As television schedules slowly return to something resembling "normal," Big Brother fans may have forgotten what the timeline of a traditional season looks like after the chaos that occurred going into Big Brother: All-Stars. Now, with more TV productions happening and with fewer delays overall - (knock on wood) - it appears Big Brother Season 23 is on track for its usual early summer premiere window, at least if Julie Chen's vague hints on Twitter are any indication.
Yes, the hype train for Big Brother's upcoming season is officially underway as the CBS reality series' host sent out a fully crafted tweet on her account for the first time since January, and it doesn't take a world-renowned sleuth to figure out what she's hyping. Check out the picture tweet below from Chenbot that has sent the fandom into an early frenzy.
Julie Chen could be trolling everybody here with a completely unrelated photoshoot, but given the time of the year and her use of emojis, it appears she is in the process of setting up promotional material for the upcoming 23rd season of Big Brother. I'm going to assume these photos weren't being taken at the actual house where Big Brother's new cast will be staying, because that pool alone is nicer than any house design we've seen across the series.
Given the date of the tweet, and given the assumption that the photoshoot happened close to when Julie Chen shared it, Big Brother appears to still be on track for a Summer 2021 premiere date. In a typical year, new seasons tend to premiere during the final weeks of June, and I'd speculate that window seems as good as any for when Season 23 will debut, especially if the coming weeks will deliver reveals about the house design leading into a full cast breakdown.
It's certainly a positive sign that we're already getting teases on Twitter, compared to last year when fans and former players debated for months over whether or not Season 22 would actually happen. The series, of course, did return with a late start with its "all-stars" cast, and the contestants were given COVID tests frequently while on set to prevent the season from being shut down. Other Big Brother iterations around the world had different protocols and processes, with Big Brother Canada actually ending its season prematurely before a winner could be decided.
CBS has been expectantly mum about what the ground rules will be for Big Brother Season 23, though it wouldn't be surprising if contestants were regularly tested for COVID-19 prior to entering the house, possibly with proof of vaccination being necessary. A contestant ideally will have to make it all three months in the house to win, so one would think the producers won't want to run the risk of someone being infected and needing to be removed from the game mid-season. Julie Chen spent most of last season socially distanced from Houseguests, so it will be interesting to see if that changes for the upcoming episodes.
Big Brother Season 23 does not have a release date yet at CBS, obviously but the show's superfans will certainly keep eyes and ears peeled for any clues that may spring up along the way. Speaking of which, those that missed out on the news earlier this year that Julie Chen pushed for the return of Celebrity Big Brother definitely need to read up on what she had to say about that.
