It’s easy to assume that much of reality TV is scripted. After all, there’s proof that “Pawn Stars” is totally fake, so if we can’t trust that guy, who can we trust? What about “Big Brother,” the CBS mainstay that aired its 27th season in 2025? Ever since the show first premiered, viewers have wondered whether “Big Brother” was scripted or real; there’s drama, fighting, romance, intrigue, backstabbing, and betrayal, and sometimes it all plays out like the most complex Shakespearean drama you never read in high school.

Plus, have you seen “Big Brother?” The show loves to throw cheesy, themed competitions at its contestants, and when they narrate the game in their talking-head “Diary Room” interviews, many of the players seem like they’re reading off a script. In some cases, they are. “They made me say sentences VERBATIM,” complained “BB16” contestant Christine Varner on X. “If I got one word off I had to start over.”

However, there’s a difference between scripting the interviews for narration purposes, and actually scripting the show itself. “Big Brother” is about a group of strangers who are forced into isolation, closed off in a house for an entire summer. There’s a structure to the way the competition plays out each week — a “Head of Household” competition, nominations for eviction, a “Veto” competition, and a vote — but these houseguests are together 24/7, and they’re human beings, so surprising things can happen. The evidence shows that overall, “Big Brother” is quite real.

Many reality shows are highly edited, and “Big Brother” is no exception. The episodes only tell a small part of the story, and the producers use carefully-crafted narration from the contestants to shape the story they want to tell. What sets “Big Brother” apart, however, is the fact that the show’s house is streamed online 24/7. There are some exceptions, like when competitions are being filmed, but for the most part fans can watch the houseguests online at any time. That makes it harder for producers to “script” the show in the traditional sense: there’s simply no way you could write a script covering 83 days’ worth of round-the-clock dialogue.

In the show’s second season, Justin Sebik was expelled from the game for threatening violence. In one of the most drama-filled “Big Brother” moments, he pretended to swing a dustpan at Krista Stegall’s head before holding a knife to her throat and asking, “Would you be mad if I killed you now?” After he was yanked, he told host Julie Chen Moonves (via Entertainment Weekly), “If there is anyone who can perceive that as an act of violence or a threat, then you’re an idiot.” CBS wouldn’t script something so dangerous.

Houseguests have also been expelled for using racial slurs no writer would script for them. In Season 25, Luke Valentine used the N-word on the live feeds and was kicked out. “Well, I’m in trouble now,” he said (via CNN).

“Big Brother” tries to keep it interesting, as the show’s tagline, “Expect the unexpected,” suggests. The producers want people on their toes, enjoying the fact that power can shift suddenly in the house. Contestants who were running the game can suddenly find themselves running for their lives, and the point of the “social experiment” aspect of the show is that we’re watching to see how they react. Scripting everything would ruin the fun.

In Season 27, which aired in 2025, the long-running series aired one of its most surprising twists ever — and it’s one that seems to have even caught the producers by surprise. Former winner Rachel Reilly — who has also competed on other shows, like “The Traitors” and “The Amazing Race” — was the only returning player, and her extensive “Big Brother” experience gave her a leg up on the newbies. She basically ran the first half of the game, crafting major storylines for herself with just about every other contestant. Suddenly, though, she lost a competition that sent her right out the door without even a vote. The producers had clearly edited her to be the main character of the season, but her own inability to complete a maze meant the whole show had to readjust.

Speaking with People, Reilly reflected, “I wish I would have had another opportunity, but it’s ‘Big Brother’ and you have to be prepared to stay in the game at all costs.”