Big Brother 8 (American season)

Template:Spoiler-blank Template:Future television episode Template:Big Brother housemates Big Brother 8 is the eighth season of the US version of the reality TV-show Big Brother on CBS. The season was announced on February 1st, 2007. Julie Chen returned for this season as host. Allison Grodner and Rich Meehan have been announced as executive producers. Arnold Shapiro stepped down as producer following last season's All-Stars edition, but serves as executive consultant on the show. Casting calls ran until May 5, 2007. A preview was shown on the The Early Show on July 5, 2007, the day of the premiere. The show airs three times a week; Sundays at 8 PM (EDT), Tuesdays at 9 PM, and Thursdays, which is broadcast live, at 8 PM.

CBS' cable/satellite premium network Showtime Too is carrying a spinoff of the series called Big Brother: After Dark, which airs nightly live from 9 PM—12 AM (PDT). This program features house activity happening between those times, and is edited only for slanderous statements and music copyrights.

It has also been confirmed that former HouseGuest and presenter of the online talk show, House Calls, Marcellas Reynolds, will not be returning to host the daytime chat show after CBS announced budget cuts, although his co-presenter, Gretchen Massey, will continue as host of the program. The program broadcasts live at cbs.com every weekday at 1 PM (EDT), where viewers call-in with questions and discussion about the show. On Fridays, the evicted houseguest will appear on the show.

Chronology

Each week in the Big Brother house is summarized here. Entrances, America's Player tasks, and other noteworthy events for a particular week are noted.

Week 1	Entrances	On Day 1, eleven HouseGuests entered the Big Brother house. On Day 1, the nemeses — Dick, Dustin, and Jessica — entered the house via the Head of Household room before the other HouseGuests arrived.
	Events	The nemeses were able to watch, from an upstairs room via a TV monitor, the other HouseGuests without their knowledge for their first hours in the Big Brother house. Since they were unable to compete in the Head of Household competition, the nemeses were safe from nominations for the first week. As Head of Household, Amber nominated Kail and Daniele for eviction. America's Player, Eric, first task was, "to reveal his soft side by making up a traumatic story about his past". The viewing public's vote was Kail. Eric completed this task successfully. The 2nd task the viewers voted for was who Eric should vote to evict. Eric completed this task by voting for Carol to be evicted. Daniele chose not to use the Power of Veto.
	Competitions	In the first food competition, "Butter Me Up", involved splitting the HouseGuests into two teams, Red and Blue. Each team had to cover their bodies in butter then wipe it off into a vat of popcorn. The team with the most butter collected in the vat won the food, while the losing team had to eat "Big Brother slop". The Red Team won with 77 pounds of butter, while the Blue Team lost with 37 pounds. For the Power of Veto competition, Jameka, Nick, Daniele, Kail, Amber and Carol had to hide vetos throughout the house. Hidden in the slop, Daniele's veto was never found, making her the winner.
	Exits	On Day 13, Carol was evicted by a landslide vote of 10 to 1, with Jen being the only HouseGuest to vote for Amber.
Week 2	Events	As America's Player, Eric's 3rd task was to convince Jen to target Jessica for nomination. Eric attempted to convince Jen, but she did not nominate Jessica. Since Jessica was not nominated, he didn't complete the task. Although, he still has a chance to complete the task, as Eric announced at the end of the July 15 broadcast, if he convinces Jen to nominate Jessica as a veto replacement, when or if, Daniele uses the veto on herself or Dick, removing one of them off the "block" for eviction. As Head of Household, Jen nominated Dick and Daniele for eviction on Day 14.
	Competitions	Jen won Head of Household moments after Carol's eviction. In the food competition, "Name that Pie", the teams were split into two teams (men vs. women and Joe). In each round one contestant from each team had to bid for the lowest number of bites it would take them to identify the two ingredients in the pie. The HouseGuest who correctly identified the two ingredients of the pie won a point for their team. In the end, the Blue Team (men) scored the seven points needed, putting the Red Team (women and Joe) on slop. Daniele won the Power of Veto for the second week in a row on Day 15.
	Exits	The second evicted HouseGuest will leave on Day 20.

HouseGuests

The list of HouseGuests was announced during The Early Show on June 28, 2007. The twist this year is "Biggest Nemesis", as six of the HouseGuests have moved into the house with their enemies, and have been revealed as Joe/Dustin (ex-boyfriends), Daniele/Dick (estranged daugther/father), and Carol/Jessica (ex-best friends). The other twist is HouseGuest Eric as "America's Player".

Amber

Amber Tomcavage (born March 17, 1980) (maiden name Siyavus) is a 27-year-old cocktail waitress who works at Caesar's Palace casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. She is a divorced single mother. On Day 13 (July 12, 2007), she was saved from eviction by a 10-to-1 vote.

Carol

Carol Journey (born March 3, 1986) is a 21-year-old student from Lawrence, Kansas, born and raised in Haysville, Kansas. Carol attends the University of Kansas and is part of their dance team. She is the daughter of Kansas State Senator Phil Journey. Jessica and Carol were best friends as young teens, but had a falling out and went their separate ways. On Day 13, Carol became the first HouseGuest evicted from Big Brother 8 by a vote of 10 to 1.

Daniele

Daniele Donato (born August 20, 1986) is a 20-year-old Hooters waitress from Huntington Beach, California. Dick is her estranged father, with whom she hadn't spoken in over two years before entering the house. She has won the "Power Of Veto" twice in a row.

Dick

Dick Donato (born June 24, 1963) is a 44-year-old bar manager from Los Angeles, California. Daniele is his estranged daughter. Dick has claimed to be an acquaintance with numerous famous celebrities, one in particular being Cher, with whom he claims to have had dinner.

Dustin

Dustin Erikstrup (born January 21, 1985) is a 22-year-old shoe salesman from Chicago, Illinois. Dustin and Joe used to be a couple, and had a bitter breakup.

Eric

Eric Stein (born January 25, 1980) is a 27-year-old talent management assistant from New York, New York. He grew up in Yorktown Heights, New York and attended Boston University. He is "America's Player."

Jameka

Jameka Cameron (born July 20, 1978) is a 28-year-old school counselor from Waldorf, Maryland and attended Elizabeth City State University. She is currently the second most popular HouseGuest according to the cbs.com poll.

Jen

Jen Johnson (born April 25, 1984) is a 23-year-old nanny from Beverly Hills, California. She is also a model. Her previous television appearances include playing for the NY Euphoria in the 2006 Lingerie Bowl. She is also a self-proclaimed computer nerd, and hopes to use her good looks to gain leverage in the house. Many of her fellow HouseGuests have criticized her behavior and certain habits, such as wearing t-shirts featuring various portmanteaux of her name on them (examples being "I'm A Jenius","Jenth Degree" and "Jenuine") and crying because she did not like the picture of her Big Brother posted. Also, she has been criticized for being very vain and only thinking of herself. She also took down the only picture of her mother from the wall in her HoH room because Jen thought that she (herself) looked bad in it. Jen became the second Head of Household of the season, stunning the other HouseGuests.

Jessica

Jessica Hughbanks (born December 22, 1985) is a 21-year-old Wichita State University student, Wichita Wild Indoor Football and Wichita Thunder dance team member from Haysville, Kansas. Jessica and Carol were best friends as young teens, but had a falling out and went their separate ways.

Joe

Joe Barber (born September 28, 1983) is a 23-year-old receptionist from Chicago, Illinois. Joe and Dustin used to be a couple, but had a bitter breakup. Joe claims Dustin gave him gonorrhea, and Dustin claims the test was negative and Joe didn't tell anyone that Dustin was on vacation the week Joe got his results, leading to possible fabrication on Joe's part.

Kail

Kail Harbick (born October 1969) is a 37-year-old business owner from McKenzie Bridge, Oregon who works as a real estate agent for Prudential Financial. In addition to her estate business, she and her husband own a bar in Blue River, Oregon. A devout fan of Big Brother, Kail had previously applied for the show twice before this season.

Mike

Mike Ditz (born August 20, 1980) is a 26-year-old painting contractor from Three Lakes, Wisconsin, and is a model with BMG Model & Talent Agency. He has appeared on the Lifetime show Gay, Straight or Taken?. Currently, Mike is the most popular HouseGuest according to the CBS Popularity Poll. Mike seems to be the phantom of the house, as he has not caused any controversy in the game, has not won any competitions, and is rarely seen on the live feeds.

Nick

Nick Starcevic (born March 5, 1982) is a 25-year-old former college American football player from Kimball, Minnesota, and was once crowned MTV's "Spring Break King" while on vacation in Cancun. He played college football at the University of Minnesota, Crookston, and spent time playing football for a Finnish team in a European league.

Zach

Zach Swerdzewski (born April 17, 1977) is a 30-year-old graphic designer from Burbank, California, and owns a company called Dolphin Crash. He was seen wearing a shirt with the company's name on it during the July 12, 2007 episode. Currently, Zach is the least popular HouseGuest according to the CBS popularity poll.

Big Brother House

The houseplan of the Big Brother 8 house.

House pictures were released on June 27, 2007. The house has an Alice in Wonderland theme and contains an oversized bedroom and a small bedroom. The small bedroom features a very small doorway and five beds which are only five feet long, while the oversized bedroom features shoulder-height beds and enormous drawers which need a ladder to reach. The backyard contains animal shaped topiaries and a spinning teacup, while the bathroom's shower features a showerhead shaped like a lion's head.

Interactive options

This year, there are two options for viewers of Big Brother to become more involved with the game. They are CBS' "America's Player" and Canadian broadcaster Global TV's "Big Brother interactive." It is unknown whether "America's Choice" used in previous seasons will continue this year.

America's Player

At the end of each show (starting July 8), Eric is asked to complete a task that America decides ranging from sharing a secret all the way to whom Eric should vote to evict, and for every five tasks Eric completes, he is rewarded with US$10,000. Viewers are able to vote via text message, or on CBS' official Big Brother site. Eric is three tasks away from recieving the financial reward. His original game plan of "floating" might be thwarted completely by this twist, or could improve it. Despite the title "America's Player," Canadians will still be allowed to vote online. Allison Grodner, the executive producer, chuckled while telling Global TV "We are certainly not trying to exclude any of our viewers so we will call this...the 'Canadian-American Player'."

Ratings

Big Brother 8 will air episodes three times a week, with shows airing Sundays at 8 PM (EDT), Tuesdays 9 PM, and Thursday 8 PM. The first episode premiered on July 5, 2007 with 7.401 million viewers (4.8/9 viewing audience), down from last year's 5.2/9 launch. However, the following show on Sunday did much worse in the ratings, scoring a 3.9/7 viewing figure, losing nearly 1 million viewers since the previous episode. The first Tuesday show, however, was more successful with viewers, managing a 4.5/7 rating. As with the previous seasons, live streaming video feeds are available for purchase through RealNetworks. All ratings are from Nielsen Media Research and Zap2it.

	Week 0 (Launch)	Week 1	Week 2	Week 3	Week 4	Week 5	Week 6	Week 7	Week 8	Week 9	Week 10
Sunday	no show	6.05m 3.9/7	6.51m 4.2/8
Tuesday	no show	6.98m 4.5/7
Thursday	7.401m 4.8/9	6.51m 4.2/8
Weekly average	7.401m 4.8/9	6.51m 4.2/7	6.51m 4.2/8
Running average	7.401m 4.8/9	6.96m 4.6/8	6.74m 4.4/8
Season average	6.74m 4.4/8

Voting history

The following is a table showing how each housemate voted to evict throughout his of her time in the house. Twists to the normal nominations process are noted, such as immunity from nomination and eviction (referred to as "exempt") and double evictions.

	Week 1	Week 2	Week 3	Week 4	Week 5	Week 6	Week 7	Week 8	Week 9	Week 10	Results
Head of Household	Kail	Jen
Nominations (pre-veto)	Amber Carol	Daniele Dick
Veto Winner	Daniele	Daniele
Nominations (post-veto)	Amber Carol
Nomination note	See note 1
Amber	Nominated
Daniele	Carol	Nominated
Dick	Carol	Nominated
Dustin	Carol
Eric	Carol
Jameka	Carol
Jen	Amber	Head of Household
Jessica	Carol
Joe	Carol
Kail	Head of Household
Mike	Carol
Nick	Carol
Zach	Carol
Carol	Nominated	Evicted (Day 13)
Evicted	Carol 10 of 11 votes

Template:Fnb As the nemeses, Dick, Dustin, and Jessica were unable to participate in the Head of Household competition, so for this reason they were exempt from eviction. However, they were able to view the competition and selected Kail to win as she and Eric were the two finalists in the competition. America's Player, Eric, will have to vote which houseguest to evict (Amber or Carol), by votes from the viewers. The majority voted for Carol, so he voted to evict Carol.

See also

• Big Brother: After Dark

External links

• CBS Official Site
• Global Official Site