CBS Alters ‘Big Brother 28’ Premiere Date and Airtime – Here Are the Details
A year after shower aficionado Ashley Hollis claimed the $750,000 prize for the 27th season of Big Brother, CBS is gearing up for yet another summer of unexpected twists and shocking turns. And this time around, television history will be made in the form of the show’s 1,000th episode.
Host Julie Chen Moonves told Entertainment Tonight in April that she was excited when she first learned about the Season 28 theme. “I was like, ‘Oh yeah!'” she said to the producers. “You don’t even have to say more — I get it. They were about to explain it and I was like, ‘Say no more.’
THE PREMIERE DATE
Season 28 is set to premiere July 9 at 8 p.m. on CBS with a special 90-minute episode. The second episode airs July 12 and will also run for an hour and a half. The companion series, Big Brother: Unlocked, will kick off July 10.
THE SCHEDULE & LIVE FEEDS
Beginning with Week 2, Big Brother will air 90-minute Veto episodes on Wednesdays at 8 p.m., live hour-long eviction shows on Thursdays at 8 p.m., and hour-long Head of Household editions on Sundays at 8 p.m. As usual, fans will be able to watch the BB live feeds on Paramount+ and Pluto TV soon after the season begins.
THE 1,000TH EPISODE
This summer, Big Brother is set to become the first entertainment television series in American history to reach 1,000 original episodes in primetime. With 975 episodes under its belt, the popular program just needs 25 more to reach that milestone, and it should do so around August or September. (Big Brother seasons typically run 30 to 40 episodes.) As a reminder, the 500th episode aired on Sept. 5, 2013, near the end of Season 15.
THE HOST
Julie Chen Moonves returns as host of the premiere night and the weekly live episodes. Affectionately called “ChenBot” by hardcore fans, the news personality has appeared in every main season and spin-off of Big Brother since the very beginning — aside from Reindeer Games, which was hosted by Santa Claus and his elves.
THE CAST
Casting for this season opened in January and is still ongoing. CBS will announce the Season 28 cast members closer to the July 9 move-in date. Stay tuned.
THE THEME
It wouldn’t be Big Brother without all those wild twists and turns (the show’s motto, after all, is “expect the unexpected”). While the official theme will be revealed soon, recent seasons took on a murder mystery hotel, artificial intelligence, and a multiverse.
There are unsubstantiated rumors online that the Season 28 theme will be “Time Trip,” with the houseguests competing across different eras, facing returning legends, and navigating former game mechanics. But CBS has not confirmed those to be true.
Whatever the twist happens to be, Julie Chen Moonves revealed to Entertainment Tonight that her initial reaction to learning about the theme was: “This is brilliant. Brilliant! Why has it taken us this long to do it?”
BIG BROTHER WINNERS
Ashley Hollis became the latest member of the Big Brother winners list on Sept. 28, 2025. Other recent names include Chelsie Baham, Jag Bains, Taylor Hale, Xavier Prather, Cody Calafiore, Jackson Michie, Kaycee Clark, and Derrick Levasseur — see them all.
