You can’t keep a good reality show down, and that’s definitely the case with the new season of “Big Brother.”
Returning for a 28th season, the long-in-the-tooth competition has generated some extraordinary ratings, with the season premiere becoming its highest-viewed premiere since 2021.
A Ratings Spike
As Deadline reports, the Season 28 premiere garnered 3.88 million live + same-day viewers (via Nielsen Big Data + Panel). This, the outlet notes, makes it the series’ most-watched premiere episode in five years (the July 7, 2021 premiere’s logged 4.27M total viewers).
The Season 28 debut was also up 22% over last year’s premiere, which delivered 3.18M viewers. It was also 21% higher than the Thursday-night season average.
In addition, the Season 28 premiere is also the most-watched Thursday premiere in six years, a number not topped since August 2020.
Big Viewership on Social Media
Meanwhile, viewership exploded on social media.
According to Deadline, the season premiere generated 8.1M social media views and 866,000 interactions — a franchise-best performance that marks the most-engaged and most-viewed premiere on social media since 2020.
Time Tripping in Season 28
According to the logline for Season 28 logline, this year introduces a “Time Trip” theme, which will be “turning time into the ultimate twist. Houseguests will enter a world where rooms, relics and competitions transport them across moments in time, while early twists shake up the game from the start. Inspired by decades like the ’80s and Y2K, new powers and challenges can disrupt strategy and alliances.”
Interviewed by Entertainment Weekly about the twists and turns that houseguests will encounter in the new season, she observed that some players will adapt to the scenario better than others.
“That means things could go backwards. They can go forward. Is that gonna be good for someone’s game?” she teased. “Probably. Is it gonna cripple someone’s game? Probably.”.
As she explained the time-twists will likely prove frustrating to super-fan players who think they know the game inside out.
“So some people are gonna love it. Some people are gonna hate it. ‘Big Brother’ is so hard to win these days. There’s never been a formula, but the challenges have just leveled up because these people, they think they know the game,” she added. “They practice at home with their version of the wall and this and that. So we have to keep it difficult. I wouldn’t last one day in that house.”
‘Big Brother’ Delivers a ‘Survivor’ Crossover
Another big surprise this year has been the addition of “Survivor” castaways Rick Devens and Dee Valladare, both of whom competed in the recent 50th season.
“Certainly, it’s amazing to be able to bring people from another huge CBS show and to see how they play the ‘Big Brother’ game from a ‘Survivor’ game,” “”Big Brother” producer Allison Grodner observed in a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly.
That, she added, was paricularly true of Devens. “He’s a good example of that someone who just really pops and stands out and is fun to watch,” Grodner added. “He’s a strategist and he’s creative. And so if we’re looking for someone to stir things up, do some things unexpected, it felt like he was a really good fit to try him on ‘Big Brother.’ And we were just thrilled when he agreed and wanted to do it.”
