At the end of a long day, sometimes the best way to feel like you're living your best life is with some comfy PJ's, a glass of wine, and gratuitous reality television. In our series "Not-So-Guilty Pleasures," we remove the "guilt" and break down the latest happenings in your favorite TV indulgences.
- Season 21 of Big Brother officially premiered on Wednesday, June 21—and there's already speculation over the first few HOHs and whether the contestants are, uh, racist.
- But aside from the houseguest-on-houseguest drama, fans are wondering: Is the Big Brother house a real house? We’ve got all the details.
Camp is officially in session!
Host Julie Chen kicked off season 21 of Big Brother with a great outdoors, camp-inspired theme, and the new house boasts a camper, wooden logs galore, and a dining table that can double as a campfire. And while fans didn't exactly fall in love with the house's new decor, one post-premiere question remains: where is the Big Brother house located? After all, do people really live in a house equipped with over 80 cameras and 100 microphones when Big Brother isn’t filming? And is it open to visitors?
We hate to be the bearer of bad news, but the answer is no.
For over 20 years, houseguests have lived and battled to become head of household in a house that...isn't real. Yes, they're living inside a space that resembles someone's lavish home, but guys, this isn't a place you can prop the door to and step inside.
According to NPR’s Linda Holmes, the show is filmed inside "a house" created on a soundstage in Los Angeles, California—specifically in a neighborhood called Studio City. Internet detectives have even uncovered that the Big Brother “house” is on the CBS Studio lots, too.
An IMDb search shows that Big Brother shoots on the same location as shows like Brooklyn Nine-Nine and Last Man Standing.
Filming the show on a soundstage allows the producers of the show to create different themes for the house each season, and those themes play into the game play as much as the rest of the competition’s aspects. We’ve already seen season 21's summer camp theme play out as the houseguests voted for Jackson Michie as Camp Director, and we’re sure there will be plenty of other camp-related twists in the future. Take a look at the below "house" tour to see just how well the soundstage can be transformed.
For those of you who are disappointed that the Big Brother house isn’t real, it may help to know that the Jury House, a.k.a the house where the final seven eliminated houseguests go to remain sequestered during the jury period, is actually a real house. While CBS remains mum on the actual location—in 2015, Reddit users alleged that the house is located in Chatsworth, California, which is not too far from the CBS lots in Studio City, California.
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