[1] Broadcast yearly from 18 July 2000 to 5 November 2018, and returned on 8 October 2023, the show follows the format of other national editions, in which a group of contestants, known as "housemates", live together in a specially constructed house that is isolated from the outside world.

[9] The programme was initially presented by Davina McCall MBE from its inception in July 2000 until its cancellation by Channel 4 ten years later.

McCall declined to return as presenter following the programme's move to Channel 5, and the role was taken up by former series winner Brian Dowling.

[20] The first series premiered on 18 July 2000, and ended when housemate Craig Phillips was crowned the winner after 64 days in the House.

It was met with much controversy after allowing previously evicted housemate Nikki Grahame to return to the game with the chance of winning.

[52] Meanwhile, Endemol had been granted permission to keep the Big Brother house at the Elstree TV Studios until 30 September 2013.

[53] On 2 April 2011, Channel 5 formally confirmed that they had signed a £200 million two-year contract with Endemol to screen Big Brother from 18 August 2011.

On 2 April 2013, it was confirmed that Dowling would be replaced by Emma Willis, who had previously presented a spin-off series for the show.

[65] The fifteenth series launched on 5 June 2014 and was won by Helen Wood, making her the first female winner since the show's revival on Channel 5.

In April 2022, it was reported that ITV Studios were in talks with Banijay, who own the rights to Big Brother, to revive the show in 2023.

In 2023, ITV announced they were bringing it back in 2024 alongside the civilian series, but this time the main show will be on ITV1 and STV rather than ITV2.

The first spin-off, Teen Big Brother: The Experiment, premiered on 13 October 2003 and lasted ten days.

Big Brother is a game show in which a group of contestants, referred to as housemates, live in isolation from the outside world in a custom-built "house", constantly under video surveillance.

[111][112] The format of the series is mainly seen as a social experiment, and requires housemates to interact with others who may have differing ideals, beliefs, and prejudices.

[116] After planning permission expired in 2002, Newham London Borough Council ordered the complex to be returned to a natural habitat.

[121][122] The third series featured a "Rich and Poor" twist, thus a row of bars was placed in the centre of the house to divide the housemates.

[128][129] On 2 February 2016, a planning application to Hertsmere Borough Council revealed that Endemol had applied to build a new extension to the house, which would be its biggest renovation since it was built in 2002.

[133] In January 2019, two months after the conclusion of the nineteenth series, work began to demolish the house at Elstree Studios.

On 17 February 2019, former presenter Emma Willis posted a photo on her Instagram account showing that demolition work on the house was complete.

[137] On 17 December 2024, ITV announced that the house would be relocated from Garden Studios to a new site in preparation for the 2025 celebrity series.

[149] Aside from the main series, the show featured a live feed into the house where viewers could watch the housemates at any time.

[153] In 2009, it was confirmed that the live feeds would not return for the tenth series due to a "small uptake" of subscriptions in the previous year.

The feeds did return the following year, though required viewers to pay a fee, for what was at the time slated to be the show's final series.

[172][173] The opening theme for the series was both written and produced by Elementfour, which was a collaboration between Paul Oakenfold and Andy Gray.

[201][202] Narinder Kaur, who had previously appeared as a housemate in the second series, went on to release Big Brother: The Inside Story (ISBN 978-0-7535-1294-4).

[221][222][223] The series has gone on to be spoofed and parodied by comedians such as Alan Carr,[224][225] Justin Lee Collins,[226][227] and Ricky Gervais.

[228][229] The series has been parodied and re-enacted on programs such as The Friday Night Project, an episode of Doctor Who ("Bad Wolf"), and Extras.

[236][237] Since its inception, Big Brother has come under fire for reports of bullying,[239][240] racism,[241][242][243][244] rigging,[245][246] and the physical and mental strain of appearing on the series.

[247] In October 2024, ITV edited an episode of the series to remove all images of a watermelon symbol that appeared on the shirt of contestant Ali Bromley.

[249] Writing for The Intercept, Nikita Mazurov compared the action to George Orwell's dystopian science-fiction novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, from which the show Big Brother takes its name, arguing that the editing of the episode represented a "key tenant of the novel: old media being edited and original versions destroyed, leaving no trace of any modification having taken place.