Global scale of Big Brother

The idea of Big brother was developed by John de Mol,
the first ever Big Brother started in the Netherlands in 1999.
It was a basic concept which was introduced to 22 other countries such as Belgium, Brazil, Thailand, Germany, Switzerland and many more, including the United Kingdom, of course.

The Big Brother house's rules varies depending on the country, for example in the Belgium's big brother house, it started of with eleven men and one women who had to nominate 3 men, which was then passed on to the viewing public and the person with the most votes was evicted. However, in the United States, the viewers are not able to control the voting. Many of other big brothers around the world are almost mainly uncensored; however CBS would not allow that.

Big Brothers rules also changed with different religions in the different country's, such as Thailand once had an actual elephant inside the big brother house for the housemates to feed, wash and maintain. In the early days of big brother in the UK, the house also had animals such as pigs and chickens to look after.

Occasionally, there is a twist added in by swapping a contestant out with another contestant to Big Brother in a different country. Most Big Brother series last for about 1-3 months, depending on the television schedules in different countries.

Even though there are many countries that participate, they are nearly all called “Big Brother” in one language or another; however the French versions from Canada and France are called Loft Story. Both of these versions feature a winning couple, instead of the normal single winner.