House of Villains

House of Villains is an American reality competition series that premiered on E! on October 12, 2023. The series, hosted by Joel McHale, features a cast of reality television's most memorable and notorious villains. Contestants live in a house while competing in challenges for power and safety, voting to banish each other until the last villain remaining wins 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.
The format of the show loosely resembles that of the American version of 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.
Carole Baskin, Abby Lee Miller, Spencer Pratt, Ben Robinson, and Danielle Staub made guest appearances during the first season.
Color key:
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.
Color key:
Filming for the series began in early February 2023 at The Valley Villa in Los Angeles. 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. The series is produced by Irwin Entertainment with John Irwin, Dave Kuba, Eli Frankel, and Matt Odgers serving as executive producers. 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. On September 7, 2023, an official trailer was released. The first season of the series became available to stream on Peacock on February 19, 2024.
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. On March 27, 2024, the cast of the second season was revealed. 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. 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.
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. 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.