User:TeenBigBrother/sandbox

Big Brother is the Irish version of the international reality television franchise Big Brother, created by producer John de Mol in 1997. The show, which has been broadcast since 2000, follows a number of contestants, known as housemates, who are isolated from the outside world for an extended period of time in a custom built house. Each week, one of the housemates is evicted by a public vote, with the last housemate remaining winning a cash prize. The series takes its name from the character in George Orwell's 1949 novel Nineteen Eighty-Four.

The series premiered on 3 July 2000 on NBC, and immediately became a ratings hit. The series also featured a 24-hour live feed, in which fans could view inside the house at any time. The shows has aired for twenty-one series on NBC and is considered the flagship programme that airs on NBC. Big Brother has had multiple spin-off series occur since its premiere. Celebrity Big Brother has aired twenty series between 2001 and 2020, Teen Big Brother has aired nineteen series between 2002 and 2019 and All Star Big Brother has aired fourteen series between 2005 and 2019. Big Brother: Late Night was the first companion show to the series, airing between Big Brother 2 and Celebrity Big Brother 9. It was replaced by Big Brother After Dark from Big Brother 12 in 2010. The show was presented by Julie Chen from its inception until the finale of Big Brother 13 in 2011. She was replaced by Nicky Byrne, who had hosted Celebrity Big Brother since its tenth series and Teen Big Brother since its ninth series. As of May 2020, there has been a total of 74 series of the Big Brother franchise in Ireland. Currently, it is the joint second longest running version of Big Brother to date, following the Spanish and equalling its American adaptations.

In May 2020, NBC announced that the franchise had been renewed until 2025, planning to end with Celebrity Big Brother 25 in 2025.