Grande Fratello, the Italian version of reality television franchise Big Brother, began in September 2000, and has gone on to become a cultural phenomenon in Italy. There have been twelve completed seasons as of 2013.
Based on the Original Dutch Version created by Endemol, the show sees a number of different Housemates, divided by gender, social backgrounds and geographical locations locked up together in a House, where the viewing Public can watch them twenty-four hours a day, and vote them out of the House as they choose to.
The Housemates can visit the "Confessional" at any time during the day, either to talk to psychologists if they need to, talk to Big Brother, or to Nominate.
The title is inspired by the George Orwell novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. The novel tells of a Big Brother, head of the totalitarian state of Oceania that constantly monitors its inhabitants via camera in an attempt to suppress their free will. The tag line of the novel is "Big Brother is watching you", which inspired the show, as it is
Italy, 1940: Carmen de Blasco is married to a fascist, but falls in love with a friend of her father Ubaldo, the young partisan Armando Zani. At the end of the war, their daughter Giulia is born, but Carmen returns to her husband. Two decades later, Giulia falls in love with university student Ermes Corsini. Nevertheless, he decides to marry the egocentric, but rich heiress Marta Montini. After some years and a disastrous marriage, Giulia meets the love of her life again. Ermes is annoyed by Marta, so he starts an affair with Giulia, but one day she gets a horrible diagnosis...