Big Brother 7

Big Brother 7, also known as Big Brother: All-Stars, is the seventh season of the American reality television series Big Brother. It is based upon the Netherlands series of the same name, which gained notoriety in 1999 and 2000. The series premiered on CBS on July 6, 2006, and lasted eleven weeks until the live finale on September 12, 2006. The seventh season saw a moderate increase in ratings, though they generally remained the same when compared to previous editions. The season premiered to a total of 7.69 million viewers, the lowest premiere numbers for any season at the time. The season finale had a total of 8.14 million viewers. In total, the series averaged 7.56 million viewers. Big Brother: All-Stars featured a total of 14 HouseGuests, the same number that was featured in the previous season. The majority of the cast was selected by viewers, though producers did select some HouseGuests; it is composed entirely of HouseGuests from the first six seasons. The series ended after 72 days, in which HouseGuest Mike "Boogie" Malin was crowned the Winner, and Erika Landin the Runner-up. Production Development In September 2003, following the ratings success of Big Brother 4, Entertainment Weekly confirmed that CBS had renewed the series leading up until 2006, ensuring three more seasons to air during the Summer time period. This meant that Big Brother: All-Stars was the last of these three seasons. The season was officially greenlit in October 2005, the first time a Big Brother season had been renewed before the Winter time period. Rumors of an All-Stars season had been circulating for quite some time, with much speculation believing the previous season was going to feature an All-Star cast. Big Brother 6 HouseGuest Kaysar Ridha confirmed shortly after the finale of his season that he had been approached about joining the season. Despite this, TMZ later reported that a Celebrity edition of the series would be airing instead, though CBS never confirmed or denied this. In April 2006, it was officially confirmed that the seventh season would be an All-Star season. It was also confirmed that the viewers would be able to vote for some of the contestants to be featured in this season. 20 potential HouseGuests were revealed, and it was confirmed that a total of twelve HouseGuests would be competing in this season, and that the viewers would select half of this cast.