Big Brother Sverige was the Swedish version of reality TV show Big Brother and was aired from 2000 to 2004 on Kanal 5 for four very successful seasons. New seasons of the Swedish series aired in 2011 and 2012, and then again in 2015.
The first season of Big Brother Sverige started on September 4 and ended on December 15, 2000 lasting for 103 days. Being one of the first ten countries to air the format, the show saw several "worlds first" in the game.
After nine original contestants entered the house on launch night, Daniel Hellström would eventually walk only three days later. In the second week Eva Pederson, single mother of four, walked as well which was resulting in only seven housemates being eligible for the first nomination and two replacements making their way into the house before the very first official eviction.
Having a diverse cast, the audience witnessed a lot of arguments and misunderstandings between the contestants mainly between the "sexual experiental" housemates and the more conservative ones. Angelica Freij, 33-year-old mother of six, felt offended by the close relationship between lesbian Anna Bäckelin and bisexual Paula Glantz. However, in a conversation with Anna, she admitted of never having any contacts to homosexuals and the experience to live with some of them in the house (many housemates stated to be bisexual in that season) opened some new points of view for her which earned her a lot of sympathies by the viewers.
The girl-girl relationship between Paula and Anna got troubled when female's favorite Christoffer Jensen re-entered the house after being evicted and started to fancy Paula, who then decided "to go hetero" for the rest of the season and being concentrated on Christoffer mostly to Annas disappointment.
Together with Christoffer, two new housemates entered the house on Day 61 with only one of them eventually being allowed to stay in the house as the replacement contestant for Johan Hellström, who voluntary left the house close before. When the housemates voted for Christoffer to stay in the house, he became the first contestant to replace two different housemates (he has also been the replacement for Daniel Hellström earlier that series) and Big Brother saw its first double eviction with Camilla Björk and Dieck leaving the house at the very same time.
It was also the first time in Big Brother history that a replacement housemate made it to the final day (again Christoffer Jensen, who achieved the 2nd runner up position) and most prominently, that Angelica became the first woman worldwide to win the show.
Being responsible for the very first reality TV show Expedition Robinson, Sweden embraced its first local Big Brother season and the show was a huge rating hit. Per Holknekt the first runner-up became a well known fashion designer.