House of Villains is an American reality competition series that premiered on E! on October 12, 2023. The series, hosted by Joel McHale, each season features a cast of reality television's most memorable and notorious villains, as they live in a house while competing in challenges for power and safety before voting to banish each other, with the last villain remaining winning a $200,000 cash prize and the title of America's Ultimate Supervillain
The first season aired in late 2023. In January 2024, the series was renewed for a second season, which premiered on October 9, 2024.
Overview
House of Villains features a cast of reality television's most infamous villains living together and competing to be the last villain standing to win a cash prize of $200,000 and the title of America's Ultimate Supervillain. The format of the game loosely resembles that of the American version Big Brother.
Each week, contestants compete in a Battle Royale challenge to test the players physically, mentally, and emotionally. The winner of the Battle Royale challenge is named Supervillain of the Week and wins immunity for the week, a luxury reward for themselves and two other villains, and the power to nominate three of their fellow players for banishment by putting them on the Hit List.
The three nominees then compete in the Redemption Challenge, with the winner saving themselves from the Hit List. At the Banishment Ceremony, the house votes to banish one of the two remaining Hit List nominees. The villains build alliances, scheme, manipulate, and backstab as they are eliminated one by one until only one remains and is crowned America's Ultimate Supervillain.
Battle Royale Challenge (Balls Out): Each contestant has a giant ball with their face on it in an arena. They must attempt to push their opponent's balls out of the arena while preventing their own ball from being pushed out. The last contestant to have their ball remain in the arena wins.
Redemption Challenge (Blind Trust): Contestants must drive a golf cart through a course while blindfolded, being directed by another contestant of their choice. The contestant with the fastest time wins.
Battle Royale Challenge (Two Faced): Wearing a mask and costume, and fitted with voice changers, contestants attend a masquerade party along with several masked extras. During the party, contestants attempt to identify other contestants while attempting to conceal their own identity. The contestant who correctly identifies most of their fellow contestants wins.
Redemption Challenge (Hidden Agenda): During their confessionals, the three nominated contestants are given the details of the challenge in secret. They must complete as many listed tasks as possible without being noticed by the rest of the house. There is a four-hour time limit which expires when guest Abby Lee Miller arrives at the house to announce the results. The contestant with the most tasks completed wins.
Battle Royale Challenge (Cold and Calculated): Each contestant starts with a chest latched with three locks. Throughout the challenge, they must break through ice cubes to obtain either a lock or key frozen inside each cube. If they find a key, they can unlock one of their locks. If they find a lock, they can add it to an opponent's chest to slow them down. The first contestant to unlock all of their locks and open their chest wins.
Redemption Challenge (Darkest Hour): Contestants enter a dark room and must stick their hands in enclosures of live animals including snakes, rats and scorpions to search for tokens. After finding each token, they can assign it to an opponent; contestants are eliminated from the challenge once they are assigned five tokens. The last contestant standing wins.
Battle Royale Challenge (Power Trip): One contestant is randomly chosen to be handcuffed to a briefcase, and must choose another contestant to be handcuffed to the briefcase in their place, with this selection process continuing until only one contestant has not been selected. The last contestant to remain unselected wins the contents of the case, which was revealed as the power to elect another contestant to become the Supervillain of the Week.
Redemption Challenge (Cap It Off): Played across seven rounds. Each round, contestants are shown a photo of a moment during the season and attempt to come up with a humorous caption for the photo. The captions are then presented anonymously to the four non-competing contestants, who vote on the most humorous caption, with most-voted caption winning the round. The contestant who wins the most rounds wins.
Battle Royale Challenge (Blow by Blow): Contestants use a leaf blower to blow balls of their assigned color into holes worth varying points around the backyard. Inside the house is also a "Frozen Up" (FU) hole; if a contestant has one of their balls blown into this hole, they cannot participate for the remainder of the challenge. The contestant with the most points at the end of 15 minutes wins.
At the start of the episode, eliminated contestants (with the exception of Bobby) returned to the house and it was revealed that the winner of the season would be determined by a jury vote. The winner of the Battle Royale Challenge would automatically make it to the finale, joined by the contestant they did not nominate on the Hit List. The three contestants on the Hit List would then compete in the Redemption Challenge for the final spot in the finale, with the two losing contestants eliminated.
Battle Royale Challenge (The Last Supper): Contestants are presented with five dishes worth different dollar amounts: boiled egg ($10), spicy chicken wing ($20), red snapper eyeball ($30), bull testicles ($40) and lamb brain pie ($50). They must order $200 worth of food, to be prepared and served by Below Deck chef Ben Robinson, and fully consume their order in addition to one chocolate donut. The first contestant to consume their order wins.
Redemption Challenge (Who Said It?): Contestants are presented with seven quotes said by other contestants during the season and attempt to guess which contestants said them to earn points. The contestant with the most points wins and claims the final spot in the finale.
Monica Garcia narrated the season as the voice of EVA ("Evil Voice Audio 2.0"), giving announcements to the contestants regarding challenges and game events. Garcia, along with Janice Dickinson, Tori Spelling, along with former contestants Bobby Lytes and Jax Taylor, made guest appearances during the second season.[12]
Battle Royale Challenge (Crimes Against Reality): Played in two teams of five, each team member begins in one of five adjacent cells of their team's cell block. The team member in the first cell must complete a task to break into the second team member's cell. These two team members then break into the third team member's cell, with this process continuing until all five players break out of the fifth cell. Additionally, in each cell is a "FU lever." If any contestant pulls the lever, they receive immunity for the week, but their team is penalized for one minute. The first team to break out of all five cells wins the ability to elect the Supervillain of the Week from their team.
Redemption Challenge (Hollywood Walk of No Shame): Contestants have one hour to collect as many signatures for a petition as possible from passersby along the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The contestant who collects the most signatures wins
Battle Royale Challenge (Party Crashers): Contestants attend a party where each time the music stops playing, they must form groups of the size announced by host Joel McHale. Any contestants leftover after each group has been formed are eliminated from the challenge. The last contestant standing wins.
Redemption Challenge (Body Snatchers): Being directed by another contestant of their choice, contestants must make their way to the center of an electric maze while blindfolded, collect an inflatable doll, then proceed to the exit. The contestant with the fastest time wins.
Battle Royale Challenge: Host Joel McHale presents a box to the house and announces that two contestants will partake in an election to be voted as Supervillain of the Week. To determine these two contestants, the contestant who took the box from McHale opens it to reveal their outcome for the challenge, then passes the box to another contestant of their choice to open the next outcome, with this process continuing until two contestants are confirmed as candidates. Outcomes of boxes include being confirmed as one of the candidates, being eliminated from contention, immunity from the Hit List, or choosing another contestant to eliminate from contention. Afterwards, the two contestants confirmed as candidates have the afternoon to campaign to the remaining contestants for votes before a vote is held to determine Supervillain of the Week.
Redemption Challenge (Erase to Escape): Contestants must search for their names written or stickered on 85 surfaces around a high school and erase or remove them. The first contestant to finish wins.
Battle Royale Challenge (Blood On Your Hands): Each round, one contestant opens a box to reveal two identical bags: one filled with "blood" and one filled with "plasma". They must assign one bag to themselves and one for their opponent. Their opponent then has the decision to keep or switch the bags before they are opened. The contestant who opens the bag of plasma progresses to the next round while the contestant with the blood is eliminated from the challenge. The contestant that wins the final round becomes Supervillain of the Week.
Redemption Challenge (Cap It Off): Contestants are presented with various photos of moments from the season and attempt to come up with a humorous caption for each photo. The captions are then presented anonymously to the non-competing contestants, who vote for their most humorous caption, with each vote earning a point for the creator of the caption. The contestant who scores the most points wins.
Following Victoria's banishment, the remaining seven contestants had to rank themselves from most to least villainous. It was then revealed that as part of a Double Banishment twist, the contestant ranked as least villainous, Teresa, would also be banished.
Battle Royale Challenge (Zero ****s to Give): Contestants must use a slingshot to launch 25 bombs over a fence. Midway through the challenge, contestants are given the chance to distribute five additional bombs among other contestants to slow them down. The first contestant to successfully launch all their bombs wins.
During the Battle Royale Challenge, the eliminated contestants returned and it was revealed that the winner of the season would be determined by a jury vote. The winner of the Battle Royale Challenge would automatically make it to the finale, joined by the contestant they did not nominate on the Hit List. The three contestants on the Hit List then compete in the Redemption Challenge for the final spot in the finale, with the two losing contestants eliminated.
Battle Royale Challenge (Touch of Evil): Contestants attempt to maintain contact with a statue made of butter for as long as possible. Throughout the challenge, conditions such as balancing on one leg are added to make the challenge more difficult. The last contestant standing wins.
Redemption Challenge (Arch Enemies): Contestants are presented with nine quotes said by other contestants about them during the season. They must arrange blocks with the faces of these contestants, in the order the quotes are presented, to build an arch between two pedestals. The first contestant to finish wins and claims the final spot in the finale.
Production and release
Filming for the series began in early February 2023 at The Valley Villa in Los Angeles.[26][27]House of Villains was officially announced by NBCUniversal, E!'s parent company, on May 9, 2023. Joel McHale was revealed to be the host of the series on the same day.[28][29] The series is produced by Irwin Entertainment with John Irwin, Dave Kuba, Eli Frankel, and Matt Odgers serving as executive producers.[30] In August 2023, E! revealed the first season's cast and announced the series would premiere on October 12, 2023. The series premiere aired simultaneously on E!'s sister channels Bravo, Syfy, and USA Network.[31] On September 7, 2023, an official trailer was released.[32] The first season of the series became available to stream on Peacock on February 19, 2024.[33]
On January 18, 2024, E! renewed the series for a second season and announced that production for the second season would begin in February 2024.[33] On March 27, 2024, the cast of the second season was revealed.[34] In August 2024, an official trailer for the second season was released and it was announced that the second season would have a two-night premiere on October 9 and October 10, 2024.[12] Like the first season, the second season premiere aired simultaneously on E!'s sister channels Bravo, Syfy, and USA Network. The first two episodes of the second season became available to stream on Peacock on October 16 and October 17, 2024, with subsequent episodes being released one week after their original air date.[35]
Ratings
The series premiere of House of Villains was watched by 1.2 million viewers across all platforms over the course of one week, with 500,000 of those viewers being in the adults 18–49 key demographic, making it E!'s most successful series launch since The Bradshaw Bunch in 2020.[36] Overall, episodes in the first season averaged 861,000 total viewers and 384,000 viewers in the 18–49 key demographic after 35 days of multiplatform viewing.[12]
^ abBobby originally won Supervillain of the Week but decided to nominate himself on the Hit List.
^ abcdFor this round there was no banishment vote. Instead, whichever two villains remained on The Hit List after losing the Redemption Challenge were automatically banished.
^As Anfisa received no votes to win, she broke the jury's tie to determine the winner.
^Bobby was not present with the jury for the finale and therefore did not cast a jury vote for one of the final three.
^Combined total viewers from simultaneous airings of the series premiere on E!, Bravo, Syfy, and USA Network.[2]
^Larsa entered the house as an intruder after the first Banishment on Episode 3.
^Pollard is returning to the series, having previously competed on House of Villains 1.
^ abcVictoria found a hidden "Knock Blocker" power, allowing her to remove one of the Supervillain's nominees and replace them with one of her choosing. She removed Wes, and replaced him with Jessie.
^As Jessie received no votes to win, he broke the jury's tie to determine the winner.
^Tiffany earned immunity for the week after pulling the "FU lever" in the "Crimes Against Reality" challenge.
^Tiffany opened a box with the option to either become a candidate to be voted as Supervillain of the Week, or to receive immunity from the Hit List and select a different candidate. She chose the Immunity.
^Following Victoria's Banishment, contestants were required to rank themselves from most to least villainous. Afterwards, it was revealed that as part of a surprise Double Banishment, the contestant ranked as least villainous, Teresa, would be Banished.
^Combined total viewers from simultaneous airings of the second season premiere on E! and Bravo.[15] Viewers from simultaneous airings of the second season premiere on Syfy and USA Network are not included.
