CBS Sets Dual Premiere for ‘Big Brother’ and ‘Love Island’

CBS is filling up its summer lineup with the return of two popular reality TV shows. Big Brother and Love Island will both return on Wednesday, July 7 with 90-minute special episodes for both shows starting at 8 p.m. ET. Big Brother will be starting its 23rd season, while Love Island is starting Season 3.

Big Brother will start its season at 8 p.m. on July 7. Starting on Sunday, July 11, the series will begin its takeover of the CBS primetime lineup, with one-hour episodes airing on Sundays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays at 8 p.m. ET. The Thursday episode features the live eviction. Julie Chen Moonves is back as host. The show is also returning to its typical late June/early July start date after starting much later in August due to the coronavirus pandemic. While last year’s season featured returning houseguests, Season 23 will have an all-new group.

Love Island will start on Wednesday, July 7 at 9:30 p.m. ET. After that, one-hour episodes will air on Thursday and Friday at 9 p.m. ET, and a two-hour episode on Sunday at 9 p.m. ET during the first week. Starting the second week, one-hour episodes will air each night from Tuesdays to Fridays at 9 p.m. ET and two-hour episodes will air Sundays at 9 p.m. ET for the rest of the season.

Big Brother was quickly renewed for a 23rd season at the end of Season 22. At the time, CBS Entertainment’s senior vice president of alternative programming Mitch Graham said summer 2021 would feature another exciting season. “At Big Brother, we always say ‘expect the unexpected,’ but 2020 gave us our biggest challenge to date! We could not be prouder of the entire team who delivered a fantastic season under such extreme circumstances,” Graham said. “It feels fitting for this unprecedented season to conclude with an announcement of the show’s return next summer.”

The series is inspired by the U.K. show of the same title. The first season was filmed in Fiji. Season 2 was delayed because of the pandemic, but eventually filmed at The Cromwell Las Vegas with strict quarantine measures in place. For the new season, production moved to Hawaii. Casting for Love Island is still open. Arielle Vandenberg is hosting Love Island, with Matthew Hoffman as narrator.

CBS is planning to make over 10 hours of exclusive Love Island content that is “too hot for broadcast” available to stream. There will also be a Big Brother Live feed for the new season. Episodes will stream live and on-demand on the CBS app and Paramount+. Casting and more details about the multiplatform experiences will be announced at a later date.

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