The Big Brother house has changed quite a bit over the years, but it sounds like the CBS series may be headed for its biggest setting change yet if current rumors are to be believed. For once, this has nothing to do with all-stars or who will and won't be involved in the season, but rather, where it will take place.
Keep in mind this should be taken with a grain of salt, but a throwaway account recently sprang up on the Big Brother subreddit and said that there are fears amongst those involved in the show that another lockdown in Los Angeles could prematurely end the season. This rumor alleges that there's talk of moving Season 22 to another location, specifically, the Love Island set in Fiji:
Apparently today the Fijian government laid out blueprint plans for how film productions will operate moving forward, and essentially gave the greenlight for these productions to fly over and start filming (obviously barring tons of hoops to jump through such as a mandatory 14-day quarantine upon arrival and loads of testing). Big Brother US producers, CBS, and Endemol (production company) are eyeing Fiji as a location to film due to it's remote nature meaning little to no risk of COVID-19 interfering with production, as well as the Fijian government paying out tax rebates to film there. CBS and the Fijian government have a very good relationship so even though, like I said, this is NOT confirmed, I do see this definitely being a possibility. The Love Island US villa is already there and totally equipped to run like a normal Big Brother house would. Some crew like editors and producers would be able to stay in the States and work remotely, while some like field producers, the art department, and competition crew members would have to fly on-location. As for Julie, I don't see her leaving her family to fly to Fiji every eviction night so not sure how that would work, so who knows.
Switching to the Love Island villa would be a huge change for Big Brother in general, which typically puts houseguests in a specially designed studio house. Also, the game usually films in the United States, so it'll be interesting to see how evictions and other parts of the game will be handled in a COVID-19 world with contestants playing internationally.
According to the Reddit post, discussions to film in Fiji have only begun with Big Brother staff today and could change things up drastically for CBS. Last we heard, the network planned to air both reality shows this summer, and I can't help but wonder if Season 2 of Love Island may be sacrificed or delayed in order to make Big Brother Season 22 happen. Unfortunately, this rumor spreader had no information on when the season could premiere, so we can only continue to speculate.
I also have to question how much this will change the game from a Big Brother perspective. I would imagine there would be difficulties in setting up the traditional Big Brother challenges or getting the sets shipped out to Fiji, and Love Island's games weren't quite on the same level. It's also going to be a lot harder for houseguests to hide who they're in an alliance with simply due to the fact that there's so much visibility in the villa compared to the BB house.
Before anyone gets too worked up or excited though, let's just keep in mind how many Big Brother rumors have rolled out lately. Some seem confirmed by former player's actions, while others have already been refuted by those who were the subjects of them. Meanwhile, CBS hasn't even confirmed this will be an all-star season, despite the fact that many of the former players are acting like that is a fact. Honestly, the best thing to do at the moment is sit back and embrace the Big Brother motto, "expect the unexpected."
Big Brother Season 22 is set to air on CBS sometime this summer. Continue to stick with CinemaBlend in the meantime for all the latest major news happening with the show and for more on the world of television and movies.
