Characters / Big Brother 1

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The inaugural cast of Big Brother in the United States.

The Winner

Eddie McGee (Winner)

Prizes Won:

Finished: 1st Place (WINNER), WON $500,000

• Berserk Button: Eddie despises any negative talk about models, because his girlfriend from Hydelberg, Germany is a model. This causes him to nominate Jordan for banishment early on because she has low opinions of modeling.
• Brooklyn Rage: Eddie is from Queens Village. At the time of filming, Eddie is a resident of Long Island out by Colmax and has a strong Brooklyn accent with the attitude to match.
• Brutal Honesty: Eddie is very outspoken.
• The Comically Serious: Heavens, yes, Eddie is a master of comedic timing while acting totally calm and blunt.
• Dark and Troubled Past: His mom is apparently single, and he had cancer in his knee before puberty. The doctors had to take his leg off and he finished chemotherapy at age twelve and calcium had returned to his bones by age thirteen. He used to play in a lot of sports like running and baseball but went to being limited and entered wheelchair basketball, which got him a full scholarship at the University of Texas in Arlington where majored in broadcasting and minored in theater.
• Deadpan Snarker: Within mere moments of entering the house he was reality-checking everything. Starting with the jokes he and Curtis made about the connections being on Big Brother would net him, then reminding Curtis, George, and Cassandra that catching a chicken comes "after you chase the bastard down." And when the outdoor pool turned out to be skimpy, he decided to check it out... whereupon instead of diving in, he calmly laid down by the poolside and dunked his head in. There's also the shower stall only reaching his chest hair.
  Eddie: What, for like, midgets?
• Early-Installment Weirdness: It is almost unheard of for the US run of the show to now admit someone who bears a severe handicap due to the introduction of tough physical challenges. A change of hands in production and over a decade later and you'd understand putting Eddie on the Denser and Wackier setting the show later took is unthinkable. It was a whole different world back then.
• Foregone Conclusion: He had the sympathy vote locked from the moment he appeared on the show. Of course he was gonna be the winner!
• Foreshadowing: In a discussion about how they expect to things in the house to get testy, Karen, Eddie, and George have a chat. Eddie immediately noticed "bad vibes" within the first three minutes into the house (actually during the table eat and greet) between "the black guy" and "the sister", William and Cassandra. William was being too much of a player and Cassandra wasn't having it.
• Handicapped Badass: Eddie is missing his left leg, due to suffering from osteogenic sarcoma when he was just 11 years old that forced doctors to amputate it to avoid it spreading and save his life. Back before he lost it, he played sports like hockey and basketball, but had to adjust to his handicap and began participating in wheelchair basketball, which landed him a full athletic scholarship at Arlington University. He is also the only disabled person to ever win the US version of Big Brother. After winning the grand prize, he got a prosthetic leg.
• Jerkass: He can be quite a peckerhead at times when he mocks people.
• Life-or-Limb Decision: Eddie's life was threatened by the spread of cancer if his leg wasn't amputated. The doctors decided to take it off.
• The Nicknamer: Called Will "the black guy" and Cassandra "the sister" on Day 1 when he didn't know their names well enough to remember them.
• Perma-Stubble: Eddie stopped shaving late into the game.
• Pixellation: His butt crack was blurred out when he stripteased in the Red Room.
• Real Men Wear Pink: Even though he acts manly, we see on his basketball wheelchair is a teddy bear Good Luck Charm that looks like Winnie the Pooh.
• Seriously Scruffy: Later into the game, Eddie's hair grew out from a crisply-sheared look to messy curls and he stopped going clean-shaven.
• The Stoic: Notes this about his handicap:
  Eddie: In terms of mentally there was no real period of "why me, why me"- it was just, "well, it happened and I'll deal with it."
• You Can Leave Your Hat On: The first person to do a striptease in the house in the US, as part of a challenge where houseguests play-acted as one of their peers. Eddie got Jordan, and having been annoyed by her, he took his portrayal of her as an exotic dancer ridiculously overboard, hopped over the Red Room armchair on his one leg, slid down his shorts, and then his boxers, and gave his rear end a spank. Hilarious but unbelievably rude. Unlike many others in the house to follow who shed their clothes as a stunt and wound up being the first boots of their respective seasons, he (partially) stripped for the cameras and won the game.

The Runner-Up

Josh Souza (Runner-Up)

• A Boy And His Dog: He's seen running and playing with his pit bull in his intro package.
• Ambiguously Bi: Curtis begins to suspect Josh is gay or bisexual by Day 16, and confides his suspicions in the Red Room on Day 17. It's the choice of words Josh used when talking about settling down with someone, using both male and female terms and Josh mentioning how he was only recently beginning to come to terms with who he was. Unfortunately, this led Karen to become dismayed because she didn't like what Curtis was insinuating about Josh. Since Josh later dated a female contestant from Big Brother 4, that disqualifies him from being considered gay, but the thought of him being bi is still questionable.
• The Big Guy: He's 6'1", one of the tallest houseguests, and weighs 180 pounds with most being muscle.
• Dark and Troubled Past: His parents' marriage failed and his mom, Sherrell A. Perryman, remarried, but unfortunately the strain of the divorce encouraged stress-induced cancer to come on her and she passed away when he was 14 (Nov. 20, 1950 - Apr. 14, 1991). We can see that much is clear from the fact both his dad and stepdad are interviewed in his intro package. He's also moved around a lot with his dad, who is a contractor, moving 19 times across California to go where the work is until they ended up in Fresno. His stepdad has the much more peaceful and grounded occupation of painting. One can piece together that this may have contributed to the split (remarried someone who wasn't constantly needing to move base and causing financial and emotional stressors) and his apparent conflict with sexual identity (broken family = poorer outlook in traditional heterosexual relationships) as a result.
• Foreshadowing: Mentioned he was looking for a pretty girl going on the show. He later dated Erika Landin from Big Brother 4. Unfortunately, by the time of Big Brother All-Stars, the relationship was kaput. Ironically, he was dating a houseguest from a season full of people competing against past exes; at least, unlike Erika's previous ex and a houseguest from Erika's season, Robert Roman, he didn't cheat on her.
• Graceful Loser: Laughed and cheered for and hugged Eddie when he won.
• Perpetual Smiler: A point played with in his intro. Josh says he's been told he has "Donald Duck lips", probably because he smiles a lot.
• Who Wants To Grow Up: Another point in his intro. Josh thinks he might have "Peter Pan syndrome" because he doesn't feel like he's grown up and is still like a child in that he's maintained that simple innocence.

Banished ^note Precursor term used for "eviction". There was no Jury in Season 1. All voting was done by America over the telephone.

Curtis Kin (8th & Final Banished Houseguest)

Prizes Won: $100 grocery money (for everyone to share) ^note Found the hidden $100 under the lemon tree in the garden on the morning of Day 2 after the house solved an encoded message- "One foot west of the toe of the lemon tree lies the dirty surprise. You and Benjamin Franklin." -on Day 1, which was used between the house as part of their grocery money (season 1 had houseguests freely choose to buy things like groceries and trinkets on a budget)

• Early-Installment Weirdness: Curtis has a political career (more accurately, he works in law at the time of filming, which can be connected to politics) when he goes into the house and is a law clerk to a federal appellate judge and accepted a job as a federal prosecutor in Los Angeles. Since Big Brother 1 was filmed at a much more innocent time before media and the Internet became synonymous and inseparable, that wasn't much of a problem, and probably still won't be for him today because he's moved on from the whole experience. However, the modernized Big Brother does not allow people currently running for political positions to come into the house because of all the controversy it can cause. While people in government positions can come on the show, someone with a job on Curtis's level may not be allowed to compete anymore.
• Innocently Insensitive: Curtis reacted negatively to the idea Josh might be gay or bi, which he didn't quite understand.
• Jack of All Trades: He works in law with plans to move up in that world and is an excellent professional operatic singer as well as a rollerblader (something later seen with Nick Uhas, who has a major profession as a chemist and is a rollerblader as a hobby).
• Real Men Love Jesus: Curtis is a clear-cut example. He also took a Bible with him into the house (which is now something that is kept in the house by default).
  Curtis: I will be bringing a Bible. I am a Christian. I'm definitely not a bible-banger or a fundamentalist or evangelizing all the time, but it's something that is very personal to me, so if I'm going to be in the house, I think that a Bible would be nice to have along with me.
• The Snark Knight: Curtis is full of wit and riffs on a lot of the production.

Jamie Marie Kern (7th Banished Houseguest)

• Advertised Extra: Jamie made a cameo on Baywatch, remarking that she was wanting to do something fun and exciting as the reason for doing so. She's also Miss Washington USA 2000 and was concerned if she could hold the title while in the house and whether or not it would be a good idea to tell people about her status as a beauty contest winner (since she was currently the most recent winner of the title in her home state during the game).
• Beauty Contest: She was reigning Miss Washington at the time of filming and previously completed in Miss USA, where Miss Tennessee won.
• Beauty Equals Goodness: She's both a beauty queen and one of the nicer girls in the house for the most part.
• The Confidant: For Jordan. Jordan confides to her about her night job on Day 2, which Jordan normally finds embarrassing to talk about.
• Forehead of Doom: Jamie has a sizable forehead, but it draws attention to her pretty face very well.
• Last of Her Kind: The last woman left in the house.
• Must Have Coffee: Jamie loves coffee and her friends note she thrives on it, and the worst thing that could happen for everyone would be if she cannot get access to it in the house.
• The Smart Girl: She graduated with a 4.0 GPA (apparently the only person in her family at the time to go to college from a conversation held by the girls on the second day, which makes it that more respectable, as Jordan concludes), and we're shown a clip of her at her graduation accepting her diploma. Coincidentally, she was also the first contestant introduced in the Big Brother US run, possibly signifying her as The Leader.
  • She went on to put her brains to good use, founding a highly successful cosmetics brand. She's now worth around $410 million, quite a lot more than the Big Brother prize winnings.

George Allen Boswell (6th Banished Houseguest)

As the only Season 1 pick, George was chosen to compete on Big Brother All Stars.

• Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: He notes in the first episode that he is bound to embarrass his then-teenage daughter by telling all sorts of silly stories about her in the house. He also doesn't care if he's seen in his underwear and actually had his wife buy dozens of new pairs for the show.
• Big Fun: He knows he's overweight, and very jolly.
• Breakout Character: George was the only person from the original iteration of Big Brother in the US to be invited back for the All-Stars Season 7, and every other season to follow had at least two returning competitors.
• Butt-Monkey: Got banished while dressed as Julius Caesar as a punishment. It would become a Running Gag on the show that contestants get evicted wearing outlandish getups, especially those involving unitards.
• Class Clown: Would go on to become known as Big Brother's "court jester" on account of the fact he loves silly antics, starting with putting on one of Cassandra's wigs and parading around like a goofball.
• Cloud Cuckoo Lander: George is impulsive and his wife notes that he's got a habit of coming up with goofy schemes and ideas. One of the things he mentions he once did was go out on the diving board outside of his house in the snow and lay down on his side in his underwear. He even had his wife buy 30 new pairs of underwear before entering the house because he thought America might find it funny to see a guy in his undies, and he didn't care.
• Cool Old Guy: George is a hardworking roofer and a rather easygoing and nice guy. He also admits it's back-breaking work.
• Dramatic Irony: On the first day, George worried the group was going to get bored quite easily He remarked he didn't think there would be much to do in the Big Brother House. He wouldn't say that six seasons later!!
• Family Man: George adores his family and tells the other houseguests that marriage is worthwhile because while it can be tough, it gets better the longer you go at it. And almost immediately as he approaches the house, he gets choked up at having to be away from them for a long time for the first time in his whole life, and only a couple days in is fighting back tears over the whole ordeal of being on the show.
• Foreshadowing: Knew things were going to heat up in the house after a while as people got cagey with time, and he was right.
• Gentle Giant: He's got a larger build and a very soft and kind voice.
• Goofy Print Underwear: One of his photos in the US premiere with his intro package shows him in Christmas light-patterned boxers. He invoked this on purpose for the show by having his wife get tons of more funny undies.
• Happily Married: To his wife Teresa for 22 years (as of the premiere of this season). He is married as long has Karen has been to Tom.
• Nice Guy: He has a very soft and kind voice and rarely cusses, to the extent that Jamie exclaims, "Chicken George is swearing!" when he does.
• Only Known By His Nickname: Chicken George or Chicken Man. He got it after helping to wrangle a loose chicken from the backyard chicken coop and claiming he knew a lot about these fellas, and also citing he had a book from the library on the subject that was going to have a massive late fee now (but Curtis joked the library would probably understand this one, being on national TV in a house for as many as three months and all). He cares for the chickens quite a lot during the season, having them "smile" for the cameras and trying to nurse ailing One-Eye back to health (though ultimately she has to be left in the Red Room AKA the season 1 Diary Room to be taken to the vet). By Day 3, the nickname had stuck.

Cassandra Waldon (5th Banished Houseguest)

• Badass on Paper: She works for a United Nations Embassy language/communications development program. That is a very high-level profession. She was also the very first person to enter the Big Brother house in the US run, as Julie gave her the honors of opening the door because she was closest to it at the time.
• Brutal Honesty: Cassandra is polite but she isn't afraid to be frank.
• Character Death: Tragically, she was killed in an automobile accident decades after being on the show. She's the first woman on the US series to pass away.
• Deadpan Snarker: Occasionally she can be witty. For example, from the second episode of the season on the first night:
  (applies a retainer in her mouth in front of the bathroom mirror camera)
  Cassandra: (to the women in the nearby girls' bedroom) It's like training your teeth.
  (Beat)
  (quietly rolls her eyes at how much she hates her retainer)
• Dull Surprise: Admittedly, her reactions tend to be incredibly flat. "That's hilarious." "Good one."
• Early-Installment Weirdness: Cassandra's profession, like Curtis's, is something you probably won't see on modern episodes of the US Big Brother due to its political ties.
• Expository Hairstyle Change: Cassandra has dreadlocks during the season, and in her intro, she says she has only recently got them as part of an effort to simplify her life and is still trying to figure them out and might be seen (and is seen) with headwraps on her head on the show, as well as rollers.
• Nice Girl: Probably the most level-headed, mild-mannered, and considerate person in the whole house.
• The Quiet One: Downplayed- she talks a bit, but Cassandra tends to be soft-spoken. Some claim she straddles the line between this and The Bore, since not much can be said about Cassandra in terms of her entertainment value because she is very demure.
• Token Minority: Zig-zagged. She says at the dining table that she comes from a place in New York where there's essentially no black people. After learning that she was not from Harlem like he thought, William asks "Are you the token person from your neighborhood?" and she replies with "Nooo~~ooo!!" He goes on to clarify "I'm just f—kin' with you." Cassandra gently replies, "I know you are".

Brittany Petros (4th Banished Houseguest)

• Action Fashionista: She loves to dress in clothes that are eccentrically cute and even wigs. Or as she puts it, "When I come home, I like to dress strange, I like to go out. I just like to go crazy."
• Ascended Extra: Brittany has gone on to be an actress and has worked on some popular television series as part of the casting crew.
• Berserk Button: Questioning her character. The incident where Mega used the term "token black" on Day 6 to describe her friendship with Cassandra enraged her and even broke her heart a little.
• Berserker Tears: Her argument with Mega quickly transcends from her yelling at him to her voice breaking from raw feelings of hurt and starting to cry.
• Breakout Character: She proved popular enough to make it into show business!
• Brutal Honesty: In her intro package, Brittany's mother notes that if somebody upsets her by doing something, she will just go up and "point-blank" tell them that, which gives her cause to worry about her daughter. Which, unfortunately, if not inevitably, happened, when William caused a spat with her.
• Cheshire Cat Grin: She has a HUGE grin.
• Commitment Issues: When Karen talks about her bad marriage situation, Brittany reveals that's her biggest fear- that she would get married and be 22 years in and trapped and have kids and not want to be where she was. She also has problems with the uncomfortable side of dating and may not want to date at all for a while because sometimes she breaks up with guys and they get upset with her for the honest reasons she tells them she broke up with them for and can miss them despite the breakup and wanting to be Just Friends and realizing she misses their company when they don't want to be around her anymore.

Double Standard Male On Female: Will calls out Brittany for being able to "grind" and make sexual gestures/contact but when he does it, people complain.

• Cosplay: She has a little bit of a dress-up streak in her, because she's seen with a variety of wigs (that Karen and George later try on) and colored contact lenses, as well as several fancy outfits. Ironically, tell her to dress up on purpose and she'll get upset- it has to be whimsical, something William didn't learn until Day 3.
• Deadpan Snarker: When she's surly, Will calls her the "queen of the one-liners."
• Diabolus ex Nihilo: Her elimination had less to do with America than it did with George's family trying to get more votes to save him and make people vote against her.
• Expansion Pack Past: She is formerly an abroad student who went to Europe, taught organic chemistry, tutored calculus for night school, did a study during her last year of college of synthesis and purification for a company called Vitacide where she would take samples of drugs and examine them and learn about them, and later joined the company as one of its pharmaceutical agents... her biography is about as colorful as her hair.
• Expository Hairstyle Change: At the drop of a hat. We meet her with brightened red hair, but she goes into the house with colorful streaks in it and pigtails, as well as various wigs ranging from a bobbed version of her normal hairstyle (seen in the dance club in her intro) to a dreadlocks wig that Karen and George both borrow for fun. One night, she used a long and flat red hairstyle with no highlights. Then she switched to green hair dye later on in the game. At the end, she had curly black long hair.
• Everyone Has Standards: She has reservations about nudity. When Brittany was in France studying abroad, she was aware of nude beaches in Europe and didn't go near them and was okay with that.
• Fangirl: Her intro shows her in a Captain Caveman T-shirt and with many stuffed animals on her bedroom shelf, such as Garfield.
• Fiery Redhead: Her hair is a deep dark red, and if her temper is pushed hard enough, she gets very emotional. Brittany's dad mentions she's a bit of a pistol, and her mother all but confirms it.
• Friend to All Living Things: Brittany was crying pretty badly when One-Eye the chicken nearly got killed after being stuck in the chicken coop door frame by her neck and needed to be rushed to the animal hospital.
• Genki Girl: She's a very hyper person.
• Girlish Pigtails: Usually, she has a set of big, bushy pigtails that cross into odango hair. Otherwise, she just has a big frock of messy red hair tangled in mountains of curls.
• I Just Want to Have Friends: Brittany simply wants friendships above all else; she is by no means racially insensitive.
• The Ingenue: Brittany is nice-hearted and a self-admitted virgin.
• Like an Old Married Couple: Brittany and Will often argue because they're too much alike. Will even parrots something Brittany said in her intro that people either love him or hate him off the bat.
  Brittany: We might be too much alike. That might be the problem.
• Living a Double Life: Makes a distinction between herself at her job, which is "SO conservative... when I'm out of work, I'm just like, 'BLAAAH!!!' You know- I'm free!". She states there is "work" Brittany, "and then there's the other Brittany" (the real her). A distinction made clearly by how the background music suddenly shifts from tame guitar strings to intense hard rock.
• Minnesota Nice: Brittany hails from Minnesota and has a pleasant personality.
• Motor Mouth: Get her started, and she chatters away!
• Odd Friendship: Her relations with Will are constantly either good or icky because they see so many similarities. On Day 3, she says to him, "You're so 'aahh'." He replies, "The queen of the one-liners." Later that night, Will remarks that he likes her spunk and how she needs to expound on everything is just like him but sometimes she does it so much it seems to be like she wants to grandstand and eat up screentime.
• Party Girl: Brittany loves to party! That is made clear during her intro package, where she's a mild-mannered woman by day, but a rocker and danceaholic by night.
• Perky Goth: You could even call her the inspiration for Abgail Scuito on CBS! The rock star outfits, the boots versus heels, the pigtails and the attitude are practically synonymous.
• Precision F-Strike: A mild version when Mega pushes enough buttons about getting dressed up that she tells Mega, "Hell, no."
• Refuge in Audacity: Brittany encompasses this SO much. She is at her happiest when she's acting wild and crazy. She mentions right off the bat that people either love her or hate her because of the way she is.
• Religious Bruiser: Brittany is a merry Christian and has found stability in her life from it because she sees it as helpful at dealing with things you can't control. Cross her and you will be scorched with a fire and brimstone sermon. She also insists that the house say grace at the dining table, as seen during their first breakfast together.
• She Cleans Up Nicely: Dressed all corporate in her intro package, you wouldn't even think that's the normally messy-headed Brittany. More apparent on Episode 17, during the second banishment night. She does away with the nose ring and adopts a long-haired red wig and pretty pink dress, mentioning it's a calmer Brittany than what people are used to when Julie asks about the new look. However, in keeping with her disdain for and lack of high heels, she's also casually barefoot and got her feet on the couch and fiddling with her toes, zigzagging the trope in an amusing manner because she says she's gotten all dressed up but those bare footsies look really chillax.
• Tall Poppy Syndrome: Infamously, the Boswell family campaigned to get her out of the house because of how popular she was, leading to the demise of the voting system as a regular fixture in the US Big Brother.
• Tsundere: Type B. Normally lovely and friendly, but when cranky or very irritated, she explodes.
• Ur-Example: The very first person to actually get into an angry and despondent argument in the house to the point where she raised her voice in fury.
• Wild Child: She mocks how her very conservative parents consider her to be going through a phase where she's rebellious, restrains herself to gel with her conservative job at a drug company, and likes to dress in loud and punk outfits when she's out and about. Her dad also refuses to let her wear a nose ring in her house (intercut with scenes of her at a piercing/tattoo parlor), and Brittany imitates him whining, "My daughter is into self-mutilation!"

Karen Fowler (3rd Banished Houseguest)

• Big, Screwed-Up Family: Even though her children love her and her husband is trying, the family photo◊ submitted for her intro package is quite telling... the Fowlers' smiles look VERY awkward and forced, and husband Tom is barely smiling at all. Tom later admits in an interview he has a very hard time expressing his emotions and that marriage made him and Karen two halves of one whole but that half of him is being exposed to an environment he doesn't like. This is quite dismaying to hear considering that this part of him wants them to split up.
• Broken Bird: Karen seemed like she was going to be a nice houseguest, but her marital troubles bled through onto the show proper.
• Foot-Dragging Divorcee: On Day 3, Karen has a long and revealing conversation in the kitchen with George (who is busy making salsa), Brittany, and Jordan (prepping the cooking station) about how her marriage to Tom is devoid of affection and the only reason she's held on so long is out of concern for her children, especially her son in high school and teenage daughter Ashley. She mentions she is in the process of getting a divorce, but doesn't go through with it because it would mean working 8 to 5 instead of only 8 to 2 during the daytime, doesn't trust Tom to provide like her (in terms of emotional contribution and support to his kids) and she'd be absent from the household and unable to be there for her kids. Her marriage to Tom is in-name only, and he didn't want her on the show because nobody knew about this impending divorce at work and Karen likes to talk. He is a very emotionless person who has alienated Karen's affections. He hates kissing and opposed to affectionate Karen. Karen says Tom wanted to try Survivor but he would be hated right off the bat for being so controlling and uncaring.
• Hysterical Woman: At times, she leers into this area when her personal conflicts eat at her and she becomes emotional and/or tormented.
  William: (nighttime Red Room session, at the close of Day 3): Karen is still killing me— She's definitely the first one I'm ruling out. I just think she's got a little mental problem, I don't know how she passed the psych test.
• I Just Want to Be Loved: Upset that her husband acts like an Entitled Bastard in that he holds the fact they have a nice house and swimming pool over her head (she jokes about the Big Brother house pool being tinier than in the brochure) and he got married mostly for show and security to pose as a married man of 22 years with four kids, but thinks a marriage is just about providing, showing very little affection to Karen to the point he doesn't even tell her she's beautiful when going out someplace or in general and she coldly admits she doesn't love him anymore. In fact, Tom was even worse when they first met according to Karen. Tom is also an asshole to Karen simply to spite her, as they had a huge fight on Mother's Day earlier in 2000- which she said was really bad considering the day and the fact her mother was present- where their son asked him why in the world would he marry Karen and he scornfully said, "Because I felt sorry for her." George chimes in that he and his wife Teresa and his mother-in-law make it a special day and even run as part of the celebration and everyone at the table wonders why she's put up with it so long, and Karen admits the only thing keeping them from divorce is her childrens' upbringing. Tom blames his job for his stress, but she would rather live in a trailer if it meant Tom would be happy. She tells Ashley that they're going to live in a rat trap home when they split up, but they'll be happy again and Karen also says they'll have peace, which is what she really wants.
• Mama Bear: Fiercely devoted to her children.
• My Beloved Smother: Karen cites her mom as a major reason she stayed in her loveless marriage, as she kept telling Karen she could work it out with Tom and Karen didn't want to upset her. However, she felt pressured as a result not to leave.
• Psychic Powers: Maybe? Correctly guessed that Brittany was from Minnesota and Eddie has been with his girlfriend for about 8 months, leading George to joke she's a psychic while the houseguests were introducing themselves at the dining table on the first night.
  Eddie: "Psychic" or "psycho"? (everyone at the table laughs)
• Sanity Slippage: Oh, Lord. If there's anybody who shouldn't have gone on the show, it's her. Karen had HUGE emotional baggage regarding a fallout with her husband for going on the show and being away from him and personally missing her children. By day two, she cracked. Eventually, she was considering a divorce, entered a really bad mental state around three weeks later, and by that point the others in the house had to step in and console her and nominated her out of pity that she really needed to go back home and be with her family.
• Survival Mantra: Tried to focus on the fact the show would be over on September 30th, but she couldn't go the distance because there was just far too much unresolved angst bottled up in her.
• Ur-Example: The first person to go into a fit of tears in the house, caused by marital issues and maternal fears her kids needed her at home. It was precluded by her having trouble remembering names in the house and growing edgy when talk of her family came up.

Jean Jordan (2nd Banished Houseguest)

• Absence Makes the Heart Go Yonder: Played with and subverted when she says she has a boyfriend but indicates the only way that relationship would end in the house is if she meets someone who really "kicks ass" over him, but then goes on to clarify that's what her boyfriend Ben is worrying about, with an interview from him confirming he's worried that their relationship could be strained. Jordan actually loves Ben and appreciates his pure heart.
• Alliterative Name: Jean Jordan.
• Dark Secret: She tells Jamie that she has problems with letting people know she works at a gentleman's club as a dancer to make ends meet. In general, she was not comfortable about a lot of her personal life being talked about and didn't really draw close to many people beyond Jamie.
• Defrosting Ice Queen: In the first few days in the house, talk is thrown around between the girls about how a professional advised it would take about three days for people to acclimate to the house. Jordan reserves a lot of her speech to avoid giving too much away but it backfires after awhile when it takes a little longer for people to understand her. She doesn't realize she's not paying enough attention to what she says and does, and her interactions with several people remain thorny for a while until learning she's been too loose with her gab and is silently offending people. She was eager to see how things evolved in the house as time went on, as stated to Jamie on Day 2.
• Dramatic Irony: Jordan would comment that becoming a model for beauty pageants is a bad thing because she's seen how it makes some of her friends turn into attention-obsessed and needy shells and mistreat others because it makes them think only about appearances rather than actual friendships. Fast-forward to Big Brother 15, and we meet someone who is a glaring example of this problem in the industry and would get a lashing from the viewers... Aaryn, who doesn't value friendships as much as she does looking pretty and snips at people almost relentlessly... until maturing some years later.
• The Gadfly: Prior to her banishment, she said in the Red Room she's "got a little devil inside me that wants to antagonize Brittany."
• Innocently Insensitive: Jordan has a lot of strong opinions about things that led her to be nominated by several people who didn't get along well with her because she unknowingly insulted them. Specifically, when Jordan expressed dismay at the idea of showing off one's body because he only does it due to needing money to make a living and it being an embarrassing night job, Eddie gave her a few free passes before finally telling her off that he had a model for a girlfriend. Jordan also did not know that Jamie is Miss Washington USA and said a bunch of things Jamie disagreed with (modelling when you are a child causes people to change in negative ways, alluding to the Stage Mom phenomenon, to which Jamie sympathized with, but then Jamie kindly and insightfully told Jordan that if you model once you're over 18, it can be a much more positive experience and a lot of good can come out of it if it helps inspire you and you become a good role model for women and that a lot of beauty contests don't revolve around the prettiest girl in the room winning, but the girl with the best character overall).
• Ironic Birthday: She was banished on her birthday.
• Last-Name Basis: Just called Jordan.
• Passionate Sports Girl: Shown enjoying swimming and jogging in her intro and mentions she has been really into athletics for about three years (1997-2000).
• Two First Names: Either Jean or Jordan can be a first name of somebody.

William "Mega" Collins (1st Banished Houseguest)

William "Mega" Collins (1st Banished Houseguest)

Bookeeper's Odds to Win: 100 to 1

Nominations to Banish Received: 6

Banished

• Badass in a Nice Suit: He was the only one who entered the house dressed like he was going out for a night on the town, wearing a dark black suit with an orange undershirt and diagonally-striped yellow and orange tie, along with some Cool Shades.
• Brutal Honesty: William says what's on his mind, no matter how blunt and upsetting it may be. This led to an argument with Brittany on Day 7, where he made rude comments about the perception of black people and Brittany took offense to that as an attack on her black friend, but William refuted that he was trying to change the narrative of black identity in a positive light. He also jokingly said Jordan had no ass compared to the "sisters" more curved ones, and she laughed at it and said she didn't want a bigger butt.
• The Champion: Deeply devoted to his girlfriend Najima, and even gave her a red rose as he entered the house.
• Chewing the Scenery: Has the honor of being the first person to make Julie burst into laughter on the show because he chose to celebrate his entry into the house by waiting after everyone had entered and fist pumping, "YEAH!! YEAH!!"
• The Charmer: Zigzagged. Will is quite the ladies' man outside of the house, but lump him in with a bunch of people who lead relatively quiet lives (minus Brittany) and he comes off as a sashaying pimp who is telling people to get out of his way.
• Chick Magnet: He's proud to tell us that he has a way with attracting the ladies.
• Cool Shades: His dark gray sunglasses that go with his suit.
  • Sunglasses at Night: Merely wears his shades for Rule of Cool, as he entered the Big Brother house at nighttime and kept them on inside the building. Though with all those bright spotlights outside the front entrance concessions, they might have been helpful, believe it or not.
• Dark Secret: He affiliated with the notorious Black Panther Party, which explains why he's so enlightened about black culture and wants to change the narrative to better reflect the black community.
• Dramatic Irony: William talked a lot about racial identity and Muslim vs. Christian religious conflict and how he is concerned it could cause a lot of strife if culture clash starts setting in, because he grew up in the eighties and nineties when racial tensions and gang violence hit a fever pitch. Keep in mind that this season ran from July 5 to September 30, 2000. One year later, the US suffered a massive terror attack (which even hit DURING the filming of Big Brother 2 and claimed the life of one houseguest's cousin), and in the years to follow, a lot of violence began to erupt regarding religious extremism and racially-charged crimes throughout the 2000s and 2010s.
• Fish out of Water: When he talks to Cassandra about nominations, he explains how he can see how some houseguests mesh, while he lacks a group that feels like his crowd.
• Foreshadowing:
  • The very first thing he said in his intro package was about not holding his tongue. It was precisely what got him banished first.
  Mega: My mother always told me that my mouth was gonna get me into a world of trouble. The world seems a bit troubled, and I think it was my mouth that got me into Big Brother.
  • He was the last one who entered the house, and ended up in last place.
  • He was also the first person to have something to eat in the house, but did so rather selfishly, sneaking a piece of food from the dining table when no one was watching before the group sat down and ate, showing that he does whatever he likes without giving consequences much thought.
  • Just hours after entering the house, William got a little friction for unknowingly throwing his things down in a room that all the ladies ended up selecting for themselves (as this particular batch of people was going into a brand new game among strangers where co-ed living was not a comfy subject because it wasn't expected yet). He quickly defended himself that he had gone into the room and set his things down before the other girls entered and wanted to be sure he'd avoid a situation where they "jump my ass". However, this was the moment when the houseguests began to learn William is a very freewheeling person who doesn't play well with others because he doesn't have much tact. A bookie actually said that this was the moment he ruined his chances of getting forward in the game and put him at 100-1 odds (yes, they actually took odds back in Season 1, go figure— they also had commentary from a studio audience where Will's sister gave her input).
  • He surprised Karen by getting cigarettes as a grocery gift, knowing she's the only person in the house who smokes. The two started joking that he was trying to buy her off and that she would become his puppet. Hmm... Skip ahead another season and we meet Dr. Will Kirby, the guy who cemented the Machivellian puppet-mastering of the US Big Brother.
• The Gadfly: Mentioned he was getting to a point where he was basically sick of hearing people's bios in the first three days of the game and started messing around with people for his own amusement, which Cassandra warned him not to do because it's best to let people be themselves.
• Hidden Depths: William seems to be a very profound person with a lot of interesting things to say. He's also a member of the Muslim Brotherhood and is seen dressed in one of the traditional robes as he talks about his girlfriend, Najima. His profession is a youth counselor, too.
• His Own Worst Enemy: His mother said it best- his own mouth is the source of all his problems.
• Hypocrite: Technically one. Complains that people are fulfilling racial stereotypes, but then in the act of acknowledging them in the house, prevents people from having innocent racial tension-free ones while there.
• Iconic Outfit: Either his suit, or any number of his basketball jerseys and/or hats.
• Innocently Insensitive: William is highly opinionated and says and does many things that really aggravate people and accelerated his banishment.
• It's All About Me: Mega is well-mannered but at the same time very upfront and difficult to live with. His big man on the premises attitude was not well-received.
• Jerkass: The very first one in the American version of the show, although most of it comes from not knowing when to shut up or exercise restraint. He is Brutally Honest and has a tendency to speak his mind, and it began to upset people from the very first day in. The show, which had a commentary much like the UK version in this season, noted he was rubbing people the wrong way as of Day 2, and Cassandra warned him politely that he can't go around acting like a player or else people will start to see him as that instead of noticing his Hidden Depths. He also had the dubious honor of being the first person to ever start a fight in the U.S. Big Brother series, on Day 6 when he made Token Minority-flavored comments that angered Brittany.
• Jerkass Has a Point: When Brittany says she's not sure if she likes him or not, Will says "That's good." Because by the logic of their casting, it needs to invoke some level of tension to make the show have substance.
  William: If it was going to be The Brady Bunch it would be boring as shit.
• Jerk Jock: His intro showed him bench-pressing a lot of weight and playing basketball. The jerk portion stems from his attitude. He isn't really a jerk- he finds it fun to talk big for coolness and street cred.
  Will: Working out, I mean, that's something I do to stay on top.
• Jive Turkey: He has some shades of this because he sometimes talks in street slang.
• Not Evil, Just Misunderstood: So many of the issues caused by Will Mega in the house are due to either poor communication, doing things impulsively, or being too crass than what people felt comfortable with (remember, this was Season 1 of Big Brother- LONG before any of the zany elements were the norm and people felt safe in letting their guards down.
• Odd Friendship: To Brittany. After 3 days in the house, she tells William she's "on the fence" with him and doesn't know whether to like him or not and sometimes he says things that makes her like him and sometimes he does the oppostie. He starts joking around about wanting to have a "date" with Brittany on Day 3 at 9:30 PM and asks if she had heels and she says no because why would she want to bring heels to the house (showing more sense than a lot of future houseguests who see the need for excess glamour in the house) and Will simply says it's all part of getting to know him, then bluntly says he's about to make a "blam" as in take a dump because he doesn't want to be farting all through their date, with no shame at all. Brittany gets annoyed when Will insists on them changing clothes and she doesn't want to because she's content with the outfit she's wearing. Will finally relents, only to keep annoying Brittany by telling her to "work it" in a joking manner when she seems to be ambling about and Brittany holds up her left hand to stop him and says, "That kind of comment makes me not like you." Will gets argumentative for Brittany seemingly doing the same kind of things without scrutiny when she talks and then calls her the "Queen of the one-liners." Brittany sighs in exasperation and mentions the irony of trying to be honest and making people upset when they hear the truth (that they don't want to hear), which is something her mother said would be a problem in the premiere and justified an earlier conversation she had with Karen about being honest and paying for it.
• Only Known By His Nickname: Invoked on Day 1 at the dining table. Cassandra thought it sounded better that way.
  William: My name's Will, but my friends just renamed me, so I'm "Will Mega."
  Cassandra: Oh, no, no, no. Mega- Mega.
  George: Just call you "Mega?"
  Cassandra: (affirmatively) Mega.
• Refuge in Audacity: Mega is practically always saying or doing things that are loud, blunt, and bombastic. He is a very unfiltered person with a lot to say and plenty of energy to contribute.
• The Reveal: Why is William so outspoken and vocal? He was a member of the New Black Panther Party who went by the name Hiram Ashantee. Officially, he was a former National Field Marshall of the New Black Panther Party for Self-Defense. The controversial topic of him being a political activist was brought up by Julie during his banishment interview after earlier that day, the Party leader, Khalid Abdul Muhammad, confirmed Will's identity during a press conference. Will did not want to fully delve into that topic without full access to the tape of that event so as to not provide an inaccurate response, and said he hadn't been a member for approximately four months and left for private reasons known only to the NBPP. Due to the very combustible reputation of the organization and Muhammad's actions, this is better off treated as a sensitive topic and left at that.
• Screw This, I'm Out of Here!: Celebrated his banishment from the house, which is really saying something. He'd much rather be with Najima.
• The Social Expert: Justified, as William's job is working with youth and doing counseling. He can get a good read on people's personalities. By Day 3, he pegged everyone except Jamie and Jordan. He saw Eddie as very withdrawn and not very talkative. He found Josh cool but so agreeable with everyone it might make him boring. He considered Curtis "CC"- "carbon copy" (as in very generic) and boring in that regard, and said Cassandra doesn't put up with his "'Mega' bullshit" when referring to the way he jokes and groaned that her no-nonsense personality bores him. He liked George but didn't think he'd miss him if George went home early. He admires Brittany's spunk and the way they're similar in that they have to expound on everything but that she can overdo it at times. He found Karen the scariest, thought she might have a little mental problem (marital stress), and wondered how she passed the psych test (every contestant is psychologically screened before entering the house).
• Skinship Grope: Downplayed because no actual groping took place, but it was alluded to. Will calls out Brittany for being able to "grind" and make sexual gestures/contact but when he does it, people complain.
• Sir Swears-a-Lot: The cussiest person in the house, casually dropping f-bombs like they're an everyday norm. Compare to George, whom Jamie is surprised actually swore when he dressed up in one of Brittany's wigs along with a funny hat and sunglasses and cussed as part of the joke.
• Street Smart: Grew up in the street environment and began a job helping children at a youth center and reading to them.
• The Social Darwinist: His motto in life.
  William: Livin' in the concrete jungles, you know, it's survival of the fittest. Playas play for it, and suckas pay for it, so I'm gonna get mine by playin' for it.
• Tattoo as Character Type: He has a shoulder tattoo of Africa as a superhero in rainbow colors, and William has a strong social revolutionist personality and has a bit of a preachy side toward black power.
• Troll: He made up a challenge involving keeping a candle lit for hours on the dining room table and set up the chairs, the houseguests' masks, and a black kickball to make it difficult to comprehend. Karen learnt in the red room that this was not a challenge. Later, Big Brother called Will out on his BS. Will had to come clean and reveal that it was all a prank.
• Ur-Example: The first "banishment" of the US Big Brother (a term which didn't have a nice ring to it and was later dropped for "eviction"), but technically speaking, the prototypical example of "eviction". He's also the first person who triggered a major shouting argument in the house.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: Will was the first houseguest ever in the U.S. version to be voted out the house. However, subverted in that the first season took sixteen days to get to its first banishment and the show ran five episodes per week, giving Will a ton of screentime and a lot of exposure, and it made it very clear that he was causing too much trouble for his own good.
• Wrong Genre Savvy: Take one guy who is from the mean streets and pair him with nine other people who come from relatively modest and conservative homes, and within hours, it was clear he was a difficult fit for the other nine. Now, had he applied for the much more rambunctious version of the show, Mega might actually be very well-received. Pair him with today's fare of houseguests and he'd look tame compared to some of them.

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