Big Brother 4

In the fourth season of Big Brother, the American reality TV show, aired thirty-three episodes during the summer of 2003 from July 8 to September 24.

A DVD was released that featured uncensored moments from the season that weren't allowed for broadcast, including nightvision camera footage of contestants Amanda and David having sex in the Head of Household room. (The actual acts happened under covers, so nothing pornographic was shown.)

X-Factor

The big twist for the year was The X-Factor. Eight houseguests were introduced, only to have five houseguests' exes compete against them in the game. This quickly became messy, as Scott, a houseguest who had his ex-girlfriend move into the house, had a violent outburst, and subsequently told the house that he had had a sexually transmitted disease. He was disqualified and evicted from the game.

Golden Power of Veto

Another twist, introduced in the last veto contest of Big Brother 3, was the Golden Power of Veto, in that if a nominated person won such a veto, they would be allowed to take themselves off consideration for voting, which was not allowed when the veto was introduced originally the year before.

Event ordering

Yet another twist in the game occurred when Jun won HoH in Week 8 of the competition. The Veto competition would be held before Jun would make her nominations. The reason being was that Jun, as HoH, won a special trip outside of the Big Brother house to attend the 20th Annual MTV Video Music Awards. Her disappearance (as she entered the Diary Room and never returned) played a part in the Veto Competition, as the houseguests had to guess where Jun was. Jun returned, and nominated Jee, her ex-boyfriend, and Alison. However, Alison won the Veto, and used it on herself, forcing Jun to put Robert in her place. Despite Robert being a replacement for Alison, Jee was unanimously evicted 2-0.

Jury

One last twist to the format included a jury of seven who would decide the outcome of the game. When the game got down to nine players, the evictees formed the jury. The jury format eliminated America's need to break a tie if necessary, as done before in Season 3 (though Lisa won 9-1).

Final outcome

When the game narrowed to the final four, the final veto competition winner, Alison, received the Diamond Veto, which allowed her to choose which houseguest would be evicted. Alison, who was nominated by Robert that week, took herself off the block in a live ceremony, leaving Jun and Erika on the block. As the only voter, she was forced to vote out a fellow female, and ousted Erika. Alison would go on to win the final Head of Household.

The casting twist of having houseguests and ex-boyfriends and ex-girlfriends in the house had an impact on the outcome of this season. None of the three houseguests without an "ex" finished in the top five, Jack Owens being the highest with a sixth place finish. However, six of the final seven were either houseguests who had ex-boyfriends or ex-girlfriends in the house, or were the ex-boyfriends and ex-girlfriends themselves.