Initially shown in The Netherlands in 1999, and cloned across the world, the "housemates" are not permitted any access to the outside world (except private chats with a psychologist if they so choose), and no TV, radio, phone, internet other other media are available to the housemates - they are not even allowed writing materials or books! To fill in time, the residents of the house have various chores to maintain the house, and are set random tasks by the producers of the show, who communicate with the housemates through one (unseen) individual issuing commands, termed "Big Brother". Each week, the housemates nominate two people who they wish to see removed from the house more than the other residents. The three most commonly voted for are then named on the television show, and viewers can call a special number to "vote" for who they wish to see removed (the profits from the numerous calls are split between the phone companies and the producers). After the votes are tallied, the "evictee" is interviewed on-camera by the host of the show, usually in front of a live studio audience. The last remaining housemate is declared the winner and receives a substantial sum in prizemoney.
The series was notable for involving the Internet. Viewers who couldn't get enough of the show were invited to watch a continuous, 24-hour feed from multiple camera online. These websites were highly successful, even after some national series started charging for access to the video stream.
Despite derision from many intellectuals and other critics, not least about the ironic aspects of aspects of George Orwell's dystopic vision of 1984 being conciously aped by producers for public entertainment - and people volunteering to do so for the slight chance of a generous, but not massive prize, the show has been a commercial success around the world. While any pretences to be a cultural experiment are dubious, reports of the different results of the show around the world have been mildly interesting (in Australia, after a few weeks it became clear that most of the remaining housemates liked each other and had no particular desire to evict each other, whereas other versions have involved plotting in the vein of Survivor. Some European versions have been filled with sex-crazed housemates, whereas the Anglo-Saxon versions have been mostly sex-free).
Recently, in second Polish edition, one of housemates was taken to psychiatric hospital.
As of writing, new series of the program are starting up, or about to, around the world. It is not yet clear whether they will have the same success as the initial series.
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