Big Brother 26 (American Season)

''Big Brother 26'' is the twenty-sixth season of the American reality television program '' Big Brother''. The program is an adaptation of the franchise created in 1999 by John de Mol. The season features an artificial intelligence theme. It premiered on CBS on July 17, 2024, and concluded on October 13, 2024.

The season ran for ninety days, ending on October 13, 2024, with the first all-female final two since the thirteenth season. Chelsie Baham was crowned the winner, defeating Makensy Manbeck by a vote of 7–0. Baham became the second black female Houseguest to win, following Taylor Hale in the twenty-fourth season, the third black Houseguest to win overall in the main edition of the show, following Hale and Xavier Prather in the twenty-third season, the first woman to win the game by a unanimous jury vote, and the fourth overall Houseguest to do so, following Prather, Cody Calafiore in the twenty-second season, and Dan Gheesling in the tenth season. Tucker Des Lauriers was voted America's Favorite Houseguest, becoming the first pre-jury Houseguest to claim this prize.

Format

''Big Brother'' follows a group of contestants, known as Houseguests, who live inside a custom-built house outfitted with cameras and microphones recording their every move 24 hours a day. The Houseguests are sequestered with no contact with the outside world. During their stay, the Houseguests share their thoughts on their day-to-day lives inside the house in a private room known as the Diary Room. Each week, the Houseguests compete in competitions in order to win power and safety inside the house. At the start of each week, the Houseguests compete in a Head of Household (abbreviated as "HOH") competition. The winner of the HoH competition is immune from eviction and selects two Houseguests to be nominated for eviction.

Six Houseguests are then selected to compete in the Power of Veto (abbreviated as "PoV") competition: the reigning HoH, the nominees are guaranteed to play with the other slots being assigned by random draw. The winner of the PoV competition has the right to either revoke the nomination of one of the nominated HouseGuests or leave them as is. If the veto winner uses this power, the HoH must immediately nominate another HouseGuest for eviction. The PoV winner is also immune from being named as the replacement nominee. On eviction night, all HouseGuests vote to evict one of the nominees, though the Head of Household and the nominees are not allowed to vote. This vote is conducted in the privacy of the Diary Room. In the event of a tie, the Head of Household casts the tie-breaking vote. The nominee with the most votes is evicted from the house. The last seven evicted HouseGuests comprise the Jury and are sequestered in a separate location following their eviction and ultimately decide the winner of the season. The Jury is only allowed to see the competitions and ceremonies that include all of the remaining HouseGuests; they are not shown any interviews or other footage that might include strategy or details regarding nominations. The viewing public is able to award an additional prize by choosing "America's Favorite HouseGuest." All evicted Houseguests are eligible to win this award except for those who either voluntarily leave or are forcibly removed for rule violations.

Houseguests

Online applications for the season were underway by January 2024 while in-person casting sessions occurred in March and April. The cast was revealed on July 15, 2024. At this time it was also revealed that the houseguests would have the power to vote in a seventeenth houseguest by a majority vote. This was later revealed to be a ruse that introduced the season's primary theme. Several Houseguests had made previous appearances on reality television: Angela Murray previously appeared on Dr. Phil's '' House Calls'' in 2021, ''The Price Is Right'' in 2019, and ''Let's Make a Deal''. In 2019, Brooklyn Rivera appeared on Dr. Phil's titular talk show. In 2023, T'Kor Clottey appeared on Kelly Clarkson's talk show. In 2023, Rubina Bernabe appeared on ''Don't Forget the Lyrics!'', winning $10,000.

Future appearances

In 2025, Cedric Hodges competed on '' The Challenge: Vets & New Threats''.

Episodes

Notes

Voting history

Color key:

;Notes

Production

Development

''Big Brother 26'' was officially confirmed by CBS on May 7, 2024. The primary theme for ''Big Brother 26'' was based around artificial intelligence (AI); the season premiere introduced a character known as Ainsley, a personified AI agent who appeared throughout the season (initially portrayed in-person as a fake 17th HouseGuest, and later as an animated avatar) to introduce themed twists and challenges.

Julie Chen Moonves returned as host. She contracted the COVID-19 virus in September 2024 and was absent from episode 27, marking the first time in the program's history that she missed an eviction episode; Jerry O'Connell hosted in her place.

One of the major twists of the season was the "A.I. Arena": three Houseguests were nominated for possible eviction by the H.O.H. rather than two, who then competed in a challenge in the titular room. Whoever won the challenge would be declared safe, while the remaining two went up for eviction as normal. Production staff stated that the twist was intended to make the Thursday-night eviction episodes more unpredictable, as well as reinstate the presence of a challenge on eviction night (as the HoH competition had been displaced from eviction night in recent seasons of ''Big Brother''). Executive producer Allison Grodner suggested that the twist or a variant of it could return for future seasons, considering it a "success" that the producers had "learned a lot from".

Filming

Filming began on July 16, 2024, and ran for 90 days.

Production design

Similar to the season's overall theme, the ''Big Brother'' house was designed with an artificial intelligence theme. Bedrooms in the house were designed using AI prompts. The have-not room is described as "only a wireframe skeleton bedroom" because the AI crashed after given the prompt. Throughout the season, housemates interacted with each other and AI characters such as AINSLEY and Jankie via Proto Hologram devices.

Release

Broadcast

The season premiered on CBS over two nights on July 17 and 18, 2024. New episodes then aired on Sundays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays at 9:00 p.m. eastern time (ET). It concluded with a live finale on October 13, 2024. Beginning July 25, Wednesday and Thursday episodes moved to 8:00 p.m. ET.

Streaming

Following its broadcast, new episodes will stream on Paramount+ and CBS On Demand. As with previous seasons, Paramount+ is also providing access to 24/7 live feeds. The live feeds also stream on Pluto TV in a free advertisement-supported format. In a change from previous seasons, those watching the live feeds will no longer be able to pause or rewind the video.

References

{{Big Brother in the United States

Big Brother (American TV series) seasons
2024 American television seasons