During each series, specific elements of the competition have a special show dedicated to them, usually presented on a specific evening. Each weeknight and on Sunday evenings a compilation of the general events in the House for the previous day are presented. All live shows are broadcast with a 30-second delay so that images or language that cannot be broadcast due to Australia's censorship laws can be cut. These programs add up to approximately 16 hours per week. Except for during its first season, Big Brother episodes screened each day except Saturday.
Main shows
Opening Night
The Opening Night is the first episode of the Big Brother Australia series that introduces the new housemates and the House for that year. It is currently hosted by Sonia Kruger. Previously, it was hosted by Gretel Killeen from 2001–07, and Kyle Sandilands and Jackie O in 2008. In different seasons it ran under various titles such as Launch, In They Go and The Secret.
Daily Show
The Daily Show aired Monday - Friday at 7:00 pm – 7:30 pm for all seasons of the series. It reported on the previous day's happenings inside the House, and was narrated by Mike Goldman.
Later seasons of Big Brother added a Sunday edition of the Daily Show, which covered the preceding Friday and Saturday, which screened Sundays at 6:30 pm – 7:30 pm. Occasionally, in various seasons of the series, the Daily Show episode would run to one hour, sometimes to accommodate a special event in the house.
For the 2001 through to the 2007 seasons, on screen it simply carried the title Big Brother. For the 2008 season the on-screen title was shown as Big Brother: Daily Show. During the 2008 season the Monday evening installment was extended to a one-hour duration when the housemate nominations were incorporated into the episode.
In 2012, the Daily Show aired from Tuesday - Thursday at 7:00 pm – 8:00 pm and Friday at 7:00 pm – 7:30 pm. Sunday and Monday did not include a Daily Show – instead a recap of the day was merged into the Sunday and Monday live shows.
Eviction
Housemate evictions occur in a program titled Big Brother Live Eviction. The housemate who has attracted the most viewer votes to evict is evicted. The eviction shows are televised each Sunday night at 7:30 pm (Australian Eastern Standard Time). Actual events start a short time before 7:30 pm. Proceedings are conducted in an auditorium in front of a live audience at Dreamworld.
These shows are broadcast live. In this show usually one housemate, but occasionally two, is evicted from the house, usually at around 7:45–8:00 pm. Shows that feature two evictions are called Double Eviction. The first Australian Double Eviction, described in advertising hyperbole as a "world first", took place during Big Brother 2002. Big Brother 2006 added the save vote, allowing viewers to vote to save a housemate as well as evict; in the final tally housemates' save votes are subtracted from their evict votes.
The 2008 season introduced a new nomination and eviction process. For the 2008 season the public vote for which housemate to save from eviction. The three housemates with the fewest save votes are nominated for eviction. The housemates then vote to evict one of the three. From week five this new routine was abandoned the original eviction procedure reinstated: housemates nominate each other and viewers may vote only to evict those nominated.
Big Brother 2012 changed the voting once again, getting viewers to save the nominees they want to stay in the house. They can only vote for those housemates that are up for nomination and the housemate with the fewest votes to save them are evicted. This voting process is also used in the current season, Big Brother 2013.
In Big Brother 2004 after the eviction of Bree Amer, it was found the votes for that eviction had been incorrectly counted. Amer had not received the most eviction votes, and she took up the option of returning to the house the following Monday night. A special eviction was held on the following Thursday evening in which the housemate to actually receive the most votes, Wesley Denning, was evicted. A representative of Legion Interactive, the company that manages eviction votes and compiles the results, appeared on the second eviction show to explain how the error occurred.
Finale
The Big Brother Finale is a significant event conducted in front of an audience at Dreamworld and broadcast live on television. The usual series host presents the finale. The television presentation has been scheduled to run as long as three hours, sometimes running even longer. The 2007 season finale was extended by almost an hour due to a delay in finalising eviction vote tallies.