Big Brother (Australian season 11)
Big Brother Australia 2014, also known as Big Brother 11, was the eleventh season of the Australian reality television series Big Brother. It began on 8 September 2014 on the Nine Network. The season ended on 26 November 2014, lasting 80 days. Excluding the celebrity edition of the show, this is the shortest Big Brother season to date. The winner of the season was Ryan Ginns, who won a total of. The show's renewal was confirmed by the Nine Network, who air the show, at the end of the previous season's finale. This was the third season of the show to air on the Nine Network after it picked up the series in 2012, following a four-year absence. The show was originally screened on Network Ten. Sonia Kruger continued as the host of the show, and Mike Goldman continued as the narrator.
Production
Auditions
On 8 March 2014, details of open auditions for this season were revealed to be taking place in: Perth, Brisbane, Newcastle, Sydney, Albury, Launceston, Melbourne, Adelaide, Canberra and Townsville. Applications were also accepted through sending an online video audition and were the only form of auditioning in the Northern Territory, where an applicant would film themselves and address why they thought they would be an ideal candidate for the show. However, these candidates would also be required to attend the open auditions but some may have been fast-tracked to a further stage of auditions if their video was deemed good enough by the show's producers. All applicants were required to be 18 years of age at least and have the necessary paperwork allowing them to stay in Australia until 1 January 2015. A new feature to the audition process was that people were invited to nominate 'a mate'. This involved someone putting another person forward who they thought would be an ideal candidate for the show. Those who were put forward by their 'mate' and were deemed good enough by producers were encouraged to attend further rounds of auditions or in some cases fast-tracked.Development
Commercial
On 13 August 2014, Big Brother Australia posted a photo with the caption "A Storm Is Coming" to their Facebook page. A day later the first commercial aired for the upcoming season featuring a Noah's Ark theme. On 24 August 2014, a second commercial aired stating that "One Housemate will have the ultimate power".The House
On 2 April 2014, it was rumoured that for the first time in the show's history, the house would have a second storey when the show's host, Sonia Kruger, announced that the house was "going up". It turned out that the diary room would form the upstairs portion of the house.Overview
Twists
- Pair Housemates- Two strangers will compete in pairs. This twist was however put out of play on Day 16.
- Power Play - Each week housemate will be assigned as the Head/s of House and will be given a power play. A housemate is responsible for making decisions regarding on the task given to them. It is similar to United Kingdom's Big Brother UK: Power Trip's Power Trip twist.
- Double Night, Double Eviction - Most weeks would feature 2 eviction episodes, the first would reveal the some of the safe housemates and the first evictee of the week and the second would reveal the second evictee among those that were not safe at the conclusion of the first eviction.
- Mass Eviction - More than 2 housemates got evicted within the week.
The House
Housemates
, sixteen Housemates had entered the House. It was revealed that the Housemates would be entering and playing as pairs. Big Brother determined that each pair was either a good or bad match, based on psychological evaluations.On Day 24, first intruder Leo entered the house, followed by Marina on Day 35, and Lina, Penny, Richard and Tom on Day 49.
| Name | Age on entry | Hometown | Day entered | Day exited | Result |
| Ryan Ginns | 26 | Sydney | 0 | 80 | Winner |
| Travis Lunardi | 24 | Melbourne | 0 | 80 | |
| Skye Wheatley | 20 | Gold Coast | 0 | 80 | 3rd Place |
| Priya Malik | 27 | Adelaide | 0 | 79 | |
| Penny Higgs | 30 | Victoria | 49 | 79 | |
| Lina Grant | 25 | Victoria | 49 | 79 | |
| David Hodis | 31 | Sydney | 0 | 72 | |
| Ryan "Leo" Burke | 30 | Gold Coast | 24 | 71 | |
| Richard Hordern-Gibbings | 25 | Sydney | 49 | 66 | |
| Tom Mackay | 26 | Sydney | 49 | 65 | |
| Kate "Cat" Law | 31 | Melbourne | 2 | 58 | |
| Aisha McKinnon | 22 | Sydney | 2 | 58 | |
| Lawson Reeves | 23 | Perth | 2 | 57 | |
| Marina Rakovskaia | 30 | Adelaide | 36 | 51 | |
| Jason Roses | 26 | Canberra | 0 | 45 | |
| Sandra Nixon | 30 | Wagga Wagga | 0 | 44 | |
| Sam Bramham | 26 | Melbourne | 2 | 37 | |
| Lisa Clark | 29 | Sydney | 0 | 30 | |
| Jake Richardson | 25 | Sydney | 0 | 29 | |
| Katie Schepis | 25 | Sydney | 0 | 23 | |
| Dion Kallis | 24 | Brisbane | 0 | 22 | |
| Gemma Kinghorn | 29 | Perth | 0 | 16 |
Pairs
On launch night it was announced that the housemates would be playing in pairs. Below is a list of the paired housemates. However, this twist was announced to be over on Day 16 after the first eviction.| Pair | Good or Bad Match. |
| Priya and Katie | Bad |
| Jake and Gemma | Bad |
| David and Sandra | Good |
| Dion and Jason | Good |
| Skye and Lisa | Bad |
| Travis and Ryan | Good swapped by Jason |
| Sam and Cat | Good swapped by Dion |
| Aisha and Lawson | Good |
| Travis and Cat | Good |
| Sam and Ryan | Unknown |
The pairs were separated following a swap executed by the Heads of House, Dion and Jason, on Day 8.
Head of House
The Head of House is responsible for making important decisions in the House. As the Housemates are playing in pairs, there will be two Heads of House at a time.- On Day 0, pre-selected Head of House Priya had to choose whom to pair up with making them also a 'HoH'. She choose Katie and the pair were given their first Power Play. They had to select one pair of Housemates to be isolated from the House for the first night. They chose Dion & Jason, who were then banished to the fish bowl in the garden. Katie & Priya were then offered a sum of money from the prize fund, however food would be taken from the House. The more money they took, the longer the Housemates would live without food. They decided to take $10,000 in exchange for no food for a week. The amount of money they took was later revealed to the other Housemates – by way of Katie & Priya having to have the $10,000 with them at all times – but, what was not revealed was that this money was taken from the total prize fund. On Day 6, Katie & Priya made their last Power Play as the Heads of House. They were able to barter with Big Brother, and, for $1,500 each, were able to grant themselves immunity from the first eviction.
- On Day 6, it was revealed that the Australian public had chosen Dion & Jason to be the next Heads of House. On Day 8, Dion and Jason made their first Power Play as the Heads of House. They had to swap a member of one pair with a member from another, thereby creating two new pairs. They chose to switch Cat and Sam and Travis and Ryan. This meant that the new pairs formed were Cat and Travis, and Sam and Ryan. On Day 10, Dion & Jason received the Nominations Power Play. This resulted in them having double the usual number of nomination points to spread across any number of Housemates in the first round of nominations.
- On Day 12, Big Brother 10 winner Tim Dormer re-entered the Big Brother House. He was asked to select the first solo Head of House and was assigned a series of tasks during his stay, which included telling the Housemates they will no longer be playing as pairs after the first eviction. Tim ended up choosing Lawson on Day 13. On Day 16, Lawson received the Nominations Power Play. This resulted in him having 12 nomination points, which could be used to both view other housemates positions on the Nominations Table, as well as nominate. As his second Power Play, Lawson got to choose two housemates that would think they were taking part in an online web chat with fans of the show, when in actuality, the questions from the fans were coming from Lawson and Sam. Lawson chose David and Jason.
- On Day 20, it was revealed that the Australian public had chosen Sam as the new Head of House. Sam was given the opportunity to prank a fellow housemate, along with a housemate of his choice. They were asked to pick a housemate that would possibly promote a fake product. They chose Travis to do this. Sam also received the Nominations Power Play, resulting in him having 12 nomination points, which could be used to both view other housemates positions on the Nominations Table, as well as nominate.
- On Day 27, it was revealed that the Australian public had chosen Cat as the new Head of House. As part of the hotel task, where housemates are split into hotel guests and staff that cater to the guests' every need, Cat was asked to divide the housemates into the two categories as her first Power Play. As Head of House, Cat was already a guest, and chose the other six nominated housemates at the time; Aisha, David, Jake, Lisa, Skye and Travis to join her, leaving Jason, Lawson, Leo, Priya, Ryan, Sam and Sandra to be the hotel staff. On Day 30, Cat received the Nominations Power Play, resulting in her having 12 nomination points, which could be used to both view other housemates positions on the Nominations Table, as well as nominate. On Day 31, Cat was offered the chance to view every housemate's nominations from the previous night, in exchange for letting the other housemates view her and Lawson's night in the sanctuary earlier in the week. Cat chose not to view the nominations in exchange for the night in the sanctuary remaining secret.
- On Day 35, it was revealed that the Australian public had chosen Skye as the new Head of House. On Day 37, Skye received the Nominations Power Play, resulting in her having 12 nomination points, which could be used to both view other housemates positions on the Nominations Table, as well as nominate. On Day 38, Skye was offered the chance to win $5,000 by digging through a treasure chest to find 5 gold coins within 60 seconds, in exchange for her nominations being shown to the rest of the housemates. Skye accepted this task and won the $5,000.
- On Day 41, it was revealed that the Australian public had chosen Priya as the new Head of House. As Priya's first Power Play, she was asked who she thought was coasting in the game. Priya thought Aisha was, and as a result, Aisha was offered $20,000 to evict herself from the house. Aisha declined. However a counteroffer was made. Aisha and Travis were offered $50,000 to split between them if they evicted themselves together. Aisha and Travis declined. On Day 45, Priya received the Nominations Power Play, resulting in her having 12 nomination points, which could be used to both view other housemates positions on the Nominations Table, as well as nominate.
- On Day 49, it was revealed that the Australian public had chosen Ryan as the new Head of House. On Day 51, Ryan was informed that the four new intruders, Lina, Penny, Richard and Tom, were moving from the Sanctuary into the Big Brother House. Ryan was tasked with choosing four original housemates to live in the Sanctuary in their place, indefinitely. Ryan chose Cat, Leo, Priya and Travis.
- On Day 55, it was revealed that the Australian public had chosen David as the new Head of House. As soon as David was appointed, he was asked to choose a housemate living in the Sanctuary to join the housemates for a party. Cat, Leo, Priya and Travis had the opportunity to plea to David to let them attend. David chose Cat to attend the party. On Day 60, David received the Nominations Power Play, resulting in him having 12 nomination points, which could be used to both view other housemates positions on the Nominations Table, as well as nominate.
- On Day 61, the housemates voted in a secret ballot to select the new Head of House. There was a tie between Richard and Travis. The deciding vote was cast by the existing Head of House, David. He picked Travis as the new Head of House. On Day 65, Travis was given a Power Play with several choices. He could eat a whole lasagne cooked by his mother, a smaller portion of lasagne and get the chance to ask Aisha a question, or eat an extremely small portion of lasagne and ask Aisha two questions. Travis chose the final option. His two questions were whether Aisha will move to Melbourne to be with him and which three housemates were most popular based on Sportsbet. Travis also received the Nominations Power Play, resulting in him being able to nominate for himself, as well as having a loved one nominate on his behalf.
- On Day 69, Travis' week as the Head of House came to end. Entering the final week of the game, no further Heads of House were selected.
| Housemate | Day 0–6 | Day 6–13 | Day 13–20 | Day 20–27 | Day 27–35 | Day 35–41 | Day 41–49 | Day 49–55 | Day 55–61 | Day 61–69 | ||||||||||
| Housemate | Pre-selected | Public vote | Tim's choice | Public vote | Public vote | Public vote | Public vote | Public vote | Public vote | House vote | ||||||||||
| Ryan | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Travis | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Skye | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Priya | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Penny | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Lina | ||||||||||||||||||||
| David | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Leo | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Richard | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Tom | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Cat | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Aisha | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Lawson | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Marina | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Jason | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Sandra | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Sam | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Lisa | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Jake | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Katie | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Dion | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Gemma |
Weekly Summary
Prize Money
The show started with prize money of $250,000. Throughout the series several contestants were given opportunities to win part of the prize money.Nominations Table
Nominations Power Play
The Nominations Power Play is a weekly twist to nominations. It is a special secret power given to the Heads of House. The Nominations Power Play gives an advantage to the Heads of House for nominations in that given week.- In Week 2's nominations, whilst the other pairs had to distribute five points between their nominations, Heads of House Dion & Jason had ten.
- From Week 3 to Week 7 and Week 9, the Head of House during each week had 12 nomination points, which could be used to both view other housemates positions on the Nominations Table, as well as nominate.
- In Week 10's nominations, whilst all the other housemates had a loved one nominate on their behalf, Head of House Travis was able to nominate for himself, as well as having a loved one nominate on his behalf.
Ratings
Ratings are rounded to the nearest ten thousand. Figures in Bold indicate timeshifted viewing figures.Combined ratings; the show aired on both Channel Nine & GO! at different times in different states.