Although later seasons of the show followed a radically different format, the debut season of Big Brother followed the same format as the other international versions of the show.
Each week the HouseGuests would nominate two fellow HouseGuests for banishment. The two HouseGuests with the most nominations were then put up for a vote by the viewing public who selected which HouseGuest to be banished, via a 900 number. However, problems with the public voting system included the fact that the most controversial contestants were banished (evicted) early in the game, leaving the least colorful contestants in the house. Also, the 900 number allowed for mass voting and in one memorable week contestant George's family and his small hometown organized a mass-voting campaign to flood the phone lines in his favor.
Unlike in later seasons, the HouseGuests did not compete against each other for food or positions of power. Rather they had to undergo various tasks of endurance or problem-solving, such as puzzles, or dancing for a full day without stopping, and if successful it resulted in a reward.



Differences in Season One
This season featured unique rules or events not featured in any later season:

• Unlike later seasons the show aired six times a week; a one hour live studio show, four half-hour daily recap episodes, and a one hour weekly recap episode.

• In this season, the 24-hour live internet feeds were entirely free to the viewing public while later, the feeds would involve a subscriber cost.

• For the first few Live Eviction shows, Julie Chen had a co-host, Ian O'Malley, who would greet the HouseGuests after they were banished, and direct them to the live studio.

• In live eviction episodes, Julie Chen was frequently joined in-studio by TV and radio personality "Dr. Drew" Pinsky, to discuss psychological and interpersonal aspects of ongoing events. Also joining Julie was Regina Lewis as the "AOL Online Adviser", Regina highlighted online forum discussions and shared results from online polls. Both "Dr. Drew" Pinsky and Regina Lewis did not return in subsequent seasons.

• In this season only, the house's front door exited into the open air and departing HouseGuests were greeted by cheering fans, before being directed to a studio to be interviewed by Julie. For future seasons, the house's front door exited into a closed studio.

• As the number of HouseGuests dwindled, the show started losing viewers, and producer Paul Romer hoped to spice up the proceedings on Day 64 by bribing one of the HouseGuests with $20,000 to leave and replace them with a new, more interesting HouseGuest. Romer bragged in the media that they'd have no problem getting a contestant to leave. On the Wednesday live show, viewers were introduced to Beth, an alternate from the casting process who described herself as being "opinionated" and "a bitch." Despite prodding from Julie Chen to take what began as $20,000, and was increased to $50,000, none of the HouseGuests would take the money and leave the game.

• Although the HouseGuests were cut off from the outside world, the courtyard of the house was completely uncovered. Viewers quickly realized this and began to hire airplanes pulling large banners containing messages meant to communicate with the HouseGuests. This continued on the second season but by the third season the HouseGuests were instructed to not read plane banners.

• On August 9, a pug named Chiquita was introduced to the house. Shortly after entering the house, Chiquita jumped into the pool, and Josh jumped in to save her; shortly thereafter, the producers built a fence around the pool for protection. [1] As well, there were chickens in the backyard that the HouseGuests were supposed to take care of. There have not been any animal HouseGuests in future seasons.

• A narrator would briefly introduce the topic of discussion each time a new scene or scenario was being shown. As well, often the program shows the HouseGuests interacting with the producer in the Diary Room, hearing both sides of the conversation. In future seasons, there is no narration (except from Julie Chen on eviction nights) and what the producers say in the Diary Room is normally not shown, with a few exceptions.

• The theme song for Season One was called "Live," and was performed by Jonathan Clarke. Bits and pieces of the song were played during the closing credits of each episode, but was never played in its entirety. The song is available on a hard-to-find soundtrack CD produced by the Dutch show producers, along with the first-season theme songs of shows in Argentina, Spain, and Germany. An instrumental version of the theme, heavy on acoustic guitar and/or saxophones, were used for the opening credits and interstitials.

• The first season of Big Brother has generally been ignored by CBS after it has aired. While all others seasons had a "Where are they now?" segments on the following season, this did not occur for the Season 1 contestants on Big Brother 2. The official website for Big Brother 1 has been removed, although this is because the site was maintained by AOL, not CBS.com, and was deleted prior to the premiere of Big Brother 2. Will Kirby, the eventual winner of the following season, admitted on the live feeds during Big Brother 7: All-Stars that during Big Brother 2, the producers had told the HouseGuests not to mention Big Brother 1. Clips from Big Brother 1 were shown on Big Brother All-Stars: America's Vote, as George Boswell is the only potential candidate for this season. A never-used version of the present Big Brother logo, Big Brother 1, replaced the logo originally used for that season. Big Brother 1 wasn't mentioned by the contestants of subsequent seasons until season 7.

Redesign of show after Season One
Having spent millions to secure the American TV rights and construct a house for the show, CBS engineered a major overhaul for the second season. Paul Romer was removed from the production, and the role of Endemol was greatly scaled back. Producers Arnold Shapiro and Allison Grodner were brought in and completely reworked the program.
While most international versions of the show, including Big Brother UK and Big Brother Australia, still follow this original "fly on the wall" format, only the US version moved to more strategy and competition-based show to better fit the format of American reality television. For example, in most international versions of the show, HouseGuests are actually forbidden from discussing nominations or voting plans, while in the US version it is highly encouraged.
In addition to the new rules and fewer recap shows per week, the ratings were boosted by casting stronger personalities and younger, attractive people making up the majority of the HouseGuests