Have no idea what a Power of Veto is or why the hell Big Brother needs a Jury? Then you’ve come to the right place. Below is a description of how the Big Brother works in America.

Nominations

The main difference between Big Brother USA and the original format is in the nomination and eviction process. Unlike in other editions of BB, the houseguests are allowed and encouraged to openly discuss nominations. The nomination process itself comprises of three parts which are outlined below.

1. Head of Household
After every eviction, a competition takes place. This is usually a quiz, but more tough physical tasks and endurance challenges are used from time to time. The winner becomes Head of Household (HoH) for the following week, gaining various perks and privileges including their own bedroom and full food access for the duration of their tenure. More importantly, the HoH is immune from the week’s eviction and is the sole houseguest permitted to nominate.

2. Nominations ceremony
Not long after the HoH is crowned, they must choose who they to nominate, and lock keys representing the houseguests they DO NOT wish to nominate in a special ‘nominations box’.

The nominations ceremony then follows. The HoH brings the box to the dining table, where it takes place, and pulls the first key out, before passing it to the person it represents. This houseguest then pulls out the second key and passes it over, and so on, until two are left without keys. These are the two nominees.

3. Power of Veto
After this, six houseguests – the HoH, the two nominees and three other houseguests picked by a random draw – take part in another competition. The winner gains the ‘Power of Veto’, which allows them to alter the nominations.

The winner can either choose to leave the HoH’s nominations as they are, or save one of the nominees. If the Veto winner is a nominee, they are allowed to save themselves. If one of the nominations is Vetoed, the HoH must nominate another houseguest to replace them. The HoH is not allowed to nominate the Veto winner or anyone he/she may save. After this, the nominations are final.

Evictions

Evictions take place in live shows that air on Thursdays. All voting is done by the houseguests – no public votes are involved. During these shows, the houseguests go to the Diary Room one by one to vote to evict one of the two nominees. The two nominees are not allowed to vote, and the HoH may only vote in the event of a tie. For the final eviction of the series, the HoH must cast the sole vote to evict.

The nominee who recieves the most votes is evicted from the house.

Finale

Only two houseguests are present in the finale, and therefore it features a different voting system. The seven houseguests evicted prior to the finale do not leave the show entirely, but are instead moved to the ‘Sequester House’, which is usually located abroad. They are still treated as evictees and are not eligible to win. These seven evictees are known as ‘The Jury’, ‘The Jury of Seven’ or ‘The Big Brother Jury’, and are responsible for choosing who wins the season on finale night.

They are allowed to watch some select footage from the main house, mainly segments which involve all the remaining houseguests, such as nominations or competitions. They do not get to see any personal conversations, Diary Room conversations/interviews, or anything which gives away any strategy or twists in the game.

After the finalists have been determined, the jury members get to ask them a series of questions, in order to help them make a decision as to who should win.

During the live final, the Jury then votes for the winner, and the finalist with the most votes takes the crown and the $500,000 prize fund. The runner-up is awarded $50,000.

America’s Vote

While the American public does not get any say in who is evicted each week, they will from time to time get to vote in various polls to determine which houseguests should get various rewards, such as a phone call home, an internet chat with viewers or a walk-on role in a CBS programme. Other poll questions have included what appliances the houseguests should be allowed to use, or what kind of challenges Big Brother should set the houseguests. These polls are called “America’s Vote”, and usually start around halfway through the series.

Other differences

Here are some other, more minor differences between BBUSA and international editions.

• While most Big Brothers aren’t afraid to use major twists such as house divides and secret rooms, BBUSA twists are usually related to the casting of the houseguests. For instance, in BB4, some houseguests played against their ex-partners, and in BB9, the contestants were forced to play as pairs. However, there are some notable exceptions such as BB8’s America’s Player, for which one houseguest had to play according to instructions decided by America’s Vote polls.
• Producers of BBUSA never send more housemates in to the house after Day 1. However, ex-houseguests from the same season sometimes return.
• The voice of American Big Brother is rarely heard on the television broadcasts. In addition to this, he is more casual with houseguests and will sometimes talk to them even if they aren’t in the Diary Room.
• Most Big Brother houses are designed to be as open as possible to reduce privacy. However, to suit the nature of the format, the Big Brother USA house is more shut off to encourage gameplay.