Big Brother 1 (UK)

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Big Brother 1 was the first season of Big Brother in the UK, a reality show shown on Channel 4 in which a number of contestants live in an isolated house trying to avoid being evicted by the public with the aim of winning a large cash prize at the end of the run.

The first series was an unexpected summer hit in 2000. The first series started on July 14, 2000, and ended on September 15, 2000. What many fans of the series say is the most memorable moment occurred when attempts to influence voting by Nick Bateman (whom the tabloids nicknamed Nasty Nick) were uncovered by other housemates, who confronted him in a house meeting. He denied the allegations until the evidence was presented to him — housemate names, secretly written on scraps of paper hidden in his suitcase. Nick was removed from the house later that day by the show's producers for rule-breaking. A tabloid newspaper attempted to inform the housemates that Nick had been cheating by flying a remote controlled model helicopter into the house garden but the housemates were ordered to stay indoors.

Melanie Hill was seen to cultivate relationships with two different contestants. Hill avoided nomination until week 8 when all the remaining contestants except Anna were put up for eviction and she was voted out by a large margin.

The first series was solely viewed by the daily highlights programme. As a consequence many of the contestants complained afterwards that the series producers had 'created' characters for them through editing that did not correspond with their true personalities.

The housemate who led the 'outing' of Nick, Craig Phillips, went on to win the £70,000 prize as last remaining housemate. He donated the money to Joanne Harris, a close personal friend who needed a heart and lung transplant, due to having Down's Syndrome. As the British medical system refuses to provide heart/lung transplants to people with this condition (despite the fact that heart disease is an inherent part of Down's Syndrome), the only way for her to get the operation done was to pay for it privately abroad, which had been a financial impossibility before Craig won the show.

Since then, Craig has appeared on the UKTV Style makeover show Our House and the BBC One daytime show Big Strong Boys as a resident handyman. He has also made many cameo appearances in the Channel 4 sketch show, Bo' Selecta and released a Christmas Single (At This Time of Year) that reached number 14 in the UK charts. Nichola Holt also released a single after leaving the house, a dance track which flopped in the charts, She also filmed a number of adult films. Runner-up Anna Nolan has presented several television shows in the UK and in her native Ireland, she has recently decided not to renew her RTE contract to present her afternoon talkshow saying she wishes to pursue other things. Two other housemates, Claire Strutton (who replaced Nick) and Tom McDermott, later had a child together and married but the relationship ended.

Nick Bateman and Craig Philips both appeared in the meta-reality TV show Back To Reality.

[edit] Nominations, evictions and percentages

Main article: Big Brother nominations table (UK series 1)

	Week 2	Week 3	Week 4	Week 5	Week 6	Week 7	Week 8	Week 9
Against Public Vote	Caroline, Sada	Andy, Caroline	Caroline, Tom	Craig, Nichola	Anna, Craig, Darren, Tom	Claire, Craig	Craig, Darren, Melanie	Anna, Craig, Darren
Evicted and Vote Percentage	Sada 55% to evict	Andy 68% to evict	Caroline 62% to evict	Nichola 72% to evict	Tom 30% to evict	Claire 79% to evict	Melanie 69% to evict	Darren 13% (out of 3)	Anna 49% (out of 2)
								Craig 51% to win

[edit] External links

• Big Brother - Series 1 at channel4.com

Big Brother UK
Big Brother	1 (2000) | 2 (2001) | 3 (2002) | 4 (2003) | 5 (2004) | 6 (2005) | 7 (2006)
Celebrity Big Brother	2001 | 2002 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007
Teen Big Brother	2003