This season was the second to be accompanied by the House Calls: The Big Brother Talk Show spin-off series, which was viewable online and discussed the events of the game.

This was the highest number of initial HouseGuests to enter the house, due to the twin twist the previous season.

In September 2003, following the ratings success of Big Brother 4, Entertainment Weekly confirmed that CBS had renewed the series leading up until 2006,[1] ensuring three more seasons to air during the Summer time period.

[3] Casting for the season began in late March,[4] with producer Arnold Shapiro stating "Our goal this summer is to assemble the most colorful, competitive, and charismatic HouseGuests we’ve ever had.

If both of a set of two partners (predetermined before the start of the season) were to be the final two HouseGuests in the competition, the winner would receive a $1,000,000 prize with the runner up winning $250,000.

[14] This season featured the same schedule that was used in the previous edition, with episodes airing on Tuesdays, Thursday, and Saturday each week.

[15] The Thursday episode, which aired at 8 pm Eastern Time, featured the live eviction and subsequent Head of Household competition taking place.

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

[22] The online webshow, hosted by Gretchen Massey and Big Brother 3 HouseGuest Marcellas Reynolds aired thirty-minute episodes on weeknights, and allowed fans to call in and express their opinions on the events of the game.

[33] Unlike other versions of Big Brother, the HouseGuests could discuss the nomination and eviction process open and freely.

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.

April and Jennifer were sorority sisters, Ashlea and Janelle were former roommates, Beau and Ivette were former co-workers, Eric and Maggie are friends, as are Howie and Rachel, and Kaysar and Michael are neighbors.

[40] Despite this, the HouseGuests quickly figured it out, and host Julie Chen officially confirmed the twist minutes after the third live eviction.

Janelle Pierzina, James Rhine, Howie Gordon, and Kaysar Ridha returned to compete on Big Brother: All-Stars in 2006.

The team of Ashlea, Beau, Eric, Ivette, Jennifer, Kaysar, and Michael were placed on the peanut butter and jelly diet, and were not eligible to compete for Head of Household.

[53] Shortly afterwards, Eric, James, Kaysar, and Michael made a deal to keep each other safe due to the larger number of women than men in the house.

Following an extensive search with numerous hints, Rachel found the new bedroom, which included a key to the hot tub.

[68][69] Following these nominations, Kaysar formed the "Sovereign Six" alliance, consisting of himself, Janelle, Howie, Rachel, James and Sarah.

[74][75][76] Following this, April, Beau, Ivette, Jennifer, and Maggie formed "The Friendship" alliance, officially splitting the house into two sides.

The team of Beau, Ivette, and Maggie competed against Jennifer, Rachel, and Sarah in the "Big Brother Movie Marquee" luxury competition.

That same day, Howie nominated "Sovereign" alliance members James and Sarah for eviction, feeling the entire house wanted them out.

[102] Jennifer's betrayal led to numerous arguments in the house, including an instance in which Beau and Janelle had a physical altercation.

[123][124] On Day 55, April chose to nominate Howie and Janelle for eviction, with the plan of backdooring James that week.

That same week, America voted for Janelle to receive a phone call from the person of her choice; she chose previously evicted HouseGuest Michael.

[138] On Day 68, Howie, the last man standing, became the tenth HouseGuest to be evicted from the house, with Ivette breaking a tie as the deciding vote.

[141][142][143] Janelle later won an America's Vote poll, and was able to leave the house to visit the set of the CBS sitcom Two and a Half Men.

Following April's eviction, HouseGuests competed in the first round of the final Head of Household competition, called "The Key to Being Safe".

For this competition, HouseGuests attempted to unlock an oversized lock by figuring out a combination based on past events in the game.

[156][157][158][159] Color key: Big Brother 6 averaged a total of 7.24 million viewers, the lowest for the series at the time.