Julie Chen Gives Details On ‘BB’ Celebrity Edition, Reveals Dream Cast List
Big Brother will be doing double duty in 2018. Producers of the long-running CBS reality show have just announced a first-ever celebrity edition, which will air in winter 2018. Like the summertime version, the celebrity spinoff will feature multiple episodes per week as celebrities compete in the signature Head of Household and Power of Veto competitions and live evictions, according to the Hollywood Reporter. In addition, viewers can watch the celebrity Big Brother house on the 24/7 live feed on CBS All Access.
Julie Chen will host the celebrity edition of Big Brother, which comes ahead of Big Brother’s milestone 20th season set to air in summer 2018. Chen told THR her husband, CBS CEO Leslie Moonves, revealed that the summertime version of Big Brother “single-handedly keeps this network afloat during the summer.” Julie Chen has hosted Big Brother every summer since 2000.
Big Brother Celebrity is new to the U.S., but a U.K. version of the show has featured stars like Pamela Anderson, Gary Busey, Stephen Baldwin, Ivana Trump, and MTV reality stars Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt. While the cast for CBS’ celebrity edition of Big Brother is still underway, Julie Chen has a definite wish list.
“Tonya Harding. Martha Stewart and Snoop Dogg, that’s a love affair waiting to happen,” Chen told THR.
“Sean Spicer and Melissa McCarthy, which will never happen. Andy Cohen is a super fan, hilarious and speaks his mind…And who is the one who acts crazy every now and then? Is it Shia LaBeouf? I don’t know if I want him!”
“It’s not going to be all Oscar winners,” Julie admitted to THR of the upcoming celebrity Big Brother cast.
“But maybe we’ll have someone who won an Oscar decades ago. Whoever casts Dancing With the Stars does an amazing job. They don’t always get all household names, but some people kind of reinvent themselves and suddenly I see that person all over the tabloids.”
While Big Brother 16 houseguest Frankie Grande appeared on the U.K. version of Celebrity Big Brother, producer Allison Grodner told THR she can’t yet say if any former houseguests will appear on the U.S. version. Several former Big Brother stars took to Twitter to weigh in on the upcoming celebrity edition of the show.
Celebrity Big Brother? Let's go!!! Also please bring in Kanye thanks.
— Dan Gheesling (@DanGheesling) September 8, 2017
I am not a celebrity, no past HG is a celebrity
They will not be using past HG's for this show, guaranteed https://t.co/WP92QlpZpJ— EvelDick (@EvelDick) September 8, 2017
Julie Chen revealed that a celebrity edition of Big Brother was talked about in the early 2000s, but was scrapped.
“We had toyed with it dating back to season two,” Chen revealed. “Paris Hilton agreed to do it and Roseanne Barr also said she was going to and then she backed out. It didn’t come together and I’m glad it didn’t so early on into the series.”
The upcoming celebrity edition of Big Brother will mark the first time the CBS reality-competition series has aired outside of the summer months since 2008 when the network aired a special edition of the show to help fill primetime slots during the 100-day writers strike.
Watch Julie Chen talking about the original idea for the celebrity edition of Big Brother below.
[Featured Image by Sonja Flemming/CBS]
