Big Brother 26 Premiere – Live Recap As Houseguests Move in

Are you ready for more Big Brother? Here comes the Season 26 premiere with our live coverage and recap starting at 9PM ET for the first half of the two-night event as host Julie Chen Moonves returns with sixteen all-new Houseguests and one more familiar face to bring these HGs the BBAI season twist. Welcome to Big Brother 26!

The battle is on for $750,000 again this summer with a 90-day (or so) season that will keep us busy from tonight until October 13th for the season finale. We’ll be here recapping the episodes, bringing you highlights from the Live Feeds, and reporting on all the biggest events that you won’t want to miss. And if you really don’t want to miss things then be sure to grab our Big Brother App (free!) and join us on Facebook and Twitter for all the BB26 you can handle.

Meet Your Houseguests: Big Brother 26 cast

You can watch tonight’s premiere streaming on Paramount+ and watch Live Feeds starting Thursday night after the west coast broadcast. Yeah, unfortunately we’re missing out on the first few night’s of Feeds since HGs moved in on Tuesday, but we’ll be catching up quickly. Get the Free Trial now!

Tonight’s premiere part-one is just an hour (last year was 90 minutes) so they’re stretching it out and the excitement will supposedly present half the HGs’ move-in tonight with the other half arriving on Thursday’s episode (9/8c). Let’s settle in and see what we get with this crew.

Julie confirms that we are getting just eight of the Houseguests tonight with the other half tomorrow night. She also promises new comps, new powers, and new punishments. Now here comes everyone rolling out for us.

We’re meeting Angela, Cam, Chelsie, Joseph, Kimo, Makensy, Rubina, and Tucker. They’ve got their keys and now it’s time to meet out on the front stage to hear from Julie. First group in is Tucker, Angela, Kimo, and Chelsie. Tucker manages to be the first one in the door. That leaves us with Cam, Joseph, Makensy, and Rubina head in next. Now they’re all together and running around to discover the house.

Julie calls everyone out to the backyard. She promises them a chance to change the game. Let’s find out! Julie says these first 8 HGs will get to decide whether or not they’ll invite in a 17th HG. They play a message from this potential HG, Ainsley (24, San Diego), begging to be let in. Now at least 5 of the 8 must vote Yes for her to join the game. The votes are hidden…

Votes: 4-4, she is denied joining the game. But wait! Oh yeah, it was a fake. Ainsley is actually AINSLI and she’s an AI personality. The 4 who voted against her will face a punishment comp and the 4 who voted for her to join will battle for a power to help their games.

Color Calibration – “YES” HGs – Upgrade Power:

Angela is up first and she does NOT get the sequence right as she spins around.
Joseph takes his turn next but does NOT get it right.
Rubina gets her chance at the power… Nope!
Makensy is the last to go tonight… she wins.

Fear Word-Scramble – “NO” HGs – Downgrade Punishment:

Tucker’s turn and this looks way easier than the other comp.
Kimo is speeding through his turn here too.
Cam is zipping through the comp next.
Chelsie is another NO voter and slowly finishes her turn.

Results: Makensy wins the Upgrade power. Chelsie is stuck with the Downgrade.

Julie explains that tomorrow night’s second half will face this same situation with a vote for or against the AI fake HG. Then they too will go through these same comps. Get ready for Thursday at 9/8c for the second half of the two-night premiere!