Breaking Down How Much Time the ‘Big Brother’ Houseguests Get to Spend in the Diary Room

There are a few places where the Big Brother houseguests can get a moment to themselves and one of them is the iconic diary room.

Throughout the game, the diary room — also known as the “DR” — is used by the players to share their candid confessionals, deliver their votes to evict, record their goodbye messages and get instructions from the production team.

The segments allow the players to narrate each episode of the reality series. They explain the house dynamic to viewers and provide context that might be missed on the live feeds.

The room’s iconic blue wall and a cozy chair provide a space where players can share what’s on their minds or explain their strategy without the fear of their fellow houseguests eavesdropping.

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While the broadcast doesn’t show much about the process of how the DR works, fans a brief idea of how it works thanks to the live feeds. Throughout the day, the houseguests are called into the rooms to do their interviews. But how much time do they get in each session? Executive producer Allison Grodner broke it down for Us Weekly .

“Turning around an hour of primetime TV in as little as two days requires us to get interview bites around the clock,” Grodner explained in the latest issue of Us Weekly . “We try not to keep people too long.”

Grodner shared it’s part of the show’s routine to capture the players’ reactions especially right after a competition like the nominations or the veto meeting. However, Grodner and her team typically try to call people into the DR “after the action has died down.”

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If a houseguest wants to go into the DR without being called, they can be granted access by a producer. However, their request can be rejected and the players are made aware by the camera above the door. If the device moves up and down, that signal means it’s a no.

Every Thursday night during the live eviction, every houseguest able to cast a vote to evict is called into the DR. The players get to address host Julie Chen Moonves and tell her who they want to vote out, however, they can't see her on the other side of the camera.

Since the DR is the only spot in the house where contestants can express themselves freely, everything said in the DR is confidential, according to the official Big Brother rule book. Conversations between production and the players held in the room are not allowed to be shared with others — unless production has advised otherwise.

Big Brother airs on CBS Wednesdays, Thursdays and Sundays at 8 p.m. ET.

For more on Big Brother pick up the latest issue of Us Weekly , which now includes 12 additional pages, on stands now.