As soon as the weather starts to warm up, I immediately start to crave Big Brother. In fact, I’ve been watching older seasons of the series over the past few weeks while we count down the days until Season 27 premieres on CBS. Fortunately, the new season of Big Brother does have a premiere date on the 2025 TV schedule, but we’re still a bit too far away to know whether or not one of last season’s twists will return for the next installment.
So, let’s get into what we do know about Season 27, and I also want to talk about the competition I sincerely hope comes back in some form or another when the new season kicks off.
What's The Big Brother Season 27 Premiere Date?
Big Brother Season 27 will premiere on CBS with a 90-minute episode on Thursday, July 10 (8:00 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. ET). That’s a week sooner than Season 26’s premiere date, so we do have that to celebrate.
The Big Brother Season 27 Episode Schedule
In terms of the episode schedule and length, after the 90-minute Thursday premiere, the regular Thursday episode. will be an hour long and will air from 8-9 p.m. ET.
The same situation is happening for the first Sunday episode, in that it’ll be 90 minutes long on Sunday, July 13 (8-9:30 p.m. ET), and then starting on Sunday, July 20th, the Sunday episode will be an hour long.
As far as the Wednesday episode, that one will debut as a 90-minute episode on July 16 (8-9 p.m. ET) and remain 90 minutes from then on, which is a fun update to the structure of the series.
Here's how the schedule looks for the first three episodes
- Thursday, July 10 (8:00-9:30 PM, ET/PT)
- Sunday, July 13 (8:00-9:30 PM, ET/PT)
- Wednesday, July 16 (8:00-9:30 PM, ET/delayed PT)
After the first three episodes the weekly schedule will go like this:
- Thursday 8:00-9:00 PM (ET/PT)
- Sunday 8:00-9:00 PM (ET/PT)
- Wednesday 8:00-9:30 PM (ET/PT)
Big Brother: Unlocked
Finally, there’s the Friday episode, which will air every other week starting later in July, and doesn’t sound like the standard Big Brother episode. Called Big Brother: Unlocked, the Friday episodes will feature three Big Brother all-stars as they present footage from the house, special guest appearances, interviews, and “unprecedented behind-the-scenes access.”
The Unlocked episodes will air on the following dates:
- July 25
- August 8
- Aug. 22
- Sept. 5
- Sept. 19
- Sept. 26
So we have that added bit of fun to look forward to, and it’ll be interesting to see which former houseguests host.
As is usually the case, CBS hasn’t been super forthcoming on what twists or changes to the game that we might see in the new season of Big Brother, but the closer the season gets to premiering, the more hopeful I get that one twist from last season will be revived…
I Want To Know If The AI Arena Will Return In Some Way In Season 27
Anyone who’s watched numerous seasons of Big Brother knows that, while the motto of the show is “expect the unexpected,” we can usually expect the series to add a few twists and turns to the format of the game throughout the run of any given season. Some changes have stuck for much longer than others, but most twists aren’t anywhere in the same league as something like the Power of Veto or the Double Eviction — to use two actual examples of early-series changes that became part of the game longterm.
My hope, however, is that the AI Arena does manage to make it into that echelon of game staples, because man, did it shake up Season 26 in the best ways possible, and While it would make sense for it to be renamed in a way that's less themed to one particular season, or else, adjusted each year to suit each season's theme, the actual competition could benefit future seasons as a permanent fixture.
How The AI Arena Worked In Big Brother Season 26
To refresh your memory, Season 26 of Big Brother was themed around AI, which included the new arena competition twist. Rather than two nominees sitting on the block on eviction night, the Thursday night live show began with three nominees, all of whom would face off in the AI Arena competition during the live show.
The winner of the comp secured their safety and the opportunity to vote in the live eviction, while the other two remained on the block until the voted evictee was sent out to meet Julie Chen shortly after. So, the houseguests didn’t have any kind of certainty over who they were voting to evict, apart from that it would be a choice of two of the three nominees.
What Allison Grodner Has Said About It Possibly Returning
Whether or not the AI Arena will return for Big Brother Season 27 remains to be confirmed – CBS’ Season 27 premiere date announcement made no mention of it.
For right now, the main thing we have to go on is, in October 2024, after Season 26 wrapped up, this exact topic came up. When discussing the idea of the AI Arena and whether or not it’ll return, BB executive producer Allison Grodner spoke with EW about the success of the new competition, adding:
I think it's something that as we look towards the summer, nothing's ever going to be exactly the same. We love mixing things up. But I think the essence of that, it's very likely to be carried forward.
The fact that, following Season 26’s finale, Grodner spoke positively about the idea of bringing it back in some form is promising.
That it won’t be exactly the same as it was in Season 26 isn’t that surprising, given that AI was the theme for the season last summer, and explains the name of the competition. It only makes sense that they would call it something else if it returns next season. But I hope they leave the rules as they are, at least for now.
The AI Arena Really Improved The Live Show, Particularly For Live Feed Watchers
The unpredictability that the Arena competition brought to Thursday night’s live episode really was a game-changer, and shook the show out of its too-predictable eviction episodes (especially for live-feed watchers). In recent years, live feed watchers had a pretty solid idea of who was going to be evicted by the time Thursday night rolled around. Heck, in most cases, the decision was already made by the time the Veto Ceremony took place, and it was unlikely to change in the days leading up to eviction.
With the Arena in play, the houseguests had to consider different voting and eviction scenarios depending on which of the three nominees did or didn’t win the competition. Nothing was set in stone, which led to some interesting outcomes in the early weeks of Season 26.
Some might disagree with me on this front, but I’d even go so far as to say that I was a lot less frustrated by the lack of a live Head of Household competition on Thursday nights last summer when the Arena was happening, because there was so much suspense leading up to the actual eviction. I still don’t love that we don’t see a new Head of Household crowned live as often as we used to. When the HoH isn’t won during the live episode, it ends up being shown on Sunday’s episode. By Sunday night, feed-watchers are already anticipating whether or not the Veto is going to be used (the Ceremony typically happens on Mondays), so seeing the new HoH crowned at that point feels like old news.
Still, the AI Arena brought back some of the unpredictability to the live show, and that was genuinely needed to shake up the game, not to mention giving the houseguests a reason to scramble a bit once the competition was won and the other two nominees’ fates hung in the balance.
So... What Else do We Know About Big Brother Season 27?
Most of what we know about Season 27 of Big Brother is up at the first section of this article, though I should also mention the very-expected confirmation that Julie Chen Moonves will return to host Big Brother. And those with a Paramount Plus subscription will have access to the live feeds. Pluto TV will also continue to stream the feeds.
The series is well known for keeping a lid on the details of the season until much closer to the premiere date. Presumably, that’s to ensure the houseguests know as little as possible about the house, their fellow houseguests and the plans for the season until they’re officially cut off from the outside world.
So, we don’t know the theme, nor do we have confirmation about whether or not Thursday’s episode will have an AI-Arena-style competition. If BB follows seasons past, I expect we’ll get more details and a glimpse of the house in the early days of July, at some point in the week or so before the premiere.
Beyond that, we’ll have to wait for whatever tidbits CBS or Julie Chen Moonves might share about the series as Season 27’s premiere approaches.
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