15 contestants leave their current lives to create their own ideal mini-society while being followed by hundreds of cameras. They will spend one year in a place where no rules or laws exist. All the participants - aka "inhabitants" - in the show have been given is an empty barn on an undeveloped piece of land, some cows and chickens, water and electricity connections, one phone and a sum of cash to create their environment and survive for the first few months. Like in Big Brother, the Utopia participants nominate fellow inhabitants for elimination in a process in which the viewers also vote to nominate a contestant for elimination.