The twenty-fourth season of Big Brother Brazil, dubbed Big Brother Brazil 24, debuted on TV Globo on January 8, 2024. Globo produces the programme, which is presented by Tadeu Schmidt, who is back for a third season.

For the first time, there will be a R$3 million grand prize with tax benefits in addition to a R$150,000 award for runner-up and a R$50,000 prize for third-place roommate. Similar to past seasons, the programme divides its housemates into two groups: “Civilians,” who are regular Brazilians, and “Celebrities,” who are actors, singers, sports, and social media figures. 

As part of the season’s opening twist where only eight of the 13 aspirants join the main cast a third group made up of a second batch of civilians known as the “Annexes” was added, increasing the total number of housemates to a record-breaking 26 competitors.

New voting procedure

A number of modifications were made with reference to the public vote as of this season. Apart from the unrestricted online voting, the audience would also be able to vote once on an independent platform, with a maximum of one vote each round. The voting would conclude with a weighted average of 50% for each of these systems.

Big Brother 2024 host: who is it?

This is probably going to continue, since AJ Odudu and Will Best have been co-hosting the show’s relaunch and companion series. While taking turns presenting Late & Live, AJ and Will have been hosting the live eviction episodes.

Is it possible to apply for Big Brother 2024?

Yes! The Big Brother 2024 application period is currently open. Here is where you may apply to be a roommate on Big Brother. The well-known social experiment is searching “for the nation’s most intriguing, hilarious, and entertaining personalities from all walks of life,” according to its official website. The deadline for applications is midnight on Friday, July 19, 2024.

About Big Brother

Viewers of the reality TV programme “Big Brother Brazil” saw the first gay kiss ever on the show in February of this year, during its more than 20-year run in South America. However, competitor Lucas Penteado left the programme a few hours after declaring his sexual orientation as bisexual by kissing another Black guy on live television. The 24-year-old actor, who resigned from the show after receiving harsh criticism from some of his roommates for the kiss, stated, “I tried to be myself in every way. Penteado was accused by other players some of whom are LGBTQ persons of colour of using the LGBTQ flag in order to get forward in the game.

You’re taking advantage of a group problem to further your own, personal one. Lesbian psychologist Lumena Aleluia addressed the actor, saying, “You’re stealing a historic battle, collective, in favour of a selfish desire.” Penteado was chastised by two other bisexual roommates who asserted that “there are various ways to come out. Following the kiss, singer Karol Koncá who had accused Penteado of psychological torture and dismissed his bisexuality as fake was “evicted” from the competition with 99.17 percent of the vote, the highest percentage ever for a competitor. Aleluia was likewise removed a week later.

The contentious episode aired at a time when the 21st season of “Big Brother Brazil” has received widespread acclaim for having been recast to feature discussions about gender and ethnicity. The most recent season was deliberately designed to have a racially and sexually diverse mix of candidates, following the revelation in 2020 that players engaging in debates on feminism and racism translate into high viewership.

Of the twenty participants, nine identify as Afro-Brazilian, and a large number of the roommates are LGBTQ. It has been successful for the showrunners to transform the most well-known bread and circus in Brazil into a forum for nuanced but crucial conversation. Big Brother Brazil” has not only become a social media sensation but has also helped TV Globo, the biggest free-to-air network in Brazil, achieve its highest viewership in ten years. Globo had 63 percent of the viewer share on the day Konká was “evicted.” According to Globo and Variety, 40 million people, or about 5% of Brazil’s 211 million inhabitants, watch the reality programme every day, an increase of 5.5 million viewers from the previous year.

Big Brother” is produced and licenced in Brazil by Endemol Shine Latino, whose president, Laurens Drillich, states that “Globo has done a great job in keeping the brand fresh and finding new ways to communicate with the audience.” He notes that COVID-19 has given a new dimension to a profitable business model, attracting unprecedented numbers of viewers to what has evolved into “event TV.  However, Wilson Gomes, a communications theory professor at the Federal University of Bahia, claims that “Big Brother Brasil” has turned into a mirror that highlights Brazil’s “identity conflict” in addition to illuminating significant difficulties.

Gomes compares the current politics of the programme to a game of “identity poker,” in which a contestant’s race and sexual orientation might work in his or her favour. An example of such an intersection would be a Black male who identifies as bisexual. Originating from George Orwell’s dystopian novel “1984,” which portrayed a surveillance state headed by Big Brother, the series has spread to more than 50 nations since its initial release in the Netherlands in 1999. However, the Brazilian variant has developed into one of the most popular ones worldwide.

The show has previously been linked to political discussions. Journalist Jean Wyllys, the 2005 season winner, made history by becoming the first member of Congress to support LGBTQ rights after coming out as the show’s first openly homosexual contestant. However, Gomes claims that “Big Brother Brazil” increasingly depicts the “fragmented communities” that are developing in the nation against the backdrop of the extreme right’s ascent in Brazil.

On a reality programme where nothing goes unnoticed, first impressions might be misleading. It was discovered a few days after “Big Brother Brazil” premiered that one of the participants, a white man, had attended feminist classes before to being cast in the programme. Afterwards, a few of his roommates accused the same person of “mansplaining.

Once one of the contestants, who was favoured to take home the $270,000 prize, admitted to her housemates that she “loved” Brazil’s far-right President Jair Bolsonaro, she faced criticism on social media. In an attempt to prevent being voted off the programme, she stated she “would not talk about it on national TV” at the same time. She said, “I won’t talk about politics.