The show followed twenty-three contestants, known as housemates, who were isolated from the outside world for an extended period of time in a custom built House.

The series launched on Channel 4 on 30 May 2007 and ended on 31 August 2007, lasting 94 days - the longest British edition of Big Brother to date.

Eleven housemates entered on launch night, with an additional seven men being introduced by the time of the fourth week.

[4] Virgin Media's idents for the show use footage from Big Brother programmes from all around the world, including Germany, Brazil, Philippines and the Netherlands.

[citation needed] The iconic Big Brother eye has been redesigned to what has been described as a "centrifugal inter-locking RGB rainbow test card"[5] by its designer Daniel Eatock.

In the early years of Big Brother, a live stream would feature on Channel E4, however this was omitted from the schedule until the final series (BB11-2010).

Before the launch programme, Channel 4 presented a statement from Ofcom explaining the racism incidents from Celebrity Big Brother earlier in the year.

Ofcom has concluded that Channel 4 failed to handle appropriately the strong content it was transmitting.

Its decision to repeat one of these incidents in its early morning show resulted in a further breach for failing to protect children.

There was also a serious failure in Channel 4's compliance processes which meant that it was not aware of all the relevant activity in the House at a particularly critical time.

This ensures that the largest number of viewers will be made fully aware of the seriousness of Channel 4's failure to comply.

The layout of the house remained much the same as the previous series, although the kitchen moved to the other side of the main living area.

[14] "The Insider" on BBLB revealed that there was a fully functioning washing machine hidden in the garden, throughout the show.

This was used for several tasks, rewards and punishments, such as Ziggy's dating task, Amanda and Sam's birthday party, the punishments on Day 43, and the "Sin Bin" which is the room Charley was made to stay in while the rest of the housemates had their sin party.

For Big Brother: Celebrity Hijack, the lights inside the chair were coloured purple, to keep up with E4's theme.

The diary room resides in almost the same place as last year, but set back a bit, making the living area larger.

Day 63 The Halfway Housemates have a task called Jack in a box to win a place in the main house.

[24] Rylan Clark, who would go on to appear in Celebrity Big Brother 11, was scheduled to be a surprise housemate during this series, passing the auditions and waiting in hiding to enter the house.

[26] Nine days into the series, Channel 4 was criticised for deciding to air the word "nigger" on their daily highlights show.

[27] After the criticism they received for not handling the Celebrity Big Brother racism allegations properly back in January, they were quick to intervene after Emily used the word in conversation with Charley.

[28] After Emily's disqualification from the competition was announced, 922 viewers complained to Ofcom, the British television regulator, believing that it was unfair.

Furthermore, on Day 40, Channel 4 confirmed that Charley had been called to the Diary Room and reprimanded after using the word "nigger" twice on one night.

This was not broadcast on the nightly highlights programme or the live feed, further inflaming rumours about favouritism towards Charley.