Inside the actual smoking rules all the Celebrity Big Brother housemates have to follow

If you’re old enough to remember Big Brother in the past, you’ll know full well that the smoking section was stuff of historical importance. The Big Brother smoking area, whether in the civilian house or the celebrity, was where every good conversation went down and has been home to some of the most iconic conversations ever. Just like the best smoking areas in pubs and clubs, the Celebrity Big Brother smoking area was the highlight of any night. We all remember where we were watching Tina Malone dressed in Tudor regalia slag the housemates off to Sugababes’ Mutya Buena. That’s history. But since Big Brother and its Celebrity spin off returned to ITV in 2023, the smoking area has changed and so have the rules.

Here’s what you need to know about the Celebrity Big Brother smoking rules in 2025 and where the area actually is.

 The ITV era changed the smoking rules

In the past days of the show airing on Channel 5 or Channel 4, the show would have a very visible smoking area – usually with a memorable design. One year, the housemates had to sit in a big ash tray.

Now though, all the smoking happens off camera. The smoking area is the only place in the house that housemates are allowed to smoke or vape in, and is accessed via a plain door in the garden. The area does have cameras in it, but the footage is never meant to be broadcast.

ITV decided when they rebooted Celebrity Big Brother and the civilian show that the show would no longer air a smoking area so to align with people’s changing attitude towards smoking. It’s reflective of the broadcaster doing similar with Love Island – you used to see Islanders having a cig in the night but it all happens off camera now.

The only time the smoking area has been seen since the show came back two years ago is in last year’s civilian series, where the show aired a conversation between Ali and Marcello which bosses deemed too important to not air for the context of their disagreement and relationship.

As you can see, at least from last year, the area was very plain. There’s a little bin for the cig butts to go in, and the lockers to the side of Marcello and Ali are where each housemate keeps their cig or vape.