Big Brother Fall Season To Feature “100% Live Comps On Feeds”

When Big Brother goes digital this fall with the first ever online-only version of Big Brother US (don’t worry, Big Brother 19 will be back on CBS TV in the summer of 2017) there are going to be a lot of great improvements that fans have long requested.

Julie Chen has a secret on Big Brother

One of the major frustrations I hear from readers, and one we experience as well, is the downtime for Feeds when we have competitions or other events going on in the house. Since production is taking the time it needs to get all the footage for broadcast we’ve had things down for more than seven hours at a time. Well that won’t be happening in the Big Brother digital season this fall. With no regular episodes there will be nothing to protect for the next broadcast event. We’ll get to watch it all as it happens right there on our Big Brother Feeds!

As Big Brother’s fall season prepares to go exclusively online through CBS All Access we’ve been hearing a lot of very encouraging details from Heath Luman, Big Brother’s co-executive producer who is in charge of bringing all those weekly competitions to life. CBS just posted a really interesting read about Heath and one of his team’s latest comps, “Under The Weather.” Check that article out for more information on his role and how he supports the Big Brother team.

After the Black Box HoH comp was filmed behind the blacked out Live Feeds Heath took to Twitter to let fans know this wouldn’t be something we’d have to face in the online edition of Big Brother:

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I know fans are bummed the HOH wasn't streaming live (not my call). Good news is digital fall edition comps will ALL be live?

— Heath Luman (@HeathLuman) August 20, 2016

Heath has been extremely open and available to Big Brother fans through Twitter, something he was doing earlier today when he was responding to fans and commented, “Well, good news is those games won’t have yard “transformations”, will be refreshing to focus more on game elements.”

I’m taking that to mean there will be less time spent on converting the backyard from the BB backyard we know to a space that feels like it could be somewhere far away. We’ve seen that with these massive competitions and huge backdrops that take over the space and hide its ordinary roots.

Heath again reiterated that instead of watching seemingly endless loops of Jeff Schroeder while production taped the Veto or HoH competitions when it came time for this new presentation of Big Brother we’d see all the comps happen live! “I can tell you digital is shaping up to be 100% live comps on feeds,” said Luman.

As for when the online season of Big Brother will begin? Good question. All we know so far is that it will start soon after Big Brother 18 ends and will last about ten weeks. I’m willing to guess they’ll want to be done by mid-December like regular shows are so to squeeze ten weeks in things would need to get started pretty soon after that September 21st finale for BB18!

If you’re dissatisfied that CBS is putting this online season of Big Brother behind a paywall then that’s something you’ll have to take up with them. We’re looking forward to the new season and will definitely be covering the whole thing here on the site. At $6/month it’s relatively inexpensive entertainment and is a great opportunity for fans who can make it work for them. If you can’t get the Feeds or afford them then you’ll always have our coverage here on the site and through our free Big Brother App.

Besides making all the competitions live and available to watch on the Live Feeds, what else would you want to change about the regular Big Brother seasons? What would lend itself to an online version that keeps the show rolling with less downtime than we’ve come to expect from the summer installments? Share your thoughts below. I’d be interested to hear your ideas.

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103 Comments

  1. I don’t get the feeds so if they’re down it doesn’t affect me. But, it’s CBS…surely there is an empty lot or studio somewhere relatively close that they could use for the comps, etc?

  2. Hey if it improves the game, the way it’s played at all lately and manipulated, then I’m all in. I do know that I can’t take another season of production shenanigans and overt unpunished cheating. 24-hour feeds and live comps are definitely going to scale any possibility of changing reality in an editing bay. So frankly, I’m very interested in how this is going to play out.

  3. Hope everyone enjoys the online season this fall. One season a year is enough for me. :)

    • Too bad for me, I’ve followed 5 seasons of BB this year. One season just ended last weekend so it’s down to two now for me. :)

  4. $12-18 seems reasonable. I enjoy the show so online watching everything will be better, but how much of my time will it take. I’m not sure if it will be worth it since it is an addictive show.

    • You can tune in for an hour or two a day just like after dark, you can watch comps when scheduled like the show or you can follow the feed summaries here and on Jokers. But those of us who want to be able to have the feeds on anytime can now do so without blackouts :) .

      • Wouldn’t that price include the feeds. Tehre is no way that people should be charged twice. If I had feeds I wouldn’t sleep, even though the show gets boring most of the time.

      • No, we won’t be charged twice. It will be the $6 a month for all access. That was my fear when I first got them a few seasons ago, but I honestly only watch if I have downtime. I probably use the rewind feature the most using the info I get from this site. I’m beyond excited to see where this goes and will have no problem giving them $6/month.

  5. Another suggestion. Have they ever heard of The Orkin Man? Geesh. There are ways to keep the ants down to a minimum. Even bay leaves would drive them out if they want to be Green.

    And a vacuum in each room, or at the very least a hand vac or broom vac? Come on, at least encourage them to keep up with the house a bit. Give extra gifts or prizes or something like that for those who at least try.

      • Thanks. I had a thought after I wrote that. They could subtract a day of HN from the week for every 10 chores they did in a week? Or something similar.

    • I agree that they should provide some level of pest control and sanitation in that house.

      And it’s pretty simple, amazed that I thought about it before production but they are welcome to steal this one from me because it will work and it will work well: The have-nots should be responsible for all house maintenance including cleaning and laundry and even pest control.

      • I think everyone should have an assigned job weekly. IMO havenots should not be the slaves of the house.

      • I don’t think the HN’s should be slaves either. I think that the HG’s that do chores should be rewarded for doing them. Let them build, and if/when that player becomes a HN, the built up rewards could take days off of their HN Week.

      • Also, many HG’s blatantly disregard what production tells them to do anyway, so they won’t care and the saps that do care will just end up with more to do.

      • Take some of the strippened away hit them where it hurts. Make rule no food in bedrooms.

      • I know last night I saw Michelle stick her finger in a peanut butter jar and lick it while she was in bed. She did not wash her hands and hopefully there will be ants crawling all over her.
        They do spend most of the night awake, so during the day they tend to sleep.

      • I still feel everyone should have jobs assigned to them not fair you get lazy assholes not doing anything. Everyone should do there own laundry including bedding.

      • Agreed. But we all know there are so many who just don’t care. What is BB going to do to them if they Don’t do their chores? That’s why I think the ones that do them should be rewarded somehow.

      • BB could and should take things away for punishment. Clothes on the floor, do an outdoor lockdown take ALL clothes on the floor away ect….

      • I would say those things would work for some. But taking money away from someone like Corey, who apparently comes from wealth, isn’t going to change their attitude about not doing things. He would gladly “pay” say $50 a day for someone else to do the communal jobs that need to be done. He thinks 5K to bribe someone is nothing.

      • The lazy ones should be voted out first. It gets tiring after a while, plus you’re not focused on the game but someone’s poor hygiene. Yuk

      • Why not? It would make them fight harder to not be have-nots and it would cut down on all of the comp throwing that’s been going on.

        In fact, I would like to see food competitions be brought back.

    • Haha! This is hilarious. Comments like this make me glad I don’t watch the live feeds. I don’t want to get upset that people I don’t know, in a place I’vever been, have poor cleaning habits hahahaha

  6. Super excited about this online edition of the show. I’m hoping that it won’t just be 100% feeds though and that they’ll incorporate some type of “show” format to recap events within the house.

    As for what else I’d like to see:
    1) More true BB fans as HGs. I don’t mind a few recruits, but the majority of the HGs should be fans of the show. Get some real gamers in there.

    2) No battle-back twists, once a player is evicted that’s it.

    3) Less twists period. BB18 has had a least nine separate twists. Less is more here.

    4) A slightly more mature group of HGs. Young or old doesn’t matter, but we need less cattiness and less male-dominate attitudes overall.

    5) Less fish on the feeds. This is a personal one, but it drives me nuts.

    6) Improve the live feed user interface and functionality. I’d like to see more controls (fast forward, rewind, skip forward, etc). The feeds just need to operate more smoothly and consistently if this edition is 100% online.

    7) Provide the HG with some entertainment of sorts to spice up the feeds and get them outta bed. Board games, corn hole, lawn darts (kidding), etc.

    That’s a good start. Feel free to add anything else that I missed:)

    • I agree about less twists. A lot of people are playing a lazy game because they think they’re going to get 5 chances to come back if they screw up. It needs to have a feeling of cutthroat and things must be made clear that if you go, you go, that’s it, goodbye, see ya wouldn’t want to be ya. :)

    • Less twists are ok. I personally would like to see something like the Paris room again. The only thing is, I think there should be clues in the house from Day 1. Nothing too obvious, but the first clue could be something that is just ‘off’ a bit in the grand scheme of things. Then let it play out throughout the season rather than in a big frenzy like it was this year.

      • Yeah I loved the Paris room/BB Airlines twist this season and wouldn’t mind having twists like this without the returning player aspect.

      • To me it seemed the Paris room was always there, but no one found it, or even saw the hints, so production had to point it out.

      • There isn’t anything wrong with production giving them hints from the start if they were able to keep this type of twist in the game. Better clues, without blatantly telling them on the screen :). If nobody picks up on them, it’s their loss.

    • DAN H. you should be a Producer. All suggestions are great in my book and especially: “No battle-back twists, once a player is evicted that’s it” & “More booze. This always makes for great nights on the feeds”.

      • I second that… They don’t need to have the HG loaded all the time, but c’mon they can give them more than one six pack of beer or one bottle of wine!

      • Something must have happened this season too. The HGs have only received alcohol a handful of times and none for about a month. It might have had something to do with Meech getting sick and puking early in the season.

      • You think so? I remember Meech throwing up…I also remember Z getting pretty hammered one night as well, but I don ‘t remember anything getting so out of hand that they would cut them off.

      • Yeah TGJ, I don’t know for sure, but I remember a few HGs saying that they felt that the Meech incident might be the reason. Seems like the booze deliveries stopped about that time.

    • I think you should work for BB, Dan! Everything you suggested is perfect. I like Victor, but I have to agree…the battle back is getting ridiculous. I’d also like to see the food comps come back.

  7. Get better house guests! The past 3 seasons, these house guests just want a vacation and you have one or two house guests playing. The only reason they are playing is when forced to! Casting needs to improve! No more cheerleader or jock types, get average people on the street.

    • Nothing wrong with cheer leader and jock types. More maturity, regardless of how their style choices group them.

      • If they continue to cast the same type of house guests, they will do the exact same thing! Insanity is doing the exact same thing and expecting different results! Three seasons is more than enough!

      • I totally agree Richie. The last few seasons almost blend into each other because they are like cookie cutter seasons…IMO they need to have more honest to goodness fans of BB as HG. This might make the game more interesting again.

      • With fans though, the problem with a full cast of them is they can correctly guess and figure out twists and order of competitions. That would only spoil the fun the show has in store. it’s because of that that they managed to overcome BB15’s MVP and BB16-17’s BOTB because the cast took control away from production and ran those twist to their advantage.

        I do have to give BB18 a lot of credit because not only have the twists served their purpose in their entirety, the variety of them coming helped those housemates be up on their toes, forcing them to play hard and no dominant alliance from start to finish controlling everything.

        It forced those who never watched the show such as Paul to learn from scratch, and for casuals such as Victor to prove how much heart he has in this game by coming back each and every time with every opportunity.

        With a back-to-basics BB1 style season (no HOH, no Veto, just everyone nominating everyone and public votes to either save or evict), that would probably change the whole dynamic because neither casuals, superfans (who didn’t start watching until BB2), and non-watchers would ever expect that, and they can’t play up to the cameras because feeders would see through the act.

        BB1 is so easy to dismiss because it ain’t what the game was or is that Dr. Will started, but it is what social game is built for.

      • Victor and Paul definitely proved that otherwise.

        Heck even the casual and superfans never consistently lived up to what many of us here hoped to see from those who aren’t models and jocks.

    • You’ve got to think about a chess board and the pieces. You don’t need everybody with a bunch of queens, because it wouldn’t be as entertaining as you’d hope it would be. We need the “pawns” and people there that don’t know the game, and only a few people will be the queen.

    • Ummm Richie there is nothing wrong with having attractive people in the house and especially those cheerleader or fashion model types. :-P

    • It’s true. I’ve traveled all over this country and these people don’t actually represent America. Not the America I have seen.

    • If applicants are willing to leave their jobs and family for 3 months knowing they will likely risk losing their livelihood if they don’t win, then sure, let them be, as Derrick has done.

      Unfortunately, I think many would want to come in but don’t wanna resign from their jobs for a TV show.

  8. I like the live elements of this fall online season but I hope they have some sort of schedule to it. Like every day at 8pm is a challenge or ceremony. That way it still feels like a show. The feeds are fun but I don’t want the whole season to feel like feeds.

    • I agree. I don’t want to have to watch the feeds all day or night waiting for a comp. I hope there’s some sort of schedule to follow.

  9. I think we should be seeing more jury house! At least once a week, I want to know what they’re thinking!

    • Constant DR sessions is what I’m looking forward to. That is my favorite part of the show.

      • Oh that reminds me of another suggestion…no more scripted-for-TV DR sessions! Let the HG speak their mind like they use to…get back to the basics.

      • The whole show is scripted, but yes, I will love for them to let the HGs be themselves and say what they feel as long as is not inappropriate. Production should just edit the show and not interfere when it comes to choosing favorites.

  10. And I think it would be fun to have careers in common. There is already kinda but not total. So nurses, doctors, pilots, teachers, moms, etc.

  11. I’ve been watching Season 2 of BB all weekend, wow, what a different show it is now. I felt like I’ve been watching real adults on season 2 and the current show is nothing but a kiddie show. I so wish CBS would bring BB back to what it was and stop with the dating show that we are watching now.

    • You’re right about that, the early seasons were much more “adult.” I don’t mind the showmances personally, but that’s just me. But, we need a more competitive group of HG to make the game more interesting. A shorter season will help too…like the early years of BB.

      • I haven’t minded the showmances in the past, but after this year, I don’t want to see it anymore, or maybe I just don’t want to see Nic and Corey laying in bed anymore, LOL, maybe that is it. I think BB18 fatigue is setting in for me.

      • Too many showmances this season. If that’s what I wanted I would watch bachelor or bachelorette.

      • I don’t mind the showmance when is only flirting going on. Once these women turn into holes I stopped caring for them or their game play. Nicole and Zakhya are this season’s and hopefully when they get home will face the consequences of their action. They are grown women, but people will still judge.
        I loved Nicole and Haydden because it was mostly cute flirting, and Jeff and Jordan are still my favorite.

      • Showmances back then were really, really threatening and were targeted early back then. These days showmances are just normal lol

  12. Well Canadian fans wont be watching as we don’t get the new BB. They could have done this so that everyone got to watch but greediness got in the way.

    • I’m not sure that’s been decided yet, but I really can’t see a feeds only format working well for this online show. Seems that many fans would lose interest if they are unable to watch the feeds religiously.

  13. I think if HG know there is no time off from the feeds, that will bring the game back to what it probably used to be. (I didn’t watch the earliest seasons but maybe I should!) Anyway, they seem to share information and strategize around the feeds too much. Also, bringing back a sabateur or 2 would be cool.

      • I’ve watched since the first season, but my favorite is 6. I loved Janelle and Kaysar. They had a partnership, not a showmance and it worked great until he ruined it, but she has been my favorite player since then.

      • IMO, season 1 isn’t worth watching (the fans voted the players out, not the HGs). But seasons 2-8 are the most well liked by most fans.

      • The original format worked out everywhere else, but the reason ti didn’t isn’t because of the format itself but because, based on the episodes I’ve managed to watch, the cast simply didn’t deliver much, nor were the tasks that supposedly were designed to create conflict (as food and luxury are at stake weekly) didn’t do much to give the season much intensity.

        However, there were a few gems, like Eddie’s massage award being given by secret masseuse Will Mega, Mega throwing the comp that led to the house’s failure to win their first task, among the scant things that helped the show survive into its second year and beyond.

      • I have so many I’m not sure I can remember them all.
        I really hated Dr. Will during season 2, but later gained mega respect for him over the next few years of watching the show, and also I had a major crush on Hardy, lol, (also season 2, I think. It’s hard to remember, it was eons ago. Danielle and Jason Season 3, their alliance together was epic. And of course Jason was/is adorable. Lol BB 5 Nakomis, my friends all hated her but I thought she freakin rocked. Lol those are my most memorable from the way back early days. ? I’m sure I missed a ton though.

      • You won’t be sorry you did! ??? I’ve been meaning to watch them over again, because I bet my perspective has completely changed from when I originally watched. It would be fun to see who I route for now. ?

  14. If the Online show is all live and not edited together (that feels like what you might be saying?) will that be entertaining? It feels like maybe watching everything live w/o edited stories in a package might be a bit boring and harder to follow. (Or am I completely wrong about that? Anyone know?)

    • Yep, I’m thinking the same thing. Can’t imagine that there won’t be some type of “show” to go along with the feeds.

      • Yeah, like at least a couple of times a week they could do a summary of key events, convos, weird things that happen.

      • There’ll have to be. With most things (plotting and such) happening during late night when most average people with jobs are asleep and the rest of the time being a LOT of dead time I think it might be pretty boring if it’s just basically a “Live Feed” Show. Hopefully they’ve got it all figured it. It’s just a surprise to hear it’ll be launching so soon. (I assumed right after the New Year.)

  15. Wow, corey looked petrified when Nicole set up alone time with him. Then the dr called him to save his butt! Lol. Nicole is so clueless.

  16. I just hate that cbs all access is a paid feature yet they still slam you with boring ads on replay.

  17. This is the first that I have heard of this fall season. But I want nothing censored and I want no involvement from the staff. I hate scripted reality shows. Let everyone be themselves and don’t care if the house is dirty. The money per month will be hard for me to come up with. Need to have discount coupons.

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