Big Brother 20 USA (2018)

Well again Big Brother US disappoints fans after Executive Producer Alison Grodner claimed the house will be completely revamped and is all new. Which is actually BBUSA-code for we did nothing but redecorate the 4 walls in each room and didn't alter much. Again they continue to use the same interior designer team with churns out the same California Mid Century Modern style in muted orange and green tones. This years theme is a lame attempt at...wait for it....interactive/tech/video games. it fails miserably and devolves into a 1980's Atari-esque with lame emoji pillows and hashtag knick-knacks in the bathroom.

So apparently this year "tech twist":


View from the main doors into the house

Here is the living room, featuring the sofa on a turnable and a climbing wall

Here is the kitchen and dining area. Not sure how a large gummi bear and a neon donut translates to tech/games/fun..but there we are.

Dining table. Same main doors. Believe the orange "beams" were used for the last season, I think they were painted grey or dark blue. Nomination screens still in place, same graphics.

Mezzanine above the main doors, 1980s suburban basement den feel.

View down from the mezzanine into the living room.

Hallway from Kitchen/Backdoor to the Den and then Bathroom at the end. Again complelely open to the kitchen.

This is the den in with some claustrophobic wall paper.

These are the 2 main bedrooms. Pink and blue. The only alteration to the house was that that wall is moveable. and the rooms are basically still open to the livingroom as your can see over to the left.

This is the 3rd bedroom. This is likely the room that will get converter to the Have Not room. Eventually. The wall is covered in Fidgit spinners. Okaay.

This the HOH bedroom. Again very dark this year. The coloured bits change colour. Think back to the BBCAN 5 and the entire living room wall this used this.

This is the main bathroom, This year the big innovation is 4 sinks. Whoooo. More emoji pillow and the "filter screens" that will not get used after day 1.

Same backyard. Yellow awning. They painted strips and added red fake flowers. Likely the flowers they used from the tiny backgarden of the CBBUSA house.


There are some nice elements, but as usual this house was designed by a person in their 60s or older and has no idea what tech or games or anything in the year 2018 means. Also the fact this is 20th Season and the big build up from the Exec Producer, its a huge disappointment. It seems like they get fixated on one thing and have no idea how to carry it out completely. Hence a wall covered in fidget spinners. Who uses those anymore. This twists and the cast I hope make up for Big Brother's lack of imagination.

Presenter Julie Chen's house tour.

One of few cool elements is the eye logo made of exclamation points on the interactive screens that are dotted around the house. Missed opportunity?


LOL - BBUK did it better. Geez

No surprise the "completely revamped house is just redecorate. Overall very boring but the bedrooms look better with the view from one to the other.

Never understood why they decorate one room only to convert it to the Have Not Room just a couple of days in.

I agree. Why spend $1000 of dollars to dress the room up literally for like a week or just to change it?!. Makes no sense. BBCAN knows where to spend their budget. They dont pour loads of money into the main bedrooms. They are simply done, usually the same beds each year and the walls are covered in large scale graphics (aside from this years rose theme), to make them different. They are quite simple, and they spend the bulk of the budget on other parts of the house to carry thru the universal theme. CBS likes to ram the house full of junk. Someone tweeted pics comparing the house designs to a horders home. Its like every year they raid the backlot prop store and just cram it all in the house. CBS obviously has a loose theme and they seemingly dole out rooms to separate design teams with no cohesion or universal theme. Really disappointing seeing as this is one of oldest and longest running and still wildly popular versions of Big Brother.

Alison Grodner who's the Exec Producer of Big Brother US and has been at the help since the North American version since Series 2 when it started, confirmed what many of us knew all along. In an interview with GLOBAL TV (Canada's Home for BBUSA and BBCAN) she basically admitted that they really dont have anymor to do anything. Whats amazing is that Julie Chen's husband runs CBS. Now I'm not advocating any under the table budget deals, but geez come on guys.



I get their are hemmed in by space constraints and the budget but to keep using the same Interior/Set designer year after year is excusable and frankly lazy.

HEre is the entire interview.
https://www.globaltv.com/bigbrother/latest/producer-allison-grodner-excited-to-celebrate-big-brothers-20th-season/

Here is the website of the designer they have used for year. All he does it recycle mid-century modern furniture and accessories.
http://scottstorey.com/

As I said in another thread BBUSA has healthy ratings of around 8m - compared to around 1.5m for both BBUK and BBCanada, yet the US budget seems small in comparison, which is the opposite of what you see for other shows.

Even in their soundstage they could completely revamp the layout - they've at least three quite redundant areas which could be repurposed with a new design.

Actually it seems that CBS cut their budget. Back in the early days remember they used to get a totally redesigned audience studio that matched the theme. This show is just a summer cash cow for CBS with very little budget. I guess Les Moonves (CBS President) doesnt like Julie's cooking or something (joke). Geez.

Well the live feeds turned on last night and the Have-Not-Room finally appeared on camera. Apparently they have to sleep in a satellite dish like beds. Aside from the beds and all the wires and old computer junk in the room... It fits the theme, than the other rooms and the room decor it replaced. Idiots.

Here was the fidgit spinner room that it replaced, it was hardly really seen on air in the first 2 episodes and was not on the feeds at all as it was transformed after the HOH competition.