Big Brother had actually said the quote. After the Have/Have-Not competition,(where each team had to guess which of the members of the opposing team got a bad-tasting drink) Brendon, Enzo and Hayden became the have-nots for the week, and Britney nominated Brendon and Enzo for eviction. On Day 50, Britney was tempted by Pandora's Box and she decided to open it. She had to take one hour's worth of workout lessons with Jessie from seasons 10 and 11, while the rest of the house had a Hawaiian luau-style party. Brendon won the POV in the "Big Brother Zoo", where contestants started with 50 points and accepted prizes or punishments by giving or taking points, respectively, aiming to have the most points overall. Britney later replaced Brendon with Matt. A "double eviction" was set to take place on Day 55, where an HOH competition, nomination ceremony, POV competition, and second eviction will all take place in quick succession following the normal eviction. One hour and 30 minutes later, the houseguests play another HOH competition. Hayden won the HOH competition "Special Delviery" nominated Brendon and Ragan, Ragan won the veto competition "Before or After", therefore Britney was the replacement nomination. Brendon was evicted by a vote of 3-0.

In week 8, Lane won his first Head of Household (and his first competition in the game so far, leaving Enzo as the only remaining houseguest at that point to have not won a HoH or Veto competition) in "Big Brother Blackjack" (rolling up to 5 balls onto a grid of cards trying to match 2 cards totaling 21). On Day 56, Lane was given the option to open Pandora's Box and chose to open it. He won $91.17 from the "money tree", followed by unleashing 3 punishments on the entire house (in order, not having any silverware or utensils for 1 week, having to use sock puppets to speak, and having to dance whenever music was played). Lane nominated Enzo and Ragan for eviction. The Power of Veto competition featured "Otev the Broadway Clam" (voiced by the announcer), who sang a song about two houseguests and the contestants searched the yard for the CD with a portmanteau of the houseguests' names for the title (a song about Rachel and Kristen had the title "Rasten", for example). Enzo won the Power of Veto, his first victory of the season, used it on himself, and Lane put Hayden up as his replacement. Ragan was evicted by a vote of 2-0.

In week 9, Hayden won the Head of Household competition "Big Brother Christmas", by decorating a Christmas Tree by maneuvering ornaments into cups opposite a fence screen from the houseguests, followed by moving a star up to the tree's top. Shortly after, the final 4 houseguests played a hide-and-seek based luxury competition, where each houseguest was given 90 seconds to hide a coin with their name on it somewhere in the house. Britney won the competition, as well as $10,000. Hayden decided to nominate Britney and Lane for eviction. Hayden then won the Power of Veto in the competition "Big Brother Marque", giving Enzo the single vote in that week's eviction. Hayden, Enzo, and Lane decided to tell Britney about The Brigade out of respect, and Enzo later evicted Britney. The final Head of Household competition began with Part 1, "Rumble In The Big Brother Jungle". Hayden won this part of the competition, and automatically advanced to Part 3 while Lane won the second part of the competition "It's Alive" and also advanced to part 3. Julie Chen revealed on one of her EW blogs that Zingbot 3000 will be making another appearance this season on the final episode.

On day 75, Hayden and Lane competed in the final part of the Head of Household competition. The players had to guess the ending of statements made by the jury members. There were two possible answers and the players had to guess the correct ending by picking A or B. After the six jury statements the score was tied 4-4 and each player had to answer the tiebreaker question, "In part one of the final HoH competition, how many times were they slammed against the walls?" The correct answer was 250, and Hayden won the final Head of Household competition by answering 91. Hayden chose to evict Enzo from the House. Shortly after, the jury members voted for the winner after asking a series of questions. Lane was named the runner-up with three votes from his fellow Housemates. Britney won the public vote for "America's Favorite HouseGuest" and won $25,000. Hayden won the season after receiving four votes from his fellow Housemates.

Forums

Fan groups on Yahoo for each contestant are available by clicking the links below:

Andrew Gordon, Annie Whittington, Brendon Villegas, Britney Haynes, Enzo Palumbo, Hayden Moss, Kathy Hillis, Kristen Bitting, Lane Elenburg, Matt Hoffman, Monet Stunson, Rachel Reilly, Ragan Fox