It’s just about that time Big Brother fans! Season 20 of the CBS reality competition series begins Wednesday evening, and prior to the first episode, EW has obtained the first cast photo.
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Sixteen players are entering the Big Brother house for the annual summer game, coming from all walks of life. There won’t be any returning players from previous seasons, executive producer Allison Grodner told EW Radio prior to the premiere.
“I can confirm there will not be,” she said. “It’s different. We always try to mix it up and keep it fresh and this year, as you’ve already seen, there are 16 brand new houseguests that will be playing this game.”
But that doesn’t mean that the Big Brother family will be excluded from the game altogether.
“Right from the get-go, you’re going to see familiar faces from the show in the audience,” Grodner told The Hollywood Reporter. “We have nods to the previous seasons in the set design of our opening night competition and throughout the season, we’ll be welcoming back some of the legends and favorites to participate.”
Executive producer Rich Meehan, added that the new cast is “much stronger” than the season before it, adding that the viewer still has a ton of power in keeping players they like and sending home ones that aren’t so popular.
“Someone who maybe isn’t the most-liked can still be the most-trending,” he told the outlet.
Meehan told THR that there’s a lot to look forward to in the upcoming season, a lot of it stemming from the collection of people they’ve put together.
“It’s back to basics in the fact that it’s all new house guests, but we’re still going to have twists and turns,” he said. “We’re 99 days now, it’s a long run, so to keep the show fun and the house guests on their toes we like to have the twists along the way.”
Grodner added, “The vibe of this group of people reminds me of Season 12. It had a lot of interesting characters and distinct personalities, but there was this sense of camaraderie among them and it still gave the drama and the comedy.”
We can’t wait to see what will happen this summer!
Season 20 of Big Brother premieres at 8 p.m. ET Wednesday on CBS.