Development

The renewal of Big Brother was predicted before the finale of the previous season due to the success the reboot had in ratings. The renewal was confirmed when it was included in Nine's 2013 programming advertisements from 23 November 2012.^[4] Open auditions for the new season took place in April 2013. That year, the capital cities of Darwin and Hobart were not visited, however, Newcastle was. For the first time since moving to Nine, the show accepted video auditions provided the auditionee lived more than 500 km away from the closest audition venue.^[5] In mid-July, an announcement on the official Facebook page confirmed that the tenth season of Big Brother Australia would feature more housemates to enter the house than in previous seasons.^[6] On 21 July 2013, after the housemates had entered lockdown, it was confirmed that a weekly live games task would take place in the first four weeks of the season; it was known as the 'Saturday Showdown' and was hosted by Shelley Craft, with commentary from Mike Goldman and 2012 housemate Michael Beveridge (although the 'Saturday Showdown' was later revealed on the official website to be a pre-recorded showing of the previous night when the games took place and that no live recording would be done). This was similar to the Friday Night Live games format used in previous seasons.^[7] Later that same day, it was revealed that "the biggest twist in Big Brother history" would involve the possibility of a separation within the house, hinted at in cryptic announcements from Big Brother and in advertisements showing sneak peeks of the new season.^[7][8] It was suspected that the twist would somehow affect the running and outcome of the Saturday Showdown. On 25 July 2013, speculations surfaced on whether the eviction shows would be moving to Monday nights due to the returning of Australia's Got Talent.^[9][10] These rumours were later confirmed by Nine before the show began with a pre-recorded launch on 29 July 2013.^[11]

On 24 October 2013, it was announced that Big Brother Australia would be returning to New Zealand on TV3,^[12] after a seven-year absence following the conclusion of the 2005 series. The series aired on an almost four-month delay, a departure from when the series previously aired on TV2 and Prime less than 24 hours after airing in Australia. The premiere was on 25 November 2013.

Week 4 changes

In response to declining ratings and viewer complaints, several changes were made during the fourth week of the season. The second eviction, originally planned to be a single eviction, became a double eviction necessitated by the cancellation of the Halfway House concept on the Wednesday.^[13]

The Saturday Showdown also moved from its Saturday timeslot a week earlier than originally planned. Showdown was intended to air on a Saturday for the first four weeks, up until 24 August 2013, before moving to Thursday due to the NRL finals airing from the following weekend. Showdown was no longer hosted by Shelley Craft, and Michael Beveridge no longer provided commentary as the games were now shown in sequence during the daily show depicting Wednesday's events – with Mike Goldman, the sole survivor of the revamp, who provided the narration as per normal.^[13]

Week 10 schedule changes

On 6 September 2013, Dreamworld emailed people who had already purchased tickets for the 30 September 2013 eviction with the information that the eviction date had been changed to 2 October 2013 as a result of "scheduling changes" and that all evictions from that date would occur on a Wednesday. Despite initial speculation that this was due to increased airtime for Australia's Got Talent, it was later confirmed that a 90-minute show would continue to air on a Monday – indicating the change was a result of Nine wanting to move eviction shows so they no longer aired against The X Factor.^[16]

The show that was originally intended to be an eviction on 30 September 2013 was used as an intruder eviction and also added two new female intruders to the house.

As a result of these changes, the entire schedule for the show was re-worked and came into effect from 1 October 2013. Nominations moved from Tuesday to Thursday and were cut down to 60 minutes. Big Brother Confidential moved from Wednesday to Thursday airing immediately after nominations and the Monday and Tuesday shows became daily shows, with Monday covering the three previous days in the house. Showdown took place on Mondays, and was incorporated into Tuesday's daily show.^[17]

Week 11 schedule changes

Beginning in the eleventh week, the Tuesday daily show had its length reduced to 60 minutes − the Tuesday timeslot, which up until the week prior was used for nominations, had run for 90 minutes since the series began.

Confidential's cancellation

Starting in the twelfth week, Nine removed Confidential from the schedule after it followed the nominations show on a Thursday for just two weeks. As a result, Thursday's broadcast was trimmed to 60 minutes, down 30 minutes from the length it was at the beginning of the series.^[18]

Ultimately this proved to be a cancellation of the entire Confidential format, as unlike its early end the previous year, it did not return for the subsequent series.

Extension

Originally planned to end on 23 October 2013, rumours began circulating in late September 2013 that the series had been extended by two weeks. This was fuelled by the previous year's winner, Benjamin Norris, mentioning an extension in a blog post on 17 September 2013 that covered that week's fake double eviction.^[19] It was also further fuelled by the date of the finale being removed from the terms and conditions of the KFC Say It with Chicken competition that would see two tickets to the finale being given away. On 26 September 2013, tickets appeared on the Dreamworld website to an Eviction show that would take place on the original finale date, thus confirming that the series had been extended in some capacity.^[20]

On 21 October 2013, the new date for the finale was revealed; the series would end on 6 November 2013.

The extension allowed a total of four intruders to enter the house as, for the first time in the series history, there were no plans to include them in the original plan for this series.^[18]

Weekly summary

Nominations Super Power

The Nominations Super Power is a weekly twist to nominations. It is a special secret power given to a housemate. The Nominations Super Power gives an advantage to that housemate for nominations in that given week.

• In Week 2's nominations, Matthew was able to double a housemate's nomination points without them knowing. He chose Caleb.
• In Week 3's nominations, Ed was able to listen to 3 of his fellow housemates' nominations. He chose Drew, Tim and Xavier.
• In Week 4's nominations, Tully was shown the live tally board. She also nominated with 6 nomination points to nominate up to 6 housemates.
• In Week 5's nominations, Heidi was allowed to ask Big Brother questions about nominations as long as the answer is Yes or No. She could ask up to 9 questions, and had 6 nomination points to nominate up to 3 housemates.
• In Week 6's nominations, Matthew was given the ability to void 2 of his housemates' nominations. He chose Ben and Drew.
• In Week 7's nominations, Drew was able to predict the other housemates' nominations. For every name he predicted correctly, he earned a point to nominate with. He earned 7 out of 18 points and was able to nominate as many housemates as he wanted with those points.
• In Week 8's nominations, Ed was told that Ben (who he believed to be evicted) was in Big Brother's Headquarters and would be able to answer any questions he had about the tally board. Ed also had 6 points to nominate with.
• In Week 10's nominations, Jade was able to read three people's nominations, she was also able to shred one of these nominations. She chose to read Ben, Tahan and Tim's nominations, she then chose to shred Tim's nominations, making them void.
• In Week 11's nominations, Mikkayla was able to take 2 nominations points from two separate housemates, she could also nominate with the stolen points from the housemates and she was in the room when they nominated. She chose Tahan and Boog.

Note:   The Housemate holding the superpower, each week it was in play, is marked in green.

Notes

Live Special

On Day 2, Sonia Kruger hosted a special live show that saw the second part of the season's twist revealed as Drew and Jade entered the Safe House pretending to be a married couple. They were tasked with trying to fool the others with this prospect for the whole of the first week. If they were successful, they would earn immunity from the first weekly eviction; if they were found out, they would both automatically face eviction.

The Latecomers

On Day 8, Sonia Kruger hosted a special live show that saw new housemates Rohan and Katie & Lucy enter the house and Drew and Jade's failure of their secret task revealed to the housemates.

The Male Intruders

On Day 58, Sonia Kruger hosted a special live show that saw two intruders enter the house, Nathan and Justynn.

The Female Intruders

On Day 64, Sonia Kruger hosted a special live show that saw two female intruders enter the Big Brother house. The first was Boog, a 23-year-old personal trainer from Melbourne, and, the other, Madaline, a 24-year-old lawyer from Sydney.

Trick or Treat

On Day 95, Sonia Kruger hosted a special live Halloween show that saw the remaining five housemates, Boog, Drew, Jade, Tahan and Tim to view 'trick' and 'treat' packages. The 'trick' packages contained negative parts of each housemates time including being talked about by other housemates, nominations, etc. The 'treat' packaged contained positive parts of each housemates time along with some messages from family and friends.