Hello! I'm thinking of starting to watch BBUSA (after I finish BB5 UK) and was wondering which series you would recommend I should start on?

I don't really care about not starting with season 1 (unless it's recommended to me as a great season), the type of series I would be interested in watching are ones full of interesting/outspoken/brilliant houseguests with plenty of arguments and great moments.

My favourite series of BBUK is BB6, if this helps you point me in the direction of a series you think I would enjoy.

Thanks in advance

My favourite UK series is 6 too

There aren't that many crazy characters in the US version - and when there are they are usually edited too much. I've always thought 5 and 9 had the craziest casts but they're both rated as fairly average series by BBUS fans because their strategy isn't the best.

BB2-3 are both excellent and worth watching if you're interested in decent strategy. Everyone else loves BB6 and it does have a constant war between two sides of the house but the characters are mostly blander IMO. If you want to watch a 'newer' style series, I'd go with BB8 or 10.

The only ones I would watch: BB2 first series with the new game rules and strategy, BB3 some brilliant gameplay, BB6 house divide, BB7 All stars (best players return a must see i think), BB8 is one of my personal favs, BB10 due to good gameplay again and BB14 the last series just gone which was also very good and return to previous form I wouldnt watch that first though as the starting mentor twist would be very confusing to new viewers ( and controversally BB13 is good in places but was ruined by producer fixing). But my decsions are based on my like for strategy and good gameplay if its drama you want I would go for BB9 and BB11.

Seasons 2, 6, 8 and 14 are the top seasons IMO.

Also 3 is good, 10 is OK, where as 9 and 12 are somewhat... not very good.

And Season 1 is just plain boring, eventhough it´s the only one with the traditional format. (ie: BBUK, BBAUS etc...)

Season 2, 3, 4 and 10

Thanks for this.

Shall look into them and try and find some, a friend of mine also said BB6 of the US version was good so will probably go for that one!

I would start with season 2, then 4, then 6, then 7 (all stars... but you should watch all previous series to know who is who), 8.

Most importantly... ignore season 9. It wasn't great.

I'd do 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, ignore 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14.

Best seasons are: BB2, BB3, BB6, BB10 and BB11.

BB7: All Stars has fun moments but best to watch after you've seen BB2-BB6.

BB14 has a great second half to the season.

BB4, BB5 and BB13 are average.

BB9 and BB12 are awful.

I'd rank it like this:

Definately watch:
BB3
BB6
BB2
BB10
BB11

Good:
BBAllstars
BB14
BB8

Average:
BB5
BB4
BB13 (Although it is a total rigfest)

Avoid:
BB12
BB9

I completely missed out BB8! Erm, I'd rank that somewhere just above the average seasons. It has a great cast but too much riggage.

My first season i watched was 11 and i loved it! I then started from season 6 and watched them all through to 14. I would recommend this!! Season 6, 11 & 12 are my favourite seasons! I haven't watched any of the earlier seasons as they don't really interest me but i find all the other seasons i've watched i've loved and been hooked! Enjoy watching!!!

How come? I'm sure most would agree BB2 is a must and one of the best.

I only got into US BB relatively recently and have now watched them all apart from BB1 which definitely doesn't interest me as it's old UK style rules and the significant pleasure of US BB is it's difference to UK BB.

The best ones though are BB2, BB3, BB6, BB7, BB8, BB10 and BB11. Oh heck watch them all I even even watched BB9 and enjoyed it

Not sure really why, they just haven't appealed to me in the slightest. Maybe because i know the outcomes in the earlier seasons has put me off watching.

I suggest watching all of them in order. Amazing!

Yeah this. They all are amazing for me. The game never gets boring.

OK so sorry to bump this after nearly 10 months but I thought it was pointless to start a new thread.

Anyway, I didn't get round to watching any seasons but I really want too start soon as I've heard good things about BBUSA. I keep hearing different things about the seasons though, some say 10 is the best and most dramatic whilst I've seen others rank it really low so idk now (I want to watch the most consistently dramatic season with strong gameplay btw).

My main question now though is can someone simply explain the rules to me? I know it's different to BBUK and more about gameplay how is it run? is there practically no social experiment side to it etc? Thanks...

After watching Big Brother Canada earlier in the year (which was great btw and IMO is the perfect way to ease yourself into the US format, which is what happened to me) I fell in love with the new format and so back in August after BB15US was coming to an end I too decided I wanted to watch some previous seasons back. I was kinda in the same position as you that the recommendations are so varied that it's hard to pin down which to start with, so in the end I just thought 'well I like the format that much I may as well watch them all and chronologically', since that way I see how the show develops and when players start returning and in All Stars I'll know who they all are.

Since then I've completed BB2 - BB10 (BB1 is a UK format so I haven't bothered), and this is what I'd recommend to you:

Must watches:

BB6
BB10
BB7

All Stars (BB7) is my personal favourite so far but that's only worth watching after you've seen 2 - 6 so you know who the players are. I fell in love with BB6 straight away and if you want drama and strategy I think you will too, but BB10 is more consistent but IMO it had a weaker start and it took me a little longer to get into, but once it gets going it's great.

From the other seasons I've seen BB4 is popular I believe but I found it dull tbh, BB3 is also good but in all honesty BB2 really holds up well considering it's twelve years old and was the first US season to try the new format. It has a great bunch of houseguests and interesting storylines.

I also enjoyed BB5 but it's a bit of an average season, 9 was quite poor but I did enjoy it in the latter stages. And 8 was good and has lots of drama, but I've preferred other seasons.

It all depends on what you're after really, because I was such a big fan of the format I decided to watch them all, so I guess if you were too you could do the same? But then if you're not I would say start with BB6, see how you like it and then consider going back to BB2 and watching them in order so you can then watch BB7 (All Stars) which is great. Or alternatively follow BB6 by watching BB8. I'd say watch BB10 too but there's a competition where former houseguests come back and some of them are winners, so it would spoil earlier results for you, whether you'd be bothered by that or not though I don't know, if you're not then 10 would be good to watch.

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Oh and as for the format it's easy really

Each week there's a Head of Household competition (this varies between a quiz, a physical challenge and an endurance challenge), the winner is named the HoH and must nominate two houseguests for eviction.

There is then what's called a Power of Veto competition in which the two nominees, the HoH and three other players selected by random draw compete to win the Veto which gives the holder the opportunity to save one of the nominees (if the nominees win they can use it on themselves). Whoever wins the PoV can either save a nominee or leave the nominations the same. If the Veto is used then the HoH must name a replacement nominee.

After this the nominees are locked and on eviction night every houseguest other than the two nominees and the Head of Household goes into the Diary Room and vote to evict one of the nominees. Whoever has the most votes is evicted, and in the event of a tie the HoH casts the deciding vote.

Once there are nine houseguests left, every person evicted from that point on becomes a member of the Big Brother Jury (made up of seven houseguests, though in BB15 it was 9), is sent to a remote location and sequestered in what's called the 'Jury House' (like a posh mansion in Mexico or something) and on finale night they return and each cast a vote for one of the final two to win the show. Whoever wins wins $500k and the runner up gets $50k.

The nomination and voting process are naturally open to discussion and most of the episodes focus around strategising, but there are some bits where romances/friendships are given airtime.

Oh and also there's a Have/Have Not competition every week (previously just a food competition), two teams compete for privileges and the losers become 'Have Nots' and have to sleep in an uncomfortable room and eat 'slop' (this disgusting looking rice pudding kinda thing, it's weird) for the week. In earlier seasons though it was peanut butter and jelly, but you get the gist.

Hope that clears everything up for you, and enjoy whatever season you choose to watch it's a much better format than BBUK in my opinion

I would definitely recommend watching Big Brother USA lots of people think it's confusing but I prefer it to BBUK because there is a lot of strategy and intelligence involved.

This is how I'd rank the series (only seen 6-15)

Gold Tier Series:
BB6 - amazing cast, especially janelle
BB7 All Stars - AMAZING cast
BB10 - again, AMAZING cast, entertaining without twist overload

Silver Tier Series:
BB8 - a really good cast but a little bit rigged
BB14 - returning players are all really great

'Bronze' Tier Series:
BB13 - soo rigged and Kalia, Porsche, Shelly only good newbies
BB11 - quite a good cast but still a bit booring
BB12 - good but boring towards the end but has the legend that is Britney
BB15 - awful awful awful cast but first one I watched and the controversy was hard to watch but I enjoyed mvp twist and jessie, candice and elissa are really rootable. Really wouldn't watch this first though.

Meh Tier Series:
BB9 - just bad and unfair

I'd recommend BB6 first.
Even though I say BB9 is bad it's still entertaining to watch I just really didn't like the cast. They're all great!

Oh just one last thing, if you do choose to watch BB2, there's no Power of Veto that season, so whoever the HoH nominated stayed in place for the entire week which makes the middle episode of each week in the season feel quite slow

That's something good about BBUS is that with only three episodes a week (one which focuses on the initial nominations, the next the Veto comp and meeting, and the last the live eviction episode) watching a season of only 30 episodes is really easy to get through

I agree!

6 and 10 by a mile

Avoid 9, 14 and 15

Also once Rachel goes don't bother with the rest of 12 either.

Woah, thanks for all the info! You've explained it well. Knowing that there's only 3 episodes a week I'll probably watch every season from 2 onwards..can anyone post or PM me a good link as to where to watch them? If not I''ll use youtube but the quality is a bit shite!