• reality shows
  • reality TV reviews
  • about
  • contact
  • reality TV schedule
  • best reality TV
  • send tips or feedback
  • support
  • subscribe
Glass House

Behind the scenes of The Glass House

The Glass House, ABC

by Andy Dehnart 13 Aug. 2012 | 12:18 pm

Most of my interview with executive producer Kenny Rosen was conducted from behind one of the mirrored walls that make up The Glass House.

We were standing behind the tubes from which players enter and exit, watching the players blow bubbles and answer viewer questions in the living room during the July 31 3 p.m. ET live streaming episode.

They were staring at the wall and had no idea we were there; there were also five camera operators behind the living room’s two walls.

Like Big Brother‘s house, The Glass House is constructed in a soundstage and has hidden hallways for camera operators. But that’s pretty much where the similarities end, from the way Big Brother‘s house actually opens up to the outdoors to The Glass House‘s more subtle design.

To compare them, read this and then my reports on Big Brother‘s set: inside the house and in the yard and control room.

Inside The Glass House

  • Before production began, producers considered using an actual house. But “lighting issues” prevented them from choosing it, Rosen told me. Plans for the house began in January and were finalized by mid-April. The time-lapse footage of its construction at the start of episode seven is pretty awesome and gives you an idea of its size and layout.
  • The Van Nuys soundstage that houses The Glass House used to be used by Fox’s Hole in the Wall: Both shows utilized the H-shaped basement, with the Fox show using it for the pool into which players fell, and the ABC show using it to raise people up through the glass tubes via a lift.
  • For the show’s Xbox-style voting, ABC wanted players to “pretend like they’re tapping on the glass and the glass will break,” but Initially, players were filmed voting two different ways. Rosen told me that he said, “We’re going to shoot it that way, but we’re also going to let them do whatever the hell they want. And week one, [the players are] coming out with the bows and arrows and javeline and the guns. Even Andrea, the Mormon mom, was like, bang-bang-bang-bang.” Thankfully, the network liked it, and thought it hilarious, so that stayed.
  • Speaking of voting, Ashley’s voting stone was on Rosen’s desk, and he let me hold it. Those things aren’t a plastic prop: they’re really heavy.

Inside the soundstage

  • The interior of the house does not look like a typical television set, i.e. imperfect and/or in terrible shape. It’s as gorgeous and brand-new as it looks in high definition.
  • Hell’s Kitchen designer John Janavs also designed The Glass House, and a significant part of its look involves the two-way mirrors, which were designed so that “none of them are uniform, so it doesn’t look like just a bunch of strips. They’re all built into the architecture of the house,” Rosen told me. That “makes it feel less obtrusive,” and it really does: when you’re looking into a bedroom, it seems like a normal room, not an aquarium.
  • The bedrooms, bathroom, and living room are basically lined up against the back of the space, so the interior is much more expansive than the Big Brother house, which is basically a U-shape with rooms off to the sides.
  • The lighting in the house is remarkable, so I’ll remark on it. The overhead lighting rig can simulate different times of the day, similar to scripted shows, so although the players don’t have natural light, they do get simulated dusk, dawn, and nighttime lighting. The decorative panel underneath the dining room table can change 370-some odd colors, which Rosen said the players rarely notice.

Glass House’s lighting, camera blinds, and mirrors

  • Rosen said that, unlike other shows, the lighting design on The Glass House does “embrace shadows,” meaning that everything is not washed out in bright lights.
  • Behind the walls, in the camera blinds, black drapes cover each window and are pulled aside only when a camera operator needs to film through the mirror. Blacklights illuminate fluorescent tape markings on the floor. Camera operators need to wear dark clothing, or else there clothes will be reflected in the glass and get in their shot.
  • The windows are crystal clear in the blinds, which is surprising since the other side is a mirror through which the players cannot see. The windows are also at different levels: some near the ground, others floor to ceiling; the lower ones allow for face shots. Rosen said they intentionally “keep the cameras not too far above [players’] heads,” which makes for a different aesthetic than the reality shows that shoot from above as a way of keeping someone’s face from being blocked by the person they’re talking to.
  • The mirrors around the television made me think it was free-standing and there was a lot of space behind it. But that’s a wall of mirrors reflecting the other part of the house, and there are camera operators behind those mirrors, of course.
  • To the right of Ori’s screen (i.e. the TV) is a small booth: it’s for smoking. From the outside, it looks very odd, because it has fans and a ventilation pipe attached to it, to take the smoke outside of the studio. At the end of the live streaming episodes, Rosen said that Erica, the last remaining smoker in the house, “makes a beeline for the smoking room” which makes viewers who are still watching think she’s “standoffish.” He was telling me this at the end of live streaming show, and after it concluded, he said, “My guess is…” and before he could finish, Erica got up to go smoke: “here she goes.”

What life is like for Glass House players

  • There’s a separate dressing room so the show and feeds won’t have any nudity: this is ABC/Disney, after all. There are also cameras in the toilet and showers, but Rosen said, “so far, nobody’s taken a shower [together] so far, which we’re glad about.”
  • There’s a false door behind shelves in the dressing room that allows producers to give the cast clothing and supplies in their individual bins.
  • The confessional room is soundproofed and has no windows, of course.
  • The cast tweets from a booth with a computer, but the tweets don’t go directly to Twitter. Instead, they’re sent to ABC’s standards and practices, which makes sure tweets don’t give away what’s happening on Monday’s episode, swear, or send tweets directly to friends and family (though they have let an occasional “happy birthday”-style message through). Once the tweet is cleared, producers tweet for the cast.
  • Players know what time it is because the Twitter booth’s computer has a clock in it: “We’re not trying to hide from them what time of day it is,” Rosen told me.
  • While challenges are constructed in the gaming arena, it’s blocked from the house by a large backdrop that’s “not 100 percent soundproof,” Rosen said, so they have to be quiet while building challenges. After a Wednesday challenge, they tend to take down the challenge Thursday mornings. That’s because, as Rosen told me, “after a competition happens, we get really good reactions and fallout and scenes, and we don’t want to ruin those scenes with big audio of us tearing a major build, so we usually plan for the major teardown the following morning.”
  • Players arrive back at the house Monday night and challenge construction may start on Tuesday, so they only have the arena about three of their five days in the house. “I think they’ve put on a lot of weight since they’ve been in the house,” Rosen told me. “I don’t know if we gave them enough workout equipment, to be honest.” (That explains the addition of an exercise bike next to the hot tub.)
  • Camera operators are actually physically in the arena during challenges; at all other times, they film through the square mirrors visible in the space.

Outside the house

  • The building houses offices and conference rooms for producers on the fourth floor; two floors down is the control room.
  • In the control room, the director and two robotic camera operators sat in the front row, in front of a wall of crystal-clear footage. The row behind them includes story producers, who are paying attention to three or four stories at a time, and request that camera operators focus on specific people.
  • In the next room over were two standards and practices people–two!–in charge of removing the fun parts of the show. “They hit the button when they see any nudity or cursing going on,” Rosen explained.
  • The show has seven edit bays going five days a week; three nighttime editors work five days a week, too. Editors work Tuesdays through Saturday, lock the episode on Saturday, do online editing and sound mixing on Sunday, and deliver the episode to ABC early evening on Sunday.
  • Rosen told me that 12 streams of footage are recording at a all times to a tapeless system that allows editors to go to work almost immediately. A system catalogs the footage by time and with metadata that allows them to easily search for particular moments.
  • Off to the side was the executive control room sealed behind a glass wall (!) which included the web team, a crew member who updates what appears on the screen in the house for the players, and Ori, aka the Oracle, aka the voice of The Glass House, who was sitting in front of a mic. The live feed was being broadcast while I was there, so I didn’t get to talk with her or hear her voice in real life (alas), but she does have short, platinum blonde hair, which seems just about perfect.

discuss this story

more great reality blurred stories

  • Recommended reality TV: Tidying Up with Marie Kondo and America to Me
  • The best reality TV shows of 2018
  • The Survivor rule book and Survivor cast contract
  • Go behind-the-scenes at the Big Brother house
  • Behind the scenes of The Last Alaskans
  • Interviews with reality TV producers and cast members

most-popular stories on reality blurred

Life Below Zero season 11, Sue Aikens

When Life Below Zero will return for season 11, and who it will follow

Exclusive: Life Below Zero is returning to National Geographic for season 11 this fall, with a cast that includes one new person.

Jeff Probst, Survivor David vs. Goliath episode 10

Survivor Edge of Extinction: What we know so far about Survivor season 38

Survivor season 38 will feature returning players and a huge twist that could effect how the game is played and who wins.

Bob Harte, The Last Alaskans season 4

Bob Harte’s death arrives on The Last Alaskans. How the show handles it—and his legacy.

Watch a scene from "No Regrets," the episode of The Last Alaskans that deals with Bob Harte's death, and hear from a Discovery Channel executive about how the network and production company handled his loss.

The Lewis family, Last Alaskans

Why the Lewis family is no longer on The Last Alaskans, and where they are now

A definitive answer about why the Lewis Family—Ray and Cindy, and their daughters Sarah, Molly, and Emma—have been missing from The Last Alaskans.

Survivor Edge of Extinction marooning

Survivor’s marooning: 34 boats, 714 people, 9 hours, one great 10,000-word story

The opening minutes of Survivor Edge of Extinction took days to plan and involved "34 different boats carrying 714 bodies over a total of 1,500 miles."

Siesta Key, MTV

How Siesta Key was filmed and how it differs from Laguna Beach

An interview with the co-creator of Laguna Beach, whose new MTV show Siesta Key uses that format but avoids the fiction that befell its spinoff The Hills.

Winter 2019 reality TV show debut schedule and guide

Winter 2019 reality TV schedule and guide

This winter reality show 2019 schedule is a frequently updated list of premieres for broadcast, cable, and streaming reality TV shows, documentary series, game shows, and other prime-time nonfiction TV.

Nandor, What We Do in the Shadows

FX is returning to reality TV as ‘a sustained and enduring part’ of its programming

The cable network home of scripted shows such as The Americans, American Horror Story, Atlanta, Fargo, Pose, Better Things, and Legion is developing several unscripted and documentary TV shows.

Are You The One season 5 cast

MTV’s Are You the One season 8 casting sexually fluid, non-binary people

AYTO's producers want the "usual hot singles" but also "sexually fluid individuals," and twins.

Hunted, Emiley Cox, David Windecher

A few of Hunted’s absurd rules have been revealed

Hunted team David and Emiley revealed several of the show's rules on a radio show this morning—including one ridiculous rule that benefits the production.

behind the scenes of reality TV

Hunted, Sentra Tran, Thu Tran

Behind the scenes of CBS’ Hunted

A person who appeared on CBS’ Hunted reveals key details about how the show works—and Channel 4’s version of Hunted also offers insight.

Big Brother 20, BB20

Big Brother finals casting process: how it works, rules finalists must follow

Big Brother debuts its 13th season this week, introducing us to eight new cast members and several returning cast members. All went through a process that we’ve often heard mentioned but that, until now, has never been revealed in detail: finals. That refers to the final stage in the casting process, when finalists are brought… continue reading

Interview: John Cena on American Grit season two’s major changes

An interview with John Cena about American Grit season two, which changes the Fox show in significant ways, starting with the contestants themselves.

older

Glass House embraces its fun, strategic sides, giving players tough choices

newer >

CBS drops Glass House lawsuit but not legal action against former Big Brother producers

other behind-the-scenes more stories about Glass House

reality TV news and reviews, in your inbox

One hand-crafted message sent every Friday. Free. Subscribe now:

discuss this story

about Andy Dehnart

Andy Dehnart’s writing and criticism about television, culture, and media has appeared on NPR and in Vulture, Pacific Standard, The Los Angeles Times, and other publications. He has covered reality television for more than 18 years, and created reality blurred in 2000.

A member of the Television Critics Association who serves on its board of directors, Andy, 41, also directs the journalism program at Stetson University in Florida, where he teaches creative nonfiction and journalism. He has an M.F.A. in nonfiction writing and literature from Bennington College. Learn more about reality blurred and Andy.

stay connected with reality TV

Get advice about what to watch and keep up with the latest in reality television with reality blurred's e-mail newsletter. Just enter your e-mail address:

about reality blurred

reality blurred is your guide to the world of reality TV and unscripted entertainment, with reality show reviews, news, and analysis. It was created in 2000 by Andy Dehnart. He's still writing and publishing it today.

reality blurred is regularly updated with highlights from the world of reality TV: news and analysis; behind-the-scenes reports; interviews with reality TV show cast members and producers; and recaps and reviews of these reality TV shows, including Survivor, Big Brother, The Great British Baking Show, Shark Tank, The Amazing Race, The Bachelor, Project Runway, Dancing with the Stars, Top Chef, and many more.

explore

  • recent news
  • reviews of reality TV shows
  • behind the scenes reports
  • interviews with producers and reality stars
  • archives
  • send tips
  • search
  • advertise on reality blurred
  • about reality blurred
  • newsletter
  • RSS and social media
  • contact reality blurred
  • send tips & contribute
  • privacy policy
  • terms of service
Copyright © 2000 to 2019 Andy Dehnart and individual contributors.