Julie Chen Says ‘Celebrity Big Brother’ Could Get Second Season

If you’ve been loving the first U.S. season of Celebrity Big Brother, you could be in luck. The show may become an annual event, CBS host Julie Chen revealed in a new interview Tuesday

“I wouldn’t rule it out! Who knows? It’s definitely possible,” Chen told Entertainment Weekly. “With these ratings, it did what we hoped as opposed to running repeats of the current slate of shows. It all depends how well all the shows on the air are doing.”

The number of episodes that air in a week during the show’s condensed schedule — which can be anywhere from three to five — could cause some issues, however. This season has been able to air opposite of NBC‘s 2018 Winter Olympics coverage, but it obviously won’t be in the same situation next year.

“B.B. takes up a lot of real estate on the primetime schedule,” Chen added. “We are used to having at least three nights to air in a week. CBS is known for having a strong schedule of shows year-round so it’s hard to say right now what will happen next winter.”

But the first season of the celebrity reality TV show has already proven to be a major success for CBS. Deadline reported that the Feb. 7 premiere was the most popular show that night, with 7.25 million people tuning in to see contestants like Omarosa Manigault, Mark McGrath and Ross Mathews compete for dominance.

But when NBC’s coverage of the 2018 Winter Olympics kicked off the following day, Celebrity Big Brother fell to second place in ratings. Viewership has still been solid, however. The Feb. 14 episode brought in 5.2 million viewers, falling behind the Olympics’ impressive 17.1 million but topping The Amazing Race‘s 4.1 million.

Chen also opened up about some of the contestants’ game play during the first season during her interview, including Metta World Peace, who quit the game Monday after griping about being homesick the entire season.

“I don’t think Metta’s head was ever really in the game,” she said. “He slept a lot and didn’t approach anyone ever with a plan. He was happy to go along with a plan if asked and if he liked you. But other than that, I think with him missing his family and it not being a type of competition he is used to playing and defeating his opponents, he didn’t know what to do with himself. This is not his type of game. That being said, he was fun to get to know through the eyes of our camera and I am now a fan.”

McGrath, she added, is the celebrity in the mansion who talks the biggest game without backing it up.

“Mark is all talk and no bite,” she added. “But at least his talk is interesting. He gives good sound bites in the Diary Room and he has a good sense of the game and what’s going on in the house. But why should he play hard? He doesn’t need to right now. If push comes to shove, we shall see what he’s really made of in terms of being a gamer… or not.”

Celebrity Big Brother airs on CBS on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays at 8 p.m. ET.