aye i was watching originally the highlight show was 5-10 mins a night at 11pm i think it was 20 mins on a wednesday night though (because tuesday was task day) then a single 1 hour show on a friday (30 mins highlights then 30 mins evivtion) if i remember rightly it was after about 2 weeks that it became evident it was a hit and ratings were great and the highlights were increased to either 20 mins a night or maybe 30 im not sure about that and 1 hour on a friday.
it was 10 pence to vote which was via landline only (mobiles cost more) but no text voting.
the live stream was only on the c4 website and was very jittery as a 56k connection was the norm at the time but it was 100% unedited it had swearing,name dropping and included visits to the diary room which was no more than a broom cupboard in the front room.
music and singing was unrestricted housemates were allowed to bring two books each in to read.
for the first 4 series of bb i could recite every single housemate that had ever entered the big brother house i was (and still am) obsessed with the programme but for me bb1 was/is still the best and i can still recite those names bb1 Andrew, Anna, Caroline, Craig, Darren, Melanie, Nichola, Nicholas, Sada and Tom.
damn im going to miss it
