The casting calendar. All three shows, one year.
The three shows cast at different times of year. Between them they cover about ten months, with a quiet spell in June and July. If you’re applying to more than one, this is the year.
| Month | The Amazing Race | Big Brother | Survivor |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | Casting | ||
| February | Casting | Review begins | |
| March | Casting | Open calls | |
| April | Casting | Open calls | |
| May | Casting closes | Calls end May 31, LA finals | |
| June | Interviews in LA | Sequester | |
| July | House opens | Opens late July | |
| August | On air | Casting | |
| September | Filming | On air | Casting · Premiere |
| October | Filming · Last year’s season airs | Finale | Casting |
| November | Casting | ||
| December | Late, not out |
Survivor — late July to December
Casting opens in late July — the 2026 cycle, for seasons 53 and 54, opened the week of July 27. Each summer’s cycle casts two seasons, filmed back to back in Fiji the following spring: season 51 shot from April 18 to May 13, 2026. Late summer and autumn is the real window. By December you’re late, but people are still being read.
Interviews start in September, while applications are still open — casting doesn’t wait for the window to close before it starts calling. About 24 finalists go to Los Angeles in January or early February. The call comes around March. From your upload to your season on air is roughly a year, and the second season from your cycle airs the following spring.
Big Brother — February to May
Applications are reviewed from early February. Anyone moving on is called between early March and mid-May; the casting site says it in so many words — if you haven’t heard by May 31, you didn’t make it this season. The rounds happen over Zoom, then the top finalists are flown to Los Angeles for 24 hours at the end of May. Open calls run through March, April and May, in a different city each time, a minute each. Then twelve to fourteen days of sequester, and the house opens in early July. Season 28 ran July 9 to October 1.
It’s the fastest of the three. Apply in winter, on television in summer. You also need to be 21.
The Amazing Race — January to May
The online form is open year-round, but casting actively looks from January to May — season 39’s call ran January 13 to May 2, 2025. Then rounds of interviews in Los Angeles over the summer, about four weeks of filming in early autumn (season 39: September 22 to October 17, 2025), and the season airs the following fall (September 30, 2026).
From your video to your season is close to 20 months. A team that applies this winter is on television in the autumn after next. Alyssa Borden’s team went from tape to start line in six months, which is the fast end.
Don’t wait for the last day
Casting reads as it goes — Survivor is already interviewing in September, and Emily Flippen got a callback the day after she applied. There’s no bonus for arriving early, but there’s a real cost to arriving late: by the back half of a window the team knows what the season still needs, and it may not be you. And the last night is when the upload fails, the form rejects the file, and the deadline does what deadlines do.
It’s every year
Every show requires a new application and a new video each cycle. Kass said it to Big Brother applicants for years: people change in a year. Plenty of people got cast on attempt 6, or 7, or 14, and casting keeps the file — being on attempt 3 isn’t held against you. Applying again has the stories.
Next: Survivor, Big Brother, or The Amazing Race.