Big Brother, for people who want to be in the house.
Big Brother is the only one of the three shows where the audience is watching you live, at 3am, while you eat cereal. That changes what casting is looking for, and it’s worth understanding before you press record.
The show as it stands
Fourteen to seventeen strangers in a house in Los Angeles, 94 cameras, 113 microphones, about three months. Every week: a Head of Household competition, nominations, a Power of Veto competition, a veto meeting, and a live eviction hosted by Julie Chen Moonves on Thursday night. The winner gets $750,000; America’s Favourite Houseguest gets $50,000.
The live feeds run 24/7 on Paramount+, and that’s the part the fandom actually watches. The episodes are the highlight reel. The feeds are the show.
Season 28, Time Trip, premiered July 9, 2026 with 14 new houseguests aged 22 to 57 and three returning “icons” — one of whom, Rachel Reilly, was chased into a volcano by a velociraptor and eliminated minutes into the season, as a joke. Dee Valladares, fresh off winning Survivor 45 and playing Survivor 50, walked in as the 17th houseguest and won the first Head of Household. On August 27 the show aired its 1,000th episode, which CBS says is a first for any U.S. primetime series.
Who’s in it
Season 28’s new houseguests, by job: a bartender, 24. A jumbotron engineer, 27, who co-hosted a Big Brother podcast for years before getting in. A supply-chain analyst. A surgical dental assistant, 22, the youngest. A telemedicine executive. A drag queen who is also an attorney. An MMA fighter. A boutique salesperson, 57, the oldest. An attorney, 25. A rocket scientist, 24. A corporate game-show host. A pickleball coach. An elementary-school counsellor. And a finance analyst, 24, who was the alternate until the day before the premiere, when one cast member withdrew and he was in.
Twenty-one is the minimum age, and it’s strict. The oldest houseguest ever was Jerry MacDonald at 75, who finished third on season 10.
What casting wants
Robyn Kass cast every season from 2 through 22, and her rules still describe the show. Jesse Tannenbaum took over in February 2021 and inherited them.
- Some of the best videos aren’t rehearsed. A great tape with cool effects and music doesn’t make a great contestant.
- Show your personality; don’t just tell them who you are.
- They love seeing people laugh or mess up on tape. It shows a real side.
- Have a conversation. Not the cliché Big Brother things you think they want to hear.
- The dinner-party test: some guests bore you, others draw you in through their inflection, their laugh, the way they speak.
- Don’t lie. Surprises are the worst. Tell them everything up front.
- No one-word answers on the written form.
- Watch your tape back before you send it. They get tapes with no audio.
Allison Grodner, the executive producer, adds the time limit: at an open call, really it’s the first 30 seconds. And a test you can apply yourself — whatever you put on tape should be what your friends and family see in you.
The persona question
Survivor asks who you are. Big Brother asks what you’ll be like to watch for 90 days. Listen to the open-call line in 2026: one applicant said she grew up with eight siblings so chaos is her comfort; another had already mapped out who he’d take out first, second and third. Those are pitches about how you’ll be in a room.
But Kass’s warning cuts the other way. Fans who arrive doing an impression of a past houseguest get found out. Her line: if you love a past player’s game, tell her how yours will be different.
Open call or upload
Both routes go to the same team. The open call is about a minute, straight to camera; the online form gives you 3 minutes and asks for a video under 50 MB. In March 2026 more than 200 people lined up at Cache Creek before the doors opened, and casting asked each of them for name, age, occupation, relationship status, a backstory, and to be unfiltered.
Recruits and fans
The argument that never ends. For years Big Brother mixed applicants with people casting approached — often through modelling or acting — who hadn’t watched the show. Fans can spot a recruit inside an episode, and they resent it: every recruit is a spot an applicant dreamed about for years. Production’s counter is that a house full of superfans plays like an online game and loses the human storylines. Kass, for her part, recruited in the wild and was open about it — if someone funny was next to her at a bar, she’d ask them to apply.
If you’ve made a video, none of this is your problem. You’re the applicant fans want to see.
How people got there
Dan Gheesling applied for four years and made finals three times before winning season 10. His advice is the most practical on record: don’t spend money on the tape; its only job is to get you to the next round.
Cameron Hardin auditioned five or six times and was the alternate the year before he made season 25.
Kenney Kelley, a 52-year-old former undercover detective, got on season 26 after applying, in his words, and applying, and applying — including years when nobody knew he was.
Taylor Hale was recruited by direct message for The Amazing Race and asked about Big Brother instead. She won season 24.
One finalist, in Kass’s telling, was cut during finals week because her boyfriend sent flowers to the hotel. The rules about contact are real.
The calendar
- Early February — applications reviewed
- March to May — open calls
- Late spring — finals, then sequester
- Early July — the house opens
- Early October — finale
Before you film
Under 3 minutes. Landscape, because the video will be shown on a TV. Daylight, no filters, no cue cards. Two recent photos — a headshot and a full-body shot, no sunglasses, no hat, and nothing so glamorous it doesn’t look like you. You must be 21. And Kass’s oldest rule, from the era of VHS: no more eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches on camera. They get tons of those.