The Memory Wall often called the Housemate Wall, is part of the Big Brother House. It consists of a section of wall containing photos of all the current contestants. When a HouseGuest is evicted, their picture changes from color to black and white.
Appearances[]
Every season on the US has seen a memory wall, except for Big Brother 1.
Other Franchises that don’t have memory walls are:
UK[]
Civilian: Big Brother 1 (UK) Big Brother 19 (UK)
Celebrity: Celebrity Season 1
Gallery[]
For photos of the different walls, click here.
Trivia[]
- The Memory Wall pictures are actually small video monitors, allowing the seamless transition to black and white.
- Occasionally, the monitors will show different pictures as part of a competition.
- Three different Memory Walls have been used throughout the history of the show:
- The first, used from Big Brother 6 until Big Brother 13, had 2 rows of 5 screens under a third row with 4 screens.
- The second, used for Big Brother 14 and Big Brother 15, had 4 rows of 4 screens.
- The third and current, used from Big Brother 16 onwards, is composed of two large rectangular screens each segmented to display 8 houseguests' photos on them.
- The Memory Wall has occasionally caused issues in seasons where the number of houseguests doesn't match the number of spaces on the wall:
- Big Brother 9 had 16 houseguests competing. Since the Memory Wall only had 14 screens, the houseguests' photos were not put up until after the first 2 houseguests had been evicted. After Neil Garcia walked from the house and was replaced by Sharon Obermueller, her photo replaced his on the wall.
- Big Brother 10, Big Brother 11, and Big Brother 12 all only had 13 houseguests. In these seasons, the middle space on the Memory Wall displayed the Big Brother logo rather than a houseguest's photo.
- Big Brother 17 had 17 houseguests after Julia Nolan entered the game in week five, after initially starting with 16. When she entered, her photo replaced that of Jace Agolli, the first evictee in that season.
- Big Brother: Over The Top had only 13 houseguests, but continued using the same Memory Wall as Big Brother 18. The pictures were divided with 6 on one screen and 7 on the other, but in a slightly scattered look, compared to the symmetrical look in the summer editions. In addition, there were still 16 keyholes despite only 13 houseguests.
- Similar to Big Brother 17, Big Brother 19 originally started with 16 houseguests, but after a temptation was taken, Paul Abrahamian was unleashed onto the house and they ended up taking the place of Cameron Heard, both in the game and on the Memory Wall, as Cameron ended up being the first evicted on Day 1.
- Similar to Big Brother: Over The Top, Celebrity Big Brother 1 (US) had 11 houseguests, so the Memory Wall was divided with 5 on one side and 6 on the other, although this one kept the symmetrical look as opposed to the scattered look. For the side with 5, the bottom right slot was the Celebrity Big Brother logo.
- This memory wall is the first to not have any spot for the keys next to the houseguests' pictures, which would remain for all following seasons, whether they were civilian or celebrity seasons.
- In earlier seasons, though the screens change color live, they are not shown doing this action until the next episode.
- So far, five seasons have had separate Memory Walls dedicated to past seasons.
- Big Brother 7 (US) had a wall full of memorabilia from the first six seasons in the living room, including all of the houseguest keys owned by the winners. Since season 1 didn't use keys, they made a brand new one for the winner alongside the remaining five.
- Big Brother: Over The Top had a chalkboard filled with notes from the final three houseguests of season 18 within the lounge room. Since season 18 finished a week before OTT began, the chalkboard was created during the houseguests' final week to give the new houseguests some advice.
- Celebrity Big Brother 2 (US) had New York style caricatures of the first celebrity season's houseguests across from the main Memory Wall.
- Big Brother 22 (US) was themed after BB History, and was basically a gigantic memory wall. The kitchen had murals of notable BB players and winners across the walls, including spray paintings and their famous quotes, while the bedrooms had images of BB Comics characters and photos from the past 20 years of Big Brother all over the walls.
- Big Brother Canada 11 had a large wall portrait featuring every winner and their respective runner-up hanging in the hallway.
- Since Big Brother Canada 2, the Canadian Memory Wall is giant full-size portraits displayed the whole way around the backyard.
- Since Big Brother Canada 3, the Canadian Memory Wall shows their full bodies rather than just their heads.
- Coincidentally, from Big Brother 15 to Big Brother: Over The Top, the winner of the season has had their Memory Wall photo be on the farthest left side column.
- Jacob Heald, Cameron Heard, and Luke Valentine are the only houseguests to never have their faces be on the Memory Wall at any point since it's debut due to the Memory Wall photos being put up after their evictions due to a large number of houseguests.
- In Luke's case, he is the only one of the three to be expelled during that time.