Big Brother (Dutch and Belgian TV series)

Big Brother 2021
Presented by	Geraldine Kemper Peter Van de Veire
No. of days	100
Release
Original network	Netherlands RTL5 RTL4 (Premiere) Belgium VIER
Original release	4 January (2021-01-04) – 9 April 2021 (2021-04-09)
Additional information
Filming dates	31 December 2020 (2020-12-31) – 9 April 2021 (2021-04-09)

Big Brother 2021 is the cooperation season of the Dutch and Belgian version of Big Brother. It is the seventh regular version of Big Brother in both Belgium and the Netherlands. The show is broadcast on RTL5 in the Netherlands and VIER in Belgium beginning on 4 January 2021. Live streams are available 24/7 on Videoland for Dutch viewers and on Telenet for Belgian viewers.

On 7 June 2020, it was announced by RTL that there would be a new Dutch season of Big Brother after an absence of 14 years to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the first Big Brother ever. On 23 July 2020, it was announced that it would be a cooperation with a Belgian broadcaster, making it the first cooperated Big Brother season with housemates from both Netherlands and Belgium and the first Belgian season in 13 years.

Geraldine Kemper and Peter Van de Veire are co-hosts of the show. The show began airing on 4 January 2021. Eight housemates entered the house on launch night on New Year's Eve, 31 December 2020. The start of the season was successful, with more than 1.3 million viewers in the Netherlands and over 500,000 viewers in Belgium.

The show will last 100 days and the final will be on 9 April 2021.

Production

Format

Big Brother 2021 followed the same format as the previous season of the program. Housemates lived in isolation from the outside world in a custom-built house for a period of 100 days, hoping to be the last one to leave the house as the winner, and walk away with a large cash prize.

Concept

Producers of the reality show called the comeback of the show a necessity in times where reality was filtered, enhanced and changed by social media. The show states that it would expose the housemates like they truly are. During the show Big Brother shared messages, pictures or videos posted by the housemates on their personal social media before their stay in the house with all the housemates.

This season was a reintroduction of Big Brother in both Netherlands and Belgium, it was again promoted as a social experiment.

Broadcasts

The premiere show is known as De Start (lit. The Start) was pre-recorded on the evening of 31 December 2020 and simultaneously broadcast on RTL4 and RTL5 in the Netherlands, VIER on Belgium on 4 January 2021. The show aired from Monday to Friday with the live show on Thursday night.

During the live shows, there were experts who gave their views about the interactions in the house. These experts were psychologist Kas Stuyf, sexologist Lotte Vanwezemael and social media expert Diederik Broekhuizen.

House

A new house was built in Amsterdam, next to the Johan Cruyff Arena at a parking lot of Endemol Shine Nederland in a few months. It was a 300 m² house and had 125 cameras installed (100 indoor cameras and 25 outdoor cameras) and 39 speakers. During the house tour, it was announced that the cameras in the showers would only be used if it was needed for character or interaction progress and not for voyeurism.

Changes

Unlike in previous Big Brother seasons, there was a change in the sexual activity that happens inside the Big Brother house. An agreement was made between the producer and the housemates, in which the housemates are allowed to have sex with each other only if both housemates show their thumbs up towards the camera. The housemates can only receive beer and wine in small quantities on special occasions or weekends. The production team hopes that this will prevent untoward incidents that eventually cause problems later from happening in the house.

Impact of COVID-19

Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, contestants had to be in quarantine ten days before entering the house. Each housemate was tested four times before participation. Since the housemates had tested negative for COVID-19, they could form a household and did not need to practice social distancing, following the COVID-19 regulations in the Netherlands and Belgium.

Housemates

Despite the announcement that fourteen housemates would enter the house on launch night, it was revealed on 28 December 2020 that during the launch night, only four housemates from the Netherlands and four housemates from Belgium will enter the house.

Name	Age	Occupation	Country	Residence	Day entered	Day exited	Status
Jerrel Baumann	25	Make-up artist	Netherlands	Amstelveen	36
Jill Goede	22	Cabin crew trainee	Netherlands	Landsmeer	9
Julie Vanderzijl	34	Daycare owner	Belgium	Affligem	20
Liese Luwel	28	Nurse	Belgium	Halen	1
Matt Herrijgers	19	Event manager and DJ	Netherlands	Zundert	36
Michel Hennipman	36	Navy veteran	Netherlands	Maarssen	20
Naomi Timmerman	31	Biologist and vegan lunch bar employee	Belgium	Mechelen	1
Nick Kraft	30	Driver and DJ	Belgium	Morkhoven	3
Patrick Van Staeyen	59	Shop owner	Belgium	Schoten	20
Thomas Nagels	23	Commercial advisor	Belgium	Etterbeek	1
Zoey Hasselbank	29	DJ	Belgium	Schaarbeek	9
Daniëlle Dielemans	40	Teacher	Netherlands	Made	1	31	Walked
Jowendrick "Jowi" Maduro	25	Student	Netherlands	The Hague	1	31	Walked
Nathalie Eling	23	Student	Netherlands	Groningen	1	31	Walked
Els Trollmann	57	Team leader at driving school	Netherlands	Dronten	3	29	Evicted
René Hagman	29	ICT consultant	Netherlands	Hoorn	9	22	Evicted
Theo Sijtzema	54	DIY company owner	Netherlands	Amsterdam	1	15	Walked
Zakaria "Ziko" Ouchchen	34	Choreographer	Belgium	Lokeren	1	8	Evicted

Twist

Prize money

In this season, housemates were required to do several tasks every week. These tasks were known as "secret mission" or "weekly tasks". If the housemate(s) completed, they earned prize money for the winner of this season.

	Current total amount	Task	Worth	Result	Increased
Week 1	€0 (Initial)	Secret mission for Liese.	€5,000	Failed	€0
		Weekly task for Daniëlle and Jowi.	€4,000	Partially passed	€2,000
		Secret mission for Liese.	€5,000	Passed	€5,000
Week 2	€7,000	Endurance challenge for housemates in duos.	Duos Theo and Els €1,000 Jowi and Nathalie €2,000 Rene and Naomi €3,000 Daniëlle and Liese €4,000 Zoey and Nick €5,000	Passed Daniëlle and Liese	€4,000
Week 3	€11,000	Challenge for Nick.	€1,500	Passed	€1,500
		Challenge for housemates.	€0/€10/€?x2	Passed	€4,260
Week 4	€16,760	Challenge for Jowi and Zoey.	€1,500	Passed	€550
Total	TBA

Caretaker

Every week, the viewers decided who became the Caretaker (Template:Lang-nl). The Caretaker can't be nominated for eviction, they can create three house rules for that week and have to manage the grocery budget.

Week	Caretaker	Caretaker's house rules
1	Jowi	Theo & Nick cook, the other housemates clean according to the cleaning schedule. Everyday housemates play the werewolves game three times. Before going to bed, everyone hugs each other and say 'Bon Nochi'.
2	Thomas	Everyone is obliged to run 15 laps. Shoes should not be worn in the house only outside. Housemate(s) who not willing to do cleaning or other house works will only drink water.
3	Nick	Make the bed. Morning gymnastics. Group hug in the evening, and do something together.
4	Liese	Wake up when the Big Brother song played and make the bed before the song ends. A moment of confession every night and everything can be discussed. Lunch outside every day with all housemates or perform an activity together. Penalty rule: If the house rules are not properly or correctly observed, a penalty will follow: take a dip in the hot tub.
5	Naomi	Everyone has to speed dating for 5 minutes every day. Every day, someone has to come up with a tournament. After breakfast, housemates dance to music led by a housemate. Penalty rule: If someone does not follow the rules, must read a Big Brother poem of at least 10 lines to the whole house.

Immunity token

On Day 19, Daniëlle was called to the diary room and she returns with a box. Inside this box was an immunity token. This immunity token was earned during the knitting task. When a housemate uses this token, he or she cannot be nominated. Daniëlle lied about the meaning of the token by telling her housemates that the housemate would be decided by a joint decision.

Weekly summary

The main events in the Big Brother house are summarised in the table below.

Week 1
	Entrances	On Day 1, Jowi, Liese, Thomas, Danielle, Ziko, Naomi, Theo, and Nathalie entered the house during the premiere show. On Day 3, Els and Nick entered the house at midnight.
	Reality exposure	On Day 2, a Twitter post about Black Lives Matter of Naomi was shown. A TikTok video of Liese was played. On Day 5, a video fragment of Theo's selection about women and racism was played.
	Caretaker	On Day 5, Jowi was voted by viewers the first Caretaker.
	Tasks	On Day 1, Jowi was given a secret mission. He had to compliment all the other housemates with their eyes. He also had to decide who would sleep in the seven beds and one folding bed. Housemates would receive a party package for New Year's Eve and a key to unlock the hot tub if they completed the secret task. If he failed, the bedroom would be locked for the night. Jowi chose the folding bed for himself and succeeded in the task. On Day 2, housemates took part in their first immunity challenge, which required them to solve a puzzle individually. They had to collect the puzzle pieces and bring them over a balance beam to the puzzle platform. Naomi won the challenge and immuned for nomination this week. Through Day 2 to Day 3, Liese was given a secret mission. She was informed two new housemates would enter the house on the following night. To help them she had to secretly place a locked box at the entrance of the game room. If the secret task was completed, the housemates would earn €5,000 for the prize money. The two new housemates, Els and Nick had to do follow a tube trail in the game room to enter the house. They succeeded. Other housemates discovered the replaced box and took it to the bedroom. The two new housemates were discovered, which means the task is failed and no budget was won. On Day 3, housemates got their first weekly task. The two chosen housemates with the most human knowledge, Daniëlle and Jowi, had to link eight quotes to the other housemates who said the quote. If they completed the task, the housemates would earn €4,000 for prize money. However, they didn't guess all of the quotes correctly, only €2,000 was added to the prize money. Through Day 6 to Day 7, Liese was given a secret mission. She had to prepare the housemates to dance to the Big Brother theme song. She was allowed to choose one other housemate to help with the task. If she succeeded, €5,000 would be added to the prize money. On Day 8, all housemates except nominees Liese and Ziko had to paint a picture of each other. After the task, the viewers voted for the housemate who painted best. The winner would receive a surprise from the viewers.
	Nominations	On Day 7, Liese and Ziko received the most nominations and faced the public vote.
	Exits	On Day 8, Ziko became the first housemate to be evicted.
Week 2
	Entrances	On Day 9, Jill, René and Zoey entered the house.
	Highlights	On Day 10, a drone dropped a box of Red Bull in the garden. Last week's Caretaker Jowi dropped Red Bull for vegan food on the grocery list, which upset some housemates.
	Caretaker	On Day 11, Thomas received 21.76% of votes on the voting of "Who should be given a bigger role". Therefore, he was elected as the second Caretaker.
	Tasks	On Day 12, Big Brother placed five ice balls on the outside. Their goal was to break the ice balls and collect the marbles inside each of them. Each marble they collected would earn them €5 for groceries. They were able to complete the task and earned €210. On Day 13, Housemates must compete in an endurance challenge to balance on a stool. The public had voted for the strongest housemate and the weakest housemate. Housemates were then divided into duos by this voting result. During the challenge, they would have to step up onto a higher stool. The last remaining duo would earn an amount of money that would be added to the prize money. Caretaker Thomas chose Jill not to participate with him. Distribution of pairs and amount of money Theo and Els €1,000 Daniëlle and Liese €4,000 Jowi and Nathalie €2,000 Zoey and Nick €5,000 Rene and Naomi €3,000 Daniëlle and Liese won the challenge and earned €4,000. On Day 14, Jill received a task to memorize photos of housemates' loved ones. Then she had to open eleven boxes in fifteen minutes with a key for each housemate. Inside the boxes was a favorite snack from one of the houseguests. Jill successfully opened nine boxes and passed the task. On Day 15, the nominees Els & René received a task to place the correct housemate with their personal item. If they got all the items correct, they could give one of the personal items to a housemate. However, they failed. On Day 15, the housemates except for the nominees Els & René got a task to spin a wheel. The color where the wheel landed determined what they had to do. They had to speak the truth, assign someone to do something or complete an assignment. If they did not want to perform an assignment, they could use a Joker. They were given three Jokers. The goal was to complete twenty assignments in one hour. If they failed this task, then they would not have any hot water for 24 hours. They passed the task.
	Nominations	On Day 14, Els and René received the most nominations and faced the public vote.
	Punishments	On Day 13, Theo received a warning for his sexist behavior and swearing.
	Exits	On Day 15, Theo walked from the house.
Week 3
	Entrances	On Day 20, Julie, Michel and Patrick entered the house.
	Caretaker	On Day 16, Nick was elected as the third Caretaker through a task.
	Tasks	On Day 16, Nick has been called to the game room. He had to choose one of the six boxes each contained different items. The first box contained €1,500. The second box was he allowed to have a pet in the house for 24 hours. The third box contains a nomination. The fourth box was minus €400 from the prize money. The fifth box contains a chance to become a caretaker. The sixth box contains either €5,000 or minus €5,000 to the prize money. Nick chose to become a Caretaker. Through Day 17 to Day 19, the housemates took part in the task to knit a blanket. They had to make it as big as possible. When they completed the task, they would receive a reward. They completed the task and got an immunity token. Through Day 18 to Day 19, the housemates were given a balloon full of grocery budget money. They must keep the balloon intact and on at least one housemate's hand at all times for 24 hours. If the balloon explodes, touches the ceiling or floor, or leaves the hand of one of the housemates, they would fail the task. If they succeed, they would receive all of the money inside the balloon for their weekly grocery budget. Because the housemates succeeded, they received €175 for their grocery budget. On Day 20, Nick received a challenge: he had to identify the 3 new housemates within the group in the game room. He passed the challenge and earned €1,500 to the prize money. On Day 21, the housemates were assigned to hit tennis balls for the prize money. Each housemate would have one minute each to attempt to hit as many balls as possible. Pink balls were worth €10, yellow balls would double the money they earned in one minute, and black balls were worth €0. The housemates received a total of €4,200 for the prize money.
	Nominations	On Day 15, the eviction plan for Week 2 changed after Theo left the house. Because René received the fewest votes on the previous public vote, he was automatically nominated for this week's eviction. Liese and Naomi were nominated by housemates.
	Exits	On Day 22, René became the second housemate to be evicted.
Week 4
	Caretaker	On Day 23, Liese was elected as the third Caretaker through a challenge.
	Tasks	On Day 23, all housemates except Jill had to seat on chairs. One chair was different from the other chairs. The housemate that sat on this chair had to open an envelope. In the first round, the housemate is Daniëlle, she opened an envelope and received her personal item and had to decide which five other housemates had to leave this challenge with her. She chose Els, Julie, Michel, Patrick and Zoey. In the second round, the housemate is Jowi, he opened an envelope and received a punishment, he wasn't allowed to nominate this week. Jowi had to decide which two of the remaining housemates were the biggest opposites of each other, he chose Liese and Nathalie. Liese and Nathalie had to decide which one of them became the Caretaker. They decided it's Liese. On Day 26, the housemates were required to collect sticks from a structure. The ring around the stick must not fall from the game. Each stick is worth a certain amount of money. In the end, the housemates earned €195 for the grocery budget. On Day 27, the two selected housemates, Jowi and Zoey, were required to collect falling sticks from the ceiling. Each stick worth a certain amount of prize money. They would have the possibility to earn a maximum of €1,500 for the prize money. Additionally, there were purple sticks, which would allow them to earn a double vote for the nomination next week. In the end, they collected €550 and collected the purple sticks, but they decided not to use them. On Day 29, all housemates except Caretaker Liese and nominees Els and Patrick, must play a quiz challenge. They were divided into teams of two. The first team included Jowi, Julie, Naomi, Nathalie and Zoey. The second team included Daniëlle, Jill, Michel, Nick and Thomas. The winner of the challenge would earn one meter of beer. The team of Jowi, Julie, Naomi, Nathalie and Zoey won.
	Nominations	On Day 27, Els and Patrick received the most nominations and faced the public vote.
	Exits	On the early morning of Day 23, Jill was taken to the hospital for stomach pain. She returned to the house on Day 28 after 4 days of quarantine. On Day 29, Els became the third housemate to be evicted.
Week 5
	Caretaker	On Day 30, Naomi was elected as the fourth Caretaker through a challenge.
	Highlights	On Day 31, Jowi said that he wanted to leave the house in two days. Nathalie joined in and said that she was also thinking of leaving. Big Brother gathered the housemates and said that his experiment is as hard as it could have been expected. Big Brother gave all housemates the choice to stay and continue the experiment or to leave. The housemates had only five minutes to decide. Daniëlle, Jowi and Nathalie decided to leave. Big Brother promised the other housemates that their experiment will be made for fun for the remaining weeks.
	Tasks	On Day 32, the housemates had to catch blue balls from a device for their grocery budget. Each ball worth €1.5. In the end, the housemates earned €100.5 for the grocery budget. Passed On Day 34, the housemates had to take part in a task for the prize money. They could earn €5,000. There would be a dance marathon for ten hours. During the ten hours, at least two housemates must be on the dance floor. In the end, the housemates earned €4,000 for the prize money. On Day 35, during the grocery shopping, each housemate was given three options. They could choose between knowing why they were nominated by their fellow housemates, they could receive a personal item or they could receive a message from home. However, if the housemates choose a personal item or a message from home, €100 and €250 would be removed from the prize money respectively. In the end, Liese chose to receive a personal item and Jill chose to receive a message from home, a total of €350 deducted from the prize money.
	Exits	On Day 31, Daniëlle, Jowi, and Nathalie left the house voluntarily.
Week 5
	Entrances	On Day 36, Jerrel and Matt entered the house during the live show. The third new housemate to be entered the house would be decided by the viewers.
	Tasks
	Exits

Nominations table

  Housemates from The Netherlands

  Housemates from Belgium

		Week 1	Week 2	Week 3	Week 4	Week 5	Week 6	Week 7	Week 8	Week 9	Week 10	Week 11	Week 12	Week 13	Week 14 Final
	Jerrel	Not in House
	Jill	Not in House	Els Liese	Liese Zoey	Hospitalised	No Nominations
	Julie	Not in House			Els Nathalie	No Nominations
	Liese	Theo Nathalie	Nathalie René	Nathalie Daniëlle	Els Daniëlle	No Nominations
					Patrick
	Matt	Not in House
	Michel	Not in House			Patrick Daniëlle	No Nominations
	Naomi	Thomas Theo	Els Jill	Nathalie Thomas	Els Daniëlle	Caretaker
	Nick	Els Liese	Els René	Els Jill	Els Nathalie	No Nominations
	Patrick	Not in House			Els Naomi	No Nominations
	Thomas	Ziko Liese	Jill René	Liese Naomi	Zoey Julie	No Nominations
	Zoey	Not in House	René Jill	Nathalie Jill	Els Nathalie	No Nominations
	Daniëlle	Liese Ziko	René Naomi	Liese Naomi	Patrick Julie	Walked (Day 31)
	Jowi	Ziko Liese	René Nick	Liese Naomi	Not Eligible	Walked (Day 31)
	Nathalie	Liese Ziko	René Naomi	Liese Naomi	Patrick Julie	Walked (Day 31)
	Els	Ziko Daniëlle	Naomi René	Liese Naomi	Patrick Julie	Evicted (Day 29)
	René	Not in House	Els Nathalie	Liese Zoey	Evicted (Day 22)
	Theo	Ziko Liese	René Els	Walked (Day 15)
	Ziko	Theo Nathalie	Evicted (Day 8)
Notes		1, 2	3	3	4	5
Caretaker		Jowi	Thomas	Nick	Liese	Naomi
Immunity winner		Naomi	none
Up for eviction		Liese Ziko	Els René	Liese Naomi René	Els Patrick	none
Walked		none	Theo	none		Daniëlle Jowi Nathalie
Evicted		Ziko Fewest votes to save	René Fewest votes to save	René Fewest votes to save	Els Fewest votes to save	No Eviction

Notes

• ^1 : Because Naomi won the first immunity challenge, she became immune from eviction.
• ^2 : Because Jowi was elected as the Caretaker, he cannot be nominated for eviction. Also, he can create three house rules by himself and manages the grocery budget.
• ^3 : Theo chose to leave the house because he was unhappy during his stay in the house. Due to Theo's voluntary departure, neither Els and René would be evicted. Instead, the nominee who received the fewest votes would be automatically nominated for the next week.
• ^4 : In Week 4, because Jill was not in the house during the time of nomination, neither was she able to nominate, nor could she be nominated by the other housemates. Jowi was the first to be called to the diary room and was then told that he cannot nominate because he has lost his chance in the caretaker challenge. Furthermore, the nominations resulted in a tie between Julie and Patrick. Caretaker Liese then had to make the decision between the two of them. She chose Patrick to be the second nominee, besides Els.
• ^5 : On Day 31, Daniëlle, Jowi and Nathalie have voluntarily left the house.

External links

• Big Brother 2021 website
• Official website on RTL Nederland
• Official website on VIER