It's hard to imagine, but in the summer of 2000, there was no such thing as "The Bachelor." There was no "Amazing Race," no "American Idol," no "Fear Factor" and no "Project Runway." CBS took a lofty gamble in green-lighting a little something called "Survivor," which premiered on May 31 and became a runaway success. By July 5, it found a partner in "Big Brother," a show that locked 10 strangers in a house on a studio lot in Los Angeles and left them to battle for a $500,000 prize. The network purchased the rights to the Netherlands series of the same name -- a reference to George Orwell's 1984 -- for an estimated $20 million. The series, which asked viewers to vote for one of two...
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