Big Brother 11 (American season)

[1] Casting for the program began during the final week of Big Brother 10 with potential applicants submitting video tape submissions.

Open auditions began on April 1, 2009, in Michigan by local CBS affiliate WLNS-TV and continued across the nation in various cities including Los Angeles, California, Chicago, Illinois, Waverly, Iowa, and Columbus, Ohio.

[5] Julie Chen confirmed that she would continue to host Big Brother during her pregnancy despite tabloid rumors stating she would take maternity leave.

As the title implies, beginning this season, any HouseGuests, including the winner, is eligible for the $25,000 prize where the viewer's vote were the sole determinant of the award.

[10] The Thursday episode, which aired at 9 pm Eastern Time, featured the live eviction and subsequent Head of Household competition taking place.

The Sunday episode, which aired at 8 pm Eastern Time, featured the food competition and nomination ceremony, as well as some highlights from the previous days.

[11][12] For the first time in the history of the show, Big Brother had a two-hour live season finale, which aired on September 15, an increase from the usual hour.

This season did, however, see the return of the Big Brother: After Dark spin-off series, which aired on Showtime Too nightly from midnight to 3 a.m. Eastern Time.

[26] The spa that was featured in the House since season nine was removed and replaced with exercise bikes that when operated would power a light bulb.

The jury members were sequestered in a separate house and were 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.

[37] Jordan Lloyd and Jeff Schroeder competed on The Amazing Race 16, then returned for Big Brother 12 the following year to participate in a Power of Veto competition.

[49] The last HouseGuest remaining in the air would earn a fourth member for their clique, with this person becoming the first Head of Household of the season.

If done correctly, the pipes would cause the juice to spill onto a wheel and make it spin; the last team to complete the task would be the Have-Nots for the week.

[63][64] Worried they might not have the votes to keep Chima, Jessie and Russell formed an alliance with Laura in an attempt to get her to evict Lydia.

[48] Season 10 winner Dan Gheesling returned to host the competition, in which the HouseGuests answered questions based on what a member of the opposite sex felt.

[136] The team of Chima, Jordan, Jessie, Natalie, and Russell won the competition, meaning Jeff, Kevin, Lydia, and Michele were the Have-Nots for the week.

[155] Though the house was split, the HouseGuests were unsure of which side Michele would stay with; she later aligned herself with Jeff, Jordan, and Russell and stated that she hoped to see Chima evicted.

[230][231][232][233] Color key: The season premiere of Big Brother 11, which aired on CBS on July 9, attracted 6.68 million viewers, with a 2.3 rating in adults 18–49.

The launch of Big Brother 2009 aired on Channel 4 in the United Kingdom premiered on June 4 attracted 4.8 million viewers, with a 22% viewing share.

Ratings continued to decline with the first official eviction of the series, that aired on June 12 only pulling in 2.9 million people, 13% of the viewing audience.

[295] In an article by The Hollywood Reporter, an American trade publication, noted the tenth series of the British version was averaging 2 million viewers and a 10.1% audience share.

[296] Other comparisons noted were that the finale of ninth season of Italy's Grande Fratello pulled 7.9 million viewers with a 36% audience share and how in Argentina the show has been rested for a few years and returns with stronger ratings.

"[29] Various points mentioned that contributed to the increase in ratings was the number of episodes per week, format differences, lack of live feeds from the House in Britain.

[29] In another article on the same site noted the American version experienced a "ratings renaissance" in a market "which the format has not traditionally done well.

"[298] After the provisional cancellation of Big Brother in the United Kingdom, American trade publications like USA Today began reporting on the cancellation while others like Variety were also reporting various pickups around the world including the twelfth season of the American version, Big Brother 10 in Germany, Grande Fratello 10 in Italy and HaAh HaGadol 2 in Israel.

During the live portion of the show, Chima brought up the comments made by Braden again during her final plea speech to her fellow HouseGuests.

Chima also stated Braden used a sexually insulting word to describe Big Brother host Julie Chen.

This comment was made at the conclusion of a "Julie Says" game played by the HouseGuests a couple nights earlier as viewed on Big Brother After Dark.

If it manages to cast a hard-charging racist whose work only appears online, it can seize all the attention of a scandal while claiming that it's tastefully trying to protect viewers from anything 'offensive.