The 1991 Dutch reality series that pioneered filming strangers living together in one house was Nummer 28.
Broadcast by the Dutch public network KRO as part of the youth program 1-4-U, the series placed seven strangers—described as beginning students—in a student house in Amsterdam. Their everyday lives were followed over several months, giving viewers an unusually intimate look at shared living.
Nummer 28 was not a competition. The residents were not isolated from the outside world, and there was no prize or elimination system. That distinguishes it from Big Brother, which began in the Netherlands in 1999 and added surveillance, nominations and evictions. MTV’s The Real World followed in 1992 with a similar housemate format.
The series also helped establish reality-TV conventions such as soundtrack-driven editing and later-recorded “confessionals,” in which participants commented on events. Its title came from the number of the Amsterdam house where the cast lived.