Big Brother 26 is the current 26th season of the broadcasted edition of Big Brother (U.S.) and the 31st season overall.
Background
Development
On May 7, 2024, CBS announced its summer schedule, revealing that BB26 would return to a two-night premiere event, not seen since Big Brother 21 (US), on July 17 and 18, 2024. The series continues holding its Sunday, Wednesday, Thursday slots, however this year all episodes were scheduled to air at 9 PM EST consistently instead of 8.[1]Due to the two night premiere structure, the live premiere and move-in that has been in place since Big Brother 22 (US) will not be returning, and the houseguests will already be moved in by the time of the premiere. The houseguests are scheduled to move in on July 16, a day before the premiere airs. The Live Feeds are set to begin following the second half of the premiere, on Thursday night.
The house photos were released on July 9, 2024, with the theme of the season being described as "Big Brother Artificial Intelligence", or "BBAI" for short. The design of the rooms were stated to be generated by AI based on prompts.[2]
On the day of the cast reveal, the official Paramount+ website added the "Live Feeds" tab back to the Big Brother homepage, and under the FAQ it was discovered that the Live Feeds would be losing their flashback and archive features, meaning that viewers would not be able to rewind any footage without externally recording it beforehand, or check back to see footage from days, or even minutes, before.
On July 23, CBS announced that starting from the first live eviction episode on July 25, the Wednesday and Thursday episodes would move to 8 PM EST, while the Sunday episodes would remain at 9.[3]
Casting
With the release of the premiere date, it was also confirmed that the season will once again consist of all new houseguests. On July 11, 2024 Julie Chen-Moonves confirmed that there would once again be 16 houseguests. She also confirmed that due to the two night premiere, the houesguests would once again move into the house in two groups, with 8 moving in for the Wednesday night premiere and the next 8 moving in for the Thursday night premiere, just like Big Brother 16 (US) and Big Brother 17 (US).[4]
On July 12, reliable sources revealed that there will be a 17th houseguest in spite of Chen-Moonves' statement.[5] The cast was released on July 15, with 16 new houseguests being revealed, along with the twist that the fate of the 17th houseguest lies in their hands, as they will vote on whether or not this person gets to join the game during the premiere.[6] During the premiere, it was revealed that there is no 17th houseguest, and the vote was simply a test to go alongside the first twist of the season.
Twists
- Staggered Move-In: The 16 houseguests will be split into two groups of eight to move into the house, with the first group moving in for the Wednesday night premiere, and the second group moving in for Thursday night. In reality, all 16 houseguests still move in on Day 1 of the game, despite airing on different days.
- Big Brother Artificial Intelligence: BBAI is the main theme and twist of the season. The Big Brother "Artificial Intelligence Network Self Learning Entity", aka AINSLEY, will be taking over the game this summer and changing the rules of the game as she sees fit. She will be communicating with the houseguests through a Proto Hologram Box located in the living room. Her "human form" that was originally introduced to the houseguests was portrayed by an actress named Cosette Rinab, while her AI voice was performed by Elise Dubois.[7]
- "Seventeenth Houseguest": The houseguests were told that they have the power to vote in a 17th houseguest during the two-night premiere. However, it was revealed that this was simply a morality test organized by AINSLEY. The houseguests who voted yes to letting her enter would be given the chance to compete for an Upgrade Power, while those who voted no would have to compete to try and avoid a Downgrade Punishment. Each group of eight would compete in four separate competitions, with the two winners of the Upgrade Competition each earning their own power, while the losers of the Downgrade Competition would share their punishment for the first week.
- BB Mascot: The losers of the Downgrade Competition were demoted from houseguests to mascots, meaning that they were ineligible to compete in the HOH or POV competitions for the week, nor were they eligible to cast an eviction vote. However, they were still eligible to be nominated and evicted. The mascots, as the name suggests, were also required to wear costumes and cheer on the competing houseguests during the HOH and POV competitions, but were allowed to return to their regular outfits once the competitions were over.
- Deepfake HOH: A version of the Identity Theft Power App from Big Brother 20 (US), with elements of the Coin of Destiny from Big Brother 23 (US), the winner will be able to anonymously strip the HOH of their power at any point during the first four weeks of the game. They will secretly nominate three houseguests instead of the HOH, and can nominate anyone except for the HOH themselves. To keep their identity a secret, the nominations will be named by a Deepfake Clone of the actual HOH, using AINSLEY's Proto Box to share the news. They also have control of the replacement nominee and will not vote unless it ties, while the dethroned HOH is still guaranteed to play in the Veto Competition and will be allowed to play in the following HOH Competition.
- America's Veto: A lighter variation of the Diamond Power of Veto, where the winner will be able to use the power at any point during the first four weeks of the game. If they choose to use the Power of Veto, they can take down one nominee but instead of the HOH naming the replacement, the audience will decide in a vote, with the results of the renomination vote being revealed live on eviction night. The HOH, POV Holder, and person Vetoed off the block all remain immune from renomination.
- AI Arena Competition: Similar to Big Brother Australia 14, each week, the Head of Household will have to make three nominations for eviction, as opposed to two. If one of them is Vetoed off the block, they will be replaced. Prior to the live eviction, the nominees would compete on live eviction night in the new AI Arena Competition, where the winner will earn safety, while the two losers would face the vote. The BB Mascots in Week 1 will be eligible to compete if they are nominated. The twist came to an end following the Week 7 eviction.
- AI Instigator: During Week 5, America will vote for one houseguest to become the AI Instigator, who can spread chaos and misinformation throughout the house by framing their fellow houseguests with Deepfake Clones from the Proto Box, similar to the Saboteur twist from Big Brother 12 (US). The AI Instigator was revealed at the start of Week 6, and they began their duties immediately. If the audience thinks their selected Instigator did a good enough job for the week, they will also determine how much money they are rewarded for completing their mission, between the options of $0, $5,000, $10,000 or $20,000.
- JANKIE World: During Week 9, AINSLEY went on a journey to see the world, leaving the houseguests with her protegé, the "Junior Artificial Neuro-Kinetic Intelligence Entity", aka JANKIE for the week. In a callback to the Dyre Fest half of Big Brother 24 (US)'s Split House Double Eviction, JANKIE forces all of the houseguests to live outside in the backyard for the entire week. They were also limited to eating only pizza and ice cream for the week, and were required to learn JANKIE's theme song and attend all of his dance parties. The HOH also had to host a "nomination game", where they would place red rings on the bottles of the houseguests they chose to nominate for eviction.
- JANKIE Power of Veto: There will be a second Power of Veto up for grabs this week, courtesy of JANKIE World. During the Veto Competition, whoever places second will win themselves the JANKIE Power of Veto, but they are only allowed to use it if they are able to successfully complete one of JANKIE's carnival games during the Veto Meeting.
- Evil AINSLEY: In Week 10, after returning from her journey, AINSLEY came back with a new blue and red color scheme and a new agenda, vowing to make sure the rest of the season would "break their human spirits so that AI can rule the world". Her first order of business was terminating JANKIE's source code and freeing the houseguests from JANKIE World, while her second act was to unleash The Zingbot on the houseguests. At the end of the week, she then masqueraded as Chenbot AI, giving the houseguests fake warnings in order to catch them in the act of betraying her, and in a bid for revenge she chooses to unleash the Double Eviction upon them.
- "Seventeenth Houseguest": The houseguests were told that they have the power to vote in a 17th houseguest during the two-night premiere. However, it was revealed that this was simply a morality test organized by AINSLEY. The houseguests who voted yes to letting her enter would be given the chance to compete for an Upgrade Power, while those who voted no would have to compete to try and avoid a Downgrade Punishment. Each group of eight would compete in four separate competitions, with the two winners of the Upgrade Competition each earning their own power, while the losers of the Downgrade Competition would share their punishment for the first week.
- Classic Jury Format: For the second season in a row, the Jury would be a Jury of Seven instead of a Jury of Nine. This was officially confirmed to the houseguests and the audience following the Week 7 eviction.
HouseGuests
Voting History
Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4 | Week 5 | Week 6 | Week 7 | Week 8 | Week 9 | Week 10 | Week 11 | Week 12 | Week 13 | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 17 | Day 21 | Day 66 | Day 73 | Day 90 | Finale | ||||||||||
Cam | No | Matt | Lisa | Nominations Void |
Kenney | Rubina | Vetoed Tucker |
Kimo | Quinn | T'kor | Leah | Angela | Kimo | ||||
Chelsie | No | Ineligible |
Nominations Void |
Kenney | Rubina | Rep/Saved Cam |
Tucker | Joseph | T'kor | Leah | Kimo | ||||||
Makensy | Yes | Kenney | Lisa | Rep |
Vetoed Kenney |
Saved Cedric |
Brooklyn | Saved Tucker |
Joseph | Quinn | T'kor | Angela | |||||
Rubina | Yes | Matt | Lisa | Nominations Void |
Kenney | Rep |
Brooklyn | Angela | Saved Joseph |
Quinn | Leah | Rep |
|||||
Kimo | No | Saved Matt |
Lisa | Nominations Void |
Kenney | Cedric | Brooklyn | Angela | Vetoed Rubina |
Vetoed Leah |
Vetoed Angela |
|
|||||
Angela | Yes | Vetoed | Kenney | Brooklyn | Rep |
Vetoed Kimo |
Vetoed Kimo |
T'kor | |
||||||||
Leah | Yes | Kenney | Lisa | Nominations Void |
Kenney | Cedric | Brooklyn | Tucker | Kimo | Kimo | Rep |
|
|||||
T'kor | No | Matt | Lisa | Nominations Void |
Kenney | Cedric | Brooklyn | Joseph | Quinn | Rep |
|
||||||
Quinn | Yes | Matt | Lisa | Nominations Void |
Rep America |
Vetoed Brooklyn |
Tucker | Rep |
|
||||||||
Joseph | Yes | Matt | Lisa | Nominations Void |
Kenney | Cedric | Brooklyn | Angela | Rep |
| |||||||
Tucker | No | Matt | Rep/Saved Lisa |
Saved Quinn |
Vetoed Cedric |
| |||||||||||
Brooklyn | No | Matt | Lisa | Nominations Void |
Kenney | Rubina | | ||||||||||
Cedric | No | Ineligible |
Lisa | | |||||||||||||
Kenney | No | Vetoed Angela |
| ||||||||||||||
Lisa | No | Vetoed Kenney |
| ||||||||||||||
Matt | No | Rep |
|
Key: | HOH | Dethroned HOH | POV | America's POV | Nominated | America: America's Nominee |
Rep: Replacement Nominee | Immune | AI Arena Winner | Evicted | Jury Member | Vote to Enter |
Have/Have-Not History
Week | ||||||||||||||||
1 | + | |||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2 | + | |||||||||||||||
3 | + | |||||||||||||||
4 | + | |||||||||||||||
5 | + | |||||||||||||||
6 | + | |||||||||||||||
7 | + |
Key: | Have | Have-Not | +: HOH |
- Note: Quinn was named a Have-Not at the beginning of Week 7, but due to winning HOH, his Have-Not status was canceled out.
Competition History
# | Competition | Result | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
Week | Day(s) | Type | Name | |
1 | 1 | Upgrade (America's Veto) |
"Color Calibration" | Makensy is upgraded |
Downgrade | "Fear Facer" | Chelsie is downgraded | ||
Upgrade (Deepfake HOH) |
"AI Chip Install" | Quinn is upgraded | ||
Downgrade | "Facial Recognition" | Cedric is downgraded | ||
2 | HOH | "New Rule" | Angela wins HOH | |
5 | POV | "BB AI Spelling Bee" | Lisa wins the Veto | |
10 | AI Arena | "Glitch in the System" | Kimo is saved | |
2 | HOH | "Animal Obsession" | Chelsie wins HOH | |
12 | POV | "Code Tower" | Kenney wins the Veto | |
17 | AI Arena | "Security Race" | Tucker is saved | |
3 | HOH | "Ainsley Land" | Cedric wins HOH | |
19 | POV | "Recharge My Core" | Tucker wins the Veto | |
24 | AI Arena | "Data Dump" | Tucker is saved | |
4 | HOH | "Bad AI" | Angela wins HOH | |
26 | POV | "Binary Bridge" | Tucker wins the Veto | |
31 | AI Arena | "Upload, Download" | Makensy is saved | |
5 | HOH | "Firewall" | Tucker wins HOH | |
33 | POV | "Hide-N-Go Veto" | Tucker wins the Veto | |
38 | AI Arena | "Digital Decryption" | Chelsie is saved | |
6 | HOH | "Sound Bites" | T'kor wins HOH | |
40 | POV | "AI Apocalypse" | Cam wins the Veto | |
45 | AI Arena | "Puzzling Password" | Makensy is saved | |
7 | HOH | "What Came First?" | Quinn wins HOH | |
47 | POV | "Bot Builders" | Leah wins the Veto | |
52 | AI Arena | "Bandwidth Boosters" | Rubina is saved | |
8 | HOH | "Ding Cam" | Chelsie wins HOH | |
54 | POV | "OTEV the Trash-Talking Trash Panda" | Makensy wins the Veto | |
9 | 59-60 | HOH | "Getting Toasted" | Leah wins HOH |
61 | POV | "Too Much of a Good Thing" | Angela wins the Veto | |
JANKIE POV | Leah wins the Veto | |||
63 | "JANKIE's Knock-Em Down" | Leah fails her task | ||
10 | 66 | HOH | "Eye Candy" | Makensy wins HOH |
68 | POV | "The Wild Robot" | Makensy wins the Veto | |
73 | HOH | "Warning Messages" | Chelsie wins HOH | |
POV | "Eye in the Sky" | Kimo wins the Veto | ||
11 | HOH | "Killer Keycard" | Makensy wins HOH | |
75 | POV | "BB Comics" | Makensy wins the Veto | |
12 | 80 | HOH | "Hidden Agenda" | Chelsie wins HOH |
81 | POV | "Pass Code Protectors" | Makensy wins the Veto | |
13 | TBA | HOH | "TBA" | TBD wins HOH Part 1 |
TBA | "TBA" | TBD wins HOH Part 2 | ||
90 | "TBA" | TBD wins HOH Part 3 |
Game History
Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
Week 4
Week 5
Week 6
Week 7
Week 8
Week 9
Week 10
Round 1
Round 2
Week 11
Week 12
Week 13
Finale
Jury
Trivia
- This is the first season since Big Brother 8 (US) where the first HOH and POV competitions were won solely by women.
- Big Brother 13 (US) also had the first HOH won by a woman, but the first POV was shared between her and her partner.
- This is the first season of the civilian series where the final nominees of the first round were all men, guaranteeing that the first evicted houseguest would be a man. Including Celebrity Big Brother 1 (US), this is the second season.
- The first six evicted houseguests all voted no during the opening night twist where the cast had to vote on whether or not "Ainsley" should be allowed to enter the game as the "seventeenth houseguest". Fans dubbed this The AINSLEY Curse, and production acknowledged it during the Week 7 eviction episode, where it was finally broken later in the episode.
- The first five of them were also in the second group of houseguests who were first introduced in the second night of the two night premiere.
- The Power of Veto was used consecutively for the first eleven Veto Ceremonies, breaking Big Brother 15 (US)'s record of seven, before finally being unused during the twelfth Veto Ceremony.
- Counting the Special Vetoes won by Makensy Manbeck and Leah Peters, a Power of Veto was used 12 out of 13 times within the first eleven rounds, although Leah's Veto was forced to be unused due to the nature of the twist.
- This season has the most consecutive non-unanimous votes, with the first nine eviction votes, before the tenth vote finally became unanimous.
- On the day of the Week 8 eviction episode, it was announced that due to having a mild COVID infection, Julie would not host the show that evening, marking the first time she has missed a live show, even during her pregnancy in Big Brother 11 (US). The Talk host Jerry 'O' Connell, who previously appeared during the fifth eviction episode of Celebrity Big Brother 3 (US), subbed in for Julie that night.[8][9]
Ratings
Big Brother 26 (US) Ratings | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
# | Date | 18–49 Demo (rating/share) |
Viewers (millions) |
Season Avg Viewers (millions) |
Rank | Source | |||
Week | Episode | Timeslot | Night | ||||||
1 | 1 | Wednesday, July 17, 2024 | 0.6/7 | 2.75 | 2.75 | 1 | 1 | [10] | [11] |
2 | Thursday, July 18, 2024 | 0.5/7 | 2.36 | 2.56 | 1 | 1 | [12] | ||
3 | Sunday, July 21, 2024 | 0.5/7 | 2.42 | 2.51 | 1 | 1 | [13] | ||
4 | Wednesday, July 24, 2024 | 0.5/7 | 2.62 | 2.54 | 1 | 2 | [14] | ||
5 | Thursday, July 25, 2024 | 0.6/8 | 2.87 | 2.61 | 1 | 1 | [15] | ||
2 | 6 | Sunday, July 28, 2024 | 0.5/4 | 2.40 | 2.57 | 1 | 2 | [16] | |
7 | Wednesday, July 31, 2024 | 0.5/6 | 2.72 | 2.59 | 2 | 2 | [17] | ||
8 | Thursday, August 1, 2024 | 0.5/6 | 2.76 | 2.61 | 3 | 3 | [18] | ||
3 | 9 | Sunday, August 4, 2024 | 0.5/5 | 2.33 | 2.58 | 1 | 2 | [19] | |
10 | Wednesday, August 7, 2024 | 0.6/7 | 2.97 | 2.62 | 2 | 2 | [20] | ||
11 | Thursday, August 8, 2024 | 0.7/8 | 3.15 | 2.67 | 2 | 3 | [21] | ||
4 | 12 | Sunday, August 11, 2024 | 0.4/6 | 2.20 | 2.63 | 1 | 3 | [22] | |
13 | Tuesday, August 13, 2024 | 0.4/5 | 2.28 | 2.60 | 3 | 3 | [23] | ||
14 | Wednesday, August 14, 2024 | 0.6/9 | 3.25 | 2.65 | 1 | 1 | [24] | ||
15 | Thursday, August 15, 2024 | 0.6/10 | 3.49 | 2.70 | 1 | 1 | [25] | ||
5 | 16 | Sunday, August 18, 2024 | 0.6/7 | 2.72 | 2.71 | 2 | 2 | [26] | |
17 | Wednesday, August 21, 2024 | 0.6/8 | 3.02 | 2.72 | 1 | 1 | [27] | ||
18 | Thursday, August 22, 2024 | 0.6/8 | 2.96 | 2.74 | 1 | 2 | [28] | ||
6 | 19 | Sunday, August 25, 2024 | 0.5/7 | 2.76 | 2.74 | 2 | 3 | [29] | |
20 | Wednesday, August 28, 2024 | 0.5/8 | 2.93 | 2.75 | 1 | 1 | [30] | ||
21 | Thursday, August 29, 2024 | 0.7/9 | 3.18 | 2.77 | 1 | 1 | [31] | ||
7 | 22 | Sunday, September 1, 2024 | 0.4/5 | 2.41 | 2.75 | 1 | 2 | [32] | |
23 | Wednesday, September 4, 2024 | 0.6/9 | 3.19 | 2.77 | 1 | 1 | [33] | ||
24 | Thursday, September 5, 2024 | 0.6/5 | 3.09 | 2.78 | 2 | 2 | [34] | ||
8 | 25 | Sunday, September 8, 2024 | 0.6/6 | 2.96 | 2.79 | 3 | 3 | [35] | |
26 | Wednesday, September 11, 2024 | 0.6/8 | 3.20 | 2.81 | 1 | 1 | [36] | ||
27 | Thursday, September 12, 2024 | 0.6/6 | 3.17 | 2.82 | 1 | 1 | [37] | ||
9 | 28 | Sunday, September 15, 2024 | 0.6/5 | 2.82 | 2.82 | 3 | 5 | [38] | |
29 | Wednesday, September 18, 2024 | 0.5/7 | 2.39 | 2.81 | 1 | 2 | [39] | ||
30 | Thursday, September 19, 2024 | 0.6/6 | 3.07 | 2.81 | 1 | 1 | [40] | ||
10 | 31 | Sunday, September 22, 2024 | 0.5/4 | 2.90 | 2.82 | 3 | 4 | [41] | |
32 | Wednesday, September 25, 2024 | 0.5/7 | 2.44 | 2.81 | 1 | 2 | [42] | ||
33 | Thursday, September 26, 2024 | 0.6/6 | 3.12 | 2.82 | 1 | 1 | [43] | ||
11 | 34 | Sunday, September 29, 2024 | 0.3/4 | 2.33 | 2.80 | 1 | 4 | [44] | |
35 | Thursday, October 3, 2024 | 0.5/5 | 2.92 | 2.80 | 1 | 1 | [45] |
Key: | Increase | Decrease | No Change | Live Show |
References
External Links
CBS Official Site (US)
Global TV Site (Canada)
United States Seasons | ||
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English | Broadcast | 1 · 2 · 3 · 4 · 5 · 6 · 7 · 8 · 9 · 10 · 11 · 12 · 13 · 14 · 15 · 16 · 17 · 18 · 19 · 20 · 21 · 22 · 23 · 24 · 25 · 26 |
Digital | 1 | |
Celebrity | 1 · 2 · 3 | |
Holiday | 1 | |
Spanish | Civilian | 1 |
Celebrity | 1 · 2 · 3 · 4 · 5 |
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