Big Brother Returns for First Winter Season

Fans of the CBS television series "Big Brother" have something to cheer about this winter. "Big Brother 9" will begin February 12, 2008, and is scheduled to air Tuesdays at 9:00 p.m. and Wednesdays and Sundays at 8:00 p.m. The big question is what will be the twist?

Last season, "Big Brother" fans watched "Evil Dick" Donato and his stick thin protégé and biological daughter take on the house with the secret America's Player twist playing out at every turn. This year, CBS is keeping mum on the twist, except to say that there will be no America's Player. According to the Daily News, the America's Player twist is old news. To keep the series fresh, "Big Brother" will have to come up with something new.

For those who have never watched "Big Brother," the premise of the show is simple. Put a group of people in a house, eliminate outside distractions like television, cell phones, and the internet, and see how quickly they can drive each other nuts. Food competitions determine who will eat real food for the week and who will be placed on peanut butter and jelly, or the new "Big Brother" staple in recent seasons - slop. Each week, contestants vie for the Head of Household slot. The Head of Household gets her own room, some personal items like family pictures, and the duty of putting two fellow housemates up for eviction. Next, the housemates fight to win the power of veto, which they can use to shake up the eviction by removing a candidate from the block. The last person standing after all of the eviction votes, veto competitions, and slop wins $500,000.

The eligibility requirements for living in the "Big Brother" house are simple. You must be 21 years of age at the time you apply, you must not be a candidate for public office, and you must have sufficient physical, psychological, and metal capacity to endure about 100 days being monitored by television cameras like a lab rat under a hot lamp. Finding a candidate who just meets these requirements but is still crazy enough, and interesting enough, to be on the show must surely be a challenge for CBS.

Despite CBS's tendency to cast the same stereotypes (the dark rocker, the meat head, the perky blond, and the religious zealot) each season, there is something beneath the surface of "Big Brother" that makes the show strangely seductive. Relationships in the house bubble and brew quietly until the occasional violent eruption disrupts the outer calm. Secret plots unfold in the diary room that are hatched in the dark of night under cover of the hammock. Friends turn on friends and seek sanctuary in the arms of former enemies.

"Big Brother 9" is just days away from revealing not only the producers' twist, but the twists the housemates themselves can concoct.

Sources:

CBS.com, "Big Brother 9 Eligibility Requirements/Application Instructions."

Daily News, "For 'Big Brother,' the Winter of New Content," Cristina Kinon.