What is Promi Big Brother?
Promi Big Brother is the German version of Celebrity Big Brother, but it’s not quite like the big international versions you might know, such as Celebrity Big Brother UK or Gran Hermano VIP. It’s also not comparable to a typical season of Big Brother. In many ways, it’s closer to shows like I’m a Celebrity – Get Me Out of Here.
With a runtime of just over two weeks, Promi Big Brother is much more compact and fast-paced than a regular Big Brother season. To intensify the experience, the show is designed to be tougher on the celebrities. In past seasons, this was achieved through a ‘rich vs. poor’ divide, similar to the ‘heaven and hell’ twist in Big Brother UK’s 9th season or the ‘Dyre Festival’ in Big Brother USA’s 24th season.
In 2023, the show went back to basics, aiming to recapture the essence of Germany’s first Big Brother seasons. The house is no longer a high-end or imaginative living space with artificial divides. Instead, it consists of portable cabins furnished with basic items, simple wallpaper, and neutral-colored walls—much like the early 2000s setup. Speaking of the portable cabins: German refer to those as office containers. That’s why German viewers often refer to the Big Brother house as a container.
To still make it harder on the celebrities, Big Brother introduced strict food and sleep restrictions. More about that later. It’s also worth mentioning that Germany has adapted Big Brother as its own character rather than having it as name for the production team behind the scenes. The German Big Brother voice, inspired by the stern tone from Big Brother Australia seasons 4 to 7, occasionally reveals a dry sense of humor when speaking to housemates during live shows. Big Brother’s voice typically only appears during the live shows, which is why you rarely hear him in the daily highlight packages.
When production itself communicates with the house, they use various methods: displaying messages on TV, providing letters in the diary room, utilizing pre-recorded voice snippets, or speaking to the housemates with a digitally altered voice. If they need to feature some of these conversation in the highlight packages, the main voice actor will dub over any production staff member speaking to the housemates.
Broadcasting Schedule and Live Feeds
On October 5th, most of the housemates moved into the house, with two more celebrities joining them during the official TV launch on October 7th. From that day onwards, there is a daily live show in the evening featuring highlights from the previous day, competitions, nominations, evictions and other activities.
If you live in Europe and have a satellite dish, you might be able to watch the show on your TV. If not, you need to find a way to get around the geo-blocking on Joyn. That’s the streaming website that hosts all episodes of Promi Big Brother and provides the live feed from the house as part of their subscription service. German viewers only get one from feed from the house but it airs 24/7 and launched with the move-in on October 5th.
There is also the “Promi Big Brother Late Night Show” – our version of “Late & Live”, if you’re familiar with that British spin-off. It features live commentary, celebrity guests, friends and family and live footage from the show. It’s also the place where you get to see extended interviews with the evicted houseguests.
A Day in the Life of a Promi Big Brother Housemate
Their daily routine inside the Promi Big Brother house is not too different from any other Big Brother version worldwide, with one notable exception: German celebrity housemates aren’t allowed to wear their own clothes. Instead, they’re given sweat suits by the show. Big Brother wakes them up around 9:00 am, prompting them to start their day. They’re usually not allowed to nap during the day and have no specific tasks unless called to the diary room or asked to change batteries. Occasionally, Big Brother assigns a task, but these are relatively rare on Promi Big Brother. Housemates can only take cold showers and only have access to basic hygienic products.
In the afternoon, housemates are required to retreat to the “Aufenthaltsraum” or “Ruheraum,” a space that is normally inaccessible to them, while the production is doing a trial run for the live broadcasts in the evening or doing maintenance in the house. Once inside, Big Brother blasts loud music, ensuring that housemates remain unaware of any of the planned events.
Sometimes housemates get a task or the chance to create content for Big Brother’s social media account. Otherwise, they are free to take a nap while being in the separate room and many celebrities take the chance to get some sleep.
Once released from the holding area, housemates have a few hours to prepare for the evening’s live broadcasts. These hours are the most active and intense time for housemates. It’s the time when competitions, nominations and evictions take place.
Every evening, one housemate has the opportunity to visit the “PBB Späti”, a little corner shop where they can buy some food and selected luxury items like shampoo or deodorants. Housemates eagerly anticipate this visit because it’s their only chance to acquire some food supplies. Otherwise, Big Brother only guarantees water and a limited supply of oats.
Food and Sleep Restrictions
The “PBB Späti” doesn’t guarantee an ample supply of food though. Housemates have only 60 seconds to shop, and a wheel of fortune determines their budget each night. The wheel amounts range from 0 to 50 Euros, with the highest probability (just over 40%) set at just 5 Euros.
Following the live show—which usually wraps up around midnight—housemates are called into the diary room for nightly interviews, where they share statements that are shown as part of the highlight packages on the next day.
All housemates have to stay up until everyone has completed these interviews, which can take quite some time. And even then, some of them may still be required to stay awake. Every night, two pairs of two have stay in the courtyard and keep their eyes on a monitor with a countdown on. The countdown lets the housemates know when they need to press a button. If they fail to press it within a certain window, an alarm will go off in the house, waking everyone up.
So nights in the Celebrity Big Brother house can be quite short. And it gets even worse: At the end of each night, housemates have to return any leftover food. This means housemates typically start each day with only oats for sustenance.
Nominations and Evictions
The eviction process in Promi Big Brother largely follows the original Big Brother format. Celebrities usually nominate one of their fellow housemates for eviction, and those with the most votes face the public vote, where viewers decide who to save.
Compared to some international versions, there aren’t very strict rules regarding the discussion of nominations. Big Brother usually allows them to talk freely about their votes once he announced the nominees for the current cycle. Sometimes you even see housemates talking about nominations before they take place.
Officially, the show doesn’t allow any “nomination agreements” to be made but they have a very narrow (and sometimes unclear) definition of agreements. Housemates speculate quite often about upcoming nominations and might even talk about who they might or might not nominate without getting punished by Big Brother. However, you don’t really see housemates making deals before nominations like you do in more strategic adaptions of the show, like in the American version.
Evictions generally start after the first week, with at least one eviction per night leading up to the finale. The format often varies. Twists in the past included face-to-face nominations a role-reversal meaning viewers nominated housemates for evictions, and the housemates had to evict one of the nominees. Other twists have included granting extra votes or immunity through competitions. As was the case last year, the first round of nominations take place over the whole first week and every day somebody ends up on the “exit list”.
Twists and Competitions
Last season, Promi Big Brother introduced the “Container-Chef” role, a title similar to the Head of Household, Lider or Big Bro in other versions of the show. Unlike those versions, the Container-Chef is not determined by competition; instead, the role changes daily and can be assigned by housemates, viewers, or the current Container-Chef.
Their power also changes greatly from day to day. Sometimes they can merely decide who must participate in activities and chores in the house like supervising the button at night. On other days, they can grant immunity or hold the sole power to nominate.
Though competitions don’t decide who becomes Container-Chef, they are still part of the nightly live shows. They are played in an arena and offer rewards like immunity, nomination powers or budget for the in-house store. This season, for example, housemates compete in pairs to secure immunity or avoid being one of the nominees for the first eviction. The winning team can award to immunity to one member, while the losing team has to put on of their own up for eviction.
Which Celebrities Moved into the House?
If you’re not from a German-speaking country, you may not recognize the housemates. One of the most internationally known celebrities this season is Max Kruse, a former German national soccer player (and husband of Dilara Kruse, who was in the house last year). International Big Brother fans might also have heard of Alida Kurras. She won the second civilian season in Germany.
The other housemates are DSDS (Pop Idol) singer Daniel Lops, actors Mimi Fiedler and Jochen Horst, celebrity reporter Bea Peters, social media influencers Matze Höhn, Sinan Movez, Sarah Wagner, reality star Cecilia Asora, ex-footballer’s wife Verena Kerth, former Love Island contestant Mike Heiter, his current girlfriend Leyla Lahouar and his former girlfriend Elena Miras.
What Housemates Can win on Promi Big Brother
Every celebrity gets an individual appearance fee and they forfeit some of that money if they decide to leave the show on their own. The winner, which is picked by the viewers, will take home an additional 100,000 Euros (before taxes).
Tour of the Promi Big Brother house
