Where Is The Big Brother House Located In The U.S.?

After 22 seasons, many fans still don’t know where Big Brother is filmed and where the BB house is located. When the show first started, the BB house was much smaller than what it has become. For instance, the house was only one floor and had the Head of Household room placed right next to the Diary Room. After five seasons of this original setup, the Big Brother house grew on season 6. It was now two stories high, moving the HOH room to the second floor. The BB6 house was also arguably the first one with a theme. That year, it was dubbed the “House of Secrets.”

Ever since the “House of Secrets,” every Big Brother house had a particular theme that set the tone for the season. On BB7, which is also known as the first All-Stars season, the house followed the “Heaven vs. Hell” theme. In subsequent years, the house drew inspiration from several sources – from Alice in Wonderland to U.S. history, from Southern California to South Beach. On BB20, the house was more tech-savvy than ever, nodding to the Silicon Valley boom. Finally, the Big Brother 22 house is called “All-Star Loft,” and it celebrates various iconic moments in the show’s history.

The U.S. Big Brother house is located within Stage 18 inside the CBS Studio Center in Los Angeles, California. The CBS Studio Center is a studio lot that spans 40 acres and features 18 sound stages. Essentially, the house is a sound stage studio loft with an attached backyard. The original, smaller house that fans watched on seasons 1 through 5 was located within a much more modest sound stage. On BB6, the house moved to Stage 18, where it is still currently located. That year, CBS decided to build a backyard that would sit right next to the sound stage… and just like that, the house was reconfigured to how it looks today.

It is important to note that the Big Brother house is located within a sound stage, but it doesn’t take up the entire space. For example, what is known as the “front of the house” is actually a massive theatre-like stage that faces a large seated audience. Surrounding the house, a significant amount of space is reserved for cameras and their operators. The BB producers also have a room within that sound stage to communicate with camera operators, direct which scenes are going on the live feeds, or even call up certain players to the Diary Room. Furthermore, there is the production staff that works right outside of the house. These people are in charge of tasks such as restocking the pantry, building sets for the competitions in the backyard, providing houseguests with new microphones, among other things.

It is easy to forget that the Big Brother “house” is really just a sound stage. It is as fake as any other house on any other show on TV. Still, the house is beloved by BB fans and certainly feels like home to the contestants who have lived there two, three, or even four times throughout the years.

Big Brother 22: All-Stars airs Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays at 8pm EST on CBS.

About The Author

Bernardo Sim
(1773 Articles Published)

Bernardo Sim writes about TV shows, queer culture, & Brazilian media. Born and raised in the Amazon, he now lives in South Florida. he/him

More From Bernardo Sim