The Winner’s Circle: Big Brother 1’s Eddie McGee

(If you don’t know what “The Winner’s Circle” is, be sure to read our introduction to this feature of the Reality TV Hall of Fame.)

Big Brother 1 is somewhat of a lost series. It followed the format of Big Brother houses in foreign nations, along with their rules. There were ten houseguests, with each person in the house nominating two persons for banishment. The houseguests with the most votes from their fellow houseguests were marked for potential banishment. American viewers voted with their phones (and 900 numbers), and the loser was banished from the Big Brother house.

Yes, this series was much different than the other Big Brother series held in the United States since then. America voted out the houseguests, but they played games for their grocery money. They had to bet a percentage of their budget on games they played over the course of the week. If they lost, their shopping budget was reduced; if they won, they got extra to spend however they liked. They were also held responsible for their purchases – in one week, they thought they had bought enough toilet paper, but found out they got a different brand and fell short. It was time to cut up the paper towels... or do their business in the garden.

Yes, the garden. That was another aspect of the original European series to be implemented in the first run of Big Brother in the United States. The houseguests were expected to tend to their garden, as well as gather eggs from, and feed, their chickens. However, one aspect of the first series in the United States that nobody in Europe figured on was good old-fashioned American ingenuity. In Europe, nobody figured out a way to pass messages from the outside world to the houseguests. In the United States, fans decided to use banner planes to warn the houseguests or encourage them. It got to the point where the letters from the banners were auctioned off on eBay, and the houseguests were allowed to send one of their own (they selected the message "Live Long and Prosper").

The houseguests, in order of their removal, were Will "Mega," a black panther; Jordan, a stripper; Karen, dubbed “pscyho-mom;” Brittany, a wild-child virgin; Cassandra, a classy African-American woman; George, a good family man who slowly went nuts over the series; Jamie, Miss Washington USA; Curtis, a Korean-American lawyer; Josh, a California surfer kind of guy; and Eddie, a New York City guy with one leg, a big attitude, and a drive to win.

Perhaps the summer of 2000 should be marked as the era of innocence in American reality TV. On the run of Survivor 1 (Borneo), the Pagong tribe was getting systematically eliminated, while the houseguests in Big Brother were systematically being tossed by an American voting public that consistently voted off people who "bugged" them. A single unpopular move was enough to rally people to vote with their wallets on the 900 number to evict a houseguest. From Will Mega (who threw a competition for grocery money) in the first elimination, to Jamie, who picked two minutes with a Hollywood producer over two minutes with her mom in a reward challenge, America voted out their enemies, just like the Tagi alliance in Survivor systematically voted out everybody else.

What Eddie seemed to understand the best from their first day in the house was that a popular houseguest with a fan base was invulnerable. Three seasons of American Idol might have proven this true, but Eddie never wavered from his initial statement he was there to win the money. With the voting in the hands of America (via pay-call 900 numbers) to vote out people, he survived the votes, watching his enemies get eliminated one by one. While the other houseguests voted emotionally to keep others in the house from being marked for banishment, Eddie voted strategically to kick other people out. Again, he played on the game rules (tactically) and behaved strategically (presenting himself to America).

In the end, that is what won him the game – and the money. Eddie focused on the goal, and built up his fan base throughout the country. He had a foul mouth, was a New Yorker, had one leg, played wheelchair basketball (though he never let that get in the way), and made no apologies for what he was on any front. He sold the entire package to a nationwide audience. That's why he won the first USA Big Brother.

Jeffrey Clinard lives in Las Vegas, Nevada, with his cats, Lam and Princess. He can be reached at realityfeedback@bookslv.com.

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