CBS Announces ‘Big Brother’ Celebrity Edition

CBS has announced that it will be creating a celebrity edition of Big Brother, the network shared in a press release Thursday.

The spinoff will arrive this winter, with the original show set to return next summer. The celebrity edition will include multiple shows per week during a concentrated run.

“Big Brother has been dominating pop culture throughout its 19 seasons, and it is exciting to grow the franchise with the first-ever celebrity edition in the U.S.,” executive producers Allison Grodner and Rich Meehan said in a statement. “Celebrities will be under the watchful eye of the Big Brother cameras, facing the classic game elements, and of course new twists in this special winter event.”

The celebrity edition will follow the pattern of the original, including series mainstays like Head of Household and Power of Veto competitions and live evictions.

The show’s host, Julie Chen, told The Hollywood Reporter that the cast won’t be “all Oscar winners,” and that her husband, CBS CEO Leslie Moonves, made sure the move made sense.

“He said, ‘You and your show are single-handedly keeping this network afloat during the summer. You’re keeping this network running,’” Chen recalled. “If you know one thing about my husband, it has to make economic sense. They crunched the numbers and said, ‘Based on the following we have, we can do it and make it work and make it profitable.’”

Chen will host the show’s celebrity edition, and the network is currently starting work on assembling its cast of stars.

Photo Credit: CBS