Big Brother Over The Top 2: CBS Says No Plans For Fall 2017 Season

CBS has confirmed there are no current plans for bringing back the Big Brother Over The Top series later this year for a 2017 season, though a later revival is still possible.

Big Brother Over The Top

Deadline interviewed CBS Interactive President and COO, Marc DeBevoise and asked him if there’s be a return of the series which started up last year following the regular Big Brother summer season.

That timing “was not easy,” DeBevoise admitted. There are no plans to do another fall season of Big Brother on All Access but “we are looking at what to do next for that show.”

No kidding that timing wasn’t great. When the regular Big Brother season wraps up 12+ weeks of crazy the last thing I’m thinking is “let’s do that again RIGHT NOW!” I imagine logistically it made sense to keep things rolling with the crews already in place, but dang that was brutal on the fans which is a tad bit important too.

This doesn’t come as a surprise either. Back during the preseason you may remember THR’s interview with EP’s Grodner and Meehan when I thought it was made pretty clear that there were no standing orders for the BBOTT series to come back. (Emphasis added.)

[THR:] Your first all-online version of the series, Big Brother: Over the Top, was also the first series for CBS All Access. Will it come back?

Grodner: CBS and CBS All Access were really happy with how it did. It’s just a matter of what’s going on with CBS All Access, which we don’t know yet.

Meehan: Star Trek: Discovery is coming out and that’s their next thing. I don’t know what their strategy is.

Star Trek Discovery was originally supposed to launch at the start of 2017, not far off from the end of BBOTT which I figured was being used in part as a bridge in All Access’s programming to keep something new running until Discovery was ready. Now there have been so many delays that it’ll begin just days after the end of Big Brother 19. It’s not shocking that they’d be more focused on Star Trek at the moment instead of trying to kick off two things at once.

Good news is that maybe we’ll still get a Big Brother Over The Top 2 at some point. I’d love something more balanced on the calendar, but then you’ve got to work around the revived Big Brother Canada 6 as well. Hopefully they’ll figure it all out and we’ll get the best of all three series for North America Big Brother installments.

Are you disappointed that there won’t be a BBOTT2 this fall? Would you want to watch it if it came back another time in the year?

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56 Comments

  1. BBOTT2 in the fall? No. BBOTT2 in, say, January? Yes! Big Brother during the cold winter months when we spend so much time indoors, anyway, would be perfect!

  2. Sorry, but I can’t say I’m unhappy about this news. I’m saying this as someone who actively campaigned for BBCan to come back. I watched BBOTT all the way to the end, but was never happy with it. I didn’t like how divided it made the fan community and frankly I didn’t like the way it affected my behaviour personally. Now maybe if they retool it to be less internet driven, I might root for it to come back.

    • IMO, the social media madness was largely due to huge amount of viewer voting during BBOTT. If they can eliminate or seriously reduce all that it would make a big difference.

      • I thought the more hands-on involvement of the online public allowed for more cunning gameplay coming from both extreme sides of the house, which it did.

        Take that away, and we’ll see more or less a rerun of past BB seasons on All-Access, except for new faces, but nothing more than that.

        The mixture of formats between its originating Dutch origins combined with the competitive nature that US broadcast version has evolved into makes for a really interesting hybrid.

    • Just curious, when you say “I didn’t like the way it affected my behavior personally,” what do you mean by that? What was different about Over the Top that made you feel this way where regular Big Brother presumably doesn’t?

      • Because the audience had so much power (voting on nominations,evictions and powers), the game got ugly fast.Just as the house split into two groups, so did the fan base. There was war between the twitter followers and the reddit/online blog people. There were accusations of vote fixing and character assassinations regarding the houseguests. There was also a lot of name calling and ridiculously heated arguments in the outside world. If the game comes back the same way again, I probably won’t participate.

  3. The competitions were on a much lower budget. You know they have old games that they recycle and reuse. It could have been better.

  4. Count me as one that hopes OTT returns. I enjoyed the different aspects that it brought to the game. Besides all the viewer voting of course. The divided house was exciting, but it got pretty ugly at times.

    Going to be tough to fit into the schedule though as you point out above.

  5. Sad to hear it is not coming back this fall. After OTT 24/7 feeds I have a hard time watching BB19. I guess I know I’m canceling all access at the end of BB19.

      • You see it all…DR sessions, all competitions played out. Was the best

      • OTT was 24/7 from the start. It was SO interesting to see the house guests from the moment they walked in. We also saw the comps play out in full, get set up, taken down. I was glued to some of those 4 hour veto comps. They had virtually no fish, so if there was a production issue with a comp we saw it. We also saw how the house guests were separated after and before comps that were timed. It is hard to just watch edited comps now. Plus week one live was so interesting.

  6. After this season, I will be happy not to see Big Brother again until Summer 2018. This season has been so awful that a break will be needed. Instead of concentrating on BBOTT, how about getting a decent group of houseguests. The group you got now obviously came from various jail houses across the country because they are bullies, nasty, terrible people.

  7. I disliked OTT for the fact that America voted for the winner and stuff tbh but the live DRs were fun
    I have never watched BBCan and I hear it’s amazing (Ika Wong, Neda Kalantar are apparently great characters) but I don’t know how to watch it in America

    • I had never seen BBCan either. There are a couple sellers on eBay who sell the seasons on DVD. I just bought all of them and am almost done with season 2. In many ways, I find BBCan even more entertaining than BBUS. Their twists are ridiculous! and they’re casting department deserves a raise

      • BBCAN and BBUS actually share the same casting team. Pretty much tells you why the cast south of the border are getting a lot of flak for not reflective on the country’s diversity.

    • As a proud Canadian I can say it’s excellent. I was hesitant at first because it doesn’t have as high of a budget… But the best thing by far is no viewer voting! Just good old fashioned BB

      • Well let’s not go that far Lizard 🦎 LOL 😂
        There still were twists and some of them were super stupid and unfair! Remember Kevin’s first season? He got completely screwed! Could not even fight for his life in the game. Thankfully he came back and won it last season :-)

        I was super surprised and shocked at just how good BB Canada was/is! Not just the casting but also the actual “house” and the filming! Gorgeous house!! They definitely didn’t cut any corners there! And the live shows were super good!
        More alcohol! Which always lead to a lot of funny things happening!
        & we can’t forget Emmett! The best looking HG ever, even better than Caleb (from BB US & Survivor.)

        AND the drama on the season finale of season one! When dumbass Topaz voted for Jillian instead of Gary to win! Thinking she was voting for Jillian to be evicted! Ended up handing Jillian the win! LOL that was too funny & crazy! 😜 I was happy Jillian was given the money, it’s a game and the rules were clearly stated! For all they/we knew, Topaz could have really wanted Julian to win but she didn’t want Gary to know so she “played dumb!” (I highly doubt it though) LOL although she was dumb! I liked Jillian, plus I loved Emmett LOL &. Had already been evicted, so I didn’t want him to win!

        AND BBC NEVER lets the HG’s get away with “anything!” Emmett losing his HOH, a couple? Vetos? and Jillian losing a veto because Emmett was helping her out! 🙊
        Oh and the secret camera in the pantry was hilarious! Season four I think it was? Everyone always being silly with it! I was constantly killing myself laughing!
        BB catching have nots eating food, (even by accident) and the HG would get or the entire house!
        All punished because they would mess around with cameras or didn’t listen to production, they were constantly getting in trouble for sleeping etc.
        I loved that production ‘always’ shared all that type of stuff!
        Pretty much every season making the HGs clean the entire house because they were “slobs” all the time LOL 😂 (maybe that is where they cut back on some of the “budgeting”) they locked down the HG’s somewhere so,they could send in the cleaning crew! LMAO!!! Kidding, I don’t think they actually do that, do they? Have a cleaning crew come in once in a while? I know they have to keep the cameras and all the windows clean
        & when they had Kelsey and Loveita locked up for a week together in a room just outside the BB main house, and they could watch some of what was going on! That was really fun to watch!
        I loved it so much! The HG’s got away with nothing, production always punishing them and airing it! It was priceless! They did so many things to the HG’s & always aired it!
        Blah blah blah as usual! Big brother Canada has been way way better than big brother US! Again, I don’t like the twists and some have been stupid and unfair but for the most part they have been pretty good!
        Another one was when they had one of the HG’s, I can’t remember who at the moment but they had to play for Canada. Whatever we told them to do they had to!
        BBC is great! The need to hook up with BB US and get things rolling again!

  8. I liked watching it online. The DR sessions were the best since we got to hear Q&A and watching full comps.

    • I actually never really asked what it was like!? The format and what you could see and not see?? If it give you more insight to how the game is played when televised??
      BB decided to be a bunch of jerks and not stream it in Canada! 😡

      • They showed everything as it happened and all of the HGs got about 7 minutes of Q&A in the DR. Possibly more, don’t remember. They read questions about the game and other HGs and then answered them live. It was my favorite part because watching a show and not knowing when and if the HGs are lying to each other, but we get to watch what they are actually thinking about each other in private.

  9. I like the show and I hope it continues, but I have extreme BIG Brother fatigue right after a full summer season for America. I need a couple month break, maybe do OTT after Christmas?

    • Nooooo…… that’s when they have BB Canada. Although it wouldn’t make a difference to me because as a comedian we didn’t have access to watch it online! I thought that was a jerk move by Big Brother 😡

  10. Not everybody watches tv online. It’s the networks way of raking in more bucks. Not everybody watches netflix or hulu or whatever those pay to watch online things are. This will be the first Star Trek ever that I haven’t watched, but from what I’ve been hearing TGBOTG will be turning over in his grave.

    • No? Why not? I couldn’t watch it, BB didn’t give me a choice because I am Canadian! Jerks LOL

      • there’s always a way to watch bbott as a canadian and i did and the season was kinda fun

  11. The cast of season 1 was one of the best ever, Shelby, Morgan, Alex, Witney and so on….

    • Sounds like they should’ve brought them to the season!
      Or the people that cast for BB Canada should also cast for baby US

  12. I didn’t watch it, don’t have time with working 2 jobs. Barely have time to watch regular BB. Don’t buy the live feeds though, again no time.

  13. Unfortunately I am Canadian therefore I was unable to watch it which was a huge disappointment!

    I wouldn’t have a life if I watch BB Canada 🇨🇦 then BB All Access & then BB US 🇺🇸 …..
    I love Big Brother ❤️ but my family needs me a few months out of the year LOL Kidding of course!

    I spend more time on Big Brother Nework/this site then I do watching 3 hours a week of BB episodes! 😬 😳 🙊 🙄
    This season (right now) I spend a couple hours a day/night reading the Blogs, comments & commenting myself every day that I can!
    Thankfully 🙏 (for me, not so much for all of you) hee hee 😜 My husband & I own an Internet Marketing company & work from home, plus I have “talk to type” so my comments only take a couple minutes even though they are pages long!! 😝
    There’s so much to read and reply to etc! I really enjoy talking to many of you, some of you are even my Facebook friends now! 🙃 “Stranger danger!” Haha 😆
    I enjoy this group of people! It is very very rare that someone gets confrontational with me, and when they do I just shut it down! This is mindless entertainment for me & NOT my reality! I mean it’s sort of is my reality because I’m always on here talking but, the HG’s mean nothing to me personally (aside from Vanessa Russo) so, I don’t take anything seriously! It’s just fun :-) but this season I have spent endless amounts of hours on here! Before I would just come check out some spoilers, the odd time make a comment here and there and leave. I could see how this all could take over someone’s life! Careful people, BB & BB Online can become addicting in so many different ways LMAO 😉
    Blah blah blah! See, I get carried away talking to my phone! It’s quite sad 😜
    But I do think most of you for our great conversations and debates! 💜
    Wait sorry, what was the question again? Oh that’s right, do I want there to be a second season of BB all access? Doesn’t matter to me, I don’t get it anyway. But, for anyone that will be upset if, keep in mind BB Canada season 6 was going on “hiatus” this winter and a few weeks later-ish it was back and is a go! Thank God!! That would be a travesty!!! BB Canada is just as good as BB US 😊

    Shutting up now! XO 😘

      • I didn’t want to start a war between BB Canada 🇨🇦 Fans & BB US Fans 🇺🇸 LOL 😂
        I wanted to stay neutral! But yes, BB Canada is a lot better! They definitely have better people casting for HGs!
        I do prefer Julie over Arissa though

  14. Of course I am disappointed. I don’t watch BBC. I loved seeing the competitions play out for the audience to see. I am not interested in Star Trek and will not be watching that either.

    • Why don’t you watch BB Canada? It’s really good :-)
      I actually don’t know anything about BB all access. One person told me it was pretty good but aside from that that’s all I know. I don’t know the format? any of the players? if it was really good with really good HG’s?
      If the HG’s were good, they should just pull all the current HG’s out of the big brother house aside from a couple and bring in the HG’s from online :-)
      how much did the winner receive? Was there a jury house and everything?
      Hopefully they bring it back, and hopefully it is available in Canada this time. I was super disappointed and super pissed off we didn’t have access to it!

      • I don’t have access to BBC. Tina, BBOTT winner won $250,000. No jury house. None of the competitions were blacked out. We got to see everything online. The players were very competitive and it was exciting to see. This year the BB hg’s are sitting back and letting 1 person run the house. Very boring.

        CBS subscribers now pay $5.99 a month. You can watch other CBS shows as well as the live stream from the BB house

      • Sounds like it was good to watch! But even if I pay, Canadians didn’t have access to big brother all access unfortunately

  15. For someone like me who wakes up crazy early in the morning, it was just too hard to watch BBOTT and the lack of on-demand episodes really killed it for me. Otherwise, I’d love a “second season,” even if it is just online.

  16. Can’t say I’m disappointed the show felt thrown together and didn’t hold my attention. I am a huge BB fan too I watch the show from the UK and Canada also. I wish they would show the Canadian show on All Access instead as it is much better then BBOTT was. Let us get the live feeds for the Canadian show and watch it. Show is already being produced also.

  17. BBOTT was the best and I loved that it went through the fall months. It was the reason I kept CBS all access and then when BBOTT ended I thought might as will just keep CBS all access for the year. I hope they reconsider and bring it back,

  18. I am a big fan of Big Brother and have never missed an episode of the regular season shows. However, I wasn’t very enthused about the online only concept. I didn’t watch any of it and didn’t follow it at all. So it doesn’t come as much of a surprise that CBS apparently acknowledge that an online only version doesn’t have the same audience appeal that their traditional network broadcast has.

  19. This show was fun to watch until this season. I can’t believe how they have allowed bullying to occur on this show. It makes me absolutely sick. They should have stepped in and stopped it. Paul encouraged everyone on and their behavior was despicable.

  20. What Josh is doing is the very essence of bullying. That the other HGs did not stop him makes them complicit. It’s easy to see why bullying is such an issue now as young folks think it’s funny. For the first time ever, I’m giving up on BB for the season.

  21. Unfortunately last year BBOTT ran up against the election run up and the aftermath of the election. I was glued to election coverage and didn’t have much viewing time for BBOTT. I’d like to see it come back but it must be polished. I thought BBOTT was a little rough around the edges, something typical of a first season. Mid-January through March would make sense.

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